The Crown Between Our Scars

He was my mate.

My future.

The one wolf fate promised would never abandon me.

Then Crown Prince Ronan Strathaird stood before his royal council and chose his throne over me.

He rejected our bond.

He left me with a scar that never disappeared.

And he never knew he left me with something else too.

His daughter.

For five years, I built a life far away from the Crown. I raised Nessa on my own, protected her from the royal laws that could have taken her from me, and became very good at pretending the man who broke me belonged to another lifetime.

Then a fire at Blackbrae House brings me straight back into his world.

I am the conservation architect hired to restore the damaged coronation chamber before Ronan takes the throne.

The cruelest part?

The ancient crown carved above that room is split almost perfectly in two.

Just like we were.

Ronan is older now. Harder. Still devastatingly controlled.

And the moment he sees me, our broken mate bond remembers everything.

So does my body.

But wanting him was never the problem.

Trusting him was.

Then Ronan meets my five year old daughter.

One look.

One breath.

And his wolf knows exactly what I have kept from him.

Now the man who once sacrificed me for his Crown wants a place in our daughter's life.

He wants to protect us.

He wants to change the laws that made me run.

And, somehow, he wants me again.

But I already learned what Ronan's love is worth when duty comes knocking.

I will not survive being chosen second twice.

If he wants another chance, apologies will never be enough.

This time, the future king will have to prove what matters more when the choice becomes impossible.

Me...

or the Crown that already cost us everything.

Because fate may have made us mates.

But if I ever give Ronan my heart again, it will be because he finally earned the right to keep it.