Chapter one --The Day the Moon Chose

POV: Sable

Two pink lines, and three hours before the Moon Goddess ruins it again.

I had looked at it four times, the test was on the windowsill of the pack bathroom and I had stopped thinking that it might change.

Outside, Ironwood was loud with the mating ceremony, drums were being heard as every wolf who was under thirty had waited all year to know who the Moon Goddess would hand them, and I was the only person in the house hiding in a bathroom with my hand over my mouth.

I wrapped the test in toilet paper, then in a sock, then pushed it deep into my jacket pocket. My fingers kept returning to it as I walked downstairs, as my mind raced at a faster pace.

Tonight, I told myself. Somewhere quiet. I'll tell him tonight.

For a month, Caelum and I had existed in the dark. His hand found mine in a dark hallway, a window left open. His voice in my ear, saying my name like it was something he was allowed to keep. We had never said what we were. Tonight I would say it for both of us, I almost believed that he would be glad.

On the stairs, two girls looked at me with disgust in their eyes as I walked past. “Wolfless,” one murmured. “Such a charity case,” another said. I kept my eyes forward with slumped shoulders because being that way was considered safety.

I had been seven when the Thornes found me in the forest, a filthy child clutching a stuffed rabbit, with rogues' blood still drying on the world behind me. I had been fourteen when every other girl my age shifted and I did not. Eleven years of gratitude had taught me exactly how much space I was allowed to take up.

"Sable." Elspeth caught my elbow in the kitchen, flour on her wrists, her eyes sharp the way they always were when I was hiding something. "You're pale. Sit."

"I'm fine, Luna."

"I raised you. Don't Luna me." But she let go, and pressed a roll into my hand, and I loved her so much it hurt.

That was the last gentle thing that happened all day.

The gate horns sounded at dusk.

I stood on the front steps with the rest of the household, at the edge, where a wolfless girl could watch without being in the way. Caelum came out of the car with a black suit and a cold expression on his face but he was not alone.

The woman beside him wore silver like the Moon herself had stitched it. Gold hair, straight spine, a smile that had never once been told no. Her hand rested on his forearm as though it had been there for years.

"Everyone," Caelum said, and his voice carried across the courtyard. "Odessa Lane. The Goddess has chosen her for me."

The cheering came in a wave. Magnus Thorne, at the top of the steps, had a cheerful expression on his face. He did not look surprised which led to the confused look on my face. Elspeth did not cheer, I didn't know why but at this moment I didn't have the energy to think.

Caelum's eyes found me across the crowd, for a second, a remorseful look was seen on his face.

Then it was gone.

"And this is Sable," he said, calmly, to Odessa. "My sister. My parents took her in when we were kids."

My sister.

My lips curved upwards as my hands clenched into a fist at the sides. Around me, a few of the older wolves looked at the ground, and the younger ones looked at me, waiting to see whether I would break.

"What a sweet thing," said Odessa, taking in my narrow shoulders and my plain jacket and the stillness of a wolf who had never answered. "Does she live here? Still?"

***

He found me an hour later, in the shadow of the old garden wall, as if he had known where I would run to.

"Don't," I said, before he spoke.

"Sable." His voice was calm. The voice he used on council members. "I need you to understand how this works."

"Tell me how this works, Caelum."

"Everything we did, it was..." He stopped, started again, and chose the worst word available. "Curiosity. We were both curious. That's all it could be." His eyes didn't hold mine. "Now that the Goddess has given me a mate, this has to end."

Tell him, something inside me said. Put the test in his hand.

I looked at the man who had just turned a month of midnight into a nightmare, and I knew that if I told him, I would become a problem for him to manage. My child would become a priced item in someone else's negotiation.

"Understood," I said.

He exhaled, having a relieved expression on his face. "You'll always have a home here."

I almost laughed at the sound of that.

I did not cry until I reached the trees. Then I cried the way I had never allowed myself in that house, bent over, wordless, my palms flat against the bark of a dead oak. When it was finished, I stayed there until the drums stopped and the night went quiet enough to hear my own breathing.

Pack law was simple. At eighteen, any wolf could walk away. I had turned eighteen a month ago, and I had spent it falling in love with the one person who would never choose me.

I put my hand over my stomach and inhaled.

"Okay," I whispered. "It's just us."

I would say goodbye to Elspeth. I owed her that much. She was the only person in that house who never looked at me like a debt.

I wiped my face, straightened my jacket, and started back toward the lights. Every window in the pack house glowed gold, and not one of them was lit for me.

Then I saw it.

My bedroom window, third floor, was lit. I had left it dark, I always leave it dark.

A shadow crossed the glass. I stood frozen in the wet grass and watched a drawer slide open, then another, steady and unhurried, like someone who knew ex

actly what they were looking for.

Someone was in my room right now

Who could it be??