When My Alpha Ex-Husband Came Looking for Me, I was Already GoneChapter 1

Rebecca’s POV

The first thing I heard after waking from vampire venom was Maurine crying in Lucas’s arms.

I should not have been awake.

That was what the healers kept whispering outside the glass wall of the recovery room.

“Shadowfang venom should have put her into cursed sleep.”

“Same poison that struck Alpha Maximus Thane.”

“Then why is she conscious?”

I lay still beneath the thin white blanket, my shoulder wrapped so tightly I could barely move. Every breath pulled fire through the bite wound. My wolf paced restlessly inside me, not weak, not sleeping, but furious in a way I had never felt before.

Beyond the glass, Lucas stood with his back partly turned to me.

My wolf knight.

The male I had chosen three years ago out of a line of elite guards because he was silent, disciplined, and beautiful in the cold way mountain steel was beautiful.

Now he held Maurine as if she were the one who had almost died.

Her face was buried against his chest. Her fingers clutched his shirt. Lucas’s hand moved slowly over her hair, his voice low and tender enough to make my stomach turn.

“You’re safe,” he murmured. “I won’t let anything touch you.”

Maurine sniffled. “But Rebecca was hurt because of me. If you hadn’t shielded me first…”

Lucas went still.

I waited.

Some pathetic part of me still waited.

He said, “I made the choice I had to make.”

The words cut deeper than the vampire bite.

Because I remembered the attack clearly.

The Eclipse Hall had erupted into screams when the rogue vampires broke through the roof lanterns. Glass had rained down. Wolves shifted in panic. I had turned toward the movement too late and seen Lucas already moving.

Not toward me.

Toward Maurine.

A vampire reached me before my wolf could fully rise. Its fangs sank into my shoulder, and black heat poured into my veins.

Lucas had heard me scream.

He had still stayed in front of Maurine.

A vase sat on the table beside my bed. I reached for it with my good hand and shoved it off the edge.

It shattered loudly.

Lucas turned.

Maurine sprang away from him as if she had been caught doing something shameful. “Rebecca! You’re awake!”

She rushed into the room, eyes wet, voice trembling. “Thank the Moon Goddess. I was so scared. I kept telling Lucas it was my fault—”

“Get out.”

Her footsteps stopped.

Lucas entered behind her, his expression already closing into that blank, professional mask I knew too well. “Young Miss, you’re injured.”

Young Miss.

Not Rebecca.

Not the female he had sworn to guard with his life.

Not even the woman he had watched bleed on a marble floor while holding someone else.

I laughed, and pain tore through my shoulder. “You remembered my title. How touching.”

His jaw tightened. “The attack was chaotic.”

“But your priorities were clear.”

Maurine’s eyes filled again. “Please don’t blame him. I froze. He only saved me because I was closer.”

I looked at Lucas. “Was she?”

He did not answer.

That silence was all the answer my wolf needed.

I turned my face away. “Leave.”

Maurine hesitated, but Lucas guided her out. His hand remained at the small of her back until the door closed.

I stared at the ceiling until the healers came in again.

One of them checked the wound and frowned. “Your regeneration is unusually fast.”

“Is that a problem?”

“For a shadow bite? It’s impossible.”

Impossible.

That word stayed with me long after they left.

The venom that had trapped Alpha Maximus Thane in cursed sleep had not trapped me. No healer understood why. My wolf would not explain. She only paced and growled whenever I thought of Lucas’s hand on Maurine’s hair.

By sunset, I removed my own IV and returned to Aethon Pack House.

My father was in the war room, bent over border maps. Alpha Rowan Aethon did not look surprised to see me injured. He looked irritated that I had interrupted him.

“Rebecca, this is not the time.”

“It never is.”

He lifted his eyes. “What do you want?”

I walked to the table, every step pulling at my wound. “The Thane Pack still needs a Luna for Alpha Maximus.”

My father stilled.

Maximus Thane, heir of the ancient northern pack, had been asleep for nearly two years since vampire blood and shadowroot entered his veins. His body lived. His wolf blood fought. His mind never woke.

The Thanes had wanted Maurine to fulfill the alliance.

Maurine had cried for three days at the thought of marrying a sleeping Alpha.

So, naturally, my father had been trying to find a way to spare her.

“I’ll marry him,” I said.

The room went silent except for the crackle of cedar in the hearth.

“You were bitten yesterday,” he said slowly. “You’re emotional.”

“I am finished being emotional.”

His gaze sharpened. Calculation began to replace surprise. “The Thanes would accept you. You are legitimate Aethon blood.”

I smiled coldly. “There it is.”

“Rebecca—”

“I’m not doing this for free.”

His brows drew together.

I placed one hand on the war table. “Half the treasury. Including your private vault. Transfer it before the ceremony.”

His face darkened. “That is absurd.”

“So is offering your daughter to a cursed Alpha because your favorite bastard child is too delicate for duty.”

The air thickened with his Alpha pressure.

I did not lower my head.

At last, he said, “Anything else?”

“Yes.” My voice turned calm. “Reassign Lucas.”

He blinked. “Your wolf knight?”

“To Maurine.”

For the first time, real confusion crossed his face. “You once said you wanted him as your mate.”

“I was wrong.”

My father studied me as if trying to find the wound that had changed me.

He would not find it.

Some wounds did not bleed where others could see.

“Fine,” he said at last. “If the Thanes accept the substitution, you’ll have your money.”

“They will.”

I turned to leave.

At the door, he asked, “Why give Lucas to Maurine?”

My hand paused on the handle.

Because he had already chosen her.

Because his oath to me had become a costume he wore while worshiping someone else.

Because I was done begging for loyalty from males who only loved me when no softer woman was nearby.

I said only, “Because I don’t keep things that were never mine.”