Chapter 1

"If you want to be my Luna, you need to learn how to help me run this pack. Right now, you don't even understand the basics. How could I trust you as my Luna?"

A muffled voice came through the door. "Damian, another pack has attacked our territory. The Alpha is furious. He wants you back immediately to repel them!"

Damian heard the guard and swallowed whatever he had been about to say.

"Stay here and behave until I come back," he said in a low voice.

At those words, the numbness on my face finally shifted.

After he was gone, I broke down and sobbed.

Five years. He was finally gone.

Five years ago my father handed me over to him, and he swore that one day he would make me his Luna, in a ceremony so grand and so beautiful that everyone would envy me and wonder how I had gotten so lucky.

Instead he found fault with every part of me and told me I was nowhere near good enough to be his Luna.

Every day, he graded my manners, my posture, and my education. He brought in one tutor after another. I threw myself into my studies, hoping to finish sooner and become his Luna, but he was never satisfied. He picked at everything and belittled me until I was worthless.

To keep me under his control, he ordered the guards to watch me around the clock, cut off my access to every means of communication, and confined me to that tiny house.

I looked at the black-and-blue bruises covering my body. After all these years, the wounds inside me ran far deeper.

I left the estate as fast as I could and headed for my father's home.

My heart leaped. I had never felt such a rush of excitement and joy. For five years, I had endured everything Damian did to me, and everyone believed I had finally submitted. Even I had believed there would never be a way out.

I never expected a chance like this to come so suddenly or feel so exhilarating.

I looked at my father's house, and every step I took felt like walking back through those years.

I used to play in that courtyard, laughing, while my father watched the birds and said, "Selene, if you're ever unhappy, remember that you can come to me. I'm sorry. His pack is simply too powerful..."

I was small then, and I did not understand what he meant.

Now I did. Every step I took carried me closer to freedom. Dad, I hope you still remember what you said.

I knocked.

"Come in." His voice had lost the authority it used to have.

I walked in slowly. My father, Alaric Vale, sat frowning at his computer without looking up. His black hair had become threaded with silver.

He looked twenty years older. My throat closed. "Dad..." Before I could finish, I broke into wrenching sobs.

Behind the desk, my father stared at me, stunned.

"Selene..." His reddened eyes filled with tears.

I threw myself into his arms. His hands settled stiffly against my back.

"I'm sorry... I wasn't strong enough. I didn't have the courage to stand up to him..."

"Dad... you told me once that if things went badly I could come to you. Didn't you?" I said through the tears.

"But Damian... and our pack, the way things are now..." His brows drew together.

"He's gone to deal with the fighting in his territory," I said, meeting my father's eyes.

My father studied the pack records on his screen and thought for a while.

"Sweetheart... you've only just come of age. Are you sure you won't reconsider being Damian's Luna?"

I had calmed down a little. I looked at his aged face and said nothing. Slowly, I removed my coat, revealing deep scars, some faded with age and others unmistakably fresh.

"This... how could this happen... Damian promised me. He told me that once you met his requirements he would make you his Luna..." My father's trembling hand reached toward the marks.

His eyes were red. He was quiet for a while, and then he said, "Tell me what you want to do, sweetheart. Whatever you want, I'll do it..."

I looked at him and said slowly, "Dad, if Damian says I'm unfit to be his Luna, then find me a mate. I want an unbreakable bond that neither of us can betray."

"But... once a bond like that is sealed, it can never be undone." His frown deepened.

"I know, Dad. But it's the only way to cut every last tie between him and me," I said calmly.

"I have a few conditions. Please find someone who meets them.

"First, he has to accept a bond of absolute loyalty, and he has to be able to seal it quickly.

"Second, he can't be vain or obsessed with status. He has to be a decent man.

"Third, he can't have any messy personal entanglements."

I listed the conditions slowly, watching conflicting emotions cross my father's face.

"Please do it as quickly as you can, Dad. The bond has to be sealed before Damian suppresses the unrest."