Chapter 1

Ruby

Right at my parents’ funeral, my husband Lucas had his tongue down my best friend’s throat.

“What are you doing?” My voice cracked under the weight of it. “Are you kidding me right now? Here?!”

“Ruby, love” he said, tone cool and condescending. “Now’s not the time.”

Lucas didn’t deny anything. He didn’t even try and make an excuse.

Lucas turned. Slowly. Like I wasn’t even worth the effort. Behind him, Harper smoothed down her hair, her smile dying only when she realized I’d seen.

I wanted to tear them apart with my bare hands.

My brain short-circuited for a minute and all I could think was how ironic stopping dead in my tracks was since this was my parent’s funeral.

Once my mind caught up with itself, my body kicked into gear. My fists clenched at my sides, nails biting into my palms as I stepped forward, heart hammering like it was trying to claw its way out of my chest.

“You said she was just a friend. You lied to me. Both of you.”My wolf surged beneath my skin, snarling for blood, but I forced her down.

The slap came so fast I didn’t see it, just felt the white-hot bloom across my cheek, the sharp twist of my neck, the sudden rush of humiliation. I staggered back, catching myself on the door frame.

And my brain shorted out for the second time in as many minutes. He’d hit me.

Lucas had never touched me like that before. He’d always been the perfect gentleman, considerate. The country’s golden heir. My fated mate.

Now he stared down at me like I was something filthy beneath his boot.

“You should have more respect for your husband,” he said flatly, “especially when I’m all you have left.”

A tremor ran through me. My hand stayed frozen on my cheek when I felt the beginning of a bruise. My wolf whimpered, confused while my heart shattered as if it were the cold truth that slapped me and not Lucas’s palm.

“You never loved me,” I breathed.

Lucas tilted his head, like he was almost amused. “You were convenient. And Royal. That was the point.”

My knees nearly gave out. I gripped the wall to stay upright. Behind him, Harper said nothing. She just looked away.

I realized I was nothing more than a legacy Lucas needed to control. The werewolf Royal bloodline still pulsed in my veins, ancient and wild, but Lucas was the rising sun—the soon-to-be Lycan King. The future everyone bowed to.

“I’m the one they’ll crown,” he murmured, stepping closer. “And a king can have any woman he wants.”

One moment I was staring at Lucas like he’d grown a second head in front of me. The next, I was in the tower suite of our estate. I struggled to remember the end of the funeral or how I got here.

I tried the door. Locked. I tried the window. Sealed shut.

The realization settled like ice in my lungs: I was locked in this room and Lucas wasn’t going to let me go.

I set loose a pained scream, and let my grief overtake me.

From that day forward, I became a ghost.

No visitors. No name but the one he gave me: obedient mate. I was the future Queen, but only when it served him. A possession, passed around like a relic of some dead empire.

I tried to run. Twice.

The first time, I made it to the outer wall before his guards dragged me back by my hair.

The second time, I made it farther—into the woods, bleeding, barefoot. That time, Lucas came himself.

I still remember the cold edge of his voice as he dragged me through the mud. “You don’t get to run. You’re mine, Ruby.”

Each escape earned me bruises. Broken ribs. Apologies whispered through clenched teeth. “You know I hate doing this to you,” he’d say, kissing the places he’d wounded, as if that made it better.

I stopped trying to escape after that. I didn’t see the point. My existence had narrowed to this one room and this one man. Ticking the hours down until he was officially crowned and forced an heir on me.

I thought my clock had run out when Lucas lingered too long after entertaining his guests in the downstairs lounge, silver goblet in his hand. I could smell the strong drink on him from across the room. I could smell Harper on him too.

“It’ll be over soon, love,” Lucas said, offering the cup like a prize. “Drink.”

The liquid inside shimmered darkly—bitter, sweet, wrong. My stomach turned.

“No,” I said, the first time I’d denied him in weeks.

He struck me again. Not a slap this time, a fist to the stomach that knocked the breath from my lungs. I collapsed. The cup spilled across the stone floor, but he refilled it. Forced it to my lips.

“This is mercy,” he whispered, “because I loved you once.”

And then, as I swallowed what I knew was poison, gagging on the taste of rot and honey, he said it. One final confession to kill my soul as well as my body.

“I killed them, Ruby. Your parents. They were never in an accident.”

My vision blurred. My blood turned to fire.

I launched myself at him, nails raking, teeth bared—but my body failed me. I crumpled mid-lunge, breath fleeing, limbs locking up. Pain rippled through every nerve like wildfire.

Lucas just watched me fall, then left me to die alone.

“RUBY!” The growl on my name cut through the haze.

I blinked, barely able to lift my head. A figure knelt beside me, arms wrapping around my body, cradling me like I was something breakable. I knew that voice. That scent. But that didn’t make sense.

Caleb was Lucas’s brother; we’d never been on good terms. He was the one who always looked at me like I was a burden he hadn’t agreed to carry.

And now, he was the only one who had come to comfort me at my end.

“I didn’t think…” I tried to smile, but it cracked halfway through. My lips felt numb. “Didn’t think you’d be the one…”

He said something—words I couldn’t hear, couldn’t understand. My head lolled against his chest. My heartbeat slowed. My eyes closed.

If I had a second chance, I would never marry Lucas.

The world dimmed.

I expected death to be something colder, darker—final. Instead, it was soft. A heavy hush, like the universe holding its breath.

There was no pain now. No sense of my body. No time. Just the quiet certainty that everything was going to be over soon.

And then something tugged. Just a pull, like some invisible thread had knotted itself around my ribs and yanked hard.

I gasped—air crashing into lungs I hadn’t realized were empty—and jolted upright.

My body was whole. Untouched. No bruises, no pain. My head throbbed faintly, but not with the poison—just confusion.

When I opened my eyes, everything felt… wrong. I wasn’t in the tower suite anymore; I was in the bridal suite of the palace. My parents’ home.

My hands traced the lacey cream fabric of the dress I was wearing. A quick glance down confirmed I was wearing my wedding dress.

The clock on the wall ticked a soft, hypnotic rhythm. 11:02 AM. I stared at it, unblinking.

From the hallway beyond the door, I heard voices. Laughing. Flirting. Lucas’s voice. Harper’s laugh.

No.

I scrambled to my feet, heart racing, the back of my throat raw with shock and confusion. My fingers shook as I touched my face—smooth. No bruises. No tear tracks.

And that’s when I knew: I was somehow one hour before I made the worst mistake of my life.