Chapter 1

When my maid, Greta, brought in the tonic I had to drink every day, I told her to pour it out.

She tried to stop me, close to tears. "Luna, what if the healer got it wrong? If you keep taking the medicine, your wolf might still hold on."

"Then let me have it my way one last time."

If there was one thing I'd never lacked in the past seven years, it was willfulness.

The irony was that now, at the very end, I didn't even have the strength to knock the bowl over.

When I asked Greta to pack my things, she sounded frantic. "Luna, the healer said you're not well enough to travel so far with your old injuries."

I looked out the window. The mountains rose like a wall before me.

I had never seen the sea.

People said it was so wide it could hold the whole sky.

While I could still walk, I wanted to go and see it.

"I want to go to the sea."

Greta froze.

I opened my jewelry box and picked out everything Alric had given me over the years, one piece at a time.

Pearl earrings. A sapphire brooch. And the moonstone necklace.

"Pack these up and send them to Yvette."

Greta picked up the moonstone necklace, her voice shaking. "Even this one?"

I touched the necklace. The stone was as cold as my heart.

Alric had put it on me himself right before our bonding ceremony.

He had bent down and kissed my forehead. "This was my mother's. Wear it, and the whole Frostmoon pack will know you're the only Luna my family will ever accept."

I'd mistaken every one of those gifts for love.

Only later did I understand that he was simply grateful I'd saved his life on the battlefield.

"Yes. Pack all of it. I'll take it to my sister myself."

When I carried the wooden box into Yvette's courtyard, my three little nieces, Freya, Liv, and Nora, were practicing swordplay in the snow.

I held out a wooden sword to Freya, the oldest. I'd stayed up all night carving it for her.

She didn't take it. She just tipped her head back and looked up at me.

"Do you keep making us things because you want pups of your own, Luna?"

The courtyard went quiet.

The maids nearby lowered their eyes, though they couldn't quite hide their smiles.

I crouched down and brushed the snow off her shoulder.

"Who told you that?"

She pouted, her voice ringing out clearly.

"Martha says you can't have pups yourself, so you're always hanging around us.

"They also said if you ever have a pup, you'll kick us all out."

The next second, she snatched the wooden sword and stomped on it, snapping it in two.

"I don't want your things!"

The wood broke with a sharp crack. Strangely, the pain in my chest no longer burned.

It was like the last few embers of a fire going cold.

Footsteps sounded behind me, along with the faint cedar scent that always clung to Alric.

I used to love that scent. It reminded me of a winter morning, cold and clean.

Now there was nothing left but the cold.

Freya ran straight to him and threw her arms around his leg.

"Father, the Luna was mean to me!"

He patted her head before he even looked at me.

"Why are you picking on a pup again?"

I smiled. "I'm not picking on her."

Alric glanced at the broken sword on the ground and frowned. "If you like pups so much, I'll have the girls spend more time with you in the main hall. Why bother trying to win them over with little trinkets like this?

"If they actually took them, Yvette would be hurt."

He had been like this for seven years.

First he would let me do whatever I wanted. Then he would tell me how much it had hurt Yvette.

As if everything I did was somehow an attempt to one-up my sister.

He owed me his life, after all. He could never quite bring himself to tell me to leave.

I nodded. "All right. I won't do it again."

Alric froze for a second and looked me over as if I were a stranger.

Then his eyes landed on the jewelry box in my hands, and his face darkened.

"And what is this supposed to mean?"

"I don't really like wearing jewelry," I said evenly. "So I brought it for my sister."

"Sigrid." His voice turned colder. "Yvette just got pregnant, and you're throwing another tantrum? Insulting her with your castoffs?"

For a long moment, I couldn't speak. "You've got it wrong. I just have no use for them, and I didn't want them to go to waste."

Tears welled up in my eyes again.

Alric was silent for a moment. Then he reached out and pulled my cloak tighter around me.

The gesture came naturally, but he spoke to me as though I were a child who didn't know any better.

"Go back to your room and stay there. No more running around. Once you've thought it over, I'll come see you."

I stepped back, out of his reach.

"There's no need. My sister just got pregnant. You should spend more time with her."

Alric's expression hardened at once.

He was about to say something when Yvette came out of the house.

"Don't be angry, Alpha," she said softly. "Sigrid hasn't been feeling well lately. Of course she's in a bad mood."

Yvette came over and gently stroked my face.

"You're so pale. Your wounds need another soak in the moon spring. Let me arrange it for you."

I looked up at her.

Yvette gave me a tender smile and laid her palm over the back of my hand.

"Be good and listen to your big sister. We're sisters. I would never do anything to hurt you."