Claiming True Mate Bond

The mind-link hit me like a physical blow, unexpected and devastating in its clarity.

One moment I was organizing Princeton's territorial agreements in our shared study, and the next, I was drowning in sensations that weren't my own. Heat. Passion. The sound of Princeton's voice, rough with desire as he whispered words he'd never spoken to me.

*"You're incredible, Kaylee. So perfect."*

My hands trembled as the connection intensified, Princeton's mental barriers completely down in his moment of passion. Through his eyes, I saw her—Kaylee, his Beta secretary, arched beneath him on his office desk, papers scattered across the floor. Her dark hair fanned out like silk, her face flushed with pleasure as Princeton moved above her with a desperation I'd never experienced from him.

The mate bond should have blocked this. Should have protected me from witnessing my mate's betrayal in such vivid, crushing detail. But our bond had always been wrong, hadn't it? Incomplete. False.

*"Princeton,"* Kaylee gasped, her fingers digging into his shoulders. *"I have something to tell you."*

I wanted to sever the connection, to spare myself whatever revelation was coming, but I was trapped in Princeton's consciousness, feeling his excitement spike at her words.

*"I'm pregnant."*

The world tilted. Princeton's elation flooded through the link—pure, overwhelming joy that he'd never felt about the possibility of pups with me. Seven years of trying, seven years of him blaming my supposedly weak wolf, and here he was celebrating another woman carrying what he believed was his child.

*"Are you certain?"* Princeton's voice cracked with emotion. *"The pup—it's mine?"*

*"Of course it's yours,"* Kaylee purred, though something flickered in her scent that Princeton, drunk on triumph, missed entirely. *"Your heir, Princeton. The pup you could never have with her."*

The casual cruelty of her words, the way she dismissed me as if I were nothing, finally snapped something inside me. The mind-link shattered as I slammed my mental barriers up, but the damage was done. I sat in Princeton's chair, surrounded by the territorial agreements I'd been managing for him, and felt my world crumble.

Seven years. Seven years of protecting his secret, of letting the pack believe I was barren when the truth was far more devastating. Princeton's wolf carried a genetic defect—azoospermia, the pack healer had called it during a private consultation years ago. Complete inability to produce viable sperm. I'd held that secret like a dagger to my own heart, sacrificing my reputation to preserve his position as Alpha.

And now Kaylee was pregnant.

Which meant either she was lying, or the pup wasn't his.

I rose on unsteady legs, my wolf clawing at my chest with rage and betrayal. The territorial agreements scattered to the floor, but I didn't care. Let Princeton handle his own responsibilities for once.

The packhouse seemed different as I walked through it, as if I were seeing it clearly for the first time. The photographs of Princeton and me at various pack ceremonies looked staged and cold. The Luna