Riva attends the Moon Summit to stay out of trouble and keep her pack’s reputation clean. She expects tense speeches, guarded smiles, and a long night of pretending. What she doesn’t expect is the mate bond snapping—violent and undeniable—between her and Kael, the Alpha of the rival Ironclaw Pack.Kael doesn’t deny the bond because he doesn’t feel it. He denies it because he does.With both packs already one mistake away from war, Kael chooses politics over fate and forces Riva to deny the bond in public. The elders seize the moment and push for the one solution that keeps the feud “clean”: a formal rejection.Overnight, Riva becomes the scapegoat. Rumors spread. Wolves watch her like she’s a spark near dry grass. And Liora—Kael’s council-approved Luna candidate—makes it clear Riva isn’t just unwanted… she’s dangerous.When Riva disappears, she carries a secret no pack is allowed to learn: she’s pregnant with Kael’s child.In exile, Riva fights to survive without a pack, rebuilds her life from the ground up, and protects her baby from becoming political leverage. She swears she will never return to the Alpha who broke her.Until Kael starts to feel the bond again—like an open wound.And when the rumor of a child reaches him, duty turns into obsession. He hunts for the truth, collapses under what he did, and decides he will reclaim what he lost… even if it starts the war he tried to prevent.