2

Declan returned quickly with the medicine.

Ashton sat me down on the edge of the bed and was about to open the bottle when Declan lingered in the doorway, looking uncomfortable, clearly wanting to say something.

"What is it?" Ashton didn't look up.

Declan glanced at me and lowered his voice. "Alpha... a message came from the Ashfords. They said she's having heart trouble and asked if you could go check on her."

Ashton's hand paused on the bottle cap.

I looked up at him.

He was silent for a moment, then pushed the bottle into my hand. "Put this on yourself and get some rest."

"I need to go check on her."

Serena didn't have a heart condition.

I grabbed his sleeve without thinking. "Ashton, can't you just stay?"

He frowned, glanced down at me, and peeled my fingers away. "Lena, be good. Serena saved my life, and she's your sister.

"You're my fated mate. You should understand me better than anyone and show her some compassion. Would you rather I be ungrateful?

"Don't worry. I'll be back soon."

He turned and walked out without looking back.

I sat there clutching the bottle, my fingertips cold.

Ashton had lied to me again.

That night, he never came back.

I couldn't sleep. I sat up and walked to the full-length mirror.

The reflection that stared back was pale and thin. On my wrists, old frostbite scars still showed, bruised purple and blue.

In the Blood Moon Pack, where strength was everything, I was a complete outcast. A wolfless nobody who couldn't even shift.

But no one knew that ten years ago, on a blizzard night, I was the one who dragged Ashton's broken body out of that frozen lake.

He had been ambushed by rogues and plunged through the ice. He had almost stopped breathing.

I jumped into the freezing water, wrapped my body around his, and channeled every last drop of my primal power into him.

He survived, and went on to become the most feared Alpha in all the wolf territories.

But after giving him everything I had, I lost the ability to shift for good.

By the time I collapsed in the snow, my dear sister Serena appeared.

She took the fang necklace from around my neck, still stained with Ashton's blood, and put it on herself.

When Ashton woke, all he saw was Serena shivering in the snow, clutching the necklace.

I had tried to tell the truth.

But who would believe a girl who didn't carry even a trace of wolf energy?

Besides, Serena was known throughout the territory for her gentle, kind heart.

Only I knew how cruel she really was.

My room, my jewelry, my clothes. If she wanted something of mine, she took it.

Including our father's love for me.

So when Serena stood before Ashton weeping with the necklace in her hand, my own father, Warren, stepped forward without hesitation to back her story.

He said it was Serena who had risked her life to jump into that frozen lake. He said I was jealous of my sister and had made it all up.

He pointed at me and called me shameless, said I had broken the entire Ashford family's heart.

Ashton looked at me for a long moment, then walked over to my sister, helped her to her feet, and let her keep the necklace.

Something inside me died.

Then, on the day I turned eighteen, the Moon Goddess played the cruelest joke on me.

My body released a scent that was a perfect hundred-percent match to Ashton's. A fated mate's scent.

Before long, Ashton came to my family to ask for my hand.

Warren was overjoyed. Serena cried all night. And I thought Ashton had finally seen me.

It wasn't until today that I understood. Ashton married me not out of love, but because the entire pack knew I was his fated match.

As long as he publicly marked me, everyone would believe I was the one he would die to protect.

Including his enemies. Including those vicious rogues.

Serena was afraid of pain. He couldn't let the rogues target her. So he needed a more visible target.

And I was the target he had chosen.