Chapter 1

I stood in the doorway, not knowing when the tears had started.

Ethan's voice drifted out, casual as ever. "Relax, everyone. I said I'd marry her, and I will. Make sure you all show up for the ceremony."

The laughter died.

Then came the voice that had haunted my nightmares for years.

"Ethan, what the hell? You said you were just messing with her for me, blowing off steam. You're not actually going to mark her?"

Ethan reached over and wiped my tears, pulling me inside. His tone was offhand.

"What, you want me to mark you instead? Since when do I take orders from you, Sera?"

The line went dead. Ethan stared at the phone for a long time before drawing me into his arms. He didn't explain a thing.

"Why are you crying? Happy to find out I'm not sick and that I'm an Alpha?"

Before I could answer, he kept going.

"That restaurant we both like. Dinner tonight? We should celebrate."

He picked up his phone and glanced at the silent chat with Sera, irritation flickering across his face.

My body was shaking. Every breath hurt.

"Does any of this make you sick?"

"What?"

"Because three years of you acting makes me sick."

His brow furrowed. Displeasure crossed his face, but he forced it down.

"Forget it. Let's just go eat."

He was dodging my question, and that made it worse.

I grabbed his wrist and stepped in front of him, forcing him to look at me.

"You have nothing to say to me?"

"You already know the truth. What else is there?"

When he saw I wasn't letting it go, he paused.

"Sera and I grew up together. You know our families had an arrangement. Now that you're her stepsister, marrying you still keeps the deal."

He glossed over everything.

Not a word about "messing with her." Not a word about "blowing off steam."

I forced back my tears. The scars Sera had left on my body began to ache, one by one.

Three years. Over a thousand days and nights.

I'd offered him my whole heart.

I'd believed that as long as we stayed together, things would somehow turn out all right.

He'd told me he'd been caught up in a pack power struggle, sabotaged, his wolf damaged and reduced to Omega status. Too weak to mark me.

So for three years, I'd shouldered every insult, every beating.

I'd hunted everywhere for a way to bring his wolf back.

And now he was telling me it was all just a game to make Sera happy?

Every moment of love, every shred of time we'd shared, all of it had been one giant trap, built just for me. Because the woman he couldn't have wanted entertainment, and I'd become a piece in their little game of chase.

When those border rogues beat me bloody and he stood there saying he was too weak to help, was he laughing inside?

When he held me at night and kissed my scars, was he thinking about how to make the show more convincing?

Three years. What a sacrifice he'd made.

"Next full moon, you'll be Luna."

His tone was light.

I let out a bitter laugh. "Forget it. I don't want your mark."

He scoffed, like he'd heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Seriously? You can't take a joke? You've been dying for me to mark you, begging the Moon Goddess to witness our bond."

When he saw I wasn't smiling, his patience snapped.

"Fine, I lied. But the outcome's the same. I'm still marrying you. You get to be Luna. What more do you want?"

"It's not about the title. It's—"

His expression went dark. Alpha power rolled off him in waves.

The pressure scraped across my bare skin, leaving thin trails of blood.

"You're defying me? Nora, when you had nothing, you begged for status. Now I'm handing it to you, and you're pushing your luck?"

The force of his dominance buckled my knees. My whole body went numb, trembling.

Ethan reached out instinctively to steady me and pulled back his power, but I sidestepped him.

"Don't bother. I've got it."

My voice was barely a whisper. I pulled up my shirt from waist to chest, baring the scars layered old over new.

"Quite a show of force, Alpha. The pack must be thrilled to have you. Feel better now? I don't want to be Luna. I can't be with someone who bullied and played me."

From the day my mother and I became part of Sera's family, she'd found reasons to come after me.

And now her childhood sweetheart was treating me like a toy.

Doing her homework for her, only to have the notebook slammed into my face at night.

"Is your brain full of garbage? How am I supposed to turn in this trash?"

She made me kneel and pick up the scattered pages, one by one. For every page, I had to say, "I'm worthless."

If my voice was too quiet, her heel came down on the back of my hand, grinding across my knuckles.

"Louder. I can't hear you."

By the time I finished, it was two in the morning.

I held a stack of homework sheets stamped with shoe prints, my fingers too swollen to bend.

And then there were the nights she barged into my room, standing over me, pouring her foot-washing water onto my pillow and blanket.

Cold water trickled down my neck. I curled up in the corner of the bed, shivering.

That night, I wrapped myself in the soaking blanket and waited for dawn.

Ethan raised his hand. Something I couldn't read flickered in his eyes.

Maybe he did feel something for me.

I held onto that thought, waiting for him to speak.

But his phone rang. Sera's ringtone.

"Ethan! Sera's wasted. The Alpha from Bay Pack is getting handsy with her."

"How is that my problem?"

Ethan pulled out the first-aid kit from under the table, ready to treat my wounds.

"I want Ethan... Get away from me, all of you! Ethan..."

Sera's sobbing poured through the speaker.

Ethan's hand shook as he tore open the iodine packet. His breathing quickened.

He looked at my wounds, then touched my face with a pained expression, making up his mind.

"Stay here. I'll be right back to patch you up. I promise."

He was out the door before I could respond.

His sleeve caught the little glass house we'd made together for our second anniversary.

When we'd brought it home from the kiln, I thought I finally had a home.

I never imagined that everything I'd believed was love and happiness would shatter like that glass house, smashed to pieces on the floor.