CHAPTER 1

Seraphina's POV

"You're humming again."

Bessa nudged me with her elbow, her eyes flicking toward the kitchen door. She was the cook's daughter and the closest thing I had to a friend in this house, which wasn't saying much since she only talked to me when no one important was watching.

"Sorry." I hadn't noticed I was doing it. The kitchen was warm and quiet this time of day, and I'd let my guard down while stirring the pot of soup we'd been working on all morning.

Stupid mistake. Letting my guard down in this house was always a stupid mistake.

"You should go soon." Bessa kept her voice low as she chopped vegetables beside me. "I heard the Luna asking where you were earlier. Something about your sister's fitting."

My hands paused on the wooden spoon. "That's not until three. I have another hour at least."

"Sera." Her voice dropped even lower. "Just go. Please. I don't want to see you get hurt again."

The kitchen door slammed open before I could respond.

The Luna stood in the doorway with Octavia behind her, and the look on her face made my stomach drop straight to the floor. I was never allowed to call her mother, not since I turned thirteen and my wolf failed to show up like it was supposed to. 

She'd sat me down that day and told me I wasn't worthy of using that word anymore, that I was a stain on the Thornwood name, and until I proved otherwise, I would address her the way everyone else did.

Octavia still got to call her mom. Octavia got to do a lot of things I didn't.

That was eight years ago. Nothing had changed.

"So this is where you've been hiding." The Luna's voice could freeze fire. "Playing kitchen maid while your sister waits."

"The fitting isn't until three." I set the spoon down slowly, carefully. "I checked the schedule this morning and it said—"

"The schedule changed." Octavia's voice was sweet like honey laced with poison. "Didn't anyone tell you?" She pressed a hand to her chest, her eyes going wide with fake concern. "Oh no, I was supposed to send someone to let you know, wasn't it? It must have slipped my mind. I've just been so busy preparing for the Alpha's visit."

She was lying. She'd never planned to tell me. This was another one of her traps, the same game she'd been playing since we were children, and our parents always took her side because Octavia was the golden child and I was just the worthless disappointment who couldn't do anything right.

"I'll come right now." I wiped my hands on my apron and moved toward the door. "I'm sorry for the confusion, I just—"

"Stay where you are."

The Luna's words stopped me cold. She turned to Bessa, who had gone pale and frozen beside me. "You. Get out."

Bessa dropped her knife and ran from the kitchen without looking back, leaving me alone with them.

The door clicked shut behind her.

"Luna, I'm sorry." I kept my voice steady even though my heart was trying to beat out of my chest. "If someone had told me the time changed, I would have been there. I wasn't trying to—"

"I did tell you." Octavia's lower lip trembled like she was about to cry. "I sent one of the maids this morning, just like I promised. She said you waved her off and told her you were busy." She turned to our mother with wet eyes. "I don't understand why she's lying about it, Mom. I was just trying to help."

"No one came to tell me anything." The words left my mouth before I could stop them. "I've been in this kitchen since dawn and no one—"

"Are you calling your sister a liar?" The Luna's eyes turned to ice.

There was no right answer because Octavia had made sure there wouldn't be. If I said yes, I was disrespecting the precious heir. If I said no, I was admitting fault for something I didn't do.

This was how it always went. She would set me up to fail, then cry her pretty tears, and our parents would look at me like I was dirt beneath their shoes. In their eyes, Octavia could do no wrong and I could do no right, and my missing wolf was all the proof they needed that the Moon Goddess herself had marked me as unworthy.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, because sorry was the only word that ever kept me safe. "It won't happen again."

"You're right." The Luna walked toward the stove where our pot of soup had been simmering all morning. We always made it extra spicy because my father liked it that way, loaded with enough pepper to make your eyes water just from the steam. "It won't."

I saw what she was reaching for and my whole body went rigid.

"Luna, please—"

She grabbed the pot with a cloth and turned toward me. Octavia was already moving, her fingers digging into my arms from behind as she yanked me in place with a strength that reminded me exactly what I was missing.

"We've been too soft with you." The Luna's face showed nothing as she lifted the pot over my head. "That ends today."

She poured the soup down my back.

The scream that ripped out of me didn't sound like my own voice. The soup was boiling hot, burning through my dress and scalding my skin, but the pepper was worse. It turned the burn into a thousand tiny knives that kept digging and twisting even after the liquid stopped flowing.

My legs buckled and I crashed to my knees on the stone floor, gasping and choking on the pain as it spread across my shoulders and down my spine.

"Get up." The Luna set the empty pot aside like she'd just finished watering plants. "You have two minutes to get to the dressing room."