Chapter 2

Noah kept his shoe over the silver token.

“The ceremony is over,” he said. “You should go rest, Nora.”

I looked around the Moon Hall.

Adrian’s expression was guarded. Cole’s jaw was tight. Mason refused to meet my eyes. Ivy still held the other silver token against her chest.

They all knew.

That was why Ivy had drawn first. No matter which token she chose, she would get Noah. Once the result was announced, the second token would disappear, and I would be sent to Blackridge.

“Move your foot,” I said.

Noah didn’t.

“It’s done,” he replied. “What difference does it make?”

“So you knew.”

His eyes flickered with guilt, but his voice remained firm.

“We knew you wouldn’t accept the arrangement if we told you beforehand.”

Mason gave a cold laugh.

“You would have accused Ivy of stealing Noah from you. Then you would have turned the entire ceremony into another fight.”

“I wasn’t even reaching for the urn.”

“That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have tried something later,” Mason said. “You’ve always known how to make people believe you’re the one being wronged.”

The words struck harder than I expected.

Noah frowned at him. “That’s enough.”

But he still didn’t move his foot.

Mason looked at me as if I were a stranger.

“When you first came back to Silvercrest, you arrived covered in blood and claimed you were our missing sister. Everyone believed you because of the way you looked. From that moment on, all the attention Ivy had once received shifted to you. Maybe surviving outside the pack taught you how to get people on your side.”

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

So that was what he thought of the day I came home.

I had been six when rogues attacked our convoy and dragged me away.

My parents searched every territory they could reach. Seven years later, they followed a false report north and died when their car went through the ice.

Adrian became Alpha before he was ready. Cole abandoned his military training to command Silvercrest’s elite warriors. Mason was still a teenager.

During those years, my brothers brought Ivy into our home.

Her father, Daniel Rowan, had once saved our parents during a rogue attack. He died from his wounds, leaving Ivy with no family. Protecting her became the last promise our parents had left behind.

By the time I escaped the rogues and returned at thirteen, Ivy was already living in my room and calling my brothers hers.

I reached the Silvercrest gates barefoot, feverish, and bleeding.

Adrian carried me into the house himself. Cole stayed beside my bed all night. Mason held my hand and promised no one would ever take me away again.

The next morning, Ivy packed her bags.

She stood at the door with tears running down her face and said Silvercrest’s real daughter had returned. There was no longer a place for her.

I knew what it was like to have nowhere to go.

So I unpacked her suitcase.

“Stay,” I told her. “You’re their sister. You can be mine too.”

Everyone praised me for accepting her.

Noah was the only one who objected.

He had known me before the abduction, and stubborn loyalty had made him suspicious of anyone who occupied my place. When his father suggested preserving the alliance by matching him with Ivy, Noah refused in front of both families.

“I promised Nora,” he told both families. “I don’t care how long she was gone. She’s the one who will be my mate.”

I had carried those words with me for years.

Now his shoe covered the proof that he had helped my brothers deceive me.

“Nora?”

Ivy’s voice pulled me back to the Moon Hall.

She stepped closer to Noah and touched his arm.

“Maybe I should marry Alpha Kieran instead.”

Ivy lowered her eyes. “Nora is the former Alpha’s daughter. I’m only here because your family took me in. If marrying Kieran can repay what I owe, then let me go.”

Adrian answered immediately.

“No. We agreed to let the draw decide. You’re both daughters of the Vale family, and you should be treated equally. You got the silver token, so Nora would be the contracted Lunar of Alpha Kieran. That’s only fair.”

The four of them formed a wall around her without even realizing it.

Adrian looked at me.

“You have the Vale bloodline. Blackridge will respect you, even after Kieran dies. Ivy has no parents and no rank of her own. They might treat her like a debt we forced them to accept.”

“And you have us,” Cole added. “If Blackridge sends you home, Silvercrest will protect you. Besides, Ivy has been frail since childhood. Even a slight chill can trigger one of her coughing fits. We promised Daniel we would protect his daughter. We’re not sending her to bond with a dying Alpha.”

They made it sound reasonable.

Perhaps, in their minds, it was.

“There’s no need to argue,” I said. “I’ll accept the result of the draw.”

Then I took a folded letter from inside my coat.

“But I want you to sign this first.”

The pages were still warm from where I had kept them close to my heart.

I had rewritten the letter more than once. The first pages held my farewell to our parents and my gratitude to the brothers who had raised me after their deaths.

The final page severed my ties with the Vale family.

Mason snatched it from my hand. He skimmed the first page and gave a cold laugh.

“Another performance? You think bringing Mom and Dad into this will make us change our minds?”

He picked up a pen and signed his name without reading to the end.

“Mason!” Adrian reached for the letter. “What did you just sign? Let me see it.”

The instant Mason lifted his pen, Ivy began to cough.

Adrian turned to her at once.

Cole hurried to shut the open window, while Noah took Ivy’s hands between his own.

Her knees buckled.

Noah caught her before she hit the floor.

“Is it happening again?” Adrian asked. “Come on. Let’s get you out of the cold.”

Within seconds, they were all gathered around her.

Mason pushed the letter back toward me.

“It’s nothing,” he told Adrian. “Nora’s just upset about leaving. You should take Ivy inside.”

Adrian hesitated before looking at me.

“We’ll talk about this later. You look pale, too. Go upstairs and rest.”

Then he led Ivy out of the hall, with Cole close behind.

Noah was the last to leave.

“I never wanted you sent away,” he said quietly.

I looked at the token beneath his shoe.

He followed my gaze but didn’t move.

“When this is over, you’ll understand why we did it.”

“I already do.”

After the door closed, I picked up the severance agreement.

One signature was enough for me.

By the next morning, Blackridge had received my answer.

Before noon, a line of black vehicles passed through the gate of the Silvercrest packhouse.

A guard ran into the house, breathless.

“Alpha Adrian, someone from Blackridge is here.”

Adrian came out of his office. “What do they want?”

The guard shook his head.

“They asked to see Nora. Alone.”