Chapter 3-The Lie Beneath Her Skin

 Kaela’s POV

My hands shook as I pressed my thumb to the crystal memory rune.

“Hurry, she could return any minute.” Selene’s crimson-tipped claws dug into the padded seat of the wagon, her voice breathless and wild in a way I had never heard before.

“Relax,” Rhett’s face appeared in the hovering image, his golden hair damp with sweat, his tone smug and lazy. “I sent her to the ridge to collect the ceremonial moonstone. That trek will keep her gone for an hour.”

Then came the soft sound of fabric tearing and a low moan.

The rune’s vision orb focused on the back bench of the enchanted travel wagon, the same one that used to carry me to every council meeting.

Rhett pressed Selene down against the seat, her legs coiled around his waist.

“Are you sure you’ve secured all the authorization scrolls?” Rhett growled, his hand sliding roughly across her hip.

Selene laughed, her eyes glinting with triumph. “Of course. She signed everything without suspicion. Once the healer confirms her wolf’s instability, all her lands and assets will fall to her guardian.”

“Which is me,” Rhett said with a smirk, dragging his teeth along her throat. “Her devoted mate.”

Selene gasped, arching against him. “After that, we can access the silver vaults. Are you sure you want to risk it? You two have…”

Rhett cut her off with a low snarl. “Five years of waiting. Five years of pretending she’s sacred. She wouldn’t even let me mark her. Always the Alpha’s perfect daughter.”

My hands tightened around the edge of the cot.

The glowing timestamp rune in the corner of the illusion flickered. Twilight’s third bell.

Suddenly, a chime echoed, Rhett’s communicator stone pulsed in his pocket. He growled and fished it out, irritation flashing in his eyes.

“It’s Kaela,” he muttered.

Selene froze. “She knows?”

He pressed the stone to his lips, voice instantly turning gentle, full of false warmth. “Kaela? What’s wrong, love?”

A pause. His expression shifted. “An ambush? At the Sanguine Ridge?” His gaze slid to Selene, lips curving into a faint smirk. “I see. I’ll come right away.”

He ended the call, tugging his cloak straight. “She was attacked. A lone wolf ambush.”

Selene arched an eyebrow. “Is she dead?”

“No,” he said curtly.

“Shame. The beast missed.” She sounded disappointed.

“She hit her head,” Rhett replied. “If the wound’s deep, the healers might claim her memory’s gone.”

“Perfect,” Selene purred, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Then she won’t even remember what she signed.”

Rhett gave a cold laugh and shoved her down again.

The last frame of the projection showed Selene reapplying her lip dye in the mirrored crystal, smiling with a victor’s smugness.

The rune flickered once before fading.

Twilight’s sixth bell, nearly half an hour after my attack. The memory stone slipped from my trembling fingers.

In the frozen echo of that final image, Rhett’s hand rested over Selene’s thigh, and her ring gleamed beside the one he’d given me.

So that was it, a premeditated betrayal, a plan to break me, steal my inheritance, and use my so-called “amnesia” as the perfect excuse.

Rhett had sent me alone into dangerous territory, knowing the rogue waited for me. When I called for help, bleeding and torn, he ignored me, too busy rutting with Selene in my wagon.

Irony burned bitter on my tongue. Afraid of spies in my territory, I had set the wagon’s rune enchantment to record and transmit illusions every moon cycle. A security habit my father had taught me, one meant to protect me.

And the first recording it sent back revealed the truth:

 My mate and my best friend, together, scheming to strip me of everything.

I brushed away the tears that threatened and shoved the rune beneath the furs. These tears weren’t for Rhett. They were for me, for the foolish Kaela who once believed in loyalty, in love, in pack.

Outside, the wind howled through the mountain cliffs, and the twin moons split the night sky with cold light.

Rhett and Selene thought they had already won. But they’d made one fatal mistake, they’d let Taren near me.

Now, all I had to do was play my part, the confused, broken heir. I would watch, listen, and uncover where they hid my parents’ fortune. And when the time came, I would take back everything that was mine.

Taren’s den stood carved into the high cliffs of the Shadowcrest range, a stronghold overlooking the valley below.

When the obsidian wolf-drawn sled came to a halt outside the gates, I gripped the edge of the seat so tightly my knuckles burned.

“We’re home,” Taren said quietly, his tone unreadable.

Home.

 That word stabbed deeper than I expected.

 Since my parents’ death, I hadn’t known what home felt like.

Rhett and I had planned to claim the ancestral manor after our mating ceremony,  a home built on my bloodline’s land, surrounded by the howling woods of my ancestors. I realized now that he’d probably already brought Selene there.

“What’s wrong?” Taren asked, his gaze flicking toward me.

“Nothing,” I lied softly. “It just feels… strange.”

He was silent for a moment, then unexpectedly reached out, his fingers brushing my cheek.

The touch startled me. His skin was warm. “It is strange,” he said. “But you’ll adjust.”

His thumb traced the faint scar that ran across my temple, the mark left by the rogue’s claws. The touch was careful, tender even, so unlike his usual sharp-edged demeanor.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He didn’t respond. He only stepped down from the sled and opened my door.

As we entered the den, the faint scent of him surrounded me, pine, cedar, and iron. A scent that pulled at something buried deep inside me, something my wolf recognized even if I didn’t want to.

“You like my scent,” Taren said suddenly, voice calm but heavy with amusement.

My cheeks heated instantly. “I don’t…”

“You do.” A smirk ghosted across his face. “Your heartbeat says otherwise.”

He leaned in slightly, his breath brushing against my ear. “Your wolf can’t lie, Kaela. She reacts before you do.”

The soft click of the door opening broke the tension, and I exhaled, grateful for the interruption.

Taren stepped aside, gesturing for me to enter.

The interior of his den made my breath catch, rough stone walls adorned with carved totems, a massive hearth burning low, and weapons hung neatly on iron hooks. It was raw, powerful, alive with wolf energy.

But what drew my eye most was the polished obsidian blade resting on the mantle, a weapon only a born Alpha could wield.

“The bathing room is through there,” he said, nodding to the left. “Our room’s to the right.”

“Our… room?” The word stumbled out before I could stop it.

Taren turned, his gaze locking with mine. “You’ve forgotten we share everything? That’s what bonded mates do.”

I swallowed hard, keeping my voice small. “I thought, since I can’t remember, maybe I should sleep elsewhere…”

He crossed the room in three long strides, the air thick with dominance. He was taller than me, broader, and the strength in him vibrated like heat.

“You forget a lot of things,” he murmured. “But you’re a terrible liar.”

My pulse spiked. His voice dropped lower. “You remember everything, don’t you?”

I froze.