Chapter 3

I sat against the door all night, reliving every memory I shared with them.

Even though I had decided to leave, part of me still ached to let them go.

Late that night something struck me as wrong. Brynn's scent was too strong.

A true descendant of an ancient bloodline would have no need to flood an entire room with her scent just to announce her presence.

I hurriedly pulled my mother's old tomes and herbal guides from the shelf, then searched them line by line in the moonlight seeping through the window.

Some tinctures could temporarily elevate the scent of a low-ranked wolf to mimic a higher rank.

Certain herbs, mixed together, could counterfeit the scent of a bloodline.

I seemed to have uncovered a staggering secret.

I wrote down the names of several ingredients, rummaged through the corner until I found them all, and mixed a small vial of reversing agent.

Once the patrol's footsteps faded, I threw on a cloak and climbed out the window.

Brynn's window wasn't locked. I pushed it open and climbed in.

She was deeply asleep and breathing evenly.

I picked up one of her hairs and touched a drop of the liquid to it.

The overpowering golden scent dissolved at once.

From beneath it rose the sour smell of old leather, tainted by something rank.

I took half a step back, my heart pounding wildly.

Fake. It was all fake.

That noble bloodline was only a shell. Beneath it lay the sour rot unique to a mongrel wolf.

For a second my knuckles went white around the vial.

I desperately wanted to expose her, but I didn't have complete proof.

She could invent any excuse, and they would believe her because they always did.

I stepped back and the floorboard creaked under me.

Brynn rolled over. I froze, holding my breath.

Only when her breathing settled again did I move.

...

The next morning, someone pounding on my door woke me.

Silas was standing at my bed with a face like a storm.

Brynn sobbed beside him, her shoulders shaking and her eyes swollen.

My father was in the doorway, and Rian had pushed in behind him, still limping.

"You went into Brynn's room last night," Silas said as the crushing weight of his Alpha dominance bore down on me.

My heart had gone numb with hurt. I didn't hide anything.

"So what if I did?"

"What did you give her to drink?"

"I took a single strand of her hair."

I lifted my chin at the corner of the table.

"I was curious about what a noble ancient bloodline smelled like. I did nothing else."

Fury filled my father's face, sharpened by intense disappointment.

"Talia, you're lying. I never imagined the daughter I raised would brew a tincture using dark magic."

His accusation cut deep, but I forced myself to answer. "I don't know what you're talking about. I took one hair and did nothing else."

I looked at Brynn. Her eyes were wet, but the smug challenge in her gaze was impossible to hide.

So I understood. This was Brynn hitting back.

"Talia, I know you're jealous of me, but I haven't done anything wrong. I only came back to my own pack. If you want to be Luna, I can give the position back to you. Would that be enough?"

Her wounded, obedient little act made my father, my brother, and Silas even angrier.

Silas stood over the bed and looked down at me without a trace of warmth.

"Talia, stop fantasizing about becoming Luna. Since you refuse to behave, you can patrol the border."

Rian's head snapped up. "Alpha, border patrol is staffed entirely by males. Talia is too weak!"

Silas glanced sideways at him. "Are you defying me?"

Rian's clenched fist loosened, then tightened again. At last, he lowered his head. "...I wouldn't dare."

I leaned against the headboard, almost laughing at their blindness even as it broke my heart.

I stared into Silas's eyes, the ones that had once mesmerized me, and said steadily, "If you insist on forcing me to the border... then I would rather leave the pack."