Chapter 1

Five Fears Waiting, I Was Just a Lie Chapter 01

5 min read

Five Fears Waiting, I Was Just a Lie Chapter 01

Ten years later, at an old warrior squad reunion, my former squad captain turned to me.

“Maeve, do you still hate Alpha Harlan?”

“After everything he kept from you? Five years of lies, and that alliance bond with Serena?”

I smiled and shook my head.

“I stopped hating him a long time ago.”

“If I hadn’t walked away from the wrong man, I never would’ve found the right one.”

I rested my hand on the table, letting the bond ring catch the light. Then I pulled a stack of mating ceremony invitations from my bag and passed them around.

“My mating ceremony’s next month.”

“You’d all better be there.”

The whole booth went silent.

Every eye cut to the man at the far end, and to the glass he’d just crushed in his fist.

Harlan Blackwood sat in the shadows.

His eyes had gone red. His Alpha aura rolled off him in waves, heavy enough to make everyone in the room freeze.

I hadn’t expected him to fall apart.

…

But that was a long time ago.

We’d been long-distance for five years.

I filed my discharge papers without telling Harlan and made the trip across the territory to Southvale. I wanted to surprise him.

I wanted us to finally have our mating ceremony.

The guard at the gatehouse gave me a strange look when I asked for Harlan.

“Alpha Commander Harlan is in a border strategy council.”

“You can wait for him in the reception room.”

I didn’t let it show, but the title threw me. Harlan had never mentioned a promotion.

Just last week on our video call, he’d complained about how the workload was burying him and how a promotion was nowhere in sight.

Since when was he Alpha Commander?

I turned to leave and caught two sentries whispering behind me.

“That’s Commander Blackwood’s side piece, right?”

“She’s got nerve, showing up at Pack Command.”

“Guy has a Luna and a girl on the side. If Strategist Ashford finds out, she’ll burn Southvale to the ground.”

I almost turned back to set them straight.

They had it wrong. Harlan didn’t have a Luna.

I was his girlfriend of five years. The one he’d personally promised to bring into his pack and bond with.

We hadn’t registered our bond. We’d never had a mating ceremony.

I thought Council approval was the only thing left.

But I never got the chance to say any of it.

A woman in a Pack Command uniform walked through the door, posture razor-straight. Both sentries snapped to attention and saluted.

“Strategist Ashford.”

She had a phone pressed to her ear, her voice low.

“Harlan, I’m downstairs.”

“Weren’t you supposed to come with me to the healer’s for the pup’s checkup today?”

A man’s voice came through the speaker.

Deep. Familiar.

“I know.”

“I’m almost done here. Go to the reception room. I’ll be right there.”

I’d listened to that voice for five years. I would’ve known it anywhere.

It was Harlan. My boyfriend.

My bag slipped from my fingers and hit the floor.

I crouched to pick it up, and a piece of paper slipped from her folder and slid out at my feet. It was a healer’s pregnancy report.

Thirteen weeks.

The name printed under “Father” was Harlan.

All that time, he’d kept telling me he was buried in pack duties. He only called once a week.

The one time he agreed to a video call, I spotted a red mark on his neck, just above his collar.

“Scratched myself during training. It’s nothing.”

He said it before I could even ask.

“After everything we’ve been through? You really think I’d do that?”

I believed him. I even apologized and told him I was being paranoid.

And now he was bonded to someone else. He was about to be a father.

She took the report from my hand with an apologetic nod.

When I didn’t move, she tilted her head.

“Are you here to see Harlan too?”

I nodded.

“Then let’s go up together.” Her smile was easy, unguarded. “My mate’s meetings never end on time.”

“My mate.” She said it like it meant nothing, and the words cut straight through me.

She introduced herself once we were in the reception room.

I would later learn that she and Harlan weren’t fated mates. Their bond was political, an alliance between the Ashford and Blackwood families.

Her name was Serena Ashford. Commander Ashford’s only daughter, and a senior strategist at Pack Command.

“My mate is so stubborn.” She glanced down at the report, warmth softening her eyes. “He keeps saying he’s too busy, but he makes it to every single healer’s appointment.”

“Lately, he’s been taking extra shifts. Says he wants to save up for the pup.”

“We don’t even need the money. He just likes having an excuse to fuss over me.”

My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag. My nails dug into my palms.

He’d told me he was just a regular pack warrior. That promotions were hard to get. That the pressure was crushing him.

Five years of long-distance. He kept saying the distance was too much, kept pushing the bond registration back, always with another reason.

The second my last border mission ended, I filed for discharge. I went straight to Southvale.

I wanted to register our bond. I wanted our ceremony.

Sharp, steady footsteps echoed down the hall. A few pack officers passed the reception room, each one nodding at Serena.

“Strategist Ashford, waiting for Alpha Commander Blackwood again?”

“Luna, is the Commander stuck in council again?”

Serena nodded, smiling.

Standing there, listening to all of it, I felt like the joke everyone else had already heard.