---- Chapter 1 Ten years to the day we were mated, Eric came home wearing the scent of his first love. He wrapped me in his scorching heat, his voice a hoarse whisper against my ear. "T want you, Lyra." He hadn't marked me on a full moon in so long. But right now, the scent of another she-wolf on him was a bitter ache in my chest. The dinner I'd prepared for our full moon ritual was swept off the table by our cub, River. He looked at me with his father's cold expression. "Mom, your cooking doesn't even come close to ---- Auntie Aurora's." Aurora. The first love Eric could never forget. The one he'd brazenly appointed as CFO of our pack's corporation. They were the perfect pair, flaunting their connection for all to see. And I, his true mate, had become the pack's laughingstock. For ten years, I played the part of the perfect mate and mother, only to become a shadow in my own home. That night, I filed the request to the Elders. I would sever the mate bond. Later, under the brilliant Alaskan aurora, I received Eric's frantic mind link. "Lyra, what about River if you leave?" I let out a small laugh. " River only needs you." ---- "Your first love is back, isn't she? Let her be the mother. I'm free." "You're abandoning River? Do you have any idea he's preparing for the pack's advancement trials?" Eric's voice was laced with pure annoyance. He pushed aside my petition to sever the bond as if 1 were a child throwing a tantrum. River was the cub I had carried in my own body, yet he was as cold and distant as his father. To him, I was just an accessory to him. To him, I was little more than a housekeeper, unworthy of even a shred of respect. "We can tell him after the trials. Let's just perform the severance ritual first." He didn't seem to expect that. Eric finally looked up, his golden wolf eyes wide with