Chapter 1
Juliet's POV
I couldn't stop staring at the design in my hands. Two months of work, every line perfected.
Kael's wolf form stared back at me, captured mid-transformation with muscles rippling under fur that seemed to flow like water. But the eyes took the longest. Those deep gray eyes that looked at me every morning like I was the only thing in his world that mattered.
My hands were shaking. He's gonna flip when he sees this.
Three months until the competition. Three months to prove to everyone that being Luna didn't kill my dreams, that my fucked-up hands didn't break me permanently. And I'd do it by tattooing this masterpiece on him in front of the entire wolf world, let everyone watch me mark my Alpha.
I grabbed the paper carefully and headed for the training room. Kael would be wrapping up with the warriors soon.
Three years ago, I was preparing for the biggest competition of my life, the Master Tattoo Championship that happens once every three years. But two weeks before the competition, rogues attacked me and shattered both my hands. My fiancé Damien broke our engagement the next day in my hospital room, he'd found his fated mate. Selene, his childhood friend.
I had nothing left, my parents died when I was young, and I'd been living with my uncle's family ever since. They never really wanted me there. I'd been counting down the days until I could marry Damien and finally have a home of my own. But that was gone too.
Then Kael showed up at the hospital. Damien's other childhood friend, someone I barely knew. I'd only seen him a few times when I was with Damien, but he said he'd fallen for me at first sight. He told me that before, since I was Damien's fiancée, he couldn't steal his friend's mate, but now that we'd broken off the engagement, he was confessing his feelings. At first, I was really hesitant because honestly? I didn't get the vibe that he actually liked me that much.
But Kael stayed through every therapy session, every painful exercise, every moment I thought I'd never heal. He was the only person who showed up. So, six months later, I let him mark me, and I married him.
He saved me.
He loved me.
Now.
I was almost to the training room when I heard voices coming from inside. Kael's voice and someone else, Rowan, one of his Alpha friends from the neighboring pack.
Something in their tone made me freeze mid-step.
"So Juliet's hand is good enough to compete now?" Rowan asked.
"Yeah. She's been practicing in secret, thinks I don't know about it." Kael sounded annoyed, "She wants to enter this year's competition."
"That's good though, right? Selene already won last time. She's established, got her reputation. Why not let Juliet have her moment?"
Why are they talking about Selene?
"No." Kael's voice went ice cold in a way I'd never heard before. "Selene needs this win too. Back-to-back championships would make her a legend in the tattoo world. Juliet's talented enough to threaten that."
The design started slipping from my hands.
"Dude, she's your Luna. You seriously can't be thinking of stopping her again. Those rogues last time went way too hard, breaking both her hands was—"
"That was my idea, actually."
What?
"The rogues were Selene's contacts, but I'm the one who told them to make absolutely sure Juliet couldn't compete."
No. Please no.
"Then why the fuck did you claim her?" Rowan sounded genuinely shocked. "Why mark her and make her your Luna?"
"Had to. In case she started digging around and asking questions. I needed to keep her close, keep tabs on what she knew or suspected. Marking her, marrying her, it was the perfect way to control the entire situation."
This can't be real.
"You're fucking insane, brother. All of this for Selene?"
"Selene is..." Kael's voice changed completely, went soft and gentle. "She's the one I've loved my entire life. Her and Damien and me, we grew up together from the time we could walk. She understands me in ways no one else ever has. She's my first love, my real love."
First love.
Only love.
"Fate's a real bitch sometimes, giving her to Damien as a fated mate and sticking me with Juliet. But that doesn't change how I feel. Doesn't change that I'd do absolutely anything to see her succeed."
"So what's your plan this time?"
"I'll arrange a training accident in the next few days. Make it look completely natural. Just a few weeks of injury, nothing permanent, just enough to keep her out of the competition."
The design fell from my hands completely. The edge of the paper sliced my finger as it dropped, and I watched blood drip onto the page.
Onto those eyes I spent two months perfecting.
The eyes I thought looked at me with love.
I pressed my hand over my mouth, physically holding back the scream trying to tear out of my throat. My whole body was shaking so hard I could barely stand, but I couldn't make a single sound.
I bent down and grabbed the design with trembling fingers. Blood smeared across the paper, across those lying eyes that would never look at me the same way again.
Three years.
Three years of him holding me, encouraging me, claiming to love me.
All fake. Every single word. Every touch. Every promise.
Just to watch me. Just to protect her.
I backed away from the door as quietly as possible, then turned and practically ran down the hallway. Up the stairs. Into our bedroom, the room we'd shared for three years, the bed where he'd whispered those lies into my skin night after night.
Our bedroom. Our home. The entire life I thought we'd built together.
None of it was real.
I locked the door and slid down against it, still clutching the ruined design in my bloody hand. My chest felt like it was caving in and I couldn't breathe properly, couldn't think past the roaring in my ears.
He destroyed my hands on purpose. Destroyed my entire career, my whole future.
And I thanked him for it. Married him. Loved him with everything I had.
The bond pulsed in my chest, that connection I'd treasured for three years, thinking it proved we were meant to be together. Now it just felt like a collar around my neck, a leash he'd used to keep me exactly where he wanted me.
I stared at the blood-stained design in my lap, at those beautiful lying eyes I'd drawn with so much love.
How could I be so fucking stupid?
