Chapter 2

The second Moonlight Trial wasn't about guilt.

It was about old debts.

The stone wall filled with the winter records from the border sanctuary twelve years ago.

Game, medicine, treatment for old injuries, pay for patrol work. Every entry appeared on a white screen made of moonlight.

Vera's face changed at the very first line.

For twelve years, the pack had told the same story.

Before Ryan was recognized as part of the High Alpha's bloodline, he had been a boy of unknown origin on the border. No pack would pay to treat his old wounds. No one wanted to share precious winter game with a stranger who might leave at any moment.

Vera was the one who secretly helped him.

She brought him medicine and meat. She even shared her own training supplies.

Over the years, the pack began treating Vera as the woman who had earned the right to stand beside Ryan. She had been there when he woke, there when he entered the High Alpha's territory, and there through every succession trial that followed.

People assumed a mate bond between them was only a matter of time. No one liked mentioning that Ryan's wolf had remained dormant and that the bond itself had never been completed.

But the first winter-supply entry on the screen had my name beside it.

The second entry, for medicine.

My name again.

Then the third. The fourth.

Not one of them belonged to Vera.

Someone spoke before they could stop themselves.

"That's impossible."

"Erin barely had enough to eat back then. Where did she get any of this?"

I leaned against a stone pillar and said nothing.

We really had been poor.

That was why I took the most dangerous border patrols.

If a trail ran too close to enemy territory for anyone else, I took it.

If medicine had to be delivered at night, I went.

After every job, I used the pay to buy winter food for the sanctuary pups and medicine for Ryan's injuries.

Most of the time, I kept only enough to survive.

I never told Ryan.

I wasn't trying to impress anyone.

He was simply too proud.

If he'd known, he would have thrown every scrap of meat back at me, bones and all.

The screen shifted.

An old conversation filled the stone hall.

Ryan's younger voice was rougher than it was now, and far more irritable.

"Erin, leave meat outside my door one more time and I'll throw it out."

Then my voice answered from twelve years ago.

"Go ahead."

"The pups outside can eat it."

"I don't need you feeding me."

"Who said I was? Don't flatter yourself."

After a brief silence, he sounded annoyed.

"What about the medicine?"

"Mara gave it to me."

"She just said she didn't."

I coughed in the recording.

"Then the wind must have brought it."

Someone laughed.

But the laughter quickly died.

Because everyone heard what young Ryan said next.

"When I find my pack, I'll pay you back."

My voice sounded unbearably cheerful.

"Fine."

"Just make sure you pay interest."

The recording ended.

Ryan slowly clenched his hand.

Vera spoke first.

"None of that is necessarily real."

She looked at Ryan.

"The Moonlight Trials magnify a candidate's regrets. You know better than anyone whether I've given you what you needed these last twelve years."

Ryan didn't answer right away.

After a few seconds, he finally spoke.

"I know what happened after I lost my memory."

"I don't know what happened before."

Vera went rigid.

For the first time since I'd appeared, Ryan hadn't backed her up.

I untied the old leather cord around my wrist.

It was nothing special.

A tiny silver stone, worn smooth and bright, was pressed into it.

"You don't remember this either?"

Ryan studied it for a long time before taking it.

The moment he touched the stone, his expression changed.

I knew what he'd seen.

Because I remembered that night too.

The sanctuary had lost power, and only one old oil lamp burned in the kitchen.

Young Ryan tied the cord around my wrist and frowned. "Don't call it ugly."

I teased him on purpose.

"It is pretty ugly."

He reached to take it back.

I immediately hid my hand behind me.

"You gave it to me. You don't get it back."

Ryan laughed despite himself.

In the end, he rested his forehead against mine and spoke so quietly that the oil lamp almost drowned him out.

"I still don't know who I am."

"Then stop thinking about it for one night."

"No. Listen to me."

His hand closed around my wrist, careful not to crush the new leather cord.

"When I find my pack, you're coming with me."

I laughed. "That's not repayment."

"I know."

"Then what is it?"

Ryan looked annoyed that I had made him say it aloud.

"The plan."

His wolf, sprawled beside our feet, opened one eye and pushed its muzzle against my knee as if the matter had already been settled.

We were eighteen. We had not completed a mate bond. We thought time was the one thing we had plenty of.

Now Ryan held the leather cord, and his breathing suddenly hitched.

Vera reached for him.

"Ryan."

He instinctively moved out of reach.

It was a small motion.

But it left her hand hanging in the air.

I watched him.

"Do you remember?"

He stayed silent for a long time.

"Only a little."

"Who did you see?"

"Someone."

I smiled.

"Then take your time."

"There's plenty more ahead."