Was it a miracle to see again after a year of darkness?
Ava Bennett had prayed to the Moon Goddess more times than she could count. Now she sat still, palms sweating, waiting for the doctor to lift the bandages.
With a soft tug, light flooded her world.
Ava blinked, her heart in her throat. The room swam into focus. White walls. Instruments on a tray. Dr. Ward's kind face.
"How does it feel to see again, Miss Bennett?"
"It feels…" Her voice cracked. "Like I've been drowning, and someone finally pulled me up."
The doctor chuckled and tapped something into his tablet. "The surgery was a complete success."
Ava laughed, wet and shaky. A year of bumping into doorframes. Counting steps. Learning people by their scent. And now she could see the water stain on the ceiling.
She'd never been so happy to see anything so ugly.
"Thank you, Dr. Ward. Thank you so much."
"Don't thank me." He gave her a meaningful look. "I did this as a favor to someone. If I hadn't fixed your eyes, I'd have hell to pay."
"Victor." Warmth spread through her chest. "He really went all out for me, didn't he?"
For a moment the doctor just looked at her. Something careful in it. A little sad, even. Then he glanced down at his chart.
"Alpha Victor has certainly been very… invested in your treatment."
She was too dizzy with joy to catch the meaning.
Her fingers slipped into her coat pocket and found the small velvet box. A ring. She'd bought it before the surgery.
Today, she was going to walk into their house, get down on one knee, and ask Victor to make her his Luna.
They were fated mates, and Ava had believed the bond was everything the stories promised. Then Stella Moore, Victor's childhood friend and admirer, had gotten jealous and thrown a fistful of poisoned powder into her eyes, blinding her.
Guilt ate at Victor for failing to protect her. He'd thrown Stella into the dungeon and nearly beaten her to death. Only the elders had gotten her out of the country in time. Then Victor spent the whole year making it up to Ava, chasing down specialist after specialist, holding her through every broken night, swearing he'd kill Stella for her crime.
Through all of it, Ava had clung to one thing: whatever else went wrong, her mate loved her.
She'd even made a quiet promise. If the surgery failed, she'd reject him herself, so he'd never have to carry a blind mate out of pity.
Now, she was whole again, and surely that was the Moon Goddess blessing their love.
She left the hospital with her white cane and the dark glasses, planning to save the news of her sight for the proposal, a double surprise for Victor.
Ava hurried home, pushed the door open, and stepped inside, ready to call his name.
Then she stopped dead.
A pair of high heels and a handbag sat by the door. Neither was hers.
From the bedroom upstairs came a moan, clear and unmistakable, and the dull thud of the bed hitting the wall.
Ava's stomach turned. She climbed the stairs on trembling legs and stopped outside their bedroom door.
"Yes, Victor," the voice purred, "fuck me hard, I'm gonna squirt for you."
She would never forget that voice.
Stella Moore.
Her mate was in bed with the woman who'd blinded her. And from the lazy familiarity of it, this was nowhere near the first time.
But that, Ava would learn in the next sixty seconds, was the smallest of the things about to break her.
"Careful." Stella's murmur drifted through the gap. "Your little blind pet might feel it."
Victor laughed. "She won't. I have never marked her. She can't feel the betrayal."
Once a werewolf marks and claims a mate, betrayal carries a physical price, a sharp, tearing pain through the bond. Victor had never marked Ava. She'd thought he was waiting for the wedding.
"Be honest with me." Stella's voice sharpened beneath the sweetness. "Her or me. Who do you actually want?"
"You. Only ever you. You think I'd touch a blind girl if I didn't have to? I've spent a year playing nursemaid to a woman I can hardly stand to look at."
In the hallway, Ava went very still.
The ringing started somewhere behind her eyes, high and thin, like a wire pulled too tight. She pressed a hand flat to the wall to keep standing.
All that guilt. All that tenderness. The doctors, the sleepless nights, the way he'd held her when she'd sobbed that she'd rather be dead than dark. She'd called it love.
It had been disgust the whole time, wearing a kinder face.
"So you keep her around for what?" Stella asked. "Decoration?"
"She's my fated mate. The elders eat that up. A devoted Alpha standing by his poor blind mate, so noble." His voice cooled, businesslike. "The Moon Goddess handed me a wolfless mate and called it destiny. I have never forgiven her for it. But an Alpha can't be the one to reject the bond. The pack would call me heartless."
And there it was.
Ava's breath stopped in her chest.
"So?" Stella pressed. "You just wait?"
"I wait." Victor sounded pleased with himself. "I will wait for her to go blind for good. A pitiful blind girl breaks eventually. She will reject me first, out of some noble little urge to set me free, and everyone will weep for the tragic Alpha who did everything he could." He laughed. "She's stupid and soft. She'll do the dirty work for me and thank me on her way out."
Ava felt her heart shatter into a thousand pieces.
If she'd stayed blind for good, she would have made her rejection the last, kindest gift she would have had to give him.
Instead, he'd been waiting for that gift like a knife he'd already pressed into her hand.
The velvet box dug into her chest. She'd carried it all the way home to beg him to keep her forever.
"And after?" Stella's voice was greedy now.
"I marry you. Soon. Before Damon takes a Luna and the elders back off him." The bed creaked as he shifted. "If I'm mated and married when the elders vote, they'll have no choice but to name me the next Alpha King."
"And poor, blind little Ava?"
"I'll let her down gently. Set her up somewhere far away. She'll cry, she'll get over it." He shrugged. "Blind girls can't afford to be picky."
Six years.
Not one day of it real.
Ava closed her eyes behind the dark lenses. When she opened them, the ringing was gone. So was everything soft in her chest.
She knew exactly what she was going to do.
She pushed the glasses firmly up her nose, smoothed her face into the blank, lost look she'd worn for a year, and set her hand on the door.
Then she pushed it open.
"Victor?" she called, voice soft and searching. "Victor, are you home? The hospital let me out early."
For one second, pure chaos.
Stella yanked the sheet to her chest. Victor shot upright, grabbing for his shirt, eyes wide.
Ava let her gaze drift, unfocused, over the ceiling. She tapped her cane against the doorframe and watched every flicker of their panic.
Then, slowly, they remembered.
She couldn't see them.
The fear drained out of Victor's face. His shoulders dropped. He quickly motioned at Stella to keep quiet, and his whole tone changed, sliding back into that warm, worried tone she'd once mistaken for devotion.
"Sweetheart." He crossed the room. "You scared me. Coming back from the hospital alone? Do you know how dangerous that is? You should have called. I'd have come for you myself."
It was flawless. If she really were blind, she'd have believed every word.
Behind him, Stella slid off the bed and pulled her dress on, slow, lazy, unbothered. Then she crossed to Victor's side, wound an arm through his, and dragged her hand down his chest.
Smiling at Ava the whole time.
Ava's grip tightened on the cane.
She took a step forward, sweeping it in front of her, tapping the floor like she was feeling for the way. One step. Two.
"Oh…" She swayed, one hand rising to her temple. "Victor, I'm dizzy…"
The cane whipped out to the side as she lost her balance, and caught Stella hard across the arm.
Stella yelped and stumbled back, hand flying to her arm.
Ava's knees buckled. She pitched forward, straight into Victor's arms.
"I'm so sorry!" she cried, groping in the air. "Did I hit something?"
Then she turned her blank stare toward the sound of Stella's sobbing, tilted her head, and let the question fall softly and sweetly into the room.
"Victor… is there someone else in here with us?"