Betrayal Shatters Mate Bond

The marble floors of the royal wing gleamed under the soft amber glow of the crystal chandeliers as I made my way toward Damari's private chamber. My silk slippers whispered against the cold stone, each step echoing the nervous flutter in my chest. The full moon ceremony was only three days away, and as Luna, I needed to finalize the arrangements with my mate.

Ten years. Ten years I had walked these halls, managed these ceremonies, stood beside him as his queen. The weight of the Luna crown—the one he had never formally presented to me in a proper ceremony—seemed heavier on my head with each passing day.

As I approached the ornate double doors of our private chamber, I noticed they were slightly ajar. Damari's deep baritone drifted through the gap, and I paused, my hand frozen inches from the golden handle.

"—fulfilled long enough," his voice carried a tone I had never heard before—cold, dismissive, final. "This charade has gone on for a decade, Gracelyn. I'm tired of pretending."

My blood turned to ice. Gracelyn? What was she doing in our private quarters?

"Are you certain about the ceremony, my king?" Gracelyn's voice was honey-sweet, dripping with false concern. "The pack has accepted her for so long..."

"The pack will accept whoever I choose as their Luna," Damari's words cut through my chest like silver blades. "Angelica was a duty, nothing more. A political arrangement that served its purpose. But you, Gracelyn—you understand me. You see me as more than just a king."

I pressed my back against the cool marble wall, my legs threatening to give out beneath me. Through the crack in the door, I could see them standing by the massive four-poster bed that had been our marriage bed for a decade. Gracelyn wore one of my ceremonial robes—the deep purple silk reserved for the Luna's sacred rituals.

"I've already prepared the rejection speech for the full moon ceremony," Damari continued, his voice carrying the authority that had once made me feel protected, not targeted. "I'll formally sever our mate bond in front of the entire pack. Then you'll take your rightful place as my Luna."

Gracelyn's laugh was like tinkling glass, sharp and cutting. "And the crown? The one you never gave her?"

"Will be yours before the moon reaches its peak." The casual way he dismissed our entire marriage, our bond, our life together—it shattered something deep inside my chest. "I should have done this years ago. She's grown too comfortable, too entitled. She needs to remember her place."

Tears burned my eyes as the mate bond between us pulsed with his emotions—not love, not regret, but irritation and anticipation. He was excited about discarding me. The sacred connection the Moon Goddess had blessed us with had become nothing more than an inconvenience to him.

My wolf, Luna, howled in anguish within my mind, her pain echoing my own. *He doesn't want us anymore,* she whimpered. *After all these years, we were never