Four years earlier
The first time I saw Kieran Silvercrest, I felt the Moon Goddess herself had reached down and set my heart on fire.
I was seventeen years old, and had just shifted into my wolf for the first time. I was still awkward and unsure. My parents had been dead for five years. Since then, my older brother, Dariaus, had taken care of me. He was twenty-one, strong, and already known as a brave warrior.
People respected our parents, but we were now orphans. They looked at us with pity. We lived on the edge of pack life. We belonged, but not fully.
Until that night.
The full moon hung bright above the forest clearing where the pack gathered for the monthly hunt. I stood at the back with the other young wolves, trying to ignore the whispers about how I was the smallest, the weakest, how I would never be important.
Then the Alpha's son stepped forward.
Kieran was twenty-three. He had just returned from training with other packs. He moved with confidence that made everyone else seem to disappear. His dark hair shone under the moonlight. When his eyes looked across the assembled pack, they glowed silver—strong, powerful and completely mesmerizing.
Then our gaze met.
Everything stopped.
The mate bond hit me like a punch, taking my breath away. My wolf reacted before my mind could understand. Mine.
The word echoed through my whole body, strong and clear. Mine, mine, mine.
Kieran's eyes went wide. He breathed in deeply, catching my scent. I watched his chest rise and fall. I saw his hands clench as he tried to control himself. Then, slowly, he smiled.
That smile changed everything.
"Elara," he said softly.
Hearing my name from him felt like a touch, a promise. He walked straight to me, ignoring the shocked whispers and gasps. The weak orphan girl and the Alpha's son—it shouldn't happen. Impossible.
But the mate bond didn't care about our different positions in the pack.
"I've been waiting for you," he said when he reached me. His voice was low and deep. His hand touched my face, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone with a gentleness that made my eyes burn.
"My whole life, I've been waiting."
I couldn't speak. Could barely breathe. All I could do was lean into his touch and feel how right it was.
That was how it began.
The pack accepted our bond in different ways. Some were truly happy, remembering my parents with love and believing I deserved this good luck. Others were not happy at all. They masked their jealousy behind false smiles and congratulations.
Selene was one of them.
Selene had been my best friend since childhood, or so I'd thought. We'd grown up together, two girls learning about pack life as we grew up. She had braided my hair before pack gatherings. She comforted me when my parents died, and promised we would always be sisters.
But I noticed how she looked at Kieran. How her laugh became louder and her voice became softer whenever he was near. I told myself it meant nothing, that I was imagining things.
I should have trusted my feelings.
Our mating ceremony took place under the next full moon. Kieran marked me in front of the entire pack, his teeth biting into my neck and shoulder, binding us together for life. The pain was sharp but beautiful, followed by a rush of pleasure so intense I nearly collapsed. When he pulled back, his eyes glowing with his wolf's satisfaction, I knew I would never be alone again.
"My Luna," he whispered in my ear, and I believed him completely.
Those first years were everything I had dreamed of. Kieran was loving, passionate, and devoted. He would find me during the day just to steal a kiss. He would pull me into his arms at night and hold me like I was something precious. He taught me what it meant to be Luna, standing beside me as I learned how to lead the pack and slowly earned the respect of wolves who once ignored me.
Dariaus had been appointed Beta, Kieran's second-in-command, and for a while, everything felt perfect. My brother and my mate, working together to lead our pack. Our small, broken family had finally found its place at last.
But life has a cruel way of breaking perfect things.
The miscarriage happened in our third year together.
I was so excited when I found out I was pregnant. I had planned a special surprise to tell Kieran the news. But before I could, the pain started. Then blood. Then a terrible loss.
The pack doctor, Dr. Matthias, had been gentle but honest. "The damage was very bad," he'd said, his eyes full of pity. "You may have trouble getting pregnant again. It's not impossible, but..."
But. That single word became a heavy weight I carried everywhere.
Kieran had held me while I cried, and said it didn't matter. He said that I was enough for him with or without children.
For a few months, I believed him.
Then I started noticing the distance.
It was small at first—meetings that lasted long, hunts that kept him away overnight, conversations that stopped when I entered the room. He still touched me, still slept on my bed, but something important had changed. The warmth in his eyes when he looked at me had faded, replaced by something that looked like disappointment.
And Selene was always there—too close, too caring, touching him like she belonged there.
"You look tired," she'd say with false concern, her hand resting on Kieran's arm too long. "You should rest more, Elara. Take care of yourself."
I'd wanted to scream at her to stop touching my mate, but Luna's didn't make scenes. Luna's were calm, dignified, above petty jealousy.
So I'd smiled and thanked her for her concern, all while watching my marriage slowly fall apart.
The affair started sometime around our fourth year, though I didn't know it then.