Chapter 1

The parking lot was still wet from the rain, puddles everywhere. Under the yellow streetlights, the wedding banners around the Silvercrest pack house hung in tatters.

Kieran was pinned face-down in a puddle, two guards holding him there like he was a dog. His face was caked in mud and blood.

I walked over in my heels and held out my hand.

"Come with me. I severed the mate bond with Lucien tonight. Be my mate. I'll help you take back Shadowfang, and you help me get my revenge."

Kieran looked up at me.

He took my hand and pulled himself to his feet. As he stood, his fingertip dragged across my palm and opened a thin cut. His own palm was already bleeding, and two drops of blood mixed together between us.

It was the oldest blood oath between werewolves.

"Done," he said. His voice was wrecked, but every word was clear.

Footsteps sounded behind us. Lucien stepped out of the pack house in the custom black suit he'd worn for the ceremony, the bond-severance papers I'd thrown in his face crumpled in his hand.

He took his time walking down, gave me one cool look, and tucked the papers into his suit pocket.

Vivienne followed him out, carrying a mug of hot coffee. She stopped at the edge of the steps, tilted her head, and looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. Her voice was soft.

"Nora, the whole Northern range knows you've been in love with Lucien for years. Last Blood Moon Festival, you waited outside his door for two hours. Even his patrol caught you at it. Making a scene like this tonight just embarrasses him more. Why are you doing this?"

Lucien's expression darkened at her words.

He walked down the steps and stopped right in front of me, looking down at me like I was something giving him a headache.

"Nora." His voice was patient, almost tired. "I know you're in love with me. You waited outside my door for two hours. Skipped your suppressants during your heat just to throw yourself at me. The whole Northern range knows. Every Alpha out there has heard the story."

He didn't wait for me to answer. "Did you ever stop to ask yourself why you're the one causing scenes and Vivienne never has to? She doesn't need to. You're crude. Don't you ever feel ashamed of yourself?"

I gave him a cold smile. "Lucien is so devoted to his adoptive sister. 'Brother-and-sister bond.' Everyone in Silvercrest can see it."

A few pack warriors nearby sucked in air through their teeth and exchanged looks.

Lucien scoffed. "Petty. Vivienne is my sister. Of course I look after her. There's nothing strange about that."

"What do you have, Nora? Crimson Moon's wealth, sure. But looks? Personality? Warmth? You can't compete with her on any of it. You chased me for years. Giving you the Luna title was a favor."

He said all of this with that same calm, condescending look, like he was just stating facts, not even trying to insult me.

That was the part that cut the deepest, worse than shouting, worse than rage.

In my previous life, I would have cried for days after hearing this. I would have asked myself, over and over, whether being an Alpha's daughter had made me too strong, too unpleasant, too much.

In this life, all I could think was: how pathetic.

I curled the corner of my mouth. "If she's so wonderful, why don't you marry her? Oh, right. Marrying your adoptive sister would make people laugh. Better to take me. Three hundred elite warriors as a dowry. Great deal."

He looked down at me, and after a moment he laughed, casual, like we were chatting about something boring.

"How many years have you been in love with me? Ten? Twelve? All this trouble, just to make me look at you twice?"

His eyes flicked to Kieran and back. "Enough, Nora. Playing hard to get. I've seen it a thousand times."

I didn't bother answering.

In my previous life, at a pack alliance dinner, in front of every Alpha and Luna at the table, he'd said: "Was I cursed by the Moon Goddess, accepting her as my Luna? Cruder than a rogue. Voice louder than a border patrol horn. Not a shred of Luna in her. Crimson Moon Pack might be powerful, but raising a daughter like that is a joke."

The whole table laughed. I sat in the corner with my face burning. I didn't say a single word.

Another time, a group of Lunas from neighboring packs had gathered to talk about me. They said I was crude, uneducated. The words came back to me through the grapevine, and I cried for days. Later I heard Lucien had heard about it too, and at the next Alpha Council, he'd torn into the Luna who started it. I was so happy I couldn't sleep that night. I thought he was defending me. I thought, deep down, he must care.

Later, I learned what it really was. He hadn't been defending me. He was embarrassed. His Luna being mocked reflected badly on him. When he said at the Council, "Don't insult my mate," and "What happens in my pack is my business," it was always about his face, never about mine.

In this life, all I could think was: how pathetic.

I reached into my clutch and took out a small gold token: the Crimson Moon Pack Alpha sigil. Only direct bloodline could activate it. I pressed it against my palm and spoke into my earpiece.

"Crimson Moon warriors. Move in."

Dozens of black SUVs poured into the street. Warriors in tactical gear, silver-edged weapons holstered at their hips, dropped out and surrounded the Silvercrest pack house. Three military-grade off-roaders rolled up behind them with silver-net cannons mounted on the roofs.

It was Crimson Moon Pack's full deployment formation, top of the line.

Lucien froze for a second. His brow pulled tight. "Nora. Are you out of your mind?"

I pulled out the printed inventory of my mating gifts, a dozen pages long, and slammed it against Silvercrest's beta's chest.

"Inventory tonight. Every item on this list, from my grandmother's emerald necklace to the 1969 Mustang, leaves Silvercrest before sunrise. Not a single hair of any of it stays here. If anything's missing, Lucien's whole pack territory wouldn't be enough to cover it."

The beta's knees buckled. He sat down hard on the wet pavement.

The warriors filed in, fast and organized. Out came my grandfather's modern art original, crates of the family silver, every first-edition antique from the library upstairs, and finally the solid-silver liquor cabinet from the ceremony hall. Not one piece was left behind.

The sound of furniture moving carried through the night.

In my previous life, I'd thought about leaving too. But back then, I still believed the mate bond was a gift from the Moon Goddess, something you didn't break.

He neglected me, and I told myself the pack kept him busy. He spent time with Vivienne, and I told myself they were siblings.

I knew. I just couldn't bear to know.

By then, I already suspected he'd taken the mate bond for Crimson Moon's wealth and territory. But I still loved him, after all those years.

From the moment I'd seen him at twelve years old, a rogue orphan taken in by Silvercrest who'd fought through the Alpha succession trials on his own, that love had taken root in me. I'd told myself: if I could just soften my edges as an Alpha's daughter, be gentler, he'd see me eventually.

I'd swallowed every grievance, folded every piece of myself down, and walked into Silvercrest with him. I'd thought that was what a Luna was supposed to do.

Later I'd learned: it wasn't compromise. It was me walking, step by step, toward my own grave.

Lucien gave me a cold smile. "Nora. I'll give you three days. Three days, and if you want to come back and beg me to mark you again, you'll kneel at Silvercrest's border until Vivienne and I decide you've apologized enough. Otherwise, you'll never set foot in my pack again."

I didn't waste another word on him.

I turned, helped Kieran into the black SUV, and got in beside him.

The doors closed. The engine started. The tires rolled over wet asphalt, smooth and steady.

I didn't look back, but I knew Lucien was still standing there, watching the car drive away with an expression on his face he'd never had before.

Not anger, not contempt — just confusion.

He didn't follow.

In the car, Kieran leaned against the window, watching me. His throat worked. I turned to look at him.

"Someone just sent a message out from the west service exit of Silvercrest."

Kieran made a small gesture with his hand.

A shadow flashed past the car window. Within ten minutes, an envelope with Vivienne's signature was passed inside.

I didn't open it. I took out a lighter from my purse, dropped the whole envelope into the metal ashtray in the console, and lit it.

"Pass the order down. Lock every entry and exit on Silvercrest territory. Cut off the border patrol rotation. Nobody leaves tonight."

Kieran watched the fire, fingers tapping lightly on his knee. "You're not afraid he'll take this straight to the Alpha King?"

I stirred the ashes. Sparks scattered.

"He'd have to be alive to make it there."