C5

"What's that?"

I folded my arms tightly over my chest, afraid that if I touched them, the silver magic would burn me.

He pushed one box toward me. "Open it, Axista."

"No."

He growled softly, a sound that vibrated right through my boots.

He came to my side of the desk, opened the box, and pulled out a heavy silver ring carved with ancient protection runes.

I tried to pull my hand back, but his grip was like iron.

That was the ring he had commissioned for Calista.

I didn't want it.

I wanted my own mate band, a real connection, not my sister's hand-me-downs.

"Axista, don't be stubborn."

"No."

"Axista, it's time to face the music. We're bound. And you owe me."

I frowned, my hand balling into a fist. "Owe you?"

"You let me claim you at the sanctum—the least you can do is help me keep my pack standing before the elders think I've lost my mind."

Tears stung my eyes. "My family will cast me out."

"Then you shouldn't have said the blood oath at the Moon Oath Sanctum, sweetheart."

He actually smirked, his silver eyes glittering with dark amusement.

"I told you it was a mistake! I can't lose my pack!"

"Tomorrow when the heralds speak, the entire territory will know. This way, we control the story. We'll tell the elders we had a secret courtship. We wouldn't be the first wolves to mate on impulse."

Yeah, and the pack elders would definitely buy that lie.

He had the beautiful, shifted Calista, but then he suddenly chose the plain, unshifted Axista.

I looked down at the ring. "Did you buy that for Calista?"

He didn't reply.

He slid the ring onto my finger, and the cold metal bit into my skin.

Objectively, the ring was stunning—antique silver laced with white gold, holding a rare lunar sapphire that seemed to catch the light of a crescent moon.

But it wasn't me.

I was a simple she-wolf; I liked raw leather and simple bone carvings.

This was too grand.

He then slid a thick, matching silver band right next to it, sealing the oath.

He hadn't given me a ring in the Eclipse Moon Territory, but he was doing it now.

It was about as romantic as a execution.

His skin felt scorching hot against mine as he slid his own matching band onto his finger.

"Why are you doing this?" I whispered.

"I cannot keep repeating myself, Axista."

He walked back to his chair and tapped his desk rune. Iskar Venn's cold voice chimed through.

"Come into my den, Iskar."

The beta female walked in, her nose instantly wrinkling in disgust as she scented me.

"Please take a seat."

She sat next to me, her eyes immediately locking onto the silver bands on my fingers.

She gasped, her eyes widening.

"Iskar, you are the first to know that Axista and I are bound."

Iskar's composed face completely shattered. "Axista?" she choked out.

"Yes, my Luna. We completed the blood oath yesterday. I want you to draft an announcement for the Black Hollow Dominion by tomorrow morning."

He looked at me, his voice softening into a fake, mocking warmth. "Darling, I know you wanted to keep our mating private, but the pack heralds already have the records."

I felt sick to my stomach.

"What... what details do you want in the decree, Alpha?" Iskar asked, her jaw clenched.

"Just that Axista Briarwyn is now Axista Thornevale. You're taking my pack name, aren't you, Luna?"

He was laying it on so thick I could choke.

"In due time," I mumbled. "The elder councils take weeks to approve name changes anyway."

Riven smiled, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "Axista, give Iskar your details for the scroll."

Iskar didn't even look at me. "Why?"

"So I can write something acceptable for the pack announcement. Your lineage... your training..."

I bit my lip. "You can write that I trained at the Exist Academy of Lunar Arts, with a focus on ancient pelt-dyeing and relic restoration."

Iskar’s eyes snapped up, and so did Riven's.

Even as an unshifted wolf, I had earned my place at the most prestigious arts academy in the territory, working with sacred dyes.

"Oh," Iskar muttered, making a note on her parchment.

"I currently work at—"

"No," Riven cut in sharply. "No mention of the Silver Pelt Atelier."

"Why?" I demanded.

He just raised an eyebrow.

I sighed.

My mother, Orielle, would strip me of my position at the family shop the second she heard of this.

How would I buy my canvas and pigments?

How would I save enough to study at the high academies of the northern packs?

Maybe I could find work restoring sacred banners at the Hall of Lunar Relics.

I had already done freelance restoration on the ancient banners of the Great Wolf Wars under Archivist Osric Fenmere.

I loved working with those ancient, spirit-infused threads.

"Axista? Luna?" Riven's deep voice pulled me from my thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Are we agreed? Iskar will send the draft to us before the heralds receive it."

"Fine." I just wanted to crawl into a dark cave.

I jotted down my scent-signature on Iskar's parchment.

But as I handed it back, my eyes caught what she had scribbled in the margin: Spin Riven marrying the useless Briarwyn sister.

She smirked when she saw I had read it.

"There will be a massive backlash about you mating... the other sister," Iskar said, looking directly at Riven.

My husband nodded coldly. "Make it clear that Calista and I broke our arrangement before I ever touched Axista. There was no betrayal of the pack laws."

The clinical way he spoke about our mating made my inner wolf howl with misery.

In the Eclipse Moon Territory, wrapped in his heat, it had felt so real.

Now, in the cold stone of the Ironmoon Keep, it felt like a cheap political trap.

"Of course, Alpha. Do we have scent-portraits or memories to share with the pack? The elders will demand proof of the bond," Iskar pressed.

"No portraits," Riven snapped.

My heart sank even lower.

The high-priest's assistant at the Moon Oath Sanctum had actually recorded a memory-crystal of us smiling and holding hands after the ceremony.

We looked so happy in it.

"You have nothing from the sanctum?" Iskar asked.

"Nothing. And if there are any memory-crystals, they are to be destroyed," Riven ordered, looking right at me. "Wiped completely."

I felt a cold lump form in my throat.

He wanted to erase the only proof that he had ever looked at me with tenderness.

"I already broke the crystal," I lied.

"Good. That will be all, Iskar."

The beta female stood, giving me one last look of pure disdain before bowing to her Alpha and leaving.

I stood up, adjusting my satchel. "I have to report to my mother at the Silver Pelt Atelier."

"I am coming with you," Riven said, standing up.

"Why?"

"We are telling your family together."

"No!"

"Why? Are you ashamed to be mated to the Alpha of the Thornevale pack?" he challenged, stepping closer.

"I am ashamed of what I did to my sister, Riven," I whispered.

"You are my Luna. Pack up your things from your cabin. You sleep in my den tonight."

"Stop it, Orielle!" Riven's hand shot out, catching my mother's wrist just before her palm could strike my face a second time.

I stood there, my cheek burning from the first slap, my head bowed as my tears dripped onto the stone floor of the Silver Pelt Atelier.

I had expected anger, but not this.

"Mama, I'm so sorry," I whispered.

"Do not apologize for being my mate," Riven growled, his grip tightening on my mother's wrist until she whimpered. "Ever. Do you understand me?"

I was trembling, the scent of his protective fury filling the room.

He had married me to hurt Calista, to punish her for her betrayal with Bastian Crowholt.

And I, the foolish, unshifted sister, had let him use me because I loved him.

"How could you, Axista?" Orielle wept, her face twisted in rage. "You stole your sister's Alpha!"

"It... it just happened, Mama," I cried out. "Riven was in heat and I—"

"I knew exactly what I was doing, Orielle," Riven interrupted, pulling me tightly against his chest.

His heat radiated through his clothes, his scent of rich pine and woodsmoke wrapping around me like a shield.

Suddenly, the heavy oak doors of the atelier slammed open.

Calista stood there, her eyes red, her breathing ragged.

"Iskar called me..." Her gaze fell on Riven's arm wrapped securely around my waist.

With a wild, feral screech, Calista shifted halfway, her claws extending as she lunged at me.

Before Riven could block her, Calista shoved me with full wolf-strength.

I flew backward, crashing hard against a heavy iron-bound display table.

A sharp, blinding pain shot through my temple, and my hands went wet with warm, thick blood.

"Axista!" Riven roared, dropping to his knees beside me as I whimpered, clutching my head. "Are you bleeding?"

I glared at him through my tears, my head throbbing with agony. "Do I look okay?"

"Riven!" Calista screamed, her voice cracking as she stared at the silver bands shining on my fingers. "You married her? You gave her my Luna ring?!"