---- Chapter 1 My mate marked another she-wolf in front of me, moments before our own mating ceremony was supposed to begin. "T can still take you as my mate, but Lyla stays by my side." Damon's voice echoed through the Blood Moon Pack's temple, shattering the last of my hopes. I stood before the moonlit altar in my Luna gown, forced to watch my mate sink his teeth into another woman's neck. Lyla. That pathetic Omega was now nestled in my fated mate's arms, the fresh, bloody mark on her neck still weeping. ---- "Damon, are you insane?" My voice trembled. He turned to me, his eyes empty of guilt. "If you want to be my Luna, this is my condition." Gasps erupted from the pack. To mark another she- wolf before a mating ceremony was the ultimate insult to the Moon Goddess. But I knew worse was coming. Memories of my past life flooded back to me. On this very day, I had screamed my refusal at Damon. Bowing to the Goddess's law and the Elders' pressure, he banished Lyla. She was chased down by a pack of rogues and fell from a cliff to her death. After that, Damon never marked me. He never treated me as his true mate, only with cold, cutting indifference. He even lured me into the forbidden lands, framing ---- me for breaking our pack's most sacred law. I cried, I begged, but in the end, I was cast out by the entire pack. And then, he killed me in the wilderness. "You got Lyla killed," he had said. "Now you pay the price." Not this time. Seeing that I wasn't responding, Damon's brow furrowed. "Selena, stop making a scene. Lyla needs my protection, and you-"' "And I what?" I cut him off. Lyla sobbed softly in his arms. "Selena, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean for this to happen..." Such a brilliant actress. I slowly raised my hand to the moonstone necklace at my throat-the sacred symbol of fated mates.