Five years ago, Alpha Ronan rejected me in front of his entire pack.I was eighteen.He was my mate, the man my wolf had chosen before I even understood what that meant. When he looked into my eyes and told me he wanted nothing to do with me, something inside me broke.But I didn't beg.I didn't ask him to reconsider.I lifted my chin, swallowed the humiliation, and walked away.The rejection severed our mate bond completely. Whatever connection once allowed us to feel each other's thoughts and emotions disappeared that night.And I built a life without him.Five years later, I have my own home, people I love, work I'm proud of, and a life that no longer revolves around the Alpha who decided I wasn't worth keeping.Then people connected to Ronan's bloodline begin turning up dead.The attacks are deliberate. Personal. Someone is hunting his family one member at a time.And somehow, I'm caught in the middle.The council decides that until the killer is found, I have to return to Ronan's territory for my own protection.The last place I ever wanted to see again.Ronan is still exactly as I remember him.Cold. Arrogant. Controlling.And infuriatingly attractive.He doesn't apologize for rejecting me. He doesn't pretend he made a mistake. If anything, he acts as though the past five years changed nothing.But something has changed.Because I am no longer the girl who looked at him like he was her entire world.And he can't read my mind anymore.He can't feel my fear.He can't feel my attraction.He can't know what I'm thinking when I look at him.For the first time, the Alpha who once had complete access to me has to wonder.And then I meet Damon.Alpha Damon is everything Ronan isn't.He's charming without being arrogant. Protective without being controlling. He listens when I speak. He remembers the little things. He makes me laugh when I least expect it.With Damon, things are easy.For the first time, I begin to wonder if maybe I was never asking for too much. Maybe I simply asked the wrong man.But there is something Damon isn't telling me.He knows exactly who I am.And he knows exactly what I mean to Ronan.Because the attacks on Ronan's family aren't random.Damon is behind them.For years, he has been waiting for the perfect opportunity to make Ronan suffer for what his family took from his own.And when he discovered that Ronan's rejected mate was still alive, he saw the perfect weapon.Me.Except Damon never expected revenge to become complicated.Because the more time he spends with me, the less I feel like a pawn.And the more Ronan watches us together, the harder it becomes for him to pretend he doesn't care.He can't mind-link me anymore.So he watches.He watches Damon make me laugh.He watches Damon touch my waist.He watches me choose to stand beside another Alpha.And every time he sees it, that cold control of his cracks a little further.Because Ronan rejected me.He gave up his right to call me his.But that doesn't mean the attraction between us disappeared.It is still there.Buried beneath five years of anger, resentment and everything neither of us is willing to admit.Every argument lasts too long.Every accidental touch feels like a mistake neither of us wants to correct.Every time he gets too close, I remember exactly why walking away from him was so difficult.And the worst part?I can be perfectly happy with Damon.I can genuinely like him.I can feel safe with him.And still, one look from Ronan can make me forget what I was saying.Because sometimes the person who makes your heart feel safest isn't the person who makes your blood run hottest.And sometimes your greatest weakness is the person you swore you would never want again.Now someone is hunting Ronan's family.Damon is hiding a revenge plan that could destroy everything.Ronan is fighting an attraction he refuses to acknowledge.And I'm caught between the man who makes me feel wanted...and the man who once made me feel like I wasn't worth wanting at all.This time, if Ronan wants me back, he's going to have to live with the fact that I learned how to live without him.And if Damon wants his revenge, he'll have to decide what happens when the woman he intended to use becomes the one person he can't bear to lose.