Chapter 5

On the day of the marking ceremony I was on border patrol.

Just after dawn the pack's patrol found me and said the Alpha had ordered every member of the pack to witness it.

They marched me back to the territory.

Pack members crowded every inch of ground around the altar.

Brynn stood beside Silas in a moon-white robe, her golden hair falling loose. She looked every inch the highborn beauty.

I stood unsteadily off to one side. I had barely eaten in days, and almost none of my strength remained.

Rian looked up at me.

His gaze swept over my face, and the indifference in his eyes faltered.

Silas saw me too. His gaze flickered over my gaunt, sallow face.

It lasted only a heartbeat. Brynn leaned into him and whispered, "Silas, Talia looks frightening. Does she still hate me?"

Silas looked away and gave the order coldly. "Talia, don't get any ideas. You are not ruining this ceremony. I'll have people watching you."

A desolate laugh slipped out of me. "Don't worry. I came bearing a gift for the two of you."

I stepped aside, and the witch came up through the crowd.

She had changed into a clean, dark-gray cloak. A rune chain circled her wrist, and the sigil at her waist blazed in the firelight.

It was the sigil of the Witch of the Sacred Spring. Her rank stood two levels above even that of our pack's finest herbalist.

The moment Brynn saw her, her face changed and she shrank back.

The witch stopped below the altar and looked up at Brynn. "Daughter of House Viperis. It's been a long time. Don't you think it's time to return what you stole?"

The crowd fell silent as every gaze shifted between the Witch of the Sacred Spring and Brynn.

Brynn forced tears into her eyes. "I don't know you..."

The witch pulled the wooden vial out of her sleeve and held it up. "The night you slept in my hut, you took my tincture. Do I have to say what for?"

Brynn shook her head in panic, tears streaming as she clung to Silas's arm for protection. "No... I never did..."

Before Silas could issue an order, the Witch of the Sacred Spring poured a second liquid into the wooden vial.

A bitter odor drifted over the altar. The golden light around Brynn began to flicker violently as the faint sour scent of a low-ranked wolf tainted her noble aura.

The pack broke into an uproar.

The witch fixed Brynn with a razor-sharp stare. "A stolen noble bloodline cannot last forever. One dose of reversing agent will reveal your true nature. Dare to try it, Brynn?"

My father and Rian frowned, their gazes shifting from the vial in her hand to me.

My nails bit into my palms. I refused to admit that a sliver of hope still lived inside me.

Then my father shouted, "Talia, you joined forces with an outsider to slander the Luna. You've lost your mind!"

Silas was silent for only a moment before saying, "A she-wolf banished from this territory and a witch of unknown origin have no right to speak at this altar. Take them away."

I unclenched my hand, a bitter smile curving my lips.

Of course.

My father pointed at me furiously. "Talia refuses to repent. We cannot go easy on her this time."

Silas turned his face away as though he didn't want to see me. "Five lashes. Then the dungeon until the ceremony is over."

Rian's head snapped up. He stepped forward with his fists clenched, but the crushing weight of Silas's Alpha dominance stopped him cold.

He looked away, his clenched fists whitening at the knuckles, and said nothing more.

The witch tried to stop them, but with her wound still unhealed, all she could do was watch as they brought out the whip.

I didn't cry out once as the lashes fell.

After the fifth lash, my back burned as if it were on fire. Compared with the pain inside my chest, it was almost nothing.

They dragged me into the dungeon, and the iron door shut and locked.

A horn sounded outside.

The ceremony on the altar had begun.

When the hymn to the Moon Goddess began, I leaned against the frozen wall. My lash wounds pressed into the rough stone, and every breath set my back burning.

[Host, it's time. You may prepare to transfer.]

The System's electronic voice sounded in my head, and I exhaled in relief.

The ceremony hymn seeped through the gap beneath the door. I closed my eyes, pressed my wolf claws to my chest, and slowly bore down.

Warm blood ran down between my fingers, and my heart stopped for good.

On the altar, Silas was sinking his fangs into the back of Brynn's neck.

The instant his bite left its mark, he should have felt elated. Instead, something seemed to rip his chest open from within.

His strength vanished, and he dropped to his knees on the altar as his own wolf screamed inside his head.

A scent he knew intimately, mingled with blood, drifted from the direction of the dungeon.