Chapter 1

The healer ordered me to stay in an isolation room for at least seven days. I refused.

I knew my body better than any healer did. A rare strain of wolfsbane had already reached my heart, and my wolf had grown weaker inside my soul. Some days, even answering me took everything she had left.

Damon Thorn was the Alpha of Silver Ridge.

Five years ago, he marked me with hatred in his eyes. He thought I had used my family’s power to force the mate bond and steal him from Serena. After that, every good thing I did for him only looked like guilt to him.

Five years later, he finally had the chance to return that hatred.

I didn’t want to spend my last days in a healing center. I signed the discharge form and took a car back to the Alpha manor.

Damon sat in the living room with a cup of untouched ginger tea on the table. He used to make that tea whenever my hands went cold after patrol, but when I walked in, he pushed the cup away and let his gaze sweep over my pale face. “Weren’t you at the healing center? You walked in just fine.”

I gripped the doorframe until the room stopped spinning, then crossed to stand across from him. “Where is the contract?”

Damon frowned. “Who are you putting on this half-dead act for? Where did you go last night to practice your sad little performance?”

I didn’t answer him. “The rejection notice. Give it to me.”

I was afraid I would collapse before I signed it. The wolfsbane burned through my ribs with every heartbeat, and I refused to faint in front of him.

Damon watched me for a few seconds, then pulled an Elder notice from under the coffee table and slapped it down. “Sign it. Don’t back out at the last second.”

The Elders’ wolf seal glowed across the parchment. It was the consent notice that would allow Damon to reject me before the council, tear apart our mate bond, and strip me of my place as Luna.

I looked at Damon. “This is the last gift I’ll ever give you.”

His brow twitched as if he had heard a bad joke. “Don’t make yourself sound noble, Aria. You owe me my freedom. You should’ve given it back years ago.”

I took the pen and signed my name at the bottom of the notice.

The seal flared. The mate mark on my shoulder burned as if Damon’s wolf had raked its claws through my soul, and I swallowed the scream in my throat.

When the consent notice settled, all strength left my body. I sagged forward and braced my forehead against the edge of the table.

Damon’s hand moved as if he meant to catch me, then stopped halfway. “Stop pretending. Do you think acting pathetic will make me come back to you?”

“I’m not pretending.” My voice barely came out.

“If you hadn’t used the Blackwood name and dragged the Elders into it, I would’ve left Silver Ridge with Serena five years ago. She should’ve been my Luna.”

His eyes stayed hard, but his thumb rubbed the corner of the folder until the paper bent. “You were good to me for five years, but that was just debt. You ruined my happiness. Don’t expect me to thank you for paying a little of it back.”

I wanted to explain. Pain had locked my chest too tightly for words.

For five years, he had never believed that I didn’t force him. He had never believed there was another truth behind that mate ceremony.

I lifted my eyes and looked at the face I had loved for so long. “So you’ve blamed me all this time. If I die, will you forgive me?”

Damon slid the contract into a folder. His voice held no emotion. “Die first. Then we’ll talk.”

He left without looking back. At the door, he paused when I coughed, but his phone lit up with Serena’s name, and the sound of his footsteps soon disappeared down the hall. When the door closed, the firelight shattered in my vision. My chest seized, and dark blood spilled from my lips.

When I woke again, I was lying in a healing center bed. Elias Frost sat beside me.

Elias was Damon’s Beta. He was also my best friend. The cruelest joke was that he had been the person who brought me into Damon’s world and let me meet the proud, dazzling young Alpha I should never have loved.

When Elias saw my eyes open, he leaned forward. His own eyes were red from sleeplessness. “How do you feel? Does it still hurt?”

I tried to smile, but I only coughed up a little blood. “I’m fine. Just tired.”

His eyes reddened harder. “How long were you planning to hide this from me? The healer told me everything. That wolfsbane isn’t a scratch, Aria. By breaking the mate bond, you cut the last rope holding you here.”

I fell silent.

Elias grabbed his phone. “Does Damon know? He should know. I’m telling him right now.”

I stopped his hand. “There’s no need.”

Before yesterday, I might have let Elias explain everything. But Damon’s coldness last night, his mockery today, and his words—die first, then we’ll talk—had crushed the last piece of hope inside me.

I was afraid that if Damon knew I was dying, he would stand beside my bed and say, “Why didn’t you die sooner? You stole the years Serena and I should’ve had.”

If I heard that, I would break completely.

Elias asked hoarsely, “Does he still misunderstand what happened back then? I can explain it for you.”

I shook my head. “Don’t. Let the truth be buried with me.”