CHAPTER 1

"Take it. Consider it a parting gift for twenty years of free meals."

The leather pouch hit the floor at Madison’s feet, the dull clink of silver coins echoing off the marble walls of the foyer. Alpha Gregory Cain didn't look up from his desk. He didn't even look like the man who had tucked her into bed for two decades. He looked like a stranger checking a ledger.

"That's it?" Madison's voice was a dry rasp. She didn't reach for the money. "A DNA test comes back, and I’m just... trash to be hauled to the curb?"

Gregory finally looked at her, his eyes cold and devoid of the warmth she’d lived for. "You’re a cuckoo in the nest, Madison. You’ve occupied a seat that belongs to my flesh and blood. Victoria is home now. We don't owe a fake a single scrap of Cain bread."

Madison gripped the strap of her canvas bag. It weighed next to nothing. A few shirts, a worn book, and the heavy, suffocating realization that her life was a lie. She didn't cry. The heat in her chest burned too hot for tears to survive.

"Keep your pity, Gregory." She stepped over the pouch, the silver coins mocking her from the rug. "I’d hate for you to go broke paying for my 'free meals' in retrospect."

"Wait! You forgot your dignity!"

The voice dripped with honey and acid. Victoria Cain leaned against the grand staircase, twirling a strand of blonde hair. She wore a silk robe that cost more than everything Madison owned. Behind her, a shadow moved.

Austin.

Madison’s stomach dropped into a cold pit. Her fiancé—the man she’d scented and bonded with since they were teens—stepped into the light. He didn't look at Madison's face. He looked at Victoria’s waist, his hand sliding over the silk to rest on her hip.

"Austin?" Madison’s breath hitched.

"Don't," Austin snapped, his voice a jagged blade. "A Luna needs to be pure. Strong. You? You're a wolfless fraud with a scent so weak I can barely smell you over the trash outside. Victoria is the true daughter of the Alpha. She’s my match. You’re just... a mistake the pack is finally fixing."

Victoria giggled, a sharp, grating sound. She leaned back into Austin’s chest, her eyes locked on Madison. "He’s much better in bed when he isn't worrying about your 'fragile' feelings, Madi. God, the things he does when he isn't bored to death by a fake."

Madison’s vision blurred at the edges. The betrayal was a physical weight, a fist squeezing her lungs. She looked at Austin—the man who had promised her a kingdom—and saw a coward.

"You think she’s a prize?" Madison took a step forward, her shadow stretching long and jagged across the floor. "She’s a replacement. And you? You're a dog that follows whatever scent has the most power attached to it. Enjoy the leftovers, Austin. I’m sure you’ll suit each other perfectly."

"Get out," Gregory growled from the office. "Before I have the guards drag you to the border."

Madison turned her back on them. She didn't run. She walked, her boots thudding rhythmically against the floorboards she’d polished as a child. Every step away from the mansion felt like a layer of skin peeling off, raw and stinging, but beneath it, something else was stirring. A low hum in her marrow. A vibration she’d suppressed for years because it didn't fit the "weak" profile of a Cain daughter.

The iron gates of the Silver Moon territory loomed ahead. The air changed here—the smell of pine and damp earth replaced the stifling scent of expensive cologne and lies.

"Look at her!" Victoria’s voice carried on the wind as the family gathered on the porch to watch the exile. "Going to the slums where she belongs! Rot in the mud, you wolfless freak!"

Madison reached the tree line. The boundary line.

Crack.

The sound wasn't a branch breaking. It was her ribs.

She collapsed to her knees, her fingers digging into the wet soil. The pain was an explosion, white-hot and absolute. Her skin felt like it was being stitched from the inside out.

Finally.

A howl ripped from her throat—not the high-pitched yip of a Silver Moon omega, but a roar that shook the birds from the trees. Her clothes shredded, the fabric giving way to fur that didn't grow in patches, but shimmered like crushed diamonds.

The Cain family froze on the porch.

Madison didn't just shift; she expanded. Her frame grew, muscles weaving together with the strength of ancient steel. When she stood on four paws, she was massive—a beast of pure, blinding white. A Celestial Lycan. A creature of myth, thought to have been hunted to extinction centuries ago.

She turned her head, her eyes glowing with a lethal, silver light. She saw them—Gregory’s jaw hitting the floor, Victoria’s face turning a sickly shade of gray, Austin trembling so hard he had to grab the railing.

Her scent, no longer suppressed by the Cain's dull territory magic, exploded. It was ozone and ice, the smell of a winter storm that could level a city. It was the scent of royalty.

She didn't attack. They weren't worth the blood on her fur. She let out one final, bone-shaking growl that sent Austin stumbling backward into the dirt, then she turned and vanished into the treeline.

Five miles past the border, in a clearing where the dirt road met the highway, a rhythmic thwump-thwump-thwump disturbed the silence.

Madison shifted back, her human skin steaming in the cool air. She pulled a spare cloak from her bag, her movements calm, her heart beating with a steady, cold rhythm.

A massive black helicopter descended, its blades whipping the grass into a frenzy. It didn't have a logo. It didn't need one.

The side door slid open. A man in a suit that cost more than the Cain mansion stepped out. He didn't look at the mud on her feet or the scratches on her arms. He dropped to one knee, his head bowed low.

"Your Highness," the man said, his voice echoing over the roar of the engines. "The King of the North has been searching for you since the day you were taken. Your father is waiting."

Madison looked back toward the Silver Moon territory—a tiny, insignificant speck in the distance. She reached into her pocket, felt the heavy silver coins she'd snatched up at the last second, and threw them into the muck.

"Let's go," she said, stepping into the plush, leather interior of the craft. "I have a lot of lost time to make up for."

The helicopter rose, tilting its nose toward the frozen north, leaving the dirt and the Cains far below.