Chapter 2

KELSEY POV:

A week later, an encrypted message appeared on the burner phone the Shadow Sanctuary had given me.

"New identity established. Destination: Paris, European Neutral Zone. Await further instructions."

Paris. A world away. A place where my name, Kelsey Jensen, meant nothing. A place where the title of "future Luna of the Silver Moon Pack" was just a ghost.

The thought sent a wave of relief through me, so profound it almost buckled my knees.

I started cutting the threads that tied me to this life. I walked into a high-end consignment shop and anonymously donated the Moonlight Stone necklace Bennett had given me, the one that symbolized my future role. Let some other woman wear the pretty, empty promise.

That night, I built a fire in the grand fireplace of our penthouse. One by one, I fed it our memories. A dried rose from our first anniversary. A photograph of us laughing in the snow. The silly, handwritten vows we'd exchanged at our private ceremony.

I watched the flames consume it all, turning years of love and lies into ash.

When Bennett returned from his "trip to the border," he noticed nothing. He walked right past the empty space on my neck where the necklace used to be. He didn't sense the hollowness in the apartment, the absence of cherished objects.

"Where are all our photos?" he asked idly, loosening his tie.

"I sent them out to be purified," I said, my voice even and calm. "The Elder mentioned the energy in the penthouse felt stagnant."

"Good idea," he murmured, already distracted by his phone. He bought the lie without a second thought. His mind was elsewhere. With her.

His guilt, however, demanded a public performance. He threw me a lavish, "compensatory" birthday party at the pack's grand hall. It wasn't for me; it was for him. A way to show the world, and himself, that he was still the perfect Alpha, the devoted husband.

I played my part, smiling until my cheeks ached.

And then, she arrived.

Aria walked in on the arm of Bennett's Beta. She wore a simple white dress that clung to her curves, making her look both innocent and alluring. A visiting Elder from another pack saw her and smiled warmly at me.

"Kelsey, your younger sister is lovely," he said.

The blood drained from my face.

Bennett, ever the politician, smoothed it over. He walked to Aria's side, placing a proprietary hand on the small of her back.

"This is Aria Diaz," he announced to the room, his voice resonating with Alpha power. "A dear friend of the pack. She has been helping me stabilize my energy. A great service to us all."

He didn't call her my replacement. He didn't have to. He called her his "stabilizer," and in doing so, he reduced my role as his partner to something purely ceremonial. I was the face of the company; she was the heart of the man.

I watched him all night. I saw the way his eyes followed her, the way he leaned in to murmur something in her ear that made her blush. At one point, a strand of her dark hair fell across her face. Without thinking, Bennett reached out and gently tucked it behind her ear.

It was a small, intimate gesture. The kind he hadn't made toward me in years. It was a public declaration.

Later, hiding in the ladies' lounge to catch my breath, I overheard two she-wolves whispering.

"...saw them at the top fertility clinic last week," one said, her voice dripping with gossip. "Holding hands and everything. They looked so in love."

The other one sighed. "Poor Luna Kelsey. She must know."

I leaned against the cool marble wall, the whispers confirming my worst fears. This wasn't a mistake. This wasn't a fleeting affair.

This was a coup. A carefully planned, deliberately executed plot to replace me. And I was standing right in the middle of it, smiling for the cameras.

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