Chapter 4

Seraphina summoned me before sunrise.

She made sure there was an audience.

Several elders, their mates, and a line of guards were leaving the morning council when I arrived. They all saw me waiting outside the great hall while Seraphina kept me there with my head lowered.

At last, she stepped through the doors.

“I heard Lucian left your room angry last night,” she said. “Is that true?”

“He came to tell me the baby’s name.”

“In the middle of the night?” She gave a short laugh. “He went all the way to your room to tell you a name, then stormed out? Do you expect me to believe that?”

“I can’t tell you why he was angry.”

“Can’t, or won’t?”

She moved closer, lowering her voice just enough to make everyone strain to hear.

“Did you cling to him and cry the way you did after the boy was born? Or have you found a new way to get his attention? Is that why you’ve been walking around with that broken look on your face?”

I did not answer.

“Lucian checks on you because your father still matters to the council,” she said. “Don’t mistake duty for affection. You should be grateful he remembers you exist.”

The elders stood close enough to hear every word.

That was the point.

“I’m sorry he left upset,” I said. “I didn’t intend to cause trouble.”

My lack of resistance only made her angrier.

“Fine. If you need something useful to occupy you, report to the quarry before sunrise. You’ll move stone until moonrise every day until I decide you’ve learned your place.”

The Luna had the authority to assign labor to any unranked member of the pack.

And that was what I was now.

Not Lucian’s mate. Not the mother of his children. Not even the daughter of a high-ranking elder.

Just an unranked wolf who could be worked until she broke.

The quarry stones were jagged and heavy. I carried them from one end of the yard to the other beneath the eyes of the guards, then carried them back again.

There was no purpose to the work.

Only punishment.

After two hours, the skin split across my palms. After three, my arms began to shake. Blood made the smaller stones slick in my hands.

Pack members passed on the road above. Some stared. Most looked away.

Seraphina came once in the morning and watched from the ridge. She did not speak.

She returned near sunset and stopped in front of me.

Her gaze dropped to my bleeding hands.

“Do you know why Lucian made me his Luna?” she asked.

I kept silent.

“We fought together. I took a silver blade meant for him, and it destroyed my chance to have children. The Moon Goddess may have tied him to you, but he chose me.”

She stepped closer.

“You think fate makes you important. It doesn’t. A bond appeared, and Lucian did what he had to do. That’s all. I was beside him when this pack was bleeding. I nearly died for him. What have you ever done except carry children your body was strong enough to make?”

Her eyes hardened.

“Have ten more if you want. I’ll raise every one of them. I’ll still be the Luna beside him, and you’ll still be the woman he visits only when the pack needs another heir.”

She leaned close enough that only I could hear the last words.

“You will never be his real mate. You will never have a place here.”

I met her eyes.

Then I set down the stone in my hands, bent, and picked up another.