C7

The heavy scent of dried wolfsbane and pine ash blew through the iron-grated window of the master den, carrying the sharp sting of pack betrayal into the cold room.

"I need to go back to my cabin, Riven," I told him, keeping my voice low so the throbbing in my skull wouldn't shatter into another blinding migraine.

"You can keep your damned pelt-dyeing hut," he growled, standing near the heavy ironbound door of his den. "But you sleep in my bed now."

My damned place?

"I have a very humble cabin near the outer woods," I snapped back, my weak, unshifted wolf whining in my chest at his harshness. "It is not the Ironmoon Keep, but it is mine. I have room for my canvases and pisk-dyes, and—"

"I don't give a fuck, Axista," he cut me off, his silver eyes flashing with warning. "Just gather your things and move into this room. This will be your den."

He slammed the timber door behind him, the heavy iron latch clicking into place like a trap.

I wanted to scream at his back, to demand that he treat me like a person instead of a pawn in his blood-feud with my sister.

Why would he, though?

I had let him claim me at the Moon Oath Sanctum when he was out of his mind with heat and wolf-whiskey.

I walked out of the sleeping chamber and found Maerla in the central hearth room, where massive stone pillars supported the ceiling of the Keep.

I sat down on a carved wooden stool near the fire, holding my head.

"The Keep is overwhelming, isn't it, Luna?" Maerla asked softly, setting down a brass pot of boiling herbs.

"Yes," I murmured. "Maerla, I brought a small leather satchel with me when Riven dragged me from the atelier."

"I placed it in your wardrobe, child," Maerla replied kindly. "I also washed the blood from your tunic and dried it by the hearth fire."

"Thank you," I whispered, retreating back into the safety of the sleeping chamber.

I pulled out my communication mirror, but the runic crystal was completely black, drained of magic.

I set it near the window to catch the faint moonlight, then pulled out my parchment ledgers.

I needed to find work immediately.

Alpha Riven Thornevale didn't have to worry about simple survival, but I had rent to pay for my cabin's land-tax, and I needed gold to save for my advanced studies at the Exist Academy of Lunar Arts.

A bird had already delivered an official parchment from the Silver Pelt Atelier—a formal notice of termination, signed by my mother, Orielle.

I scribbled quick notes to every elder archivist and relic keeper I knew, begging for work as a restorer of ancient pack banners.

When I finally activated the central scrying pool in the Keep's lower hall, the pack news was a total nightmare.

The heralds' magic had already spread the scandal to every corner of the Black Hollow Dominion.

Axista Briarwyn Steals Sister's Fated Alpha.

Who Is the Unshifted Briarwyn Daughter?

The Alpha's Sinful Night at the Eclipse Moon Territory.

They had managed to pull up an old record scroll from my early days at the EALA academy.

I felt sick to my stomach, tears hot against my bruised skin, by the time Pack Healer Varek arrived to check the stitches on my forehead.

He worked in quiet, methodical motions, applying cool herbal salve to the gash left by Calista's attack.

"Thank you for coming to check on me, Healer Varek," I mumbled.

"Call me Doc, Luna," he said gruffly. "Everyone in the pack does."

"Thank you, Doc."

We sat in the smaller side room of the den, surrounded by ancient weapons and dusty pack relics.

"How are you holding up, Axista?" Doc asked, wiping his scalpel clean.

"I'm fine," I lied.

He let out a short, rough laugh. "Your sister almost cracked your skull open, and the entire territory is calling you a disgraced whore. How are you really holding up?"

"By a very thin thread," I admitted, looking down at my scarred hands. "But I know how to survive. An unshifted wolf learns that early."

"No doubt," Doc said quietly. "Your family threw you to the shadow-wolves the second things went bad."

"Wouldn't yours?" I retorted bitterly. "I took my sister's Alpha."

"Please," Doc snorted. "Calista and Riven were a disaster waiting to happen. If they had completed the mating bond, they would have shredded each other's throats within a moon cycle."

I swallowed hard. "They belong together. Riven loves her, not me. Doc, you won't tell the elders what I've said, will you?"

"I serve the Thornevale bloodline, Luna," Doc said sternly. "My duty is to heal, not to carry gossip to the High Council."

"Good," I sighed, my chest aching. "They love each other. I just... I ruined everything because I couldn't resist him when he called to me in the dark."

"You didn't ruin anything," Doc said firmly. "Riven loves the power and prestige Calista brought to his side, but he never truly saw her. She is just like him—vain, ruthless, and arrogant."

"And what am I?" I asked softly.

"Plain, weak, and invisible," I answered for him before he could speak.

"Stop that," Doc snapped gently, pressing a thumb against my shoulder. "Your family beat those lies into you. Once you see yourself without their poison blinding you, Axista, you will be a force this entire pack will have to bow to."

A tear slipped past my lashes, burning against my split skin. "I just want to go home to my cabin, Doc."

"Stay here for now. Rest your head. The concussion will fade in a week or two," Doc said, picking up his healer's bag.

He leaned down and pressed a brief, fatherly kiss to my uninjured temple. "You are not invisible, little wolf."

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Riven?" Sorrell Thornevale roared, his Beta voice echoing off the high stone walls of the Thornevale Relic Hall.

"Keep your tone down, Sorrell," Lady Velastra commanded, her icy voice cutting through the tension. "We will resolve this legal disaster. I have already instructed the High Council Advocates to draft a formal post-nuptial contract. We will make Axista sign it. How much gold will she demand to disappear?"

The entire Thornevale family had gathered in the private council chamber the moment the news broke across the territory.

Gideon Briarwyn had already sent a raven calling his youngest daughter a scheming thief.

Orielle had warned Lady Velastra that Axista was an untamed, money-hungry wolf who had used dark herbal charms to trick the Alpha in his state of heat.

Calista had wept to Sorrell, claiming Axista had planned this betrayal for years.

Riven stood near the great fireplace, his jaw tight, his inner wolf snarling at the insults being thrown at his new mate.

"She does not want any gold," Riven stated coldly.

"Bullshit!" Lord Emeric bellowed, his Alpha aura flaring so hard the torchlight flickered. "Stop thinking with your knot, Riven! She is an unshifted nobody from a low-ranking line!"

Riven's claws almost extended.

He could have told them the truth right then—that Calista had been spreading her legs for Bastian Crowholt behind his back for four months.

He could have told them that Axista had been an untouched virgin, pure and sweet, whose scent had completely unhinged his control.

But his pride kept his throat locked tight.

He was thirty-two years old, the supreme Alpha of the Black Hollow Dominion, yet he had acted like a wounded beast, taking his revenge out on an innocent girl.

"Why do you all assume she trapped me?" Riven growled.

"Why else would an Alpha of your standing mate with a weak, wolf-less girl?" Lady Velastra sneered. "Compared to Calista, Axista is a complete failure."

"She is twenty-three years old, Mother," Riven barked, his voice rising in sudden defense of his wife. "It is a bit too early to declare her life a failure!"

"Do not tell me you care for this silly girl!" Lord Emeric demanded, his eyes flashing gold.

"She begged me for an annulment," Riven said through gritted teeth. "She asked for nothing. No territory, no gold, no status."

Lady Velastra scoffed. "I do not believe it. Orielle told me Axista has been a drain on their family since she was a pup. We will have the advocates draft the papers, and you will sever the bond."

Riven didn't mention the six-month agreement he had forced upon Axista.

He didn't tell them that he couldn't get the memory of her sweet, tight pussy out of his mind, or how her scent of wild lavender and rain was currently driving his wolf insane with the urge to mark her properly and fill her womb with his pups.

"Is she staying in the Alpha's den?" Sorrell asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Yes," Riven said flatly.

"No," Lord Emeric and Sorrell snapped together.

"That will make the High Council's annulment impossible to process!" Sorrell argued. "If the elders see that you are sharing a bed and living as Alpha and Luna, the blood oath becomes permanent under pack law!"

"I am the Alpha of this pack!" Riven roared, his aura crashing through the room, forcing even his brother to step back. "She is my wife, and you will address her with respect! Am I clear?"

Lady Velastra narrowed her eyes, stepping closer to her son. "Do not preach to me about pack law, Riven. I will personally deliver the post-nuptial contract to your little Luna tomorrow morning."