Chapter 2

The door slammed open. Charlotte walked in with a line of attendants behind her and started pulling open drawers and lifting furniture without a word.

She scanned the room, and when her eyes landed on me in the bed, her face went cold. "Gamma Ashford. You're just a warrior. He's the Alpha. Lying in his private suite isn't exactly how it works, is it?"

"Oh, I forgot." Her voice shifted. "Gamma Ashford has been in the field a long time. She knows how to play the angles."

I heard the edge in her voice and kept mine flat. "Since when is this pack house yours? What gives you the right to stand here and lecture me?"

"You don't get to talk to me like that." My calm pushed her over. Her voice went sharp. "You're a warrior. I'm your Luna. You must have a death wish."

Her hand came up and she swung at my face.

I moved just enough. Her hand hit air. She stumbled past the bed and went down.

Humiliation twisted her face.

"Hold her."

The wounds pulled the second I tried to fight back. Gamma or not, I'd lost too much blood.

Her attendants dragged me off the bed and forced me onto my knees in front of her.

Charlotte took my chin in her hand and slapped me across the face.

I swallowed the blood in my mouth. "When the Alpha sees this, what are you going to tell him?"

"What are you." She dropped the smile. "You think you can threaten me?"

"You think because he wanted you for ten years he has to have you?"

"He spent ten years on you and he still chose me. Stop pretending you matter. You were his tool. You held the border. That's it."

"One word from me and he puts you on a flight back to the Northern Border tomorrow morning."

She flicked her hand at her attendants. "Search her. She hid the necklace somewhere."

"Get off me." The wounds tore open when I fought them. "I didn't touch your things. You don't have the right to search me."

Charlotte pushed her hair back off her shoulder and her mouth twisted. "We'll see."

"What's with the panic? Guilty conscience?"

The attendants pinned me down. A hand reached for the last piece of clothing I had left, started to pull —

The door cracked open, and Ronan's voice hit the room like a whip.

"Get your hands off her."

The attendants let go and dropped to the floor.

Ronan caught me before I fell. When he saw the blood soaked through my shirt, his jaw locked, and he turned on Charlotte.

"Charlotte. What the hell are you doing. You know she's still bleeding."

Charlotte dropped the act instantly. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.

"Ronan, the Luna necklace from my father is missing. I —"

Ronan lifted me back onto the bed. "A necklace. If it's gone, it's gone. I'll have another one made."

"You're the Luna. This isn't a good look."

"Ronan, please." Charlotte crushed the tissue in her fist and cried harder. "That necklace is the one thing my father gave me. If I let this go, I'm spitting on everything he did."

"And it goes missing the day Gamma Ashford comes back to the pack house? She told one of her men to take it. Ronan — stand with me on this."

Ronan's hand stopped halfway through pulling the blanket up over me.

Charlotte's father, Elder Aldric Whitmore, was the most respected elder in Creed territory.

He donated half his stipend to the pack school every month. He was terminally ill now and kept turning down every treatment Ronan offered to pay for.

Aldric had been saving for years to have it made for his daughter — a traditional Luna heirloom, passed down through ceremony.

Ronan's eyes cooled. He turned to me. "Nora. Hand it over."

"You don't believe me?" My throat was dry. I said every word clearly. "I didn't take it."

"I already gave you the chance." Ronan's face went harder. He turned away. "Search her."

Watching him turn his back on me, everything inside me went cold. I felt myself falling into a long drop.

A few minutes later, the attendants came back empty-handed. The necklace wasn't on me.

Charlotte looked at the state of me and the corner of her mouth twitched. She arranged her face into an apology.

"I was wrong about Gamma Ashford. I've put her through a lot tonight. As an apology, I will offer her some compensation."

After they all filed out, Ronan took my hand, full of guilt.

Tonight, in his own Mating Ceremony, with me right next to him bleeding, he'd still chosen to believe her.

A thousand things I wanted to ask him were stuck in my throat. I couldn't get a single one out.

I turned my face away. My voice came out hollow.

"Ronan. You and me. This is where it ends."