PlotlumeOn the eve of the full moon, I was live-streaming the authentication of wolf-pack tokens on social media when a girl joined my call and started crying.
"Can you expose a shady high-end club for me?"
"I just bonded with my Alpha, and the box of century-old pure-blood wolf-fang pendants he gave me is all fake!"
"My fiancé runs the security firm for all of Chicago, so money isn't a problem for him. But I refuse to let this slide!"
When I heard she had only just bonded, I immediately agreed to authenticate them for free.
That night, the girl came to my studio in person, clinging to a man's arm to drop off the samples.
"I told you not to get involved. I can find a top streamer with millions of followers to stand up for me myself!"
The man looked heartbroken. "It's just a pendant worth a few hundred thousand dollars! I'm only afraid it'll wear you out!"
"Tomorrow I'll have the security firm shut that place down, so you can get your revenge!"
I watched the man promise her with doting affection, and my breath stopped.
It turned out my husband, who had gone overseas to claim territory three years ago, already had a second partner.
I called out his name right away:
"Corbin. Long time no see."
1
At the sound of my voice, Corbin's body went stiff.
He stepped forward and immediately shielded the girl behind him.
The girl poked her head out from behind him and swung his arm.
"Honey, you know this big-shot streamer?"
"If you knew her, why didn't you introduce us sooner? We waited in her livestream queue forever!"
Corbin patted the back of her hand and turned to me.
"We met once a few years ago at a relic auction in Chicago. We're not really acquainted."
"Oh, so you were just ordinary clients."
The girl let go of Corbin's hand and clicked across to my workbench in her high heels.
"Honey, go bring up the safe with the wolf fangs from the underground garage. It's too heavy, I can't lift it."
Corbin nodded, turned, and walked out the studio door.
I stood up to help, but the girl put out a hand to stop me.
"No need to trouble you, big sister streamer. Let my Alpha do the heavy lifting!"
"At home, he won't even let me open my own water bottle."
She tugged at her collar, and the mark on her collarbone flashed into view for a second.
I looked down and saw a ring of silver-moon partner-bond marks branded across her pale collarbone.
The pattern on that mark was identical to the blood-bond mark I had hidden at the back of my neck for five years.
My stomach churned, and sour water rushed up my throat.
I gripped the edge of the desk, my nails digging into the grain of the wood.
"I'll go into the back room and calibrate the spectrometer first."
I turned toward the testing room, but the girl followed me in with her coffee cup.
"Big sister, this studio is so fancy. Still, it's a little small compared with the private estate Corbin gave me."
"You have no idea how much effort Corbin put into chasing me!"
"Three years ago he pulled me out of a drinking party, and for six months after that, every single day he had fresh game and roses flown in and left at my door."
"He says he'll only ever have one mate in his life, and without me, he'd rather die out on the wasteland!"
I stood at the machine, my fingers shaking so badly I couldn't even find the power switch.
Three years ago, Corbin told me his family needed him to travel to the European wilds to claim new territory.
He said the signal out there was terrible and the danger was everywhere, and he told me to stay in Chicago and wait for him.
I believed him. I guarded this brand-new studio alone and looked after the elders of his pack for him.
Yet in the same city, he had been sending flowers and game to another woman every single day.
The girl kept showing off, her fingers stroking the mark on her collarbone.
"Next month, on the full moon, Corbin is going to officially announce my status as his Luna at the pack's grand ceremony."
"Oh, and big sister, Corbin has already picked out names for our future pups. He says the first one will be called..."
The testing-room door was shoved open.
Corbin walked in carrying a silver safe, cutting off the girl mid-sentence.
"Brooke, there's a private restroom at the end of the hall. You just drank coffee, so go fix your makeup first."
"Fine. Keep the big sister company, then."
Brooke set down her cup and tripped out of the room on light steps.
The moment the door closed, Corbin locked it and strode over, clamping onto my wrist.
"Simone, let me explain!"
"You're the only legal mate in my heart. Brooke and I were just a fling!"
"Her father controls a trade route I need. Once the deal goes through next month, I'll get rid of her right away!"
I pulled my arm free and stepped back, bumping into the spectrometer.
"A fling needs a bond carved into her collarbone?"
"Corbin, a wolf can form only one soul blood-bond in a lifetime. What did you bond her with?"
I pulled out my phone, ready to open the more than two thousand "safe arrival" messages he had sent me from overseas over the past three years.