The Moonlit Registry opened at nine, but I arrived at 8:45.

I always arrived early. It was a habit I'd developed over years of waiting for Dorian Bloodmoon,the kind of habit that should have warned me long before today.

My reflection stared back at me from the polished silver doors of the sacred hall. Silver-white hair swept into an elegant updo. Violet eyes lined with careful makeup. A deep blue dress that hugged my curves and marked me as an Alpha-born wolf of the fallen Moonveil Pack.

I looked like a bride. I looked like a woman who had spent three hours getting ready for the most important day of her life.

I looked like a fool.

"You're early again," I murmured to myself, checking my phone for the hundredth time. No messages. No missed calls. It was 8:47 AM.

The first time we were supposed to complete our blood bond, Dorian had called me at 6 AM. "Sera, I'm so sorry. There's an emergency in the northern territory. A rogue attack. I have to go. We'll reschedule, I promise."

I had believed him. Of course I had. I'd spent that entire day reassuring my omega friend Ellie that everything was fine, that Dorian was just busy, that the bonding ceremony was still on. I'd smiled through the pitying looks from the other wolves who had already heard the news. I'd told myself that love required patience.

The second time, two weeks later, his mother had suffered a "health crisis." Dorian had texted me from the Bloodmoon estate or so he claimed. "My mother needs me. You understand, right? We'll do it next week."

I had understood. I always understood. That was the problem.

Now, standing outside the Moonlit Registry for the third time, I felt the weight of those two failures pressing down on me like a physical force. My chest was tight. My hands were cold despite the summer heat. But I kept my spine straight and my chin high, because that was what Seraphina Nightshade did. She endured. She smiled. She waited.

The silver doors opened at exactly nine o'clock.

I walked inside and approached the registration desk. The sacred hall stretched before me, ancient moon symbols carved into the stone walls, silver light filtering through crystalline windows. The air smelled of incense and old magic. This was where wolves came to bind their souls together for life.

I took a seat near the back. The waiting area was already half full couples holding hands, whispering to each other, their faces bright with anticipation. A young Alpha couple sat across from me, their wrists already marked with fresh bonding scars. They couldn't stop touching each other. I looked away.

The first couple was called to the bonding chamber. Then the second. Then the third.

I checked my phone again. 9:15 AM. No messages.

He's just running late, I told myself. Traffic. The city is always crowded this time of day.

By ten o'clock, the waiting area had emptied and refilled twice. I remained in my seat, my phone clutched in my hand, my eyes fixed on the entrance.

By eleven, my mouth was dry. I hadn't brought water. I hadn't thought I would need it.

By noon, the omega receptionist,a young woman with kind eyes and a name tag that read "Mira" approached me hesitantly.

"Luna Nightshade?" she said softly. "Would you like some moon tea?"

I looked up at her, and for a moment, I saw myself through her eyes. A woman in a beautiful dress, sitting alone for three hours, waiting for a mate who hadn't shown up.

"No, thank you," I said, my voice steady. "I'm fine."

She nodded and retreated behind her desk. I heard her whisper something to her colleague. I didn't need to hear the words to know what she was saying.

Third time this month. Poor thing.

I pulled out my phone and opened my messages with Dorian. The last message from him was from two days ago: "See you tomorrow. Can't wait to finally seal our bond."

Can't wait.

I stared at those words until they blurred.

At 2 PM, I called him. The phone rang five times before going to voicemail.

"Dorian, it's me. I'm at the registry. Where are you?"

I hung up before I could say anything else. Before my voice could crack. Before I could beg.

At 3 PM, I called again. Voicemail.

At 4 PM, I stopped calling.

The afternoon light shifted, turning golden, then amber. Couples came and went. A young wolf kissed his new mate on the cheek. An older couple held hands and smiled at each other like teenagers. Everyone had someone.

I had a phone that wouldn't ring.

At 4:30 PM, Mira approached me again. This time, she didn't offer tea. She just looked at me with those kind, pitying eyes, and I felt something inside me curdle.

"The registry closes at five," she said gently. "If you'd like to come back tomorrow..."

"I won't need to come back tomorrow," I said.

The words came out before I could stop them. I didn't know if they were true. I didn't know anything anymore.

At 5:15 PM, just as the staff began turning off the silver lights and gathering their things, my phone buzzed.

I nearly dropped it in my haste to unlock the screen.

Dorian: Something came up. We'll reschedule. Sorry.

Three sentences. Ten words. No explanation. No apology worth the name. Just sorry, as if he'd spilled tea on my dress rather than shattered our bond before it was even sealed.

I stared at the message for a long moment. The words didn't change. They didn't rearrange themselves into something that made sense. They just sat there on the screen, small and brutal and final.

Something came up.

Something always came up.

The silver doors of the Moonlit Registry closed behind me with a heavy thud. I stood on the steps, frozen, as the moon rose over Lunaris City. A waxing gibbous, almost full. It mocked me with its completeness.

I had been here before. This exact spot. This exact pain. The first time, I had cried in my car for an hour before driving home. The second time, I had called Dorian seventeen times, each ring slicing deeper into my chest. But this time…

This time, I didn't cry.

I didn't call him.

I didn't do anything except stare at that message and feel something inside me shift. It wasn't sadness. It wasn't even anger, not really. It was something colder. Clearer.

He never intended to show up.

The thought arrived without warning, without preamble. It just appeared in my mind, fully formed, undeniable.

He's been stringing me along.

I thought of the first time. The rogue attack that I never verified. The second time. The health crisis that resolved itself within days. The excuses that I had accepted because I wanted to believe him. Because I wanted to believe that someone like Dorian Bloodmoon handsome, charming, heir to the most powerful pack in Lunaris City could love someone like me.

But he didn't love me. He never had.

And then I felt it.

A stir. A growl. A presence that had been silent for years, buried so deep inside me that I had almost forgotten it existed.

Luna.

My wolf.

She had retreated after my father died. After our pack was destroyed. After I learned that survival meant suppressing every wild instinct, every primal urge, every trace of the Alpha blood that ran through my veins. I had locked her away because she was too dangerous, too unpredictable, too much.

But now, for the first time in years, I felt her.

Not as a distant echo. Not as a phantom limb. But as a living, breathing force inside my chest. She was awake. She was pacing. And she was furious.

He lied to us, Luna growled. Her voice was rough from disuse, but it was unmistakably mine. He lied, and he humiliated us, and he thinks we will simply wait for him again.

I closed my eyes. I know.

We will not wait, Luna said. We will not forgive. We will not forget.

I know.

The moon climbed higher. The streetlights flickered on. The city moved on without me.

I was about to turn and walk to my car when a sleek black car pulled up to the curb.

I froze.

It wasn't just any black car. It was his car. The one Dorian used for "special occasions." The one he'd told me he was saving for our bonding night.

The window rolled down.

Lina Frost sat in the back seat.

I knew her from pack gatherings,the quiet, demure omega who always hovered at the edges of conversations, the one everyone described as "sweet" and "harmless." She was beautiful in that soft, unassuming way that made men want to protect her. Tonight, she was wearing a pale pink dress that clung to her figure.

Her very round, very pregnant figure.

Her hand rested on her belly, protective and proud. She was laughing at something on her phone, her face glowing with a happiness that I had never once seen on Dorian's face when he looked at me.

She didn't see me.

She stepped out of the car,Dorian's car and walked into the luxury hotel directly across the street. The doorman greeted her by name. She smiled at him like she belonged there.

Because she did.

My blood turned to ice.

I watched her disappear through the hotel's golden doors, and I felt the last piece of my old life shatter. The first time Dorian had stood me up, I'd told myself it was a mistake. The second time, I'd told myself it was bad luck. But this,this was not a mistake. This was not bad luck.

This was a choice.

But then I caught the scent.

Even from across the street, even with the city's smells surrounding me, I caught it. The unmistakable, forbidden scent of accelerated fertility herbs. Herbs that were banned in the werewolf world. Herbs that could force a pregnancy that should never have been possible so quickly.

Herbs that no omega should have access to.

Luna surged forward, her growl ripping through my chest. She is not just a mistress. She is a manipulator. She has been using dark things to trap him.

So that's where you were.

The words left my mouth in a whisper, cold and steady. I didn't recognize my own voice. It sounded like a stranger's someone harder, someone who didn't cry in cars or call seventeen times or wait for hours in a dress she'd chosen months ago.

And what have you done, Lina Frost?

I pulled out my phone again. Dorian's message was still there, still mocking me with its casual cruelty.

Something came up.

Yes. Something had definitely come up. A pregnant mistress in his car, carrying a child that should not exist, reeking of forbidden magic.

I should have felt devastated. I should have collapsed right there on the sidewalk, sobbing, humiliated beyond repair. But I didn't. Instead, I felt something else entirely something that burned through my veins like fire.

Rage.

Pure, clean, powerful rage.

Luna howled inside me, and for the first time in years, I didn't push her back.

We will destroy them, she snarled.

Yes, I agreed. We will.

I looked at the hotel where Lina had disappeared. I imagined Dorian inside, waiting for her. I imagined them together, laughing at me, planning their future while I stood in the ruins of mine.

You wanted the Nightshade merger, I thought. You wanted my father's legacy. You wanted to use me until the contracts were signed, and then you were going to throw me away like yesterday's trash.

I knew it now with perfect clarity. It all made sense the delays, the excuses, the way he always seemed to be distracted when we were together. He had never intended to bond with me. He had been playing a game, and I had been too blind to see it.

But I wasn't blind anymore.

Luna stirred again, and this time, I felt her power flow through me. My senses sharpened. My vision cleared. The world became sharper, more vivid, more dangerous.

We are not weak, Luna said. We are Alpha-born. We are Moonveil. And we will not be discarded.

I nodded slowly, my hands steady now, my heart no longer pounding.

No, I agreed. We will not.

The moon rose higher, casting silver light across the city. I stood in its glow, a woman transformed, a wolf awakened, a plan forming in the darkness of my mind.

The first step was simple.

I needed to find out exactly what Lina Frost had done.

And then I needed to make her pay.