Chapter 1: The Girl Nobody Wanted

POV: Tahlia

I stood in front of the mirror while my mother wrestled with the zipper.

"If you'd just lost the weight like I told you," she muttered, yanking harder, "I wouldn't be breaking my nails on this dress."

The fabric pinched the soft roll of my stomach. I kept my eyes on my reflection and said nothing. Twenty-five years had taught me that answering only made it last longer.

"You're going to embarrass us tonight, Tahlia." She gave one final tug and the zipper scraped into place like a small protest. "Nadia looks like a Luna already. You look like you stole her leftovers."

Nadia's laugh floated in from the hallway, light and perfect. "Mama, leave her alone. She's trying."

Trying. The word tasted like pity.

My father appeared in the doorway, already dressed in formal black. He didn't look at me when he spoke. "Smile. Eat less at the banquet. Stay away from the Alpha family. We don't need any more attention than necessary."

"Yes, Father."

"And if anyone asks why you're not dancing, say your feet hurt. Don't invent stories."

"I won't."

He glanced at me then, eyes flicking over the dress and away again. "Good. We leave in ten minutes. Don't make us wait."

The door closed. I stayed at the mirror a moment longer, smoothing the deep green fabric over my hips. It still pulled. It always pulled. I practiced the smile I'd wear all night, polite, small, forgettable, then turned away.

The Moon Ascension Festival had turned Briar Hollow's central courtyard into a sea of silk and gold. Every allied territory had come. Music spilled from the great hall in bright, circling notes, and wolves danced under floating crystal lights that drifted like captured stars. Laughter rose and fell like waves against the stone walls.

Nadia stepped into the middle of it all and the crowd parted for her the way water parts for a blade. Silver dress. Perfect posture. Every head turned. Someone called her name and she laughed again, the sound carrying easily over the music.

I stayed near the edges.

A vendor near the eastern tables cursed under his breath, flipping through a delivery list with ink-stained fingers. "Two crates of the northern red. Gone. Just gone. If the Alpha King's table runs dry..."

I stepped closer. "Check the kitchen entrance stack. The labels got switched with the mead crates this morning."

He looked up, surprised. "How do you know that?"

"I saw the runners unload them earlier." I kept my voice quiet. "Third stack from the left, behind the empty barrels."

He hurried off. A minute later I heard his relieved shout. By the time he turned to thank someone, I'd already moved on.

Near the seating charts, a young organizer was arguing with two elders. "I double-checked the list. The Alpha King's table is only supposed to be here once."

"It's listed twice," one elder snapped. "Fix it before someone sits in the wrong place and starts a war."

I waited until they turned away, then quietly corrected the duplicate entry and adjusted the neighboring place cards so the flow still made sense. When the organizer came back and saw the chart clean, she exhaled hard.

"Finally. Someone with sense must have done it."

She never looked at me.

A server no older than sixteen dropped an entire tray of glasses near the dessert tables. The crash cut through the music. Shards scattered. She dropped to her knees, face already red, whispering apologies to no one.

I crouched beside her. "I've got the big pieces. You count the replacements in the side cart so we don't run short later."

She blinked at me. "You're not going to tell the head organizer?"

"No. Just count."

We worked fast. By the time a senior server arrived, the glass was gone and the numbers matched. The girl shot me a grateful look. I gave her a small nod and slipped back into the crowd before anyone could ask my name.

That was how the evening went. Missing inventory. Frustrated vendors. Seating mistakes that could have turned into arguments. I fixed what I could and stayed invisible while the organizers took the praise. It was safer that way. Safer than standing still long enough for someone to remember the fat Osadebe sister and decide I made good entertainment.

I avoided the dance floor completely. Every time a pair of eyes drifted toward me, that old familiar burn started under my skin, the one that came before the jokes, the whispers, the sideways glances at my body. I kept moving. Kept useful. Kept small.

Then the royal horns sounded.

The courtyard erupted.

Black carriages trimmed in silver rolled through the main gates, banners snapping in the night wind. Warriors in formal armor lined the path. The Alpha King stepped out first to a roar of approval. His Luna followed, elegant and severe. And then he appeared.

Ronan Edevane.

Alpha Prince of the Silver Ridge Dominion.

Tall, broad-shouldered, the kind of handsome that made people forget how to breathe. Dark hair pushed back from a face built for power and privilege. He smiled at the cheering crowd like he owned every cheer, every stare, every fantasy already forming in the minds of half the unmated wolves present.

Someone near me whispered, "Goddess, look at him."

Another answered, "I'd reject my own mate for a night with that."

Laughter. Agreement. The usual.

I only meant to glance.

One second. That was all it took.

Warmth slammed into my chest so hard my knees nearly buckled. My lungs forgot how to work. The noise of the festival, music, cheers, conversation, vanished as if someone had dropped a heavy curtain over the world. All I could hear was the sudden, sharp gasp of my wolf rising inside my mind.

Mate.

The word rang through my bones like a struck bell.

Cedar. Rain. Smoke. The scent hit me a heartbeat later, clean and sharp and impossibly familiar, as if it had always belonged in my lungs. My wolf surged forward, desperate, hopeful, terrified all at once.

This couldn't be real. Not him. Not the Alpha Prince every she-wolf in three territories dreamed about. Not the man who had never once looked my way in all the years his family had visited Briar Hollow.

My hands shook. I pressed them hard against the cold stone of the nearest pillar and tried to steady my breathing. The bond pulsed between us, raw and living, impossible to ignore. My heart hammered so loudly I was certain the whole courtyard could hear it.

I forced myself to look up.

He had already turned.

His head tilted slightly, as if something invisible had yanked his attention across the crowded space. Those sharp golden-brown eyes swept the courtyard once, twice, then locked straight onto mine.

The easy smile on his face died.

For one endless heartbeat we stared at each other across the distance. The mate bond stretched between us like a live wire, humming with a recognition neither of us had asked for. My wolf pressed against my skin, frantic to get closer. His expression shifted in rapid, visible stages.

Confusion first.

Then the dawning of recognition.

Then something colder I couldn't name.

He didn't look away.

Neither could I.