My Alpha Mate Forgot Me for His True Luna

Rain drummed against the windows of my healing center that afternoon, creating a rhythm I'd always found soothing. I was Carmen George, a memory healer who'd built a quiet life here in Seattle territory, and right now I was exactly where I wanted to be—organizing patient files with Wade's arms wrapped around me from behind.

"You're humming again," he murmured against my ear, his breath warm. "That old lullaby."

I smiled, leaning back into his chest. "You taught it to me when we were kids, remember?"

"How could I forget?" His voice carried that gentle warmth I'd fallen in love with two years ago, when I'd found him wandering as an amnesiac rogue. We'd discovered we were fated mates, completed our mating ceremony, and every day since had felt like a gift.

The mate bond hummed contentedly between us, a golden thread of connection that made my wolf purr.

Then the doors exploded inward.

I jerked away from Wade as wood splintered and rain gusted into the clinic. A woman strode through the wreckage, flanked by warriors whose eyes glowed with barely contained wolf energy. She was stunning in an intimidating way—tall, regal, dripping with expensive jewelry that screamed Alpha bloodline.

But it was her aura that hit me like a physical blow. Dominant. Crushing. Pure Alpha power that made my knees want to buckle.

"There you are." Her voice cut through the rain's patter, sharp and triumphant. She pointed directly at Wade. "Thomas Parker, Alpha heir of the Moonstone Pack. My fated mate."

The world tilted.

"What?" I managed to choke out. "No, this is Wade. Wade Andrews. My—"

"Your what?" She laughed, cold and cruel. "Your mate? You stupid little healer. This is Thomas Parker. He disappeared two years ago, and I've been searching ever since."

I turned to Wade—to the man I knew as Wade—expecting him to tell her she was insane. To laugh it off. To pull me close and reassure me.

Instead, he staggered backward, clutching his head. A sound tore from his throat, something between a scream and a growl.

"Wade!" I lunged forward, my healer instincts overriding everything else. My hands found his temples, channeling that soothing energy I'd used on countless patients. "It's okay, I've got you—"

His eyes snapped open. They were wrong. The warm amber I knew flickered and died, replaced by cold steel grey. Then amber again. Grey. Amber. Grey. Like two wolves fighting for dominance behind his gaze.

"Wade, look at me," I pleaded, trying to anchor him. "Focus on my voice—"

He shoved me.

Not the gentle push of someone needing space. This was raw Alpha strength, brutal and unforgiving. I flew backward, my spine slamming into the medical cabinets. Glass shattered. Metal clanged. Pain exploded through my ribs.

I crumpled to the floor, gasping.

Through blurred vision, I watched him rise. Watched him straighten with a posture I'd never seen before—commanding, dominant, nothing like my gentle Wade. He stared at his hands like they belonged to a stranger.

Then his gaze found me on the floor, and something in his expression made my blood run cold.

Disgust.

Pure, undiluted disgust.

"Thomas." The woman's voice was silk and satisfaction. "Welcome back."

He turned toward her, and I saw it happen. Saw the exact moment Wade disappeared and someone else took his place. His nostrils flared, catching her scent, and his entire body oriented toward her like a compass finding north.

The mate bond between us flickered. Weakened.

"Arabella," he said, and his voice was different too. Harder. Colder. "You found me."

"Of course I did." She moved to his side, her hand possessive on his arm. "You're mine, Thomas. You always have been."

I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't cooperate. "Wade, please—"

"My name," he said without looking at me, "is Thomas Parker."

Each word was a knife between my ribs.

A man stepped forward from Arabella's group of warriors—tall, dark-haired, with the bearing of a Beta. He looked at me with something that might have been pity.

"Gabriel," Thomas said, his tone pure Alpha command. "Take her."

"Take me where?" My voice cracked.

"Back to Moonstone Pack territory." Thomas finally looked at me again, and there was nothing—nothing—of the man I loved in those steel-grey eyes. "We need to sort out this mess."

"Mess?" The word came out as a whisper. "Thomas, we're mated. We've been together for two years—"

"A mistake," he said flatly. "One I intend to correct."

Gabriel moved toward me, and I saw the apology in his eyes even as his hands reached down to haul me up. The mate bond between Thomas and me pulsed once, weak and dying.

And through the rain and the shattered glass and the ruins of my life, I watched the man I loved stand beside another woman and feel absolutely nothing for me at all.