Chapter 1

REJECTED BEFORE THE BALL

I gently turned the bracelet sitting pretty on my wrist, once, twice, and was captivated at how the silver moon charm attached to it caught the candlelight in my bedroom mirror.

In a few hours I would be standing beside Rowan at the Lycan Ball, and maybe, if fate was finally on my side, he would say the words I had been hoping to hear for the past two years.

"You look happy," my maid, Della, said as she pinned the last curl in my hair into place. "The nervous kind of happy.”

I smiled. "Is that even a thing?”

"For you, it is." She smiled back at me through the mirror. "Everyone in the pack house is talking about tonight. They say Rowan asked his father for something. Maybe a ring.”

My heart skipped a beat. I placed a hand over my chest, trying to calm myself. "Don't say that. You'll ruin my luck."

"I'm only telling you what I heard.”

I wanted to believe her.  I wanted it so badly that I let myself imagine it anyway. I pictured Rowan taking my hand after the announcement and leading me away from the crowd. I imagined his warm hands wrapped around mine, telling me that titles and pack politics didn't matter. That all he craved for was a quiet home with me somewhere far from all the noise of power struggles. That was the life I had always dreamed of. Not a throne or power. Just a life with the man I love and peaceful mornings together.

Della finished my hair and stepped back to admire her work. "There. You'll steal every eye in that ballroom tonight.”

"I only care about one pair of eyes," I replied.

She laughed, shaking her head like I was hopeless.

I left my room early because I was so restless that I couldn't sit still. I made my way to the east garden where Rowan usually spent time with his friends before important events. I decided I'd see him only  for a few minutes. Maybe talking to him would calm my nerves.

Before I reached the garden, I didn't expect to hear my own name carried by the wind to my ears. It was a familiar voice.

"Aurelia actually thinks I'm going to announce something tonight."

It was Rowan.

I paused in my tracks.

"You mean you're not?" That was Corwin, his closest friend, laughing already like he knew the punchline.

"Please." Rowan chuckled. "She's sweet, but come on. Yes, she's an Ashthorne, but she's nothing special. Her wolf is weak, and after her mother died, her family lost all their influence. I only stayed with her because she was easy. She never questioned me or made things difficult.”

My chest tightened, as though a hand had reached in and squeezed it.

"So what changed?" another of his friends asked.

"Everleigh Duskmoor." Rowan sounded almost proud. "Her family controls half of the northern trade. Her wolf is stronger than most of the guards. That's the kind of mate a man should build a future with. Aurelia was just... convenient."

Convenient. I staggered back and grabbed a nearby branch to keep from falling. Before I realized what I was doing, I pushed through the hedge. My hands were shaking.

Rowan's smile disappeared the second he saw me. "Aurelia…”

He called my name like he was sorry, but I knew he didn't.

"Say it again," I whispered. "Say it to my face this time."

Corwin and the others were quiet now, watching with interest. Rowan clenched his jaw. When he looked at me, his eyes were cold and I almost didn't recognize him anymore. Those eyes told me he had already decided I wasn't worth protecting from embarrassment.

"You already heard me," he said. "I'm sorry you found out this way, but it's the truth. You were never going to be Luna material. Look at yourself. You have no status, your wolf isn't strong, and your family has no power. The King probably wouldn't even notice someone like you tonight if he even bothers to look at anyone below the ranked families at all.”

A few of his friends chuckled quietly. That was proof enough that they agreed with him. Maybe they always had and I was the only one who hadn't known.

"You told me you loved me," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"I told you lots of things." He shrugged.

"You're a good girl, Aurelia, no doubt about that. You'll find someone who suits you someday. That person just isn't me."

Inside me, my wolf let out a soft cry and curled into herself. My eyes burned with tears and I hated that Rowan could see them. I hated even more that Corwin seemed like he was enjoying every bit of it.

There was nothing left to say so I turned around and stormed off.

Soon, I was running. My heels slipped on the gravel, and my carefully styled hair came loose in pieces as I rushed back to my room. I slammed the door behind me so hard that the mirror rattled on the wall. I  caught a glimpse of my own reflection there and could barely recognize the girl staring back at me; red eyes, and wet cheeks. A girl who had spent hours getting ready, only to be told she was never enough.

I glanced down at the bracelet on my wrist. The silver moon charm that once felt like a symbol of love now felt like a chain. A gift meant to keep me waiting while Rowan searched for a better person. My fingers trembled as I tried to remove it. It took three attempts before the clasp finally opened. I placed it on the dresser.

Instead of feeling free, I felt empty as though something important had been taken from me. I stared at the bracelet, wondering where everything had gone wrong.

Was I too plain? Too quiet? Too ordinary?

I thought about Everleigh Duskmoor, a woman I had never met, and wondered what she had that I didn't.

My wolf ached inside me. For the first time in my life, I wondered if there was anything about me that made me impossible to love. That no one would ever say out loud but everyone somehow already knew.

I sank onto my bed and covered my face with my hands, willing the tears to stop before they ruined the little makeup I had left and before anyone could see proof that Rowan Everclaw had broken up with me tonight. My breathing was uneven. Even after everything, Rowan still had the power to hurt me.

I didn't know how long I stayed there before someone pounded on my door and it made me jump.

"Miss Aurelia!" It was one of the younger servants. She sounded out of breath. Without waiting for permission, she threw the door open. "The royal carriages are here!" she gasped. "They arrived early. Every unmated wolf in the territory has been summoned. You have to leave for the Lycan Ball right away."

I stared at her. "Right now?"

"Yes. Everyone is already waiting outside.”

My stomach sank. I imagined seeing Rowan again, Corwin's mocking smile and the entire ballroom full of wolves who would soon know I had been dumped for someone richer, stronger, and more important.

"I... I'm not going."

A calm voice came from behind the servant. My stepmother stood in the doorway. She must have been listening all along.

A smile spread across her face, but it never reached her eyes.

"Oh," she said softly. "You are.”