Chapter 3

Morning light came through the window. Kane was still on the floor, shirtless, a red mark bruising his shoulder.

Guilt caught me off guard.

But one night in his rooms was enough. From that point on, no one in the Outer Reach dared look down on me.

The news that Kane hadn't rejected Sabrina made it back to the Royal City, though. And Luna Evelyn threw a fit about it.

She demanded every young female wolf in the Outer Reach be sent out to harvest wolf-poison herb for her — to treat her inner wolf, she claimed.

That herb only grew on the edge of Shadowfen. Any adult male scent too strong and the plant died on the spot. Only females could harvest it. The younger, the better.

The Outer Reach didn't have many young females to begin with. I was one of them.

If we didn't send anyone, our rations for the year would be cut in half.

In that moment, I understood — Evelyn still had feelings for Kane. She was jealous.

Kane didn't seem to notice. There was just a flicker of weariness on his face. "She still acts like a spoiled child."

"If you keep coming to my bed at night," I said coolly, "she'll find other ways to make our lives miserable."

The next day, I made him move out of the side wing.

He must have picked up on my mood, because that afternoon he sent over stacks of ledgers.

I flipped through them. The most important one was missing.

I started where I could — counting stores in the meat cellar, the herb storage, checking the night-watch rosters. Probably the same way Evelyn had done it when she was here.

After a while, I started finding entries that didn't add up. A few large suspicious expenses caught my attention..

I called in Kane's second-in-command and pressed him.

He hedged at first. Wouldn't say a word. After I kept at him, he finally gave in.

"Alpha Kane said the Luna has been working hard lately. He ordered some rare gemstones for you. He was going to have them made into jewelry."

Of course he had.

Life in the Outer Reach wasn't easy. Kane had done this before — traveling south to buy expensive jewelry. For Evelyn.

But I never saw those gifts.

Because Evelyn always seized them first, using the Royal City's authority as cover.

"Lysander, Kane's people know gems better than anyone. He went to real trouble to get these. You don't want me looking cheaper than Sabrina at the next royal gathering, do you?"

And so every piece he had poured his heart into ended up in the Royal City.

That night, Kane couldn't stop apologizing with his eyes.

"I wanted to give you the most sacred moon there is. I went to a lot of trouble finding the Starlight Moon stone. It's beautiful. Like you. Just... a waste now."

His gaze drifted. Something heavy settled behind his eyes.

I shook my head. "It's fine. I don't care for cold, expensive stones. I like flowers. Grass. But the Outer Reach is frozen all year. The only beautiful thing left is the moon."

"And the real moon is the most beautiful anyway."

He pointed out the window, toward the direction of the Royal City. "When spring comes, when the snow melts, I'll take you to see the wildflower fields over there. They're the most beautiful you've ever seen."

Kane had once been the strongest warrior in the royal pack.

But when he was at his peak, Lysander was still a child. The Alpha King was uneasy about Kane's strength — too uneasy. He found a reason to exile him to the border.

Kane had held the Dark Wolf pack together alone, year after year. Everyone he took in was old, sick, or crippled.

That was why, when Lysander walked off with Evelyn, Kane had no way to stop it.