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Chapter 1

Zara POV,

“Adjust your collar Zara.” My step mother said her fingers cold against my neck. “We are in the middle of a ceremony.”

When I didn't move, her grip tightened on my shoulder, her nails biting into my skin. “Don’t give me that look. You know exactly what’s at stake tonight.”

She leaned into my ear, her voice dropping to a lethal whisper that made the hair on my arms stand up. “One more mistake, and I’ll make sure the Council forgets you ever existed. I won't have you shaming this house like that slut of a mother you had. Like mother, like daughter—a nameless waste of blood.”

That always hurt me.

Slut. It was the only thing she ever called my mother, and even after all these years, it still had the power to break me.

“I don’t mind if you bring some low-level omega home as your mate,” she hissed, one last jab before pulling away. “It’s not like you’re worth anything good. Every time I look at you, I see her. You’re just like your mother.”

She stepped in front of me, her face instantly morphing into a perfect, painted smile as she reached for Elara. She cupped Elara’s cheeks like a doting mother, but I saw it for what it was—she was just checking the quality of her prize.

“Kneel.” The High Priest’s voice cut through the air like a blade snapping me back into the moment.

Two wolves dropped to their knees as their bond snapped into place. The crowd erupted into a sea of joyful whispers, but I felt a cold sweat prickle down my spine as my stepmother’s eyes bore into mine, in a silent warning. I quickly shifted, tucking myself into the shade of Elara’s shadow. Exactly where she thought I belonged.

As the new mates walked forward, Elara didn't watch them. Her head was tilted, and her eyes was scanning the high-arched balcony where the Alpha usually stood.

Her gaze snagged on mine and for a split second there was a quick, jagged look of pure disgust, as if she couldn't believe she had to share the same oxygen as a smudge like me.

She smoothed her silver dress, her expression shifting back to that nauseatingly sweet mask the moment her mother stepped away to greet old acquaintances.

Elara leaned toward me, her silk sleeve brushing my arm like a peace offering. “Don’t look so miserable, Zara. Maybe your mate is just… late or you’re unfit to be mated. Either way, I would make sure to keep you once I'm mated to Alpha Lir.”

She smiled at me her voice full of mockery.

My stomach soured and my heart began to pound. Deep down I know what she could do, she said it like she actually cared, but I could see the glint of triumph in her eyes. She loved being the savior. She loved being the one with the answers while I stood in the dark.

I didn’t smile back. I leaned in until I could smell her expensive floral perfume—the scent of someone who’s never had to bleed for anything.

“You’re so perfect, Elara,” I whispered, the words tasting like poison. “And it’s honestly disgusting how much you think the world revolves around you.”

Elara’s perfect smile faltered for a fraction of a second, her eyes widening as my words hit her. But instead of snapping, a low, cruel laugh bubbled up from her throat. She leaned closer, her expensive floral perfume suddenly smelling suffocatingly sweet.

“It does revolve around me, you pathetic little smudge,” Elara hissed, her voice dropping so low only for my ears. “Look at you, hiding in my shadow like a stray dog waiting for scraps. You're just jealous that tonight, Alpha Lir is going to announce our courtship, and by tomorrow, I’ll be the future Luna of this pack.”

She pulled back, smoothing her silver skirts with a smug, self-satisfied smirk.

I have heard enough of the Alpha tonight from Elara, I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes so hard they locked in the back of my head. ‘Let her have him,’ I thought, a wave of pure disgust washing over me. I had seen Alpha Lir from a distance—arrogant, ruthless, and entirely obsessed with status.

He and Elara were birds of a feather; two toxic, power-hungry tyrants who deserved each other’s miserable company. I wanted absolutely no part of his world. I just wanted to survive in the dark until I could run.

Before Elara could utter another boast, the heavy oak doors at the front of the hall groaned open.

Elara gasped, instantly standing taller, her chest puffed out as she waited for her prize to claim her. The Alpha's boot clicked against the floor in a steady, heavy rhythm that seemed to resonate with the frantic hammering of my heartbeat. As he drew closer, the air grew thick with the scent of pine and old power.

I kept my eyes glued to the floor, waiting for him to pass me and take Elara's hand.

Then, the bond hit me.

Fuck.

It was a violent, soul-crushing weight. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move.

“Mate.” the word echoed from my mind.

No, no, I didn't hear that right, did I? There is no way?

“Mate.” the word repeated in my head, stronger than before. My wolfs voice continues to echo sounding prideful as my jaw dropped open at her declaration.

My mate, Lir is my mate? My fated mate.

His eyes darkened, his nostrils flaring as he caught my scent, and for a heartbeat, I saw the struggle in his jaw. It was humiliating to know how he hated that it was me. He looked at me not as if he was considering something, considering me.

He stepped back, putting a deliberate, mocking distance between us.

However while I'm shocked to learn Lir and I are fated mate, Lir looked anything but pleased.

He didn't just ignore the bond; he spat on it. “I refuse to bind my pack to a cursed, soulless wolf like you,” he announced, his voice now a jagged blade. “A creature without a reflection has no place at my side. I reject this bond—and I shall claim a mate with a soul.”

He reached out and grabbed Elara by the waist pulling her flush against his hard chest.

He didn't even look back at me as the priest, without hesitation, proceeded with their mating ceremony right before my eyes.

The pain twisted deep in my heart. Watching my mate reject me and choose my sister over me simply because I had no reflection... It was more than humiliating. Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing me dissolve.

Whispers rippled through the crowd, sharp enough to kill.

“Did you truly believe an Alpha would accept something defective?”

“A cursed wolf like her really thought she could be Luna.”

I stood frozen, letting their insults bleed into me like venom. “I just can't believe it, fate can be so cruel.”

Before I could fully process what had just happened, Alpha Lir stepped closer, his shadow swallowing me whole. The scent of pine and power was a suffocating, cruel reminder of the man who was supposed to be my home.

“I am an Alpha who values efficiency, Zara,” he said, his voice dropping to a low rumble that only I could hear. “You have no pack. No reflection. No future. You won't survive a week as a rogue. Your fractured heart will stop beating before you reach the border.”

He leaned in, his eyes dark and unreadable.

“So, I will give you a choice. A mercy you don’t deserve.”

I looked up at him, my breath hitching. A mercy?

“You can leave now and die as a nameless exile,” he whispered, dangerously low. “Or, you can stay. You will sign away your name, your inheritance, and your claim to be Luna and you will live in the shadows of this pack as a servant that even Elara will forget.”

He pulled back, a cold, predatory smirk touching his lips as the guards moved in.

“Choose, Zara Fen. Will you die as a free rogue tonight, or will you live as my slave tomorrow?”