Chapter 2

The next morning, I followed Damon’s orders and had the maids deliver Moonlight to Ivy’s room.

Her door had been left slightly ajar.

As I passed, I saw her turning in front of the mirror in the gown, which hung awkwardly from her smaller frame.

She held a pair of scissors in one hand. Before my eyes, she cut away the most intricate section of moonstone-studded lace from the skirt.

“Damon said I could alter it however I liked,” she murmured to the maid beside her. “But it was Serena’s gown first. You don’t think she’ll be angry, do you?”

The maid glanced nervously toward me and said nothing.

I kept walking and headed for the kitchen.

Damon had been badly wounded by a silver blade during the battle that secured his position as Alpha. The injury flared whenever winter set in, sending pain through his body and driving his wolf into a frenzy.

For seven years, I had brewed the same moonroot draught to dull the pain and soothe his wolf.

I stood over the stove, watching the dark liquid simmer in a stone pot.

This would be the last batch I ever made for him.

When it was ready, I poured the draught into an insulated flask, set it on a tray, and carried it toward Damon’s study.

The door stood slightly open. Inside, Damon was talking to Beta.

I raised my hand to knock, but Beta’s voice carried clearly through the gap.

“Alpha, don’t you think you’ve gone too far? Serena has already surrendered her title and given Ivy the moonstone necklace. Now you’ve handed over Moonlight too. She’s been at your side for seven years. She would die for you. Are you really trying to drive her away?”

I stopped outside the door.

Damon’s cold reply came a moment later.

“Where would she go? She’s an orphan who can’t remember her own past. She has nowhere outside the Obsidian Pack.”

“I spoiled her for seven years, and she grew more arrogant by the day. Ivy is here now. Serena needs to learn how to bow her head.”

“I’m going to break that pride of hers and remind her who rules this pack. Once she understands her place and learns to behave, I’ll give her a room here and make sure she never wants for anything.”

Beta sighed.

“If you keep humiliating her like this, aren’t you afraid she might actually stop loving you?”

Damon gave a contemptuous laugh.

“Stop loving me? Serena has spent seven years clinging to me like a vine. She can’t live without me.”

The tray tilted in my hands.

A few drops of the scalding draught splashed across my skin, raising angry red welts.

I barely felt them.

I set the tray on a cabinet outside the study, lifted the flask, and carried it to the end of the hall.

A rare silver-moon orchid stood there in a carved stone planter.

I tipped my wrist and poured the draught I had spent three hours brewing into the soil.

Ivy appeared just as the last of it disappeared into the earth. She was still wearing the gown she had cut apart.

Her gaze dropped to the empty flask, and a small, pleased smile touched her lips.

“Serena, Damon says my wolf is too weak and that I’d feel better in the room that gets the most moonlight.”

She twisted the ruined skirt anxiously between her fingers, her voice growing softer.

“I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insists I move into the master bedroom tonight. You don’t mind, do you?”

I had lived in that room for five years.

Every corner of it held some trace of the life Damon and I had shared.

I looked at Ivy and nodded.

“Of course not. I’ll clear it out now.”

I entered the master bedroom but took none of the jewelry or gifts Damon had given me.

I packed only a few changes of clothes, the old journal in which I had recorded the last seven years, and a leather folder containing seven years of records.

My phone vibrated.

Another message from my father appeared on the screen.

[Your brother and I are already on our way. Twelve more hours, Serena. Then we’re taking you home ourselves.]

I zipped the black travel bag shut and carried it out of the master bedroom.

A maid told me Damon had ordered that I be given only a storage room in the most remote wing of the house.

The air smelled faintly of mildew. I set my bag on the narrow bed in the corner and touched nothing else.

Only twelve hours remained.