At eighteen, I felt the sacred thread of the fated mate bond snap into place, binding me to the man destined to be my husband. I mistook it for a divine blessing from the Moon Goddess. For seven long years, I waited patiently for him to mark me and fulfill every promise he had made. Time and time again, he brushed me off with the same excuses. "You're too young.""The timing isn't right.""Just wait a little longer." Even so, those seven years of waiting shattered completely on our wedding day. In the middle of the ceremony, he received word that his assistant, Lena Harrison, had been kidnapped. Without a moment's hesitation, he called off the wedding in front of every guest, leaving me alone at the altar. Through our mate bond, a wave of raw, overwhelming emotions crashed over me: panic, fear, and desperate devotion he had never once shown me in seven years. Every beat of his heart belonged only to her. When he finally returned safely, he promised to hold another wedding ceremony three days later. Yet faint traces of Lena's perfume still lingered on his skin. In that moment, I made up my mind. I wanted nothing more to do with this man.