Chapter 1

Seven years after I lost my wolf, I watched my mate—Alpha Glen, the one who'd taken care of me—get torn apart.

The Thanis wolves closed in.

"Name the killer."

I bit my tongue until blood filled my mouth. Said nothing.

Glen's childhood friend Lena grabbed me. Her nails sank into my skin.

"Glen broke eighty-one pack laws for you?!" Her voice cracked. "He was our Alpha. He deserved the strongest Luna. But he chose you—this useless wreck!"

Six-year-old Nick clung to my leg, crying.

"Mom... is Father dead? Why won't you say anything?"

I looked into Glen's eyes staring back at me.

My chest felt like someone was ripping my heart out while I was still breathing.

I shoved him away.

Then walked straight into the storm.

The pack spat on me. Threw stones.

"Wicked wolf!"

"Traitorous mutt!"

The day they exiled me, they snapped the bone in my leg.

I limped out of Thanis territory.

Behind me, Nick's sobs tore through the wind.

Fifteen years.

Five thousand four hundred seventy-five days and nights.

I ran to the most desolate town in the north. Dug through trash like a stray mutt. Fought rats for scraps.

The wolfsbane in my blood flared once every month. Pain slammed through me until I smashed my head against the wall.

Again.

Again.

Blood slicked the stone.

Later, my leg finally gave out.

I could only crawl.

I dragged myself into an abandoned cabin and collapsed on a moldy straw mat.

Waiting to die.

Then one day—

The door exploded off its hinges.

"Found you."

Nick stepped inside.

Six fully armed pack warriors crowded in behind their Alpha.

Nick crouched and grabbed my chin, forcing my head up.

"When Father was alive, you coughed once and he'd panic for half the day. And you?" His grip tightened. "You'd rather rot here like a maggot than tell me who killed him."

I tried to speak.

A cough tore out instead.

Black blood spilled from my mouth, splattering across the polished toe of his boot.

He dropped my chin like I was filth and stood.

"Take her."

"Nick..." I grabbed his pant leg, fingers thin as dead twigs. "Don't—"

"Don't?"

His boot slammed down, kicking my hand away.

My wrist snapped with a sharp crack.

"What right do you have to say 'don't'?" His voice shook with fury. "Fifteen years. Every damn night I dream about Father dying like that!"

His chest heaved.

"When I was a pup, those pack brats called me a fatherless bastard! Lena was the only one who stood up for me. Without her, they would've run me out of the pack!"

His glare burned into me.

"And you? Where the hell were you?!"

He was practically snarling now.

"Do you deserve to be a mother? You don't. You don't deserve it."

Two warriors stepped in and hauled me up like a dead mutt.

My body was already wrecked. Every jolt sent darkness swimming across my vision.

They tossed me into an iron cage.

The lock slammed shut.

Nick stood outside it, giving me one last look.

"Take her back to Thanis. Strap her to the Mindfang Rig." His eyes were ice. "I want the truth—even if that machine kills her."

Thanis Pack's Judgment Grounds were packed.

Wolves everywhere. A black tide.

They dragged my cage through the crowd.

Rotten vegetables flew. Foul eggs. Stones.

"Wicked wolf! Pay with your life!"

"Alpha Glen died because of you!"

"Die! Just die!"

The curses hit harder than the rocks.

The cage stopped beneath the raised platform in the center of the grounds.

Nick stepped up.

Alpha pressure rolled off him—heavy, crushing.

The entire crowd fell silent.

"Today," his voice carried across the grounds, cold as steel, "as Alpha, I judge my mother—Lucia. The only witness when the former Alpha, Glen, died."

He stepped down and crouched by the cage, meeting my eyes through the iron bars.

"One last time. Who killed him?"

I lay curled on the cage floor, shaking so hard I couldn't stop.

All I could do was shake my head.

Nick closed his eyes and took a slow breath.

When they opened again, the last warmth was gone.

"Put her on the device."

The Mindfang Rig rolled forward—a nightmare of spikes and tubing.

A chair sat in the center, dark with old blood.

"No... don't..." I scrambled back until my spine slammed into the cage bars. "Nick! You'll regret this. You'll—"

"The only thing I regret is not dragging you back sooner!"

He ripped the cage open himself.

His fist tangled in my hair. He yanked me out and threw me beside the machine.

My head cracked against the metal base.

Warm blood ran from my temple.

"Mother," he said, voice flat and cold, "you did this to yourself."

Two pack warriors pinned me down and strapped me into the steel chair.

The restraints bit into my rotting flesh.

I screamed.

Nick lifted the helmet.

Its surface bristled with long needles.

He looked down at me.

"Last chance."

I looked at him.

A face so much like Glen's.

Tears slid down my cheeks, mixing with blood.

"I'm sorry... Nick... I'm sorry..."

"Sorry doesn't mean shit!"

He slammed the helmet onto my head.

Freezing metal clamped around my skull. Then the needles drove in.

"Ah—!"

Pain exploded. A thousand red-hot spikes drilling into my brain.

My body seized. My eyes rolled back.

Blood streamed from the helmet's edges, soaking my shoulders.

A massive screen beside the platform flickered to life. Static crawled across it.

Then—

The image appeared.