Chapter 2

My eyes were glued to one photo.

Last month, Alpha_X said he wanted a new combat bracer.

[I want something that proves I belong to you, my Moon.]

[What kind of mark will let everyone know that I’m your Alpha?]

His words had made my head spin. I designed it myself: a snarling wolf, with a tiny, crescent moon sigil hidden in plain sight. "This is a queen's brand," I’d told him, my voice dripping with false confidence. "Now everyone will know you are the Alpha I've claimed."

Even more humiliating, after he sent me a picture of the finished bracer, I made him wear it… while he touched himself for me before bed.

It was a one-of-a-kind design.

[Do you still have that combat bracer I designed for you?]

I sent the text, testing the waters.

The reply was instant.

[Of course. I wear it always. It’s the only way I can feel you close to me.]

Now, I just have to find the man wearing that bracer.

I rushed to the Bloodmoon Core training grounds. It was empty.

Damn it. The Alphas were barely on campus before graduation.

Alpha_X being here today was probably a fluke.

Just as I was getting frustrated, my phone rang.

"Ava, you need to report to Blake about your trial-competition proposal," a student council member said. "He’s in the public lounge right now."

Blake?

Heir to the Stormclaw pack. One of the most famous Alphas in the Bloodmoon Core.

But it couldn’t be him.

Blake and his fated mate made a huge show of their bond on the first day of school.

Everyone in the academy knew about them.

This proposal was my other key to the Alliance. I couldn't screw it up.

I pushed open the door to the lounge with a professional attitude. The words I’d prepared died in my throat.

Blake was sitting with his back to me. He was speaking into his phone in a soft, tender voice I’d never heard before.

"My little moon, did you miss me?"

The words, meant for another, slammed into me. Little moon?

"At the mating ceremony in three days, I’m going to leave my mark on you," Blake’s voice was a low, sexy growl, full of restrained desire. "I can’t wait to be inside you, to pin you down and—"

Blood rushed to my head.

Those words… they were almost exactly what Alpha_X had said to me.

My hand gripped the doorknob until my knuckles turned white. Panic and the sick feeling of being played with gnawed at my heart.

Blake kept going. "I can’t wait, my moon. I want everyone to know you’re mine."

A girl’s shy giggle came from the other end of the line.

No. It has to be a coincidence.

Anyone can talk like that. It has to be a coincidence. Please.

Blake hung up. His face immediately went back to its usual cold, arrogant mask.

He turned and saw me. His brow furrowed.

"Ava? What are you doing standing there? Come in."

I walked in like a robot. I tried to make my voice sound normal. "Blake, this is the proposal for the graduation trials."

He took the file and scanned it quickly. "Section three's safety measures are weak. Section five has a scheduling conflict."

I just nodded, desperate to escape this suffocating room.

But as I turned to leave, something caught my eye. His wrist.

A black obsidian combat bracer. The wolf pattern was intricate. The crescent moon sigil gleamed under the light.

An exact copy of my design.

The world started to spin.

All my instincts were screaming.

It’s him.

"That bracer… it’s special," I heard myself say. My voice didn't sound like my own.

Blake puffed out his chest, showing off the bracer. "This thing? A one-of-a-kind treasure."

He stroked the crescent moon sigil, his eyes glinting with the smug satisfaction of a thief showing off stolen goods.

"What do you think? Cool, right?"

I nodded. I could barely breathe.

There was no doubt.

Blake is Alpha_X.

And the "little moon" he was just talking to... that must be his beautiful, radiant fated mate, Scarlett.

And me… I’m just his online toy.

For over a year, I thought I’d found my mate. I thought the man whispering sweet nothings to me from behind a screen was real.

What a fool I'd been. He knew how desperate I was to get into the Alliance. He watched me fight and bleed for my future, all while he hid behind a screen, turning my heart into his personal playground.

"Ava? You look terrible." Blake frowned at me. "It’s almost graduation. Don’t tell me the bonfire and this proposal are actually breaking you."

I shook my head, forcing a smile. "No. I just haven’t eaten."

I fled the lounge. I practically crawled back to my dorm.

The moment the door shut, I fell apart.

My phone was still buzzing. A message from Alpha_X… no, from Blake.

[My Moon, I’m going crazy thinking about you right now.]

[Tonight I want to see you in that white nightgown. I want to imagine tearing it off you…]

I used to get butterflies from these words.

Now they just make me sick.

He was flirting with me while planning his mating ceremony with another woman.

What am I to him?

A backup? A toy? A tool to pass the time?

Worse, I thought about how I acted with him.

My bold propositions. My shameless demands. My "queen" persona, where I thought I was in control.

He must have thought I was a joke.

A self-important Beta who thought she could tame a high-and-mighty Alpha.