Chapter 4

My father's stern expression vanished beneath disbelief.

"Talia. Is that what you actually want?"

"Yes. You should never have picked me up."

His beard trembled with rage; grief and fury filled his eyes.

"Fine. Fine. Talia, Rian and I spoiled you. It's time you learned a lesson. With a temper like yours, Silas wouldn't choose you as Luna even if you truly had a noble bloodline!"

Rian took his arm. "Father, don't say things you don't mean."

My father shook him off, took several breaths, and looked at me again. "Are you sure? You won't take back what you just said?"

"I'm certain."

My father's face darkened at once.

He summoned the patrol leader. "Take her to the border. She starts patrolling immediately and is not to miss a single day."

They marched me out of the house.

The System spoke again.

[Host, the transfer channel opens in ten days. Why provoke your family now and get yourself sent to the border?]

I was quiet for a moment and didn't look up.

[I can't stay in that house. Every extra day in it hurts.]

[Only that?]

[...No. A lot of rogues pass through the border, and they hear things. I want to know what Brynn actually did while she was out there.]

The System was quiet for a moment.

[...Understood. As long as it doesn't affect the transfer, I won't interfere.]

The snow along the border lay far deeper than it did in the heart of the territory. I had to wrench each boot free with every step.

The wind came across the low hills and numbed my whole face.

I patrolled for several days and nearly walked into a trap another pack had set.

On the fourth evening, as I skirted a hollow in the snow, I heard movement below.

A woman in a worn cloak was trapped in the pit, a trap made from animal bone pinning one leg.

I pulled her out and dressed the wound.

I had just pressed the cloth to her wound when she seized my sleeve and sniffed twice. Her expression changed. "You're from the Moen pack."

"I am. Why?"

"Then why do you smell of..."

She stopped halfway, pulled her hand back and looked at me warily. "Did she send you to silence me?"

Sensing that the witch knew something, I pressed her to explain.

The witch didn't answer. She braced herself against the wall of snow, edged back half a step, and grimaced in pain.

Only after I swore by the Moon Goddess that I meant her no harm did she lean in to smell my sleeve again. Her brows knotted with disgust. "You've been near Brynn, that oathbreaker."

I stared at her. "She's the new Luna my fiancé chose."

Most of the guardedness went out of her eyes. "Then we have an enemy in common."

She reached beneath her cloak, produced a small wooden vial with only a little liquid left inside, and held it out to me. "Smell it. Is it familiar?"

I barely breathed it in before an overwhelming presence bore down on me. It was the scent of an ancient bloodline, identical to Brynn's!

"She stole from me," the witch said harshly. "Thirty years. I spent thirty years learning how to make the scent of a low-ranked bloodline pass for an ancient wolf's. I let her shelter with me for one night out of kindness, and by morning my entire cabinet was empty!"