Chapter 1

Sienna ran her fingers along the ceremonial collar, watching the two moonstones catch the light.

“Mom, look. They even shaped the setting like the moonflowers I love.”

Mother’s face was glowing with pride.

“My baby deserves the most beautiful moonstone collar the Blackthorn Pack has ever seen. Every Alpha in the region will be there. We can’t give them a single thing to gossip about.”

So Mother understood.

She knew even the smallest flaw in Sienna’s collar would draw comments.

Yet she expected me to walk into the same ceremony wearing an old collar from the Pack vault, tarnished and missing half its moonstone, while Sienna wore two gleaming moonstones around her neck.

She understood exactly how humiliating that would be.

She simply didn’t care when I was the daughter being humiliated.

Father stepped forward and kissed Sienna on the forehead.

“After the Recognition Ceremony, the entire Pack will know exactly who you are. My daughter. Alpha blood.”

His expression hardened.

“And once you’re formally recognized, anyone who disrespects you will answer to me.”

Only a week ago, he had told me something very different.

An Alpha’s daughter didn’t complain over every slight. She handled her problems quietly.

Apparently, Sienna was allowed to need her Alpha’s protection.

I was expected to handle everything on my own.

I stood in the doorway, staring at the collar that held both our moonstones.

Even the leather had been stamped with Sienna’s initials.

S.B.

For one stupid second, I wanted to ask, Am I not your daughter too?

I swallowed them.

What was the point?

I had asked the same question a hundred different ways since we were children.

The answer never changed.

“Why does everything have to be a competition with your sister?”

Or worse:

“Sienna’s wolf has always been weaker than yours. You can afford to give her this.”

Sienna and I were twins, but our wolves couldn’t have been more different.

My first shift had come early and easily. Sienna’s came months later, after three painful attempts.

From then on, my strength became their excuse for everything.

When we were thirteen, I earned the right to lead the younger wolves on their first full-moon run. Sienna cried because she had wanted to lead too.

Mother asked me to let her take my place.

I did.

A year later, I placed first in the Pack’s junior combat trials. Sienna came near the bottom.

That night, instead of celebrating me, my parents secured Sienna a spot at an elite private training camp because she “needed something to feel proud of too.”

Every time I earned something, somehow Sienna ended up being the one who needed comforting.

And every time, I stepped aside.

When Father announced that Sienna and I would be formally recognized together, I thought there was finally nothing left for them to ask me to give up.

Our moonstones were ours from the moment of our first shifts.

No one could take that from me, even Sienna.

I was wrong.

Just like always, when Sienna decided one moonstone wasn’t enough to make her collar special, they gave her mine.

They didn’t even bother to tell me.

Across the room, Sienna slipped her arm through Mother’s.

“Why isn’t my dress here yet? I need everything to be perfect for tonight.”

The Blackthorn Pack had invited Alpha families from across the werewolf world to our Recognition Ceremony.

Several visiting Alphas and their families had already arrived, so Father was hosting a formal welcome dinner at the Pack Hall that evening.

Sienna’s custom gown had arrived that afternoon from one of the most exclusive designers in the werewolf world and was waiting at their Manhattan atelier.

Mother turned to me.

“Aria, go pick it up.”

I glanced at the clock.

“If I leave now, I won’t have enough time to get ready.”

“You never take long,” Mother said. “You always wear something simple. Sienna’s dress needs much more attention.”

As if I dressed simply because I liked it that way.

When Sienna’s Recognition gown was being custom-made, no one had even asked if I wanted one too.

That was how it had always been. Sienna needed more, so I was expected to make do with less.

I looked at Father.

He didn’t even glance up.

“All right,” I said quietly. “I’ll get it.”

By the time I returned, SUVs from visiting Packs already lined the drive.

I carried Sienna’s dress upstairs myself.

After leaving it in her room, I hurried down the hall, showered, and had barely started drying my hair when Sienna called for me.

“Aria! Come help me with this zipper.”

Mother and two Pack attendants were already gathered around her when I walked in.

Sienna stood before the mirror in layers of ivory silk, our family’s heirloom necklace resting against her throat.

“The zipper’s stuck,” she said. “Pull it up.”

I brought the fabric together and tugged.

Sienna suddenly gasped.

“Too tight.”

I stopped immediately, but she was already pressing a hand to her chest.

Mother grabbed her arm.

“Sienna!”

“I can’t breathe,” she whispered.

“It was barely a second,” I said. “I hardly pulled it.”

Mother spun toward me.

“You know how sensitive your sister is. Would it have killed you to be more careful?”

“I was trying to help her.”

“And somehow you always find a way to make things worse.”

Sienna closed her eyes while Mother fanned her face and ordered someone to bring water.

Everyone crowded around her.

By the time I made it back to my room, the dinner bell was already ringing.

My hair was still damp. I hadn’t touched my makeup, and the dress I had planned to wear was still zipped inside its garment bag.

There was no time left.

I pulled on a simple black dress and hurried downstairs.

The Pack Hall was already full.

Sienna sat at Father’s right hand beneath the chandeliers, glowing in the ivory dress I had crossed Manhattan to collect for her.

My place card was waiting on Father’s left.

I had almost reached my chair when he looked up.

His gaze traveled over my damp hair and plain black dress.

“You can’t sit there looking like that.”

I stopped.

“I didn’t have time to change.”

Father frowned.

“The Nightcrest Alpha is here with his family. I’m not seating my daughter beside him looking half-dressed.”

He motioned to one of the Pack staff.

“Move Aria’s place to the end of the table.”

The staff member picked up my place card.

I watched my name travel away from Father, past the visiting Alphas and their families, all the way to the far end of the table.

No one said a word.

I took my new seat.

A moment later, Father raised his glass toward Sienna.

“To the future of Blackthorn.”

Applause filled the room.

Sienna smiled beneath the chandeliers.

I knew Father wouldn’t raise his glass to me tonight.

I looked down at my place card at the corner of the table.

Maybe it suited me better than I thought.

I was the daughter they could move aside.

After dinner, I overheard my parents discussing the next day.

“We’ll take the official Pack portrait at noon,” Father said. “Use the council hall. Sienna should wear her Recognition gown.”

I stopped beside the table.

“My Moonridge interview is at noon. I told you yesterday.”

I had already been accepted to Moonridge University. The interview was for one of its most selective first-year research programs.

My family didn’t know about the acceptance.

They had never asked.

Father didn’t look up.

“Then do your interview.”?

“But it’s supposed to be the official family portrait.”

Rowan gave me an impatient look.

“We’re not rearranging the Alpha’s entire schedule around a university interview.”

I stared at him.

“So you’re taking the family portrait without me?”

Mother sighed.

“Aria, please don’t turn this into another argument. The portrait is for the Recognition announcement. You don’t even like Pack events.”

That was their favorite lie.

They left me out, then pretended staying away had been my choice.

Sienna touched my arm.

“We can take another one with you later.”

The portrait was taken only once. After the ceremony, it would hang in the Council Hall as the official record of our generation of the Alpha bloodline.

If I wasn’t in that portrait, it would be as if I had never belonged there at all.

Father finally looked at me.

“We are not delaying the portrait. If your interview matters that much, do it. It’s your choice, Aria.”

He made it sound as though missing the portrait would be my decision.

Not theirs.

Back in my bedroom, I locked the door and opened my laptop.

Moonridge University’s admissions portal was still open on the screen.

Beneath the green acceptance banner was the enrollment checklist I had ignored for months.

Father had always insisted I would stay in Blackthorn territory.

An Alpha’s daughter belonged with her Pack.

Apparently, that rule only applied to me.

Sienna could attend any university she wanted. Mother and Father even encouraged her to leave Pack territory, saying it would be good for her to experience the world.

I selected the earliest move-in date and paid the housing deposit with money I had won from academic competitions.

Then I booked a one-way flight.

Departure: 10:10 a.m.

The morning of our Recognition Ceremony.

By the time the Blackthorns realized I had never shown up at the ceremony, I would already be gone.