C3

LUCIAN POV

"Do you want to run to Moonshade Manor and stop your mother?" Raze Blackclaw asks me. He stands by the big wooden desk. His eyes look big, and he waits for me to talk.

"No," I tell him. I make my voice very flat. "She is just a weak she-wolf. I do not care about her."

I take the white folder with the girl's pictures, and I throw it at his chest. Raze catches it fast.

"Throw that trash away," I say.

"Yes, Alpha King," Raze says. He looks at my angry face and walks out of the Alpha Throne Chamber very quietly.

I sit back in my big chair. I try to make my brain think about the Lycan Alpha Dominion work. I have many packed things to fix.

Knock! Knock!

"Come inside," I shout.

The door opens, and Alaric Wolfsbane walks in. He has the big papers in his hand.

"Alpha King, Selene Corvinus put her name on the paper," Alaric says. He drops the book of papers right on my desk. "She did not fight. She just wrote her name."

I stop moving. My ears go up.

"She did not cry or scream for resources?" I ask.

"No," Alaric says. "She was very quiet."

My mother, Amelia Lycan, made me marry this girl three years ago. She wanted the Grand Wolf Assembly to see me with a wife because my old grandmother was very sick and wanted to see me happy. Now my grandmother is big and strong again. I do not need a strange she-wolf in my pack keep.

I do not know anything about Selene Corvinus. I do not even know what her voice sounds like. But I know her father, Markus Corvinus, took fifty million pack resources from us to fix his small pack. I thought she would beg for more food and gold today.

I look down at the paper. I see her name written in small, neat letters. Selene Corvinus.

"Wait," I say. I stand up fast. My chair slides back. "Her name is Selene Corvinus?"

"Yes, Alpha King," Alaric says. He looks confused. "That is your wife's name."

My brain goes boom. I think about what Raze told me two minutes ago. The girl from the Moon Eclipse Lodge Chamber last night was named Selene Corvinus. The girl who does not give me the bad skin bumps is my wife.

"Give me that paper back!" I yell at Alaric. My claws want to come out.

Alaric gasps. I grab the paper and tear it in half.

"The break is stopped," I bark.

"But Alpha—" Alaric starts to say.

"Raze!" I scream.

The door flies open, and Raze Blackclaw runs inside. "Yes, Alpha King?"

"Get the Territory Riders ready," I say. "We are going to Moonshade Manor right now."

SELENE POV

"Are you going to sit on that bed all day, Selene?"

I jump up when I hear the loud voice. I am inside my small room at the Mooncrest Artisan Guild. I came here to hide after I left the big manor.

"I am trying to rest, Tanis Moonshade," I say to my friend. But Tanis is not there. It is just my phone making a big noise on the table.

I look at the screen. It is a call from Corvinus Manor. My bad, father is calling me.

I do not want to talk to him. He only calls when he wants to yell. But the phone keeps ringing, ringing, and will not stop.

"What do you want?" I ask when I finally press the button.

"Where are you hiding, you bad pup? Get your feet back to the pack house right now!" Markus Corvinus screams into my ear. He sounds like a wild monster.

I hold the phone far away from my head. "Why are you angry?"

"Why am I angry? You broke the bond with the Lycan Bloodmoon Pack! You threw away our big connection!" Markus yells so loud that my ears hurt. "I give you one hour! If you are not here, you will be sorry!"

"I have pack work to do this afternoon," I tell him. I make my voice hard.

"Do not play games with me! If you care about your mother, Elena Corvinus, you will run home fast!" Markus barks. Then the phone goes dead.

I look at the black screen. My eyes feel wet. He always uses my mother to make me do bad things. He knows she is my soft spot.

My mother is a very sweet she-wolf. She gave everything to the Corvinus Moonfang Pack. But when I was five years old, my father brought a false lady named Viktorina Corvinus into our house. She brought her own pup, Sonja Corvinus, too.

My mother did not fight. She let him have his new family, and she moved to a small hut just to keep me safe. But they still hurt her.

Three years ago, my mother got very sick. She was going to die because we had no healing herbs or resources. Markus and Viktorina told me they would only give me the healing resources if I married the Supreme Alpha King, who was away across the sea. They took fifty million resources from his pack and left my mother in a small room.

I squeeze my hands into tight balls. My family is not a real family. They are like mean rogue wolves who want to eat my meat and leave only my dry bones.