Chapter 3

Two days passed quickly.

At dawn, Maya came in person to see me off in the underground garage beneath the Ravenwood packhouse.

Three black SUVs waited by the elevator, their windows tinted, the Moon Council’s crest printed on the doors. Once I stepped into the lead SUV, Ravenwood would have officially honored the pact, and I would leave for the North as Frostfang’s future Luna.

Maya adjusted the collar of my white wool coat with red eyes. “I still hate letting you go.”

I held her hand. “Don’t cry. Leaving a man who isn’t worth it isn’t exile. It’s rebirth.”

Maya sniffed and tried to look fierce. “Fine. After you leave, I’m going to give that happy couple a wedding gift they’ll never forget.”

I smiled and got into the car.

When the convoy pulled out of the garage and turned onto Ravenwood’s main avenue, Kyle’s wedding motorcade happened to approach from the other end.

He wore a black tailored suit with the Ravenwood wolf crest pinned over his heart. Cameras flashed outside the packhouse entrance, and pack members crowded behind the security line to watch their Alpha announce a Luna.

Kyle opened the car door for Lila and helped her out with such care it looked as if he was afraid the wind might break her.

“Slowly,” he murmured. “Watch your head.”

In our last life, he had helped me the same way.

He had lifted me onto the back of his motorcycle after our marking ceremony, helmet in hand, laughing softly against my ear. “Alia, if you hit your head, my heart will hurt to death.”

Now he gave the exact same tenderness to someone else.

I watched him through the tinted window and felt less pain than I expected. Maybe true resolve is seeing him be good to another woman and no longer wanting to ask why.

A gust of wind lifted Lila’s silver veil near the car door. Kyle seemed to sense something and suddenly looked toward my SUV.

For one second, our eyes met through the dark glass. He couldn’t possibly see me clearly, but unease still flickered across his face.

Then Lila tugged his sleeve. “Kyle, everyone is waiting.”

Kyle looked away and muttered as if mocking himself, “It can’t be her. Alia is Blackthorn’s eldest daughter. She wouldn’t go to Frostfang.”

I rested my hand on the window. “Then I wish us both a life where we never meet again and both live well.”

The wedding motorcade and the Frostfang alliance convoy passed each other.

I didn’t look back.

Inside the Ravenwood packhouse, the ceremony hall was packed.

Kyle led Lila onto the stage beneath the huge silver moon emblem, but unease kept pressing against his chest. He looked toward the door more than once, as if waiting for someone who would never come.

Before the vow announcement began, he finally called over his Beta.

“Find out where Alia is today. Did she come to watch the ceremony?”

His guard froze. “Alpha, you don’t know? Miss Alia took Miss Lila’s place. She has left for Frostfang Pack to honor the alliance pact.”

“The black SUV that passed your wedding motorcade just now. She was inside it.”