Chapter 1

Isabelle’s POV

The Moon Goddess’s voice slowly faded into the distance. “The sacrifice is accepted. You may leave this world when you are ready.”

I felt weightless, floating high above the ground, looking down at everything below.

Lena was beside me. “So this is how everything ends?” she asked softly.

I hummed in response.

Two years ago, Lena and I had suddenly woken up inside a place called Thornhold Fortress—an ancient Lycan realm, far older than the world we came from.

We were trapped there with no idea how to get home.

Then the Moon Goddess appeared before us. She told us there was one way to escape.

We had to earn the love and trust of the two most powerful wolves in Thornhold—the Lycan Prince and the Rogue King.

At first, Lena and I refused.

Back home, I already had my mate, Jace. And Lena had Rowan.

We loved them. We wanted no one else.

But as time passed, we realized we had no other choice.

If this was the only way home, then we would do it.

Compared to everything else, returning to our mates mattered more.

So we followed the Moon Goddess’s instructions and tried to get close to the Prince and the King.

We didn’t have to truly love them. We just need to pretend.

But we had badly underestimated how difficult it would be.

The Prince hated me from the beginning. He thought I was nothing more than another she-wolf trying to crawl into his bed.

He broke my legs and ribs, then threw me into Rogue Territory and left me there to survive on my own.

The King was no kinder to Lena either. When she begged the Lycan Prince to spare me, the Rogue King appeared, crushed her knees and forced wolfsbane down her throat.

After that, she could barely walk. Her wolf grew weaker by the day until Lena could hardly feel her anymore.

Still, we refused to give up.

There was only one thing keeping us alive. Home. Jace. Rowan.

We kept telling ourselves that if we endured a little longer, if we survived one more day, we would eventually see them again.

Nothing mattered more than that.

But after two years of torture, starvation, and living worse than strays, Lena and I finally reached our limit.

We were dying.

And that was when the Moon Goddess appeared again.

She told us we had failed to earn the Prince and King’s love and trust, which meant we could never leave Thornhold Fortress.

I remember lying there, blood filling my mouth, barely able to breathe.

After everything we had endured, we were still going to die without seeing Jace and Rowan one last time.

I looked up at the Moon Goddess. “If we can’t go back to them, can you at least grant us one final wish?”

I swallowed hard, fighting back the blood rising in my throat.

The Moon Goddess looked at me. “What is your final wish?”

“If we can’t return to the ones we love…” I struggled to breathe. “Can you at least promise us they’ll stay safe? That our pack will remain strong and prosperous?”

Her expression changed. “There will be a price.”

“Anything,” Lena answered before I could.

She had loved Rowan since she turned eighteen and first met her wolf.

I knew it was destroying her to think she would never see him again.

“Your souls,” the Moon Goddess said quietly. She hesitated. “What you are asking is beyond the rules. But after everything the two of you have suffered, I…”

“Do it.” This time, I reached for Lena’s hand. “At least we’ll still have each other.”

Lena smiled back at me, tears shining in her eyes.

…

Strangely, death wasn’t as frightening as I had imagined.

I was floating in the air, Lena beside me.

Together, we looked down at Thornhold Fortress—the place that had brought us nothing but pain for the past two years.

Then we turned away.

We were ready to leave.

That was when the Lycan Prince suddenly laughed. He reached up and pulled off his mask.

My entire body froze.

Jace. It was Jace.

The same dark eyes. The same sharp mouth. The same small mark near his jaw where I had kissed him countless times.

He looked exactly like the mate I remembered. Except for one thing, there was no love in his eyes.

“Enough, Rowan.” Jace walked straight through where I floated and stopped beside the Rogue King. “I think we’ve punished them enough.”

Beside me, Lena went completely still.

The Alpha King slowly removed his mask.

Rowan.

I felt Lena tremble.

Her mate. The wolf she had loved all these years. Also the wolf who had crushed her knees until she could never run freely with her wolf again.

The hall erupted with laughter.

The warriors standing along the walls—the ones I had believed were Lycan guards—started pulling off their ancient armor.

The Omega maids removed their wigs.

Piece by piece, Thornhold Fortress disappeared around us.

Fake stone walls were pulled away. Torches went dark. Ancient banners dropped to the floor.

It had never been a real fortress. It was a set. A prison dressed up like a palace.

Jace crouched beside my broken body while I watched from above.

His gaze traveled over the bruises, the blood, my twisted legs.

There wasn’t even a flicker of concern on his face. “Does it hurt?” he asked.

I couldn’t answer.

Of course I couldn’t. I was already dead.

Jace took my useless hand in his and sighed. “You and Lena should’ve thought about that before you went after Selene and her pup.”

Rowan stepped toward Lena. “You two caused Selene to lose her pup. Three years of punishment seems fair to me.”

Just then, Selene walked into the hall in a pure white dress.

Lena and I exchanged a glance.

Selene, a close friend of both our mates.

She had grown up with Jace in the Silver Moon Pack, while Rowan’s Starlight Moon Pack was just across the border.

The three of them had practically grown up together.

Lena and I barely even crossed paths with Selene. We had certainly never hurt her.

What were Jace and Rowan talking about? How could they possibly believe we had caused her to lose her pup?

And suddenly, I realized something far worse.

The past three years had never been some strange time travel. There had never been a trial from the Moon Goddess.

Thornhold had been built for us. A place designed specifically to torture Lena and me.

Every beating had been ordered. Every punishment had been chosen for us.

Every time Lena and I begged our mates to save us…They had already been there, watching, laughing, believing we deserved every second of it.

They could have confronted us. They could have asked what happened. They could have given us one chance to defend ourselves.

Instead, they used their power as Alphas to build an entire prison around us and called it punishment.

How cruel could they really be?