INICIAR SESIÓNCASSIA'S POVI start with the servants.They gather in the kitchen at dawn, yawning and rubbing their eyes. I walk in like I own the place. They straighten up when they see me. The Beta's wife. Someone important."Have you heard?" I ask, keeping my voice low.They lean in."About the girl," I say. "The one Alpha Kael brought here."One of them nods. "The debt payment.""She's not just a debt payment." I pause. Let the silence hang. "She's cursed."Their eyes widen."Have you noticed the strange things happening since she arrived?" I ask. "The blackouts. The whispers. The warriors dropping to their knees?"More nods. They've felt it too. They just didn't have a name for it."That's her," I say. "She's bringing death to this pack. The hunters are coming because of her."I leave them whispering among themselves. The seeds are planted.---I move to the training field next.The warriors are sparring, grunting, swinging wooden swords. I stand at the edge until one of them notices me. Rina.
RONAN'S POVI press a cold cloth to my jaw and wince.Kael hits hard. I'll give him that.The bruise is already darkening. Purple and blue spreading across my skin. I look at myself in the mirror and almost laugh. A prince of the Eastern Court, beaten up over a girl who won't even look at me.A knock on my door.I turn. "Come in."My warrior enters. His face is pale. He's breathing hard like he ran here. In his hand, he holds a sealed letter."The reply," he says. "From the Eastern Court."My heart stops.I take the letter. Break the seal. Read the words.The Eastern Court welcomes the heir. Bring her immediately. The hunters are closer than you know. Do not delay.I read it twice. Three times.They're giving me permission. They're telling me to move now.I look at my warrior. "Leave me."He bows and disappears.I stand alone in my room, the letter clutched in my hand. My jaw throbs. My head spins.I can't wait anymore.---I walk through the fortress. My boots echo against the stone.
CASSIA'S POVI watch her walk through the fortress like she owns it.Lyra. The debt payment. The servant who thinks she's something now.No guards follow her. No chains on her wrists. She moves through the hallways with her head held high, like the mark on her arm gives her the right to breathe the same air as me.It makes me sick.I press myself against the wall as she passes. She doesn't see me. She never sees me. She's too busy playing the victim, too busy making Kael feel sorry for her.But I see her.I see everything.---I've waited seven years for Kael.Seven years of standing, waiting while he chose other women. Elara. Mira. Sera. Each one beautiful. Each one dead.I thought I was patient. I thought I could outlast them all.Then Lyra arrived.And everything I worked for started crumbling.---I follow her through the fortress. She goes to the garden. Sits on a stone bench. Stares at the mountains like she's contemplating something deep.She's probably thinking about Kael. Abo
RONAN'S POV---I don't follow her.I watch Lyra run from the training field, her dark hair flying, her shoulders shaking. She disappears through the fortress doors. I stay where I am.My hands are still warm from touching her.She landed on top of me. Her chest against mine. Her breath on my lips. I can still feel the weight of her. The fear in her eyes when Kael's voice cut through the air.She is mine. I will kill you if you touch her again.Kael didn't say it. But his eyes screamed it. Possessive. Territorial.I found her first.---I walk back to my quarters. The fortress is loud around me—warriors training, servants rushing. No one looks at me twice. I'm just another guest. Just another prince visiting from the Eastern Court.They don't know who I am.They don't know why I'm really here.I close the door. Lock it. Pull the pendant from beneath my shirt.Silver. Worn smooth. A crescent moon wrapped around a broken crown.The symbol of the Silver Crescent Pack. The bloodline I've
ROMAN'S POVI have searched for ten years.Every pack. Every ruin. Every rumor that whispered of a survivor. I followed false leads and dead ends. I wasted years on lies.And then I found her.In a fortress at the edge of the world. Sold like cattle. Mated to a wolf who refuses to claim her.The Moon Goddess has a cruel sense of humor.I stand at my window and watch the sun rise over the mountains. The east wing is still dark. She is still sleeping. Or trying to sleep. I have seen the shadows under her eyes. She is scared.She hides it well. But I see it.My hand moves to my chest. Beneath my shirt, the silver pendant rests against my skin. I have worn it every day since my mother died.A crescent moon wrapped around a broken crown.The symbol of the Silver Crescent.The symbol of the pack my mother served.The symbol that now marks Lyra's wrist.I pull the pendant out and stare at it. The silver is worn smooth from years of touching.I found her, Mother. I found the heir.Now what do
LYRA'S POV I cannot stop thinking about Prince Ronan.His green eyes. His easy smile. The way he caught my elbow like I was someone worth catching. The way he said you are not trouble.I guess I wasn't fast to adjust the leather in my wrist. I think he saw the symbol.There was something in his eyes when he saw it. Recognition. Curiosity. Like he knew something I did not. I just remembered he stirred at my wrist at that moment we saw.I lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling. The mark pulses softly under my sleeve. It has been doing that more often now. Not painful. Just... present. Like a heartbeat that does not belong to me.I should go back to the library.I need answers.---The training field incident changed everything.Warriors avoid me now. They do not look at me. They do not speak to me. When I walk through the hallways, they step aside. Not out of respect. Out of fear.I am a monster to them.A servant girl who made trained wolves drop to their knees.I do not blame them. I
LYRA'S POVThe fortress gates open like a mouth swallowing me whole.Iron groans against iron. Torches flicker on both sides of the entrance, casting orange light across cold stone. The guards push me forward. I stumble on the uneven ground, but no one catches me. No one helps me up.I am alone.Th
KAEL'S POVThe forest is black and cold.I run faster than I have ever run in my life. My wolf is fully in control now. Four paws pounding against wet earth. My nose low to the ground. The scent of the assassin is fresh, smoke and metal and something rotten underneath.She is fast. But I am faster.
LYRA'S POVSleep will not come.I lie on the bed in the east wing and stare at the ceiling. The room is small but clean. A bed. A table. A single window that looks out at the mountains. The guards locked the door from the outside. I am a prisoner now. Not a guest. Not a Luna. A prisoner.My mate pu
KAEL'S POVThe door to my office slams behind me.I lean against it and press my palm against my chest. My heart is racing. My hands are shaking. My wolf is screaming inside my head, clawing at my ribs, demanding that I turn around and go back to her.She is ours, he growls. Go back. Claim her. Now







