
Eight years after severing my mate bond with Caelan Ashworth, we met again in my workshop. He arrived with his fiancée to commission a Potent Bonding Potion. And the Alchemist they sought? That was me. I wore a veil, silently brewing the potion for them. Someone in his entourage asked how they got together. Lilah Monroe said smugly, "Of course you have to fight for a powerful Alpha. The best things in life are worth fighting for! He already had a mate, so to get him, I used dark magic to sow a web of lies and misunderstandings to tear them apart." "Later, they had a massive fight. He asked me to pass a keepsake to her, but I secretly swapped it out. I still have the original, my little trophy. That woman was even pregnant with his wretched pup at the time, and I used a curse to ensure she lost it!" After they left, I lifted my veil and placed a hand on my lower abdomen. Beneath my robe was a jagged, silver-scarred patch of skin. A few days later, Caelan knelt before me, holding the dark-magic-forged mate mark bearing Lilah's name and the dissolution papers for their bond. ...