Chapter 3

Every eye in the room turned toward me.

Adrian looked at the guard. “Who came from Blackridge?”

“Former Luna Evelyn Blackwood.”

Kieran’s mother.

The room went silent.

No one had expected her to come in person.

Adrian’s expression tightened. He followed me into the hall, then stopped before we reached the sunroom.

“Evelyn Blackwood is fiercely protective of her son,” he said under his breath. “Choose your words carefully. Don’t complain about the arrangement or say anything that could offend her.”

“I won’t.”

Evelyn Blackwood was waiting in the glass-walled sunroom.

She wore a charcoal-gray suit beneath a long black coat. Silver threaded through her dark hair, but age had done nothing to soften the authority in her face.

Even after stepping down as Luna, she carried herself as if the entire room belonged to her.

She dismissed the Blackridge guards when I entered.

“You’re Nora Vale?”

“Yes.”

She studied me in silence.

“Your brother says you accepted the bonding ceremony willingly.”

“I did.”

“Kieran’s condition is worse than Silvercrest has been told. Some days, he no longer has the strength to leave his bed.”

Her voice remained steady, but her fingers tightened around the gloves in her lap.

“The ceremony will not heal him. It may not even give him more time.”

“I understand.”

“I don’t think you do.”

Evelyn stood.

“Once the bond is sealed, you will leave with us for Blackridge’s northern territory. It is several days from Silvercrest, and our pack does not dissolve a bond after death.”

She stopped in front of me.

“If Kieran dies, you will remain with our pack and fulfill the duties of Luna until his successor formally takes control.”

That was not what my brothers believed.

They thought Blackridge would send me home the moment Kieran was gone.

They had made their decision based on my bloodline, their position, and the certainty that I would always have Silvercrest to return to.

They were wrong.

Evelyn held my gaze.

“If you change your mind, tell me now. I will end the arrangement myself.”

Only that morning, my brothers had rigged a draw to make sure I could not refuse.

Noah had covered the proof with his own shoe.

Yet Kieran’s mother, the person who had every reason to insist, was offering me a choice.

The irony almost made me laugh.

“No, I will accept the bonding ceremony.”

“Why?”

I took the folded letter from inside my coat and placed it on the table between us.

“I’ve already severed my ties with the Vale family.”

Evelyn opened it.

The first pages held my farewell to my parents and my gratitude to the brothers who had raised me after their deaths.

She turned to the final page.

Her expression changed when she saw the declaration of severance and Mason’s signature beneath it.

“Do you understand what you’re giving up?”

“Yes.”

“Your family name. Your position in Silvercrest. Any right to return and ask for their protection.”

“I understand.”

She folded the letter carefully and handed it back to me.

“No regrets?”

“None.”

For a long moment, she simply looked at me.

Then she nodded.

“Very well. I have nothing more to ask.”

Evelyn left the estate less than an hour later.

By noon, three black SUVs passed through the Silvercrest gates.

Blackridge guards began unloading polished trunks and garment cases into the courtyard.

The gifts were not payment to Silvercrest.

Every one of them had been prepared for me.

There were winter coats made for the northern climate, a formal Blackridge cloak embroidered with the pack’s black-wolf crest, and an heirloom moonstone necklace traditionally worn during a Luna’s bonding ceremony.

One guard handed me the keys to a new vehicle registered in my name.

The final case was smaller than the others.

Inside lay an obsidian pendant engraved with a running wolf.

The Blackridge steward lowered his head.

“These are Blackridge’s formal bonding gifts. Alpha Kieran chose them before his condition worsened.”

I touched the pendant.

“He wore this during his first shift,” the steward continued. “He asked that it be given to you.”

I had never spoken to Kieran.

Yet he had sent me something that mattered to him.

Ivy came to stand beside Noah.

Her gaze moved slowly over the open cases.

“Former Luna Evelyn looked so serious when she arrived,” she said. “Nora must have said exactly the right things. Blackridge has never sent bonding gifts like these before.”

She smiled at me.

“You’re amazing, Nora. I wouldn’t know how to win someone over that quickly.”

Adrian was staring at the Blackridge cloak.

“Don’t mistake their generosity for affection,” he told me. “Evelyn Blackwood led Blackridge for years. She’ll see through any performance soon enough.”

“I didn’t ask her to send these.”

“But you must have said something,” Mason replied with a cold laugh. “Blackridge wanted a quiet ceremony. Now they’ve sent a convoy large enough for the whole pack to see.”

Ivy lightly touched his arm.

“Mason, don’t say that. Nora is probably just happy that Blackridge values her.”

Her gaze dropped to the obsidian pendant in my hand.

“I only hope the Hales don’t misunderstand. Noah and I are holding our ceremony tomorrow too. With Blackridge making such a public display, people may start comparing us.”

Noah immediately turned to her.

“No one could compare you to anyone.”

“I know.”

She leaned against him.

“I’m only worried about Nora. If everyone knows how much Blackridge gave her, what will happen after Kieran is gone?”

Mason looked at me.

“Maybe that’s exactly what she wants.”

I said nothing.

He continued.

“If the entire pack sees her being sent away with all this, then she can return later and act as if Blackridge abandoned her. Everyone will pity her, and Noah will feel responsible for taking care of her.”

Ivy shook her head quickly.

“Nora wouldn’t do that.”

But her denial came too late.

Adrian’s face had already hardened.

“Since Blackridge has already given you more than enough for that future, I don’t think your bonding fund matters to you.”

Before our parents died, they had established a bonding fund in my name.

It held their personal savings and a small share of the businesses they had built while my father was Alpha. The assets were meant to pass fully into my control on the day of my bonding ceremony.

Until then, Adrian managed them with the rest of the Vale estate.

“That fund is the last thing Mom and Dad left for my future. You have no right to keep it from me!”

“I’m the Alpha. Of course I can,” he replied.

His voice was cold, but his eyes avoided mine.

“Ivy has no birth parents left to provide for her. The bonding fund Mom and Dad left for you will be transferred to her. Mom and Dad promised Daniel Rowan that they would protect his daughter. We have a responsibility to honor that promise.”