Chapter 1: The Secret in the Moonlight

The abandoned cabin at the edge of Shadowpine territory had become our sanctuary. Our secret.

I pressed my back against the rough wooden wall as Kaden’s lips traced the curve of my neck, his hands warm against my waist. The mate bond hummed between us, a living thing that made my skin sing everywhere he touched me.

“We shouldn’t be here,” I whispered, even as my fingers tangled in his dark hair. “If someone sees us…”

“Let them see.” Kaden pulled back just enough to meet my eyes, his amber gaze intense in the moonlight streaming through the broken window. “I’m tired of hiding you, Aria. Tired of pretending you don’t mean everything to me.”

My heart stuttered. “You say that now, but your father”

“My father doesn’t control my fate. I do.” His thumb brushed across my cheekbone with devastating gentleness. “The Alpha ceremony is in three weeks. Once I take the oath, once I have the power, we can be together openly. No more sneaking around. No more lies.”

I wanted to believe him. Goddess, how I wanted to believe him.

But I’d seen the way Alpha Marcus looked at me. Like I was dirt on his expensive boots. An orphan omega with no pack lineage, no political value, no worth beyond the menial tasks I performed in the pack house kitchens.

“Three weeks,” I repeated softly.

“Three weeks,” Kaden promised. He pressed his forehead to mine, and the bond flared so bright between us I could barely breathe. “Then you’ll be my Luna. My mate. My everything. I’ll stand in front of the entire pack and claim you, and anyone who has a problem with it can challenge me for the position.”

The fierce protectiveness in his voice made me smile despite my fears. This was the Kaden I knew. The boy who’d found me crying behind the pack house after the other omegas mocked my hand-me-down clothes. The teenager who’d taught me to fight so I could defend myself. The man who’d looked at me one day and seen not a worthless orphan, but his fated mate.

“I love you,” I breathed.

“I love you more.” He kissed me again, deep and claiming, and for a moment I let myself forget everything else. The whispers. The doubt. The cold calculation I’d seen lately in Alpha Marcus’s eyes whenever he watched his son.

A wolf’s howl shattered the moment.

We broke apart instantly. Kaden’s entire body went rigid, his head cocked as he listened to something I couldn’t quite hear. The pack link. He had access to it as the Alpha heir. I had nothing.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Border patrol.” His jaw tightened. “Rogue sighting on the eastern boundary. I have to go.”

Disappointment warred with understanding. He was the future Alpha. His pack came first. It always would.

It always should.

“Go,” I said, stepping back. “I’ll wait a few minutes before I leave. No one will know we were together.”

Something flickered across his face. Guilt? Frustration? It vanished before I could name it.

“Three weeks, Aria.” He caught my hand, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “Three weeks and this all ends. I promise.”

Then he was gone, shifting mid-leap into his massive black wolf and disappearing into the forest.

I stood alone in the cabin, moonlight painting everything silver, and tried to ignore the cold weight settling in my stomach.

Three weeks felt like a lifetime.

The walk back to the pack house took longer than usual. I kept to the shadows, avoiding the main paths where patrolling wolves might question why an omega was wandering the territory after midnight. The lie was already prepared on my tongue. Couldn’t sleep. Needed air. Nothing suspicious.

I’d gotten good at lying over the past six months. Since the mate bond had snapped into place between Kaden and me during the summer solstice celebration. Since we’d both realised that whatever this was between us, it couldn’t be public. Not yet.

Not until he had power.

The pack house loomed ahead, its windows mostly dark. I slipped through the servant’s entrance, my hand on the doorknob, when a voice froze me in place.

“Out late, aren’t we?”

I turned slowly. Alpha Marcus stood in the hallway, still dressed despite the hour. His eyes gleamed in the darkness, calculating and cold.

“Couldn’t sleep, Alpha,” I said automatically, lowering my gaze in submission. “I went for a walk. I apologise if I—”

“My son thinks I don’t notice.” He moved closer, each step deliberate. “He thinks I’m blind to his midnight excursions. His distraction. His… attachments.”

My blood turned to ice.

“I don’t know what you mean, Alpha.”

“Don’t you?” He stopped inches away, and I forced myself not to flinch. “Let me be very clear, girl. Kaden will be Alpha in three weeks. He will lead this pack into a new era of strength and prosperity. He will make an alliance marriage that secures our position among the continental packs.”

Alliance marriage. The words hit like a physical blow.

“He will not,” Alpha Marcus continued, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper, “throw away his future and this pack’s legacy on a nobody omega with diluted blood and no connections. Do you understand me?”

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe.

“Whatever childish fantasy you’re entertaining, end it. Because if you don’t, I’ll make sure you disappear so completely that even the Moon Goddess won’t find you.”

He walked away, leaving me shaking in the darkness.

Three weeks, Kaden had said.

As I climbed the stairs to my tiny room in the servants’ quarters, I tried to hold onto his promise. Tried to believe that love would be enough.

But Alpha Marcus’s threat echoed in my mind, and for the first time since the bond had formed, I felt something worse than fear.

I felt doubt.