Prologue

The ballroom fell silent—not the usual lull, but the kind where everyone stopped breathing at once.

Thousands of wolves stared like I was a freak. The golden glow from chandeliers made everything look beautiful, but inside, I was drowning in darkness.

I stood there in my simple sundress. The one my mother had sewn with love, hoping today I’d meet my fated mate and finally belong.

I thought it made me pretty. I thought I’d be good enough. That someone could love a girl like me—a girl without a wolf.

Now the dress felt like a joke. A costume screaming how foolish I was for believing in happy endings.

Alpha Richard Brown stood in front of me. Tall. Strong. Everything an Alpha should be.

Just minutes ago, he looked at me from across the ballroom. One glance, and I’d hoped—maybe the Moon Goddess had finally smiled on me.

Now those same eyes were filled with disgust.

“You?” His voice echoed. He wanted them all to hear. “You think you’re good enough to be my Luna? To stand beside me? To carry an Alpha’s blood?”

Laughter broke out. Soft at first. Then crueler. My own pack laughed too.

People who watched me grow up. People who mocked me—despite me being the beta’s daughter.

“I—” My voice cracked. I’d rehearsed what to say. Stood in front of the mirror, whispering words of love. But now, I could barely breathe.

“Look at yourself,” Richard sneered, quieter but somehow louder. “Eighteen, and still no wolf. Empty inside. What could you possibly give me, or my pack? Nothing but weakness.”

His words were cruel, and my knees wanted to give out. My hands started shaking. Someone in the crowd whispered, “Poor thing.”

“The Moon Goddess marked you as broken,” he went on. “You have no wolf. No strength. No purpose except to show everyone else what failure looks like. Did you really think I would lower myself to mate with something so incomplete?”

Incomplete. The word rang through me like a bell. It’s not just mean. It’s true.

I was the girl who couldn’t shift. The shame of my family. The outsider in my own pack.

“I thought—” I whispered.

“You thought wrong.” His voice turned to steel. “I, Alpha Richard Brown of the Silver Moon Pack, reject you, Jane Biller, as my mate. You have no claim to my heart, my pack, or my future. You are nothing.”

His words struck like lightning. My chest burned. I gasped, and the sound echoed through the silence.

“I always knew she was cursed...”

“Poor Alpha Richard, having to deal with that...”

“Her poor parents...”

“What was she thinking?”

“To think the beta only child is this useless.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my father—the beta—standing tall beside the Alpha.

“Father,” I whispered, reaching out. But when I looked into his eyes, everything shattered.

I’d always felt his disappointment. But this? This was hate.

“Do you think I’ll help you?” he snapped. “Stop this pathetic display—you’re humiliating yourself. Even as your father, I regret the day you were born.”

I couldn’t breathe. My hand went to my chest. It hurt so much. How could my own father say this to me?

“If I could erase you from existence, I would do it without hesitation. You’re nothing but a stain on this family’s name—worthless garbage that I’m ashamed to call my own.”

My world fell apart. My legs felt weak. His words kept playing in my head. Trash. Garbage. Nothing.

I let out a broken laugh-sob-scream. Tears burned as I tried to hold them back—but the harder I tried, the more my body shook.

What did you do when the people meant to protect you destroyed you?

“You have said well, Beta,” Richard added, agreeing like I was some public failure. “No one could accept a daughter like that.”

They stood there—my father and the man I thought I’d love—united in their disgust.

“I know no one can accept her,” my father added. “What I didn’t expect was that the Moon Goddess would match her with someone as powerful as you. The goddess must be blind.”

That broke me completely.

Whispers turned to judgment. I could feel their eyes—pitying, mocking, and hating.

I had to get out.

My feet moved on their own. I pushed past the crowd. They recoiled like my touch might taint them.

Behind me, Richard addressed the crowd like I was already gone:

“Let this be a lesson. The Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes. Some are born to lead. Others...” He paused. “Others remind us why strength matters.”

The doors slammed behind me like thunder. It didn’t just shut out the ballroom. It shut out everything—everyone—I’d ever loved.

In the glittering hall, my reflection stared back from polished walls. I looked like a broken girl in a pretty dress.

I walked into the cold night air, leaving behind their lies.

My wolf still slumbered—waiting for the storm that would wake her. When she rose, the world would remember.

I would come back.

Not as a girl begging for scraps of love—but as a force of nature.

All I knew now was the taste of tears, the weight of rejection, and the promise that one day, they’d regret everything.

Behind me, the music resumed. The party carried on like I’d never existed.

But I did.

And someday, they would all remember my name.