Sylvie's POV

The sharp, heady mix of leather and fresh rose flooded my senses, underscored by a clean, sharp hint of mint that clung to the man’s skin.

He must have showered not long before finding me.

Heat coiled tight in every inch of my body, my head spinning so violently I could barely focus on anything but the overwhelming sensation of him.

Today had twisted into the worst day of my life, a nightmare I could not wake up from.

The man moved against me with a rough, unyielding force, and a soft, helpless moan slipped past my lips before I could bite it back.

His voice rumbled deep in his chest, low and smoky with raw desire. “You’re not focused.”

I should have refused that random glass at the graduation banquet.

By the time I realized the liquid had been laced with a drug designed to throw a werewolf into an uncontrollable heat, it was far too late to reverse the damage.

His touch set every nerve in my body ablaze. The scorching sensation spread from my core all the way to my fingertips, making my skin thrumming with a feverish life of its own.

Everything after that blurred into a fog of pleasure and confusion. I only drifted back to consciousness slowly, as the worst of the drug’s hold finally loosened its grip.

I could barely process the cold, hard truth. I, a married werewolf, had just slept with a complete stranger.

The room was shrouded in dim darkness, and I had no strength left to fight his advances.

Every deep, deliberate thrust of his hips stole the breath from my lungs.

My fingers twisted into the sheets, knuckles white as I clung to the last shreds of my fraying composure.

His addictive scent and the searing warmth of his skin made my body crave more, even as my guilty conscience screamed that this was unforgivable.

He had a sharp, possessive bite.

I could feel the dark marks he’d left along my collarbone, rough nips that were quickly soothed by the warm glide of his tongue.

The contradictory sensation sent shivers racing down my spine, pleasure warring violently with shame.

His pace was wild and unrelenting, and all I could do was gasp and whimper, unable to hold back the desperate sounds he pulled from me.

Each thrust pushed my rationality further away, until my mind went completely blank with overwhelming climax.

When the first faint light of morning seeped through the curtains, the stranger finally pulled away, ending our reckless, forbidden night.

As the drug’s effects faded completely, crystal-clear clarity crashed over me like ice water.

I stared at the disheveled room, at the tangled sheets and torn fabric scattered across the floor, and felt my chest tighten with blinding panic.

I had been married for three years.

Three long, empty years since my father forced me into a union with Lorenzo Marchesi, the Alpha of the Eternal Night Pack.

Rumors followed him like a shadow no one could escape.

Some claimed he’d killed his own mate with his bare hands. Others insisted his face was twisted and hideous, covered in marks that made every she-wolf avoid him at all costs.

Many whispered the Moon Goddess had cursed him for his unforgivable sins, dooming him to never find a second chance mate.

I hadn’t seen him once since our wedding day.

The entire pack feared him, and I could hardly blame them for their terror.

The thought of him finding out what I’d done made my blood run cold.

I scrambled out of bed without a second to waste, my movements frantic and unsteady.

My clothes had been torn to shreds in the chaos of the night, so I grabbed the stranger’s oversized shirt to cover the dark, blooming marks across my skin.

My jeans were still intact, thankfully, and the loose men’s shirt made for a passable, if deeply suspicious, outfit.

Every muscle in my body ached, a dull, throbbing pain that served as a constant, unignorable reminder of the night before.

I swore to myself then and there that I would track down the coward who had drugged me and make them pay for ruining everything.

I slipped back into the Eternal Night Pack compound as the first light of dawn painted the sky soft pink.

Servants bustled about, preparing breakfast and tidying the grand grounds, and I kept my head down, hoping to slip unnoticed to my room before anyone saw me.

My terrible luck ran out before I could take three more steps.

Lorenzo’s mother, Maria, stepped directly in front of me, her face twisted with a rage so fierce it made my skin crawl.

“Who were you with last night?!” she shrieked, her voice sharp enough to make my ears ring with pain.

“I stayed at a friend’s house.” I lied quickly, trying to step around her, but a loyal servant stepped into my path, blocking my way entirely.

“You betrayed Lorenzo! You don’t deserve to be the Luna of this pack!” she snarled, pure venom dripping from every single word.

She had always hated me, looked down on my bloodline with open disgust.

She’d never forgiven my father for tricking her into accepting me as Lorenzo’s bride.

I was the illegitimate daughter of Andrew, Alpha of the Winter’s Frost Pack. I’d grown up as a maid in my own father’s pack, bullied relentlessly by my half-sister Elara every single day.

I could never speak my true identity, trapped in silence by my father’s cruelty. My father had always called my mother a whore, claiming she’d drugged him to trap him into a night together.

The entire pack labeled me a bastard child, unwanted and worthless from the day I was born.

When I turned eighteen, the Winter Frost Pack began to crumble. Our territory was seized by stronger, more vicious packs, and my father chose to sell his daughter to save his own power.

No one else in their right mind would marry the terrifying Lorenzo Marchesi.

Elara was supposed to be the bride, but my stepmother refused to send her own precious daughter. I was the replacement, the disposable one no one would miss.

Maria had been furious when she learned the truth, but she could not break the binding marriage agreement.

So I’d spent three years in a loveless, empty marriage, treated like a stranger in my own supposed home.

“I haven’t done anything wrong!” I snapped, pushing the servant’s rough hands away from my arms.

All I wanted was a hot bath and a single moment to breathe.

My body still throbbed, and I was exhausted to my very bones.

“I didn’t say you could leave!” Maria roared, marching forward and yanking me harshly by my collar.

Her cold eyes locked onto the gold-embroidered letter L stitched into the fabric, and her face turned an ugly, furious shade of red.

Before I could react, her hand cracked hard across my cheek, the stinging pain burning my skin bright and hot.

“You listen to me! A worthless mongrel like you doesn’t belong in the Eternal Night Pack! You slut!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “I’m expelling you from this pack right now!”

She had been waiting for an excuse to get rid of me, to turn me into a rogue with no pack to call her own, no protection from the dangers of the woods.

“Grab your pathetic things and get out! I’ll send word for Lorenzo to come back and sever your pack bond personally! You were meant to give the Alpha an heir, but you’re nothing but a useless failure!”

I stared at her, white-hot anger boiling in my chest.

She blamed me for a marriage that had been empty from the very start, for a husband who hadn’t bothered to show his face in three long years.

For the first time, I didn’t feel guilty about the stranger.

That reckless night had felt like sweet, quiet revenge against a man who’d never even looked at me, never treated me like anything but a burden.

My wolf, Leah, let out a low, angry growl deep in my chest.

She hated the idea of being cast out, of losing the status that was rightfully mine as the pack’s Luna.

But I was done.

Three years of humiliation and loneliness were more than enough for a lifetime.

“I’m tired of living like a forgotten widow anyway!” I shouted back, no longer holding back my rage.

I lifted my chin high, my voice steady and unshakable as I began the ancient, irreversible mate rejection ritual.

“I, Sylvie of the Eternal Night Pack, reject Lorenzo Marchesi, Alpha of the Eternal Night Pack, as my mate.”