The Alpha King's Twins

It was the third year since Landon brought his mistress home to the estate.

A hundred times, I had threatened to go find another wolf and bond with him instead.

The hundredth time I said it, he didn't even look up.

"Juliet, that's a hundred times. You've never so much as touched another wolf's sleeve. Aren't you tired of this trick yet?"

His phone rang. He waggled the screen at me, a wedding photo on it.

"Go on, keep sulking. I'm off to watch Jasmine try on wedding dresses."

Watching him walk away, I finally saw it all clearly.

A month later Landon pushed open the front door of the estate and looked at me on the sofa with a mocking smile.

"Mrs. Landon, did you find some stray who's willing to bond with you this time?"

When I didn't answer, he laughed, pleased with himself.

"Juliet, ever since what happened when you were thirteen, your blood rejects every wolf alive."

"I'm your only cure. Without my scent, you won't last three days!"

The phone in my hand buzzed. I looked down.

"Darling, the family physician has confirmed it. You're carrying pure-blood twins."

Under the message was an ultrasound scan from a private hospital. A second message popped up right after it.

"In three days, the royal house of the North American wolves will come to take home their Luna Queen."

1

I turned off my phone screen and tucked the ultrasound printout into my bag.

When I didn't answer for so long, Landon threw his car keys onto the glass coffee table.

The table rang with a harsh crack.

"Juliet, I'm talking to you. Are you deaf?"

"I asked if you found a stray yet. Why are you playing dumb?"

I looked up at the face I had lived beside for ten years.

He yanked his tie loose and sprawled at the other end of the sofa, crossing his long legs on the edge of the table.

"Why aren't you threatening me with bonding anymore?"

"Did you go out for a stroll and find that any lowly wolf who comes near you makes you throw up?"

"Juliet, face reality. Your body is rotten through."

"Apart from me being generous enough to give you a little of my scent, what Alpha in all of North America would dare touch a rejection-sick freak like you?"

As he went on and on showing off, I felt nothing at all. The hundred fights we'd had just seemed absurd.

I reached up and touched the back of my neck. Under my collar were two bite marks that had only just healed.

All this past month, the scent of Kieran, Alpha King of North America, had wrapped around me completely.

Not only did my blood not reject him, it had bonded with his perfectly.

I stood up from the sofa and looked Landon in the eye, though he was a head taller than me.

I pulled a document out of my handbag and slapped it against his chest.

It slid down his suit and landed in his lap.

"Sign it, Landon."

"Tomorrow at nine, we go to the Elder Council and finish dissolving our mate bond."

Landon fumbled for the document, read the title, and went rigid.

He sprang up off the sofa and threw the papers on the table.

"Dissolve our mate bond?"

"Juliet, did you take the wrong pills today?"

"Just because I took Jasmine to try on one wedding dress, you went to the Elder Council for bond-severance forms?"

"How many times have I told you? Jasmine is young, she's just got my pup in her belly, and she feels insecure!"

"I'm only throwing her a wedding to make her happy. You're still Mrs. Landon. What are you going crazy about?"

I ignored his shouting and walked past him toward the front hall.

As we passed, a thick wave of jasmine perfume came off his collar.

My stomach turned over.

Jasmine used to be my favorite flower to grow on the estate.

Three years ago, when he brought home the she-wolf named Jasmine, I had the gardener tear out the whole bed.

I bent to put on flat shoes and took hold of the metal handle of the front door.

Landon caught up in a few long strides and grabbed my wrist.

"Where do you think you're going? Did I say you could leave?"

"Tear up that piece of junk on the table and go to the kitchen to make Jasmine's moonflower tea!"

I yanked my hand free, unlocked the door, and looked back at him.

"Forget the tea. There's something I forgot to tell you."

"That century-old blood orchid you were growing in the glasshouse, the one you meant to give Jasmine as a wedding present."

"Ten minutes ago I pulled it up by the roots and threw it in the fireplace."

I pointed at the flames still dancing in the living room. At the bottom of the hearth lay a heap of gray-white embers.

2

Landon turned to the fireplace and shot across the room.