5. The Selection

The gathering hall had never looked so polished. Silver lanterns lined the walls, casting a glow that made the ancient carvings look alive. The stone floor had been scrubbed until it gleamed like a mirror, and the air carried the faint fragrance of crushed herbs meant to calm nerves. Nothing about this night was calming to me.

The Selection. Every eligible female in the pack had been summoned. They came draped in silks and velvets, hair glistening with oils, lips stained crimson. Laughter and hushed whispers echoed through the hall as if this were some festival. It wasn’t. It was a showcase. A spectacle for Lucan Gray’s benefit.

I pressed myself against one of the marble pillars, wrapped in the plainest dress I owned. Not rags—not tonight—but far from the elegance paraded in the center of the room. If anyone noticed me at all, they would laugh. Good. Let them. The Moon Goddess must’ve been laughing already. My wolf stirred the moment he entered.

Lucan walked through the hall with his father at his side. The crowd shifted like waves making way for a storm. The Alphas sat at the head of the chamber, with Luna Yvette arranged between them like a polished jewel. The girls curtsied low, every movement practiced, every smile carefully honed. The air buzzed with nervous anticipation, the kind that made hearts race and palms sweat.

And yet—Lucan hardly looked at them. His eyes swept the room with that same detached calm, cold and cutting, measuring worth without a word. When his gaze brushed near me, my wolf pressed against my skin so hard I thought I’d shatter. I dropped my eyes, praying he hadn’t felt it.

The Elders began the ceremony. One by one, the daughters of ranked wolves stepped forward, introduced by name and pedigree, voices trembling as they pledged loyalty to the Alpha’s bloodline. Each was asked to demonstrate something—grace, skill, wit. The hall erupted with polite claps, shallow admiration. I wanted to vanish. Every girl here wanted to be chosen. Every girl except me.

I prayed he would overlook me, that my plainness and curse-ridden shadow would mask me as they always had. But the bond throbbed inside me like a brand, whispering that the Moon Goddess had other plans. “Bring forth the remaining candidates,” one Elder announced. A servant nudged me from behind. My stomach lurched. No. Not me. I stumbled forward, forced into the light of the hall.

My breath stilled. I could feel them staring—the sneers, the pity, the disgust. The traitors’ daughter. The cursed girl. What audacity to even stand here? Lucan’s eyes found me. The world quieted. For one impossible second, no one else existed. His gaze pinned me, heavy as iron, searching, dissecting. My wolf howled inside me, straining toward him, clawing at the walls I’d built my entire life.

I bowed low, forcing my trembling into stillness. When I straightened, he was still watching. Expression unreadable. Eyes like winter storms. Say nothing. Do nothing. Disappear. But my voice betrayed me. When asked my name, I hesitated. My throat closed. The hall waited. “She has no name,” someone muttered. Laughter rippled. My chest burned. I wanted to scream it, to remind them all that I did. That once, long ago, I had been someone. But that part of me was buried with my parents.

Lucan tilted his head slightly, as though the silence told him more than words ever could. Then, without comment, he shifted his gaze away. Dismissed. Just like everyone else had done all my life. The ceremony moved on. Girls curtsied. Elders droned. The crowd buzzed again, attention already off me.

But my knees felt weak, and my chest ached where the bond pulled tight, bruising something I didn’t know could bruise. When the final blessing was given and the crowd began to disperse, I didn’t wait for dismissal. I slipped out before anyone remembered I’d been there at all.

In the cool night air, I pressed a hand to my heart. It was still racing, not from fear—but from fury. The Moon Goddess had made her choice. But so had I. I would not be bound to Lucan Gray. Not by fate. Not by bond. Not by anything.