Chapter 1 The Broken Moon

The Broken Moon

Nyla’s POV

My wolf was pacing in my mind, jumping and spinning, and honestly, I was doing the same. I laughed under my breath and tightened my grip on the vase of white gardenias so I wouldn't drop it. Today was the day. Our mating ceremony. After three years with Calder, three years of waiting and hoping, it was finally happening.

And I had a secret of my own to give him.

I just found out that I’m three weeks pregnant. 

I hadn't told a soul about it. I wanted to give Calder the news myself, tonight, after the ceremony. I could already picture his face breaking into that rare, unguarded smile, the one he only gave me when no one else was watching. I imagined him years from now, teaching our pup to ride a bike just like his, small hands white-knuckled on handlebars far too big for them.

The Silvermoon pack didn't believe in small ceremonies. Down in the hall below, I could hear the low hum of laughter and clinking glasses, the pack elders swapping old war stories, the servants fussing over the flower arrangements. We were one of the few packs left that still held the mating ceremony under an open moon instead of behind closed doors, a tradition Calder's grandfather had fought to keep alive when other packs modernized and let the old ways die. Tonight, when the moon reached its peak, I would stand in front of the entire pack and become Luna. Not just Calder's mate. Their Luna.

I was just going to put the flowers into our room and then I was ready.

That was when I heard soft voices.

Was that Calder? No, he was having an important last meeting. That was what Rex, Calder’s beta had told me a few minutes ago.

I walked in the direction of the voice anyway.

“Our pup is in good health, Alpha.” A woman's voice drifted through the heavy oak door, soft and warm and grateful. “The doctor told me this morning that everything is progressing exactly as it should.”

I stopped walking.

My hand froze on the door handle.

“Good.” Calder's voice was low and certain. “I want updates every week. My pup needs to come into the world healthy.”

My pup. Calder's pup?

The gardenias slipped from my fingers and hit the floor. I stood frozen in my wedding dress, my hand closing around the silver crescent moon pendant he'd given me, and let those words sink in until my wolf snapped to attention inside me.

My palm drifted to my own stomach without permission.

“No,” I muttered, forcing out a small laugh. “Maybe I'm being delusional.”

There had to be an explanation. There had to be. But my wolf was already snarling, already certain, and my pulse was pounding so loud in my ears I could barely hear myself think.

Before I could lose my nerve, I opened the door.

A woman sat comfortably on the worn leather couch, heavily pregnant, blonde hair spilling over one shoulder, her hands resting over the curve of her belly like she had every right to be there. Calder stood beside her, one hand on her shoulder.

The exact way he held me when I needed him.

“Your bride is here,” she said, and Calder turned, slow and unhurried, not like a man who'd been caught, but like a man who'd been expecting this all along.

“Nyla,” he said.

My name should have comforted me. Instead it felt like another crack spreading through my chest.

“What is going on here?” I barely recognized my own voice.

The woman looked between us, understanding dawning slow and unwelcome on her face. “I thought she was aware?”

“Shut it. I'll handle this,” Calder snapped.

“This is Vivienne,” he said, turning back to me. “She's carrying my heir.”

His words hit me like a fist under my ribs. I gripped the doorframe to stay upright. “You said I was your mate,” I whispered. “Was that you playing with me?”

“You are, and you will always be my mate.”

“Then who is she?”

His silence lasted too long.

“The pack needs a bloodline,” he finally said. “The council is demanding an heir. We've been together for three years, Nyla, and you haven't conceived.”

As if time alone explained everything. As if I'd simply failed to be enough.

My hand pressed lighter against my stomach. I had come here tonight to tell him he was going to be a father. Now the words wouldn't leave my throat.

“Vivienne is a surrogate,” he said, stepping toward me. “A formal arrangement. Nothing changes what you are to me.”

“A formal arrangement,” I repeated, tasting how empty it sounded. “Was I ever anything more to you than something to use? Is that why you finally decided to marry me… guilt?”

“I'll explain everything after the ceremony. Your position isn't under contest. You're my Luna, and no one can take that from you.”

I looked at Vivienne, at the horror finally surfacing in her own expression. Then back at Calder.

“Fuck off with your title and your ceremony,” I said. “I won't do it.”

“Nyla…”

“Don't ever say my name, scumbag.”

My wolf went silent inside me, like she was done.

I turned and walked out. Past the music and the laughing guests who still thought tonight was something worth celebrating. I foolishly hoped Calder would come after me. He didn't.

Outside, the night air hit my face like a slap. My bike key was still in the dressing room, and I couldn't make myself go back for it. Then I saw it Calder's Harley, parked under the clubhouse lights, the Silvermoon Alpha's crest gleaming on the tank. The one thing he never let anyone touch.

My wolf pushed forward before I'd even decided. Take it. Run.

For once, I didn't fight her.

I kicked off my heels, swung my leg over the seat, and the engine roared to life so loud it felt like it shook the ground beneath me. Somewhere behind me, faces appeared in the windows. I didn't look back.

I twisted the throttle and the bike shot forward, gravel scattering behind me, wind slamming into my body and tearing my hair loose from its careful pins. 

I kept riding until the clubhouse lights shrank to nothing in my mirrors.

The moon hung full and bright above me, the same moon the whole pack would have gathered under tonight for our ceremony. It didn't feel like mine anymore. Maybe it never had been.

This child would never belong to the Silvermoon pack. It would grow as mine, and mine alone, and never come second to anyone.

I was so deep in the promise I was making that I didn't see the headlight until it was almost too late.

A motorcycle roared out of a side road, cutting straight into my path. I wrenched the handlebars hard, tires shrieking against the ground, and came to a stop only a few feet from the other rider, my heart slamming against my ribs.

“Are you insane?” I shouted, breathless. “You nearly killed me!”

The rider stopped his bike and pulled off his helmet unhurried, like near-death collisions were an everyday inconvenience to him. He had dark hair, a slow, unbothered smirk, eyes that swept over me… windblown hair, a wedding dress, bare feet on a stolen bike, like he found the whole picture entertaining.

“Funny,” he said. “I was about to ask you the same thing, sweetheart. Most brides run toward the ceremony, not away from it on someone else's bike.”

I opened my mouth to reply back, and then I saw it… the emblem stitched into his jacket. A cracked circle wrapped in chain links.

Fear made my heartbeat increase instantly.

Iron Veil.

Every pack knew them. Rogue wolfless bikers who follow no rules but their own, and at the head of them all, an alpha the Silvermoon enforcers had spent years trying and failing to bring down.

“Damon Karl,” I breathed.

His smirk deepened, like he liked hearing his own name in my mouth. “You are quite the sight to run into, Luna.”