The alpha became a monk after having affair

In the fifth year of my sacred bond with Alpha Theodore Vaughn, I found out I was carrying our pup. The news hit me like a warm ray of sunlight.

I headed to the healer's clinic to set up my file, clutching the documents that marked me as Alpha Theodore's mate.

But when the nurse scanned my bonding certificate, her brow furrowed.

"This is fake," she said, her voice flat but not unkind. She tapped the parchment sharply. "The ink's faded unevenly. And the crest is backwards."

I froze, my heart stumbling. "Fake? That's impossible."

She didn't budge, just slid the paper back to me like it was tainted.

Desperate to prove her wrong, I drove to the pack's family court, my pulse hammering in my ears.

The clerk there delivered the same gut-punch verdict, her words slicing through me like a silver blade.

"Alpha Theodore is already bound," she said, glancing at her screen. "His mate is listed as Isabelle Hart."

Isabelle.

The name struck me like lightning, leaving my mind blank and my chest hollow. Isabelle-my half-sister, Alpha Theodore's first love. The she-wolf who'd abandoned him at their binding ceremony years ago. And now, somehow, she was his mate in the eyes of the pack's law.

I stumbled out of the family court, my legs heavy, my vision blurred, like I was a ghost drifting through a world that no longer made sense.

I barely noticed the taxi pulling up until I was inside, the dam breaking as silent tears streamed down my face.

Five years ago, I'd stepped into Isabelle's place to preserve our families' honor after she fled.

I became Alpha Theodore's mate, a substitute she-wolf bound to a wolf who barely looked at me.

At first, he was cold, distant, like a winter storm I couldn't thaw.

I poured my heart into caring for him-cooking his favorite meals, keeping his den spotless, learning his habits like they were my own.

Slowly, he softened.

He stopped growling when I adjusted his moonrise patrol routes, even when I swapped his favored midnight slot for dawn. He'd huff, but his ears would twitch with amusement as I babbled about silly lunar myths that only made sense to me. He let me handle the pack's moonblossom harvest logs-records so sensitive they'd never left his den before-a trust I held tighter than a sacred vow.

Over time, Alpha Theodore's warmth grew. He handed me a golden card with no spending limit, took me to every Michelin-starred restaurant in the town.

Once, when I craved honey-glazed chestnuts  from a shop across town at midnight, he drove through the night to get it, chuckling as he pinched my cheek. "Never met a she-wolf with such a sweet tooth, you little glutton."

I thought I'd finally reached him, melted the ice around his heart. I thought we were building something real.

Then, three months ago, Isabelle came back.

Afflicted with a slow-acting silver poisoning , she returned to our pack, her presence like