Chapter 1

The moonstone above the entrance flashed red.

The protective barrier remained across the doorway.

I pressed my palm against the silver plate again. The stone should have turned white after recognizing my wolf’s scent. Instead, another red pulse traveled through the carved frame.

My scent had never been registered.

Kieran had completed the new Alpha House less than a month ago. After our mating ceremony next week, it was supposed to become our home.

Yet the ward would not allow me inside.

Mason Hale laughed behind me.

“You can stop trying, Mara. Talia’s scent was registered three days ago.”

Several of Kieran’s friends stood in the entrance hall with glasses of moonwine, watching me.

“Kieran made a wager with us,” Mason continued. “I said you would lose control when you discovered Talia could enter before you.”

Another man smiled. “Kieran said you had finally learned to trust him. If you get through tonight without making a scene, he’ll register your scent tomorrow.”

I looked through the transparent barrier.

Kieran stood near the fireplace with a glass of whiskey. He had heard them clearly, but he made no attempt to stop them.

Talia stood beside him wearing the gold wolf-head clasp commissioned for the future Luna.

“My own clasp broke while I was preparing the ceremonial hall,” she explained. “Kieran said I could borrow this one.”

A few months earlier, I would have demanded that she remove it. Now I simply lifted my hand from the entrance plate.

“There’s no need to register me.”

Kieran set down his glass and crossed the barrier.

“No need for what?”

“My access. Talia can keep it.”

Mason grinned. “Are you leaving already? Kieran only wins if you make it through the evening without starting an argument.”

I turned toward him. “What exactly did you wager?”

“I said you would demand that Talia’s access be removed. Kieran said you had finally learned that entrance to a house means nothing.”

So that explained the audience. Everyone had been waiting to see whether I would embarrass myself.

Kieran looked perfectly calm. To him, turning my pain into entertainment was another lesson designed for my benefit.

“Congratulations,” I said. “You won.”

I started down the stone steps.

Kieran followed and caught my wrist.

“Mara, where are you going?”

“Back to the old house.”

“I’ll register your scent tomorrow.” His voice lowered. “Everyone is already here. Don’t force me to chase you because you want attention.”

I withdrew my wrist.

“You don’t need to chase me.”

His expression hardened. “If you leave now, don’t threaten to cancel the mating ceremony. You’ve spent years asking when we would finally make it official.”

That argument would once have stopped me.

Five years earlier, before Kieran inherited the Alpha title, we had lived in a cottage with a leaking roof. He promised that one day he would build me a home where no one could make me feel unwelcome.

Now that home recognized Talia and rejected me.

“Fine,” I said. “We won’t complete the mating ceremony.”

The pack vehicles waited at the end of the path. I walked toward them without looking back.

Mason’s voice carried from the entrance. “Should someone follow her?”

“Let her go,” Kieran replied. “She’ll open the private link before midnight.”

No one followed me.

When I reached our old cottage, I brought several empty storage cases down from the attic. Photographs, festival ribbons, and gifts from our first years together disappeared into them.

A pulse touched the edge of my mind as Kieran opened our private link.

Enough, Mara.

Another message followed.

I gave you a chance to return without embarrassing yourself. Do not keep testing my patience.

I closed the link without answering.

For months, Kieran had taught me that loving him required silence. Whenever I told him that something hurt me, he repeated it more openly until I began questioning whether I had any right to object.

Eight days ago, I had submitted my resignation. Since then, I had finished my boundary surveys, handed over my winter plans, and accepted a senior planning position at Silvercrest.

My transfer petition was already with the Moon Council. Silvercrest had sent its acceptance seal.

Only the final approval remained.

Kieran thought I was learning to live without his attention.

I was making sure I could live without him.