Chapter 1

Adrian had barely spoken to me for ten months. But tonight, he prepared dinner and tried to make peace with me.

All because I had finally agreed to transfer ownership of Silvercrest Pack to him.

He held the transfer documents and stared at them for a long moment, his eyes filled with gratitude and guilt. Then he kissed me and spoke in a voice full of tenderness.

“Thank you, Kaia. You know I’ve always loved you…”

My voice caught in my throat. “How could you ever doubt my love? You know I’d give you anything.”

And I had. I had given him everything, including the pack my parents had left me.

Now I had nothing.

He was all I had left.

As if to comfort me, Adrian handed me a glass of wine. My tears fell into it before I took a sip.

It tasted sweet.

Sweet…?

Then a violent pain exploded in my stomach.

The glass slipped and shattered on the marble. I grabbed the edge of the tablecloth and doubled over, pulling a candle down with a hiss. Something hot tore through my gut and climbed my ribs, squeezing each organ one by one.

"Adrian." Blood filled my throat. "The wine—"

The wine was poison.

"I know." He stood. Adjusted his cuff. His hands were perfectly steady. "I'm sorry, Kaia. I truly am."

“Your father was Silvercrest’s former Alpha. His blood runs through your veins, and that alone is enough to make the pack love you.” His tone was patient. Gentle, even. The same voice he used for council meetings. “Even with the transfer signed, they’ll never truly follow me while you’re alive. I need a united front for the speaker campaign. One pack, one Alpha, no divided loyalty.”

He straightened his collar in the dark window glass.

"You've always supported my ambitions. I know you understand."

I loved Adrian Blackwell with everything I had, and I gave him nearly all of it. My strategies, my alliances, the credit for every council vote I carried. The only thing I held back was Silvercrest — my blood pack. I told him we could share it.

He said he understood. Then he stopped touching me.

For ten months he slept on the study couch. He never yelled. Never accused me of anything. He just grew quiet and tired and distant, and every morning I woke reaching for a body that wasn't there.

I couldn't stand it anymore. We were fated mates. The bond had snapped into place the night of our awakening, absolute and fierce. I could feel it even now, a warm pull behind my ribs whenever he stood close.

What was one pack compared to that? Why draw a line between his and mine when we were supposed to be one?

So I signed the papers.

Now，he arranged this candlelight dinner — tall silver holders, white lilies, our mating ceremony song playing from the speaker in the corner. I wore the white dress he'd bought me last month and pinned my hair the way he liked. Just as I expected, he thanked me.

I never imagined that his way of saying thank you was to put poison in my glass.

I tried to speak. Tried to ask him why. Blood came up instead.

My knees hit the marble. I crumpled sideways, cheek pressed to the cold floor, arms too weak to push me upright. Blood pooled out from under me, and the smell of iron swallowed the lilies and the candle wax and everything sweet.

"The ceremony is starting downstairs. I should give my speech." He stepped past me without looking down. Like I was a piece of furniture he needed to walk around.

The door opened.

A girl stood in the frame. Silver gown. A luna crown set on her dark hair, gleaming under the hallway light. Lila Bellamy.

An omega. When nobody in the pack would hire her, I gave her work. When other she-wolves made her cry, I stood between them and told them to stop.

She took Adrian's arm and tilted her head at me with wide, sweet eyes.

"Don't worry, Kaia." Her voice dripped honey. "I know I'm not as capable as you. But I'll take very good care of Adrian."

The door shut. The lock clicked.

My vision blurred. The candlelight smeared into gold streaks on the ceiling.

Where did I go wrong?

Was it agreeing to give up the pack? Was it bending to everything he wanted? After I became Luna, I hid behind the scenes. I built strategies and handed him the credit. I earned the pack's trust and then let him stand at the podium with my words in his mouth. I gave away every victory until nobody remembered those victories were mine.

Or was it even earlier than that?

The first day at the Academy. I saw him across the courtyard — seventeen, broad-shouldered, smiling at something somebody said, patient with the boys who crowded around him. I fell for that smile like stepping off a edge of a cliff. I wrote him love letters every year for three years. Three rejections. The entire school called me shameless, and I lifted my chin and said I didn't care.

When he finally accepted in the fourth year, I thought I had won everything. I won nothing. I was chosen because I was useful, and I loved him so completely I lost myself.

Across the room, a full-length mirror faced me on the far wall. My reflection stared back through the bloody marble — white dress soaked red, blood matting my hair, blood on my lips, the light draining from my eyes.

Moon Goddess. If I could do it again—

I wouldn't—

Sound came first.

A chair scraping across linoleum. Laughter. Paper crumpling against somebody's head.

My eyes flew open.

Fluorescent lights. A green chalkboard smudged with half-erased equations. Rows of wooden desks carved with initials and pen marks. The sharp smell of chalk dust and floor cleaner hit me all at once.

My stomach didn't hurt. There was no poison, no fire in my ribs. My body felt whole and young and strong, every muscle coiled tight.

A voice cut through the noise from the front of the classroom.

"Settle down. I'll now hand out this year's mating wish letters."

My heart slammed against my chest.

I knew that voice. I knew this classroom. I was eighteen that year.

I was back.