E


    I ran through the forest, the leaves and trees blurring past as I raced toward my mate. I felt no fatigue, no pain. My heart pounded, not from feat or exertion, but rather excitement.


    My mate ran beside me, also in wolf form, chestnut fur catching the light of the full moon. We locked gazes for a moment, and I could practically see his smile. I looked down, and saw not two feet but four, not pale skin but instead gleaming, silky fur.


    My wolf had returned.


    We came to a stop beside a babbling brook and shifted,ughing. We fell back onto the soft grass, arms outstretched, the moon hovering above us like a disk in the sky.


    Warm fingers intertwined with mine. When I looked over, Alexander’s skin was bare, and so was mine. Still smiling that same handsome, ethereal smile I’d seen in the hospital, he rolled over me, positioned himself between my legs, and…


    “E…”


    “E!”


    I jolted awake to the sound of shouting andmotion and someone calling my name. I blinked, confused. Was I still dreaming? Was I back in the forest with Alexander, making love beneath the moonlight?


    But no. The smell of cleaning solution and the sound of beeping monitors quickly reminded me that I was still in the hospital. The shouting, however, was real.


    “You can’t be in here! This is a private room!”


    “Just one photo! The public has a right to know!


    I sat up, blinking the sleep from my eyes just as a man with a camera burst through my door, followed closely by two more. The sh went off momentarily blinding me so that I had to lift my arm to shield my face.


    “Luna E! Is it true you’re not marked? Has Alpha Alexander rejected you?”


    What the fuck? “Get out!” I yanked the nket up to my chin. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”


    More shes. More questions being hurled at me. The room seemed to shrink as the photographers surged around me.


    “Have you been lying to the pack all these years?


    “Is your marriage a sham?”


    Before I could respond, hospital security rushed in, physically removing the photographers despite their protests. Dr. Evelyn followed, face beet red with anger.


    “I am so sorry, Luna E,” she said, shutting the door firmly behind thest security guard. “ They somehow snuck past the front desk.”


    My hands were shaking as I lowered the nket. What was that about? Why were they asking about my mark?”


    Dr. Evelyn’s expression shifted. “Ah. You haven’t seen the news, then.” She hesitated, then pulled her phone out of her pocket and began tapping on the screen. “I’m afraid someone leaked some… personal information about you.”


    She held her phone out toward me, and I took it with shaking hands. The headline on the screen made my blood run cold. “ALPHA ALEXANDER’S SECRET SHAME: LUNA ELLA REMAINS UNMARKED AFTER FIVE YEARS?”


    The article beneath it was filled with spection and “anonymous sources” iming that Alexander had never marked me because he didn’t truly ept me as his mate. There were quotes from supposed “close friends” of the pack saying that our marriage was purely political, that Alexander was in love with someone else, and that I was essentially just a ceholder until he could divorce me.


    That,bined with the gossip surrounding ourst scandal, had created the perfect storm.


    “Fuck,” I whispered, scrolling through the article with growing horror. There were even side- by-side photos of me in various outfits over the years, all carefully chosen to show that my neck had never borne a mating mark.


    “Is there anything I can do?” Dr. Evelyn asked gently.


    I shook my head. “No. It’s… it’s toote now. The damage is done.”


    And what damage it was. In werewolf society, an unmarked mate was practically unheard of, especially after this many years of marriage.


    The mark was sacred—it wasn’t just a physical symbol of the bond between mates, but it quite literally locked in the mate bond. Marked mates could speak via Mindlink, could feel each other’s pulse, could sense the other’s emotions.