Chapter 02

Evalina's pov

"Patricia, look at me and tell me the truth!"

My stepmother pressed a hand to her chest like I had hurt her. "I swear on my life, Evalina, I don't know anything about blood in that bowl."

"You spoke before I even said whose face I saw!" I shouted. "How did you know it was Alpha Magnus? You knew because you put him there. All of you did!"

I looked at each of them. Leah hid behind Leo. Father wouldn't meet my eyes.

"You wanted the bowl to show Magnus," I said, "so Leah could stay here with Leo and their baby."

Nobody denied it. The silence said everything.

I turned to my father. "You're choosing Leah over me. Again."

Father sighed. "Leah could never survive up in Ironpeak."

"And I can?" I laughed, but it hurt. "I don't even have a wolf, Father!"

"Leah is carrying a cub!" Patricia snapped. "Magnus lives far away in those freezing mountains. He is cursed, and his rage has no limits. He already has a crippled child from his first wife. We can't send Leah into that nightmare."

"But that nightmare is good enough for me," I said quietly.

Father stood up and walked over to me. He tried to put his hand on my shoulder, but I stepped back.

"Evalina, listen," he said. "I will give you a big dowry. Gold, land, anything you want. You won't go to Ironpeak with empty hands."

I shook my head. "I don't want your money."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want my pack to protect me and care for me, the way I protected and cared for them." My voice shook. "I gave up my wolf for this pack. I gave it up to save Leo's life."

I turned and looked straight at Leo. He finally lifted his eyes to mine.

"Look at me, Leo," I said. "Really look at me. If you think Leah will be a good Luna and put this pack first, you are wrong. She has only ever cared about herself."

Leah gasped. Patricia's face turned red.

"How dare you speak to your pack that way!" Patricia shouted.

"My pack?" I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. "If you all want me gone so badly, then fine. I'll leave tonight. It's clear you stopped being my pack a long time ago."

I walked to the door.

"Evalina!" Leo called after me.

I stopped but didn't turn around.

"No," I said coldly. "Don't you ever say my name again."

Then I walked out into the night and didn't look back.

* * *

The road to Ironpeak was long and cold.

I walked for hours. The trees grew taller and darker. Snow began to fall, soft at first, then harder. My thin coat did nothing to keep me warm. My feet were wet and numb inside my boots.

With every step, my mind kept going back to that room.

My sister and my chosen mate had betrayed me. My own father and my own pack had traded my life for Leah's. And now here I was, walking alone through Ironpeak land in the dark.

Before I lost my wolf, I would have run this road on four strong legs. I would have smelled danger long before it came. If anything attacked me, I would have shifted and fought back.

Now I was just weak. Wolfless. Alone.

A branch snapped behind me.

I spun around. "Who's there?"

Nothing. Only the wind and the falling snow.

Then I saw them. Three pairs of yellow eyes glowing between the trees.

Rogues.

My heart beat so hard it hurt. Rogue wolves had no pack and no rules. They attacked travelers on the border all the time. Everyone knew that.

The first rogue stepped out of the shadows. Its fur was dirty and its ribs showed through its skin. It licked its lips and growled low in its throat.

The other two moved to my sides, slowly closing in around me.

I backed up until my shoulders hit a tree.

"Stay back!" I screamed. I grabbed a broken branch from the snow and held it in front of me like a sword. "I said stay back!"

The rogue in front laughed. Its voice came out rough and ugly, half wolf and half man.

"Look at this," it said. "A little she-wolf with no wolf. I can smell it on you. You're nothing but meat."

My hands shook so badly I almost dropped the branch.

This was it. I was going to die out here in the snow, before I even met my cursed husband.

The rogue crouched, ready to jump.

Then a howl ripped through the forest.

It was so loud and deep that the ground seemed to shake under my feet. The rogues froze. Their ears went flat against their heads.

Something huge burst out of the darkness.

A white wolf. Bigger than any wolf I had ever seen. Its eyes were bright blue, and its teeth flashed in the moonlight.

It slammed into the first rogue and threw it into a tree. The other two didn't even try to fight. They whined like puppies and ran off into the night. The first one limped after them, yelping.

Then it was just me and the white wolf.

It turned to face me. Slowly, it walked closer. I pressed my back hard against the tree and held my breath.

The air around the wolf began to shimmer. Bones cracked. Fur melted away. In a few seconds, a tall man stood in its place, wrapped in a long black fur coat that hung from a branch nearby.

He had dark hair and cold gray eyes. A long scar ran across one cheek.

I knew that face. I had seen it in the Moon Bowl.

"What are you doing on my land?" he asked. His voice was deep and hard, like stone.

I swallowed. "Are you... Alpha Magnus?"

"I am."

I dropped the branch into the snow and lifted my chin, even though my whole body was shaking.

"Then I am your wife," I said. "Evalina of the Redwater Pack."