Chapter 1

The sharp, metallic rasp of a zipper closing severed the heavy silence in the room.

I flinched, my shoulders drawing up toward my ears as the sound echoed in the cramped foyer of our shared apartment. Outside, a torrential downpour battered the thin glass of the single window, casting cold, gray shadows across the half-packed cardboard boxes littering the floor. I stood directly in front of the heavy oak door, my chest heaving, the slick wood pressing into my spine. I wasn't going to let him leave.

Julian stood up from his crouching position, his large hand gripping the strap of his black leather duffel bag. His broad shoulders cut a familiar, imposing silhouette in the dim light, but everything else about him felt like a stranger. Even his scent was wrong. Beneath the sharp, intoxicating scent of frosted pine that I had inhaled every night in secret for the last two years, there was something else. It was a faint, sickly-sweet aroma of spun sugar and white lilies. An Omega's scent. His new, socially acceptable, perfectly bred fiancé's scent.

My own scent, usually a soft and inviting amber, was rapidly souring into something acrid and burnt under the weight of my rising panic.

"Move, Leo," Julian said. His voice was a low, even rumble, completely devoid of the heat it held when we were tangled in the sheets just hours after our parents went to sleep in the house down the street.

"No," I choked out, my voice cracking. I reached out, my fingers trembling as I gripped the lapel of his expensive trench coat. "Julian, please. You can't just walk out. What about us? What about the promises we made?"

Julian didn't pull away, but he didn't lean into my touch either. He simply looked down at my white knuckles with a look of mild, transactional boredom. "There is no 'us,' Leo. We had an arrangement. A distraction. You knew from the beginning that I was going to marry into the Sterling family to secure the merger. You're my stepbrother. It was never going to be anything more than closed doors."

"That's a lie!" I screamed, the desperation clawing its way up my throat. Tears blurred my vision, hot and humiliating. "I did everything for you! I destroyed my own morals for this. For you! Do you think Toby's engagement broke off by accident? I planted those rumors. I ruined my best friend's reputation so the Sterlings would drop him and you could take his place, but I only did it because I thought—I thought once you had the power, you would choose *me*."

I expected him to look shocked. I expected guilt, or anger, or at least a flicker of realization at the depths of my toxic devotion.

Instead, Julian let out a dry, hollow laugh. The sound chilled me to the bone.

"I know what you did, Leo," he said, his eyes narrowing slightly, devoid of any warmth. "I knew the moment the rumors started. You were incredibly sloppy. But it was convenient. I needed Toby out of the way, and you were willing to get your hands dirty so I didn't have to. Why would I stop you?"

The breath left my lungs in a painful rush. The room seemed to tilt, the shadows elongating across the cardboard boxes that held the remnants of my shattered illusion. He had used me. My frantic, obsessive love was nothing but a tool for his ruthless pragmatism.

"No," I sobbed, shaking my head frantically. I threw myself against his chest, dropping all of my remaining pride. I tilted my head back, forcefully pulling the collar of my sweater down to expose the sensitive, pale skin of my scent gland. "Claim me. Please, Julian. Just give me the bite. If you bite me, they can't marry you off. You promised me once. Just do it. Do it right now!"

I pressed my bare neck toward his mouth, baring myself in a final, pathetic plea, waiting for the primal instincts of an Alpha to take over. I waited for his teeth.

Julian stepped into my space. The suffocating weight of his Alpha pheromones crashed down on me, dominant and crushing. But instead of lowering his mouth to my skin, his large hand came up and clamped firmly onto my shoulder. With a terrifyingly casual exertion of force, he shoved me aside.

I stumbled, my back slamming hard into the wall alongside the door frame.

Julian didn't even look back at me as his hand wrapped around the brass doorknob. He paused, turning his head just slightly, his profile sharp against the gloomy light of the hallway.

"You made your bed by ruining someone else's," Julian said, his tone chillingly indifferent. "Did you really think karma wouldn't collect?"

The door clicked open, letting in a rush of freezing, damp air, and then slammed shut. The metallic click of the lock falling into place was the loudest sound in the world.

My legs gave out. I slid down the wall, collapsing into a heap against a stack of taped-up boxes. The bitter chill of the empty apartment seeped into my bones. My hands shook as I reached up, my fingers weakly clutching the unbroken, unblemished skin of my neck. I was completely unmarked. I sat in the suffocating silence, listening to the rain, drowning in the agonizing realization that I was feeling the exact, soul-crushing heartbreak I had so easily inflicted on someone else.