After My Alpha Husband Brought His Mistress Home

I gasped for air, my lungs burning like I'd been drowning. My eyes snapped open to a ceiling I knew too well—cream-colored paint with that small crack near the corner that looked like a lightning bolt. The master bedroom of the Silverclaw Pack house.

No.

This couldn't be real. I should be dead. I should be lying in the rogue lands, my body wasted to nothing, my mind shattered by months of wolfsbane poisoning. The last thing I remembered was the dirt under my fingernails as I clawed at the frozen ground, searching for roots to eat. The taste of my own blood. The silence where my wolf should have been.

But the sheets beneath me were soft. Egyptian cotton. Isaac always insisted on the best.

My hands flew to my stomach. No hollow ache. No protruding ribs. I pressed harder, feeling the gentle curve of flesh that shouldn't exist on a starving rogue.

*Sasha?*

I reached inward, toward that empty space where my wolf had died slowly, poisoned pill by poisoned pill. For a moment, nothing. Then—

A whimper. Weak, confused, but unmistakably there.

*Sasha.*

My wolf stirred in the depths of my consciousness, her presence like a candle flame in a dark room. Fragile. Barely alive. But *there*.

Tears burned my eyes. The Moon Goddess had answered my dying prayer. She'd sent me back.

I sat up slowly, taking in the room. Morning light filtered through the gauzy curtains. The digital clock on the nightstand read 7:47 AM. I knew this day. God help me, I knew this exact morning.

This was the day Isaac brought *her* into our home.

The bedroom door swung open without a knock. Isaac filled the doorway, all six-foot-three of him, his dark hair still damp from his morning shower. He wore that gray suit I used to think made him look distinguished. Now I just saw a man playing dress-up as something he wasn't.

His eyes—cold blue, like a winter lake—fixed on me. "Vera."

I'd forgotten how he used to say my name. Like he owned it. Like he owned me.

"You're awake. Good." He stepped inside, and I felt it immediately—the weight of his Alpha aura pressing down on the room. In my previous life, weakened by wolfsbane, I'd crumbled under it. Now, with Sasha stirring inside me, I felt the pressure but didn't break.

I kept my face carefully neutral. Submissive. The mask I'd worn for years.

"I need you downstairs in twenty minutes," Isaac said. His voice dropped into that tone—the Alpha Command that vibrated in your bones and made your wolf whimper. "Allie Jordan will be arriving this morning. She's agreed to serve as our Pack Consultant. You will welcome her appropriately and show her to the third-floor guest suite."

Allie Jordan. The woman who would destroy everything.

In my first life, I'd fought this moment. I'd argued, pleaded, reminded Isaac of our mate bond. He'd used his Alpha Command to force me into silence, then locked me in this room for two days without food. When I emerged, Allie was already settled in, and my resistance was broken.

Not this time.

I lowered my head, exposing my neck in the ultimate gesture of submission. Every instinct screamed against it, but I'd learned patience in the rogue lands. I'd learned to wait for the perfect moment to strike.

"Yes, Alpha," I said softly. "I'll welcome her."

Isaac went still. I could feel his surprise, sharp as broken glass. He'd expected a fight. He'd been ready for it, probably even looking forward to crushing my spirit again.

Instead, I gave him nothing.

"Good," he said finally, but there was suspicion in his voice now. "I'm glad you're being reasonable about this, Vera. Allie's expertise will be valuable to the pack."

*Liar.* Allie's only expertise was in seduction and manipulation. But I just nodded, keeping my eyes down.

Isaac left, closing the door behind him. The moment he was gone, I let out a shaking breath.

*We can do this,* Sasha whispered in my mind, her voice threadbare but determined. *We can survive him.*

*We're going to do more than survive,* I promised her. *We're going to destroy him.*

I dressed quickly in a simple blue dress—modest, appropriate for a Luna greeting a guest. My hands shook as I fastened the buttons. Not from fear. From rage.

Downstairs, the breakfast table was already set. Isaac sat at the head, scrolling through his phone. He didn't look up when I entered.

I took my usual seat. A moment later, one of the Omega kitchen staff—Nia, sweet Nia who would be framed for theft in three weeks—brought out my plate. Scrambled eggs. Toast. Orange juice.

And a small dish with three white pills.

My "vitamins."

I stared at them, remembering the metallic taste. The way they made my head fuzzy. How Sasha's voice had grown fainter with each dose until I couldn't hear her at all.

Wolfsbane. Carefully measured to suppress my Alpha bloodline without killing me outright.

Isaac glanced up. "Take your vitamins, Vera."

I picked up the pills with steady fingers. Lifted my water glass. In my previous life, I'd swallowed them obediently, trusting my mate to care for my health.

Now I knew better.

I brought the pills to my lips, took a sip of water, and tilted my head back. My tongue pressed the pills against the roof of my mouth while I swallowed the water. Then, as I lowered the glass and reached for my napkin to dab my lips, I let the pills drop into the cloth.

A trick I'd learned from a rogue who'd survived by pretending to take sedatives from her captors.

"Good girl," Isaac said absently, already back to his phone.

I folded the napkin carefully in my lap, feeling the pills inside. The first small victory.

Sasha stirred again, stronger this time. Without the wolfsbane, she would heal. We would heal.

And then we would make them all pay.