Chapter 1

I watched helpless as they hacked my body apart, piece by piece. They dumped what was left at the forest border, right on the line between Sterling territory and rogue country.

It was the most brazen insult the rogues had ever thrown at Sterling Pack. The thick smell of blood pulled the entire border patrol in.

Cain led the response himself. The fury rolling off him, Alpha power raw and unchecked, swept through the trees like a storm.

He gave the order on the spot: every enforcer the pack had, on it tonight. Hunt the rogues down.

He stood over the reeking remains, brow drawn tight.

"Can you ID the body? Time of death?" His voice was tight, barely controlled.

Hartley, the Chief Examiner, peeled off his gloves and gave it to him straight.

"The victim's a young she-wolf. Twenty to twenty-two. Her scent's been destroyed, so I can't get an ID yet."

"Whoever did this was a sadist. They cut her limbs off, one by one, with silver tools, while she was still alive. The silver kept her from healing."

The patrol wolves and the few elders who'd come at the news let out furious snarls.

"Sick bastards."

"That poor girl. What she must've gone through…"

Cain's eyes went red. Right there, in front of his pack, he swore a blood oath: those rogues would be hunted down to the last one. They'd pay for this in blood.

My soul drifted overhead, numb. I watched him roar over my mutilated body.

If he knew the corpse was mine, would he still be this angry? Or would he be relieved, like he'd finally gotten rid of the dead weight?

His phone rang.

He glanced at the screen, and his rage went still.

He answered. Selene's soft voice came through.

"Cain, if you can't make it back for the ceremony, it's okay. I know the pack comes first."

His grip on the phone tightened, but his voice went soft in a way it almost never did.

"Selene. Nothing matters more than your ceremony. I'll be there on time."

He hesitated for a beat. Then he handed off the border to a deputy and turned back toward home.

Watching him walk away, my mind drifted back to the year I turned ten.

Our parents were still alive then. And Cain was still the brother who adored me.

Back then, anything I wanted, he got me. No exceptions.

I'd point at fruit at the top of a tree, and he'd hoist me onto his shoulders without a word.

I told him I wanted to see what a full moon looked like from up high, so he shifted, carried me over the highest stone ridge in our territory, and sat with me on the summit until the moon climbed to its peak.

We sat together on that big rock, shoulder to shoulder. He chucked pinecones at my head; I chucked them back. We laughed until we were doubled over.

I really thought it would always be like that.

Then our parents were ambushed at the border, and everything changed.

I'd had a gift for herbs since I was small, so Cain put me in charge of their healing tinctures.

I worked harder than anyone, sat by the fire all night watching the pots, terrified of getting a single ratio wrong.

But within a month, they were dying.

That's when Selene showed up.

She said she was a wandering healer who'd lost her home in the war. She volunteered to take a look at my parents. She opened my herb bag, pawed through it for a few seconds, then looked up, her face white as snow.

"There's wolfsbane in here."

The room went dead silent. My mind went blank.

It wasn't possible.

Cain didn't even look at me. He turned to Selene, begging her to save them.

Selene cut her own wrist and let her blood drip, drop by drop, into their medicine.

A healer's blood can pull poison out, but it costs the healer permanently. It damages their wolf.

She bled all night. She lost her wolf. And she still couldn't save them.

I knelt by the bed. Something inside me snapped, and I couldn't put it back. I don't remember standing up. I don't remember what I said.

I just kept talking, kept trying to explain, my voice going hoarser and hoarser. I prepared those herbs myself, I checked every single one, I had no idea how wolfsbane got in, I swear I didn't—

Cain wouldn't look at me.

He walked over to Selene and rewrapped her bleeding wrist himself, gently, more carefully than he'd ever bandaged me.

"You're staying," he said quietly. "This is your home now. I'll look after you like you're my own sister."

And just like that, Selene moved in.

After that, no matter what I did or didn't do, Selene was always somehow getting hurt because of me.

Every time Cain looked at me, his eyes got colder.

I packed my things in silence and moved out, to the run-down cottage attached to the old healing station on the eastern edge of our territory.

*****

Back at the pack house, Cain's face was dark. He couldn't stop thinking about that body. His head was starting to ache.

It was an old problem.

Garrett sighed. "Head bothering you again? Drink some of the tea. You know Iris's blend is the only thing that touches it. She's good to you, Cain. Stop being so hard on her."

Garrett had been my father Marcus's closest friend. He'd watched Cain and me grow up.

Cain said nothing. His face stayed dark.

"Iris dropped this off last Wednesday." Garrett tapped the bottom of the jar, where a hand-carved little wolf had been etched in painstaking detail. It looked almost exactly like Cain. "For two years now, every Wednesday without fail, she's made you this tea. Except for the week the border went hot. You know how much family means to her. She wouldn't have poisoned her own parents. She couldn't have."

Something rippled through Cain, a flinch. His eyes dropped to the worn tea jar. His thumb traced the little wolf, slow and rough.

"Iris," he said, almost to himself. "She always loved little things like this. Ever since she was small." Something passed behind his eyes, pain or tenderness, gone before you could be sure.

The softness lasted about a second. Then Selene walked in, eyes already brimming.

"Cain." She bit her lower lip like she was trying not to cry. "The Alpha Council just sent over a notice. Iris filed a complaint today. She's saying my appointment as Chief Healer isn't legitimate. She's demanding they review my credentials."

Cain's expression turned to ice.

Selene let out another carefully-timed sigh and leaned in, all sympathy. "She probably knew tonight was my ceremony. Picked the moment on purpose. It's understandable, Cain. She's hurting. Don't be angry about it. I'm just worried about you. You spent today out at that crime scene, and now you have to deal with this too. She doesn't know what you've been through."

My soul watched the whole thing, numb.

I'd been dead for two days. How was I supposed to be filing complaints with the Alpha Council?

But the brother who, five minutes ago, had been softening over my tea jar was gone. In his place: cold, ugly anger.

"I'll handle it." Cain bit the words off, jaw clenched.

A few well-placed sentences, and Selene had flipped his guilt straight back into rage.