PROLOGUE

My legs trembled as I stood before him, the mate bond between us shrieking in agony at his next words.

My heart stopped. In that single word, I heard my sentence being passed.

"I reject you! I will never accept you as my Luna!"

The force of his rejection slammed into me like a physical blow, shattering my soul. Just hours ago, these same lips had whispered sweet promises against my skin. These same hands had touched me with reverence. Now, Alpha Finn Foster looked at me as if I were something rotten, something despised. Something he hated with a passion.

"Alaric Blackstone's daughter," he spat the words like venom. "You deceived me."

My mate, the man the Moon Goddess had destined for me, the man who had held me in his arms just a night before, now glared at me as if I were a curse upon his existence. All because I was the daughter of his enemy.

I wanted to tell him I hadn't known-hadn't known he was my father's enemy, hadn't known anything beyond the overwhelming pull of our mate bond and the desperate hope that I'd finally found someone who would love and cherish me. Someone who could save me from the hell I lived in. But my voice failed me, just as everything else in my life had.

The marks of his passion from last night still burned on my skin, a cruel reminder of how completely I'd given myself to him. My first time. My only time. And now...

"Please," I whispered, but pride made me swallow the rest. I'd spent enough years begging-begging my stepmother for food, for mercy, for a moment's peace from her endless torments. Begging my father to see me as more than just his shameful omega daughter.

"I'd rather reject the bond and tear it to shreds than let Blackstone's daughter stand by my side," he snarled, his voice dripping with venom. "Last night was a mistake, omega. Nothing more. Imprint that in your skull."

Days passed, and sorrow became my constant companion. My mate had rejected me all because of my bloodline. When I thought of the look of disgust on his face as he rejected me, it left me shaken, sending waves of fear and dread coursing through me. His cruel words lingered like ghosts in my dreams.

"Marry him for our pack!" My father's cruel words echoed through his study. "This is your last value!"

"I'm pregnant," I whispered.

He slammed his hand on his desk. "So?" he said, rising and approaching me. "You will do as I say, or I will kill you myself."

I blinked back the tears threatening to fall. Why? Why was I so miserable? Why was I always unwanted everywhere I went? My mate-the only man I thought could save me, the one I prayed every day to meet and take me away from here-had just rejected me and left me with his child.

"Dad," I called, but I was cut off.

"Alpha. It is Alpha to you," he growled, making my knees go weak. "You will marry Alpha Dickson, whether you like it or not." His eyes roamed my body and finally landed on my belly. I possessively wrapped my arms around it. "I'm sure he won't reject you because you're pregnant."

"What do you mean?"

"Even better. A slave for his collection, fresh from the womb."

Before I could say a word, he interrupted, "Now get out. Your new alpha arrives at midnight."

"D-"

"Get out," he commanded, his tone cold and leaving no room for argument.

And so I was sold, like property, to a man who saw me only as a hostage-a bargaining chip in the endless games of pack politics. I endured his hatred, his cruelty, all for the tiny spark of life growing inside me-the only pure thing I had left.

Until I lost even that.

The day I lost my baby, something in me shattered. Whatever naive, hopeful part of me that still believed in love and fate and the Moon Goddess's mercy died along with my child. That was the day I decided to disappear.

Five years passed like a dream. I built a new life far from pack lands, far from mate bonds and alphas and all the pain they brought. I learned to breathe again, to exist without flinching at shadows.

Until today.

He kneels before me now, this proud alpha who once treated me like dirt beneath his feet. His eyes-those same deep ocean-blue eyes that once looked at me with such disgust-now shine with tears.

"Forgive me, mate," he begged. "I've hidden my love with hatred. Come back to me, please…"

I look down at him, this mighty Alpha Finn Foster on his knees, and feel the old wound in my chest throb. Once, I would have given anything to hear those words. Once, I would have forgiven anything just to be loved by him.

But I am no longer that broken girl who thought her only value lay in being someone's mate, someone's wife, someone's Luna.

The Moon Goddess might play cruel jokes, but I've learned to write my own destiny.

And this time, I choose myself.