Chapter 1: Tainted (Lena POV)

The bruise on my ribs was three days old, courtesy of Jessa Hartley's elbow during morning drills. She'd apologized after, all wide-eyed innocence while the instructor looked on, but her smirk when he turned away told me everything I needed to know. High-blood wolves didn't apologize to girls with tainted surnames, not really. They just made sure there were witnesses when they hurt you.

I pressed my fingers against the tender spot as I hauled another crate of dried meat from the storage shed to the preparation hall. The Harvest Moon ceremony was tomorrow night, and everyone with tainted blood had been conscripted for setup duty. Because heaven forbid the precious high-bloods strain themselves arranging flowers and hanging lanterns for their own celebration.

"Need help with that?"

I didn't have to turn around to recognize Theo's voice, warm as summer rain and twice as persistent. "I've got it."

"Lena." His hand closed over mine on the crate handle. "Let me."

I met his brown eyes, finding the same steady concern that had been there since we were eight years old and he'd found me bleeding behind the school after three high-blood girls decided to teach me what happened to traitors' daughters. Twelve years of friendship, and he still looked at me like I was fragile and needed protection.

"If anyone sees you helping me, they'll assign you to latrine duty," I said.

"Then we'd better hurry." He lifted the crate easily, muscles flexing under his worn t-shirt. Theo had filled out over the past year, all the soft edges of boyhood burned away by labor in the Lowlands. He was handsome now in a way that made other girls stare, though he never seemed to notice anyone but me.

I grabbed a second crate and followed him toward the preparation hall, weaving between workers setting up the ceremonial grounds. White silk banners hung from every post, each embroidered with the Silvercrest pack symbol, a silver crescent moon pierced by three stars. Tomorrow night, those stars would represent the holy trinity of pack hierarchy: Alpha, Beta, and the Blessed Bloodlines.

My bloodline wasn't blessed. It was cursed, tainted by my father's betrayal fifteen years ago when he'd tried to assassinate Alpha Darius. I was six months old when they executed him. Old enough for the pack to show mercy by letting me live. Young enough that I'd never know the sound of his voice.

"Do you ever think about leaving?"

Theo's question caught me off guard. We'd reached the preparation hall, and I set my crate down harder than necessary. "Leave the pack? That's exile, Theo. No pack, no protection, no…"

"No being treated like garbage every day of your life." His jaw tightened. "We could go together. Just… start over somewhere else."

For a moment, I let myself imagine it. A life where my last name didn't make strangers curl their lips in disgust. Where I could shift during the full moon instead of being locked in my house under guard, deemed too dangerous and unstable to run with the pack. Where Theo looked at me like this and I could actually do something about the way my heart twisted in response.

"My mother is sick," I said quietly. "I can't leave her."

"Then I'll stay." He stepped closer, and I could smell pine and earth on his skin, the scent that meant safety and home and everything I couldn't let myself want. "Lena, I…"

"There you are!"

We jumped apart as Mira Rodriguez appeared, her messenger bag bouncing against her hip. Unlike Theo and me, Mira wasn't tainted blood, her family had immigrated from a Mexican pack two generations ago and earned acceptance through military service. She'd been assigned to us in school as part of a "diversity initiative," which was pack-speak for babysitting the outcasts. Somehow, she'd actually become a friend.

"They need more hands at the ceremonial platform," she said, slightly breathless. "Apparently Kai Silvercrest's arrival tomorrow is going to be even more elaborate than planned. The Alpha wants everything perfect for his son's big announcement."

I suppressed a groan. Kai Silvercrest, the Alpha's golden boy, had been away for three years doing some kind of elite military training. I'd seen him exactly twice in my life, once when I was seven and he was ten, and he'd walked past me like I was furniture. The second time was at a pack gathering when I was fourteen. He'd been seventeen, about to leave for training, and some high-blood girl had shoved me into his path. I'd looked up to apologize and found him staring down at me with eyes like molten gold, his expression unreadable. Then he'd stepped around me without a word.

Tomorrow night, he would formally accept his betrothal to Sienna Lockhart, the Beta's daughter, in a match that would unite the pack's two most powerful families. It was all anyone had talked about for months.

"Let me guess," I said. "They want the tainted bloods to build the platform where the blessed prince will stand above us all?"

Mira winced. "Actually, yes. But Lena…"

"It's fine." I waved her off. "Wouldn't want to miss the chance to celebrate pack unity and all that."

Theo touched my elbow. "I'll come with you."

"Someone has to finish the food prep," I said, pulling away before I could lean into his warmth. "I've got this."

The ceremonial platform was being constructed in the central clearing, a massive wooden structure that would hold the Alpha's family and the highest-ranked wolves during tomorrow's ceremony. I joined the group of tainted bloods hauling timber, most of whom I recognized from the Lowlands, the section of pack territory where we were segregated from the main compound.

"Heard Kai Silvercrest killed fifty rogues during his training," someone muttered.

"I heard he can force a shift on command now, without the moon."

"Doesn't matter how powerful he is," an older man said bitterly. "He's still going to marry that Lockhart girl and keep the rest of us under their boots."

I kept my head down and worked, letting the familiar rhythm of physical labor quiet my thoughts. This was survival; don't complain, don't stand out, don't give them any excuse to remember you exist beyond your usefulness.

We worked through the afternoon, the platform taking shape beneath our hands. I was hammering in support beams when I felt it, that prickling awareness of being watched. I turned slowly and found Sienna Lockhart standing at the edge of the clearing, surrounded by her usual entourage of high-blood girls.

She was beautiful in that pristine, untouchable way that came from never having done manual labor in her life. Blonde hair fell in perfect waves past her shoulders. But it was her eyes that held me, ice blue and currently fixed on me with an expression I couldn't quite read.

"That's her, isn't it?" one of her friends said, not bothering to lower her voice. "The traitor's daughter?"

"I heard she's not even allowed to shift," another added. "Probably can't. Tainted blood and all."

Sienna didn't say anything, just kept staring at me with those cold eyes. Then she turned and walked away, her friends trailing behind like ducklings.

I exhaled slowly and went back to work.

By the time the sun started setting, the platform was complete. I was covered in sawdust and sweat, my hands raw from the rough timber. The other workers dispersed quickly, most would need to make it back to the Lowlands before full dark, when high-blood patrols started questioning anyone who didn't belong in the main compound.

I was gathering my tools when I caught a scent on the evening breeze that made my entire body go still.

Leather and smoke and something wild, like the forest during a storm.

I turned around.

A man stood at the tree line, watching me. He was tall, broad-shouldered, wearing dark jeans and a black shirt that did nothing to hide the predatory grace of his movements as he stepped into the clearing. Dark hair fell across his forehead, and his eyes…

His eyes were pure gold, brighter than any wolf's I'd ever seen, and they were locked on me with an intensity that stole the air from my lungs.

Kai Silvercrest.

He wasn't supposed to arrive until tomorrow. He was supposed to make some grand entrance with the other returning warriors. But here he was, a day early, staring at me like I was the only thing that existed in the entire clearing.

I should have looked away. Should have bowed my head in the deference expected from tainted blood. Instead, I found myself frozen, unable to break eye contact with the Alpha's son.

He took a step toward me.

Then another.

My heart hammered against my ribs. Run, some instinct screamed. But I couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but watch as he crossed the clearing with deliberate, measured steps.

He stopped three feet away, close enough that I could see the faint scar cutting through his left eyebrow, the way his jaw was clenched tight like he was holding something back.

"You," he said, and his voice was rough, almost angry. "What's your name?"

I swallowed hard. "Lena. Lena Graves."

Something flashed in his eyes, recognition, maybe, or something darker. He took another step closer, and I caught his scent again, stronger now. It wrapped around me like a physical thing, making my skin feel too tight and my wolf, the wolf I'd never been allowed to release stir somewhere deep inside me.

"Lena Graves," he repeated slowly, like he was testing the words. "Daughter of Marcus Graves."

It wasn't a question. Everyone knew who my father was, what he'd done. I lifted my chin. "Yes."

"The ceremony is tomorrow night," he said, still watching me with that unsettling intensity. "You'll be there?"

"Tainted bloods aren't permitted at the ceremony itself. We'll be working the…"

"You'll be there," he cut me off, and it wasn't a question this time either. It was an order. "Front section. I want you where I can see you."

I stared at him. "That's not…I can't…"

"You can." His eyes flashed brighter. "You will."

Then he turned and walked away, disappearing into the trees as silently as he'd arrived.

I stood there for a long moment, my heart still racing, trying to understand what had just happened. The Alpha's son had not only acknowledged me, he'd ordered me to attend the ceremony in a section reserved for high-blood families.

Either he was playing some sick game, or I was about to become pack gossip for the next year.