My Alpha Gave My Mating Ceremony to His First Love

The champagne stain on my gown had dried into a stiff yellow patch.

I peeled the silk off in the dressing room of the Blackthorne estate and let it drop to the floor. Then I stood in front of the mirror in my slip, staring at the moonstone resting against my throat.

My mother's necklace. I had worn it every day for seven years.

Seven years of waiting for Ronan to choose me.

I used to think the Moon Goddess had picked us, and that a fated bond would win in the end. I thought that if I was patient enough, he would finally love me all the way.

I laughed at my reflection. The bond had never made him loyal. It only made him sure of me.

I opened the closet.

Diamonds. Designer gowns. Handbags still in their dust covers. Ronan's gifts filled almost the entire walk-in, and not one of them was something I would have picked for myself.

I packed my mother's jewelry box, three sweaters I had bought with my own money, and my old sketchbooks.

Everything else I left behind.

I was zipping the suitcase when the front door opened downstairs.

---

"Bri? You home?"

Ronan's voice carried up the staircase. Then came a second set of footsteps, lighter and quicker.

I walked down with the suitcase bumping behind me.

Vanessa stood in the foyer hugging a huge bouquet of white roses. My silver ribbon was still tied around her wrist.

"Brielle!" She smiled like we were old friends. "I hope it's okay. Could I stay here for a few days?"

I turned to Ronan. "What is this?"

"She just got back to the pack." He set her bag down by the stairs. "She doesn't have a safe place to sleep yet. I need you to be understanding."

"Why does she need to stay in our home?"

"We have twelve bedrooms." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Don't make this into a thing."

Vanessa hugged the roses tighter. "I've been scared of thunderstorms since I was little. Remember, Ronan? I only feel safe if I'm close to you."

He didn't even pause. "Margaret," he called to the housekeeper. "Make up the room next to the master suite."

Margaret glanced at me before she nodded.

Nobody looked at the suitcase in my hand.

---

Dinner was quiet until Vanessa came out of the kitchen carrying a tall glass.

"Fresh-squeezed." She held it out to me with both hands. "I made it myself. I really want us to be friends, Brielle."

Orange juice. Again.

I kept my hands in my lap. "I'm allergic to citrus."

Ronan's fork clinked against his plate. "Brielle. She's trying. You don't have to punish her for what happened at the ceremony."

"I'm not punishing anyone. I'm telling you I'm allergic."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't..." Vanessa leaned closer, and her wrist tipped.

The juice splashed across my arm.

It was cold at first. Then it burned.

Red welts rose on my skin almost at once. My chest went tight, like someone had wrapped a belt around my ribs and pulled.

Vanessa gasped and stumbled back. "Ronan! I'm sorry, she scared me, she moved so fast..."

He was on his feet and at her side in a heartbeat. "Hey. Hey, it's okay. It was an accident."

Then he frowned at me over her shoulder. "Was that necessary? You frightened her."

I gripped the edge of the table. The room tilted. My throat made a thin, whistling sound when I tried to speak.

Ronan's frown faded.

"Bri?"

The front door banged open.

"Where is she?" Harper's voice. Then she was beside me, digging into my purse. "Where's your pen, Bri? Where..."

She found the injector and jammed it into my thigh. The sting was nothing next to the pressure in my chest.

"Call the Pack Healer!" Harper shouted at Margaret. "Now!"

Air crept back into my lungs one thin thread at a time.

Ronan reached for me. "Let me carry you to the infirmary."

I flinched away from his hands.

"Seven years, Ronan." My voice came out like sandpaper. "How can you remember everything about her and forget the one thing that could kill me?"

His face went pale. "Brielle, I..."

"Ronan." Vanessa pressed a hand to her chest and swayed. "I'm so dizzy. I think the shock..."

He turned. Of course he turned. His arm was around her waist before she finished the sentence.

I watched his back.

I didn't say another word.

Harper did. "You absolute coward," she hissed at him.

He didn't answer her either.

---

The Healer left after midnight. My arm was wrapped in gauze, and my lungs had finally stopped burning.

I went upstairs for the last of my things.

The door to the master bedroom was open.

My photos were gone from the dresser. In their place stood a framed picture of Vanessa and Ronan at sixteen, laughing on the lake dock.

And Vanessa was lying in my bed, wearing my pale blue silk robe.

"Oh." She propped herself up on one elbow. "I'm just borrowing it. My clothes are still in the wash."

Ronan came out of the bathroom drying his hands. He saw me and sighed.

"Bri, it's late. Just take one of the guest rooms tonight. We'll sort it out tomorrow."

I didn't argue.

I crossed to the nightstand and picked up the only photo she hadn't moved. Ronan and me, seven years ago, on the night he first called me his mate. I was nineteen, and I was looking at him like he had hung the moon.

I tucked it into my suitcase.

Ronan stepped in front of the door. "How long are you going to keep this up?"

"Keep what up?"

"This. The sulking. The suitcase." He folded his arms. "You're my mate. You'll always come back."

I looked up at him for a long time.

Then I smiled. It surprised even me.

"That's what you keep counting on, isn't it?"

He blinked.

I stepped around him and walked out.

---

Harper's car was idling at the gate. She popped the trunk without a word and hugged me so hard my bandaged arm ached.

We were halfway down the drive when my phone chimed.

**PACK COUNCIL REGISTRY:** *The pending bond registration between Brielle and Ronan of Blackthorne has been formally withdrawn.*

I read it twice.

Then the tears came, hot and silent, sliding down my face.

Harper reached over and squeezed my hand.

I didn't look back at the house.

---

Ronan found the bracelet an hour later.

It was sitting on the dresser where Brielle's photos used to be. A thin silver band engraved with the Blackthorne crest. The mate-candidate bracelet his father had given her. She had never once taken it off.

Something cold slid down his spine.

He dialed her number.

*The number you have dialed is not available.*

He tried again. Same flat voice.

Vanessa's arms slipped around his waist from behind. Her cheek pressed against his back.

"She'll come back in a few days," she murmured. "She always does."

Ronan stared at the bracelet in his palm.

"Yeah," he said at last. "She always does."

---

Across town, in Harper's spare room, I opened the Pack Council portal one last time.

My finger hovered over the button, then pressed it.

**Formal Rejection Ceremony – Confirmed. Tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. Moon Temple.**

Below it, one more line appeared.

*Both parties are required to attend.*