Chapter 4

The day before my departure, Father placed a sheet of parchment in front of me.

“Write a declaration.”

I looked up at him.

“The agreement has already been signed. Why does anyone need my declaration?”

“If you state that you offered yourself willingly, the other packs will honor the Ashford family for its sacrifice.”

A laugh escaped me.

“You forced me into a rigged draw, and now you want me to tell everyone I was willing?”

Father’s expression darkened.

“You are not being forced out. You are protecting the Silvermoon Pack and fulfilling your duty as my daughter.”

Mother added. “We raised you, Elara. You grew up with every privilege a Beta’s daughter could have. Is it so wrong to ask you to give something back?”

I looked at her. “If Evelyn were the one leaving tomorrow, would you say the same thing to her?”

Mother fell silent. It lasted only a heartbeat, but that was answer enough.

Evelyn suddenly burst into tears.

“If Elara hates me this much, I’ll go in her place.”

She began coughing before she finished. Her body swayed, and the entire family rushed toward her.

Mother screamed for the healer while my brother turned on me.

“Will you be satisfied only when her wolf collapses?”

I stood beside the unsigned declaration, watching them gather around Evelyn.

Then the vampire etiquette tutor arrived for my final rehearsal.

Once again, I was made to kneel on the stone floor, held out my joined hands, and bow my head as I recited the oath of submission.

The first kneeling split open the wounds on my knees. By the tenth, blood had soaked through my skirts.

Rowan stood beneath the archway, watching me.

More than once, his lips parted as if he wanted to stop them.

He never did.

That night, Rowan came to my room.

“Elara, you cannot stand before the vampire prince wearing another wolf’s pledge.”

He wanted the wolf-fang pendant resting against my chest.

Rowan had given it to me when we became engaged. The fang had come from his first shift, and I had worn it over my heart ever since.

I removed the fang and placed it in his palm. His fingers closed around it, brushing mine.

“This is only temporary,” he said. “When the Alpha brings you home, I’ll give it back. We’ll renew our engagement and hold the bonding ceremony.”

I didn’t argue.

If Rowan truly cared, I would never have needed to beg him to believe me.

For the first time, I stopped waiting for him to choose me.

After Rowan left, I signed Father’s declaration.

I, Elara Ashford, of my own free will, offer myself as the bride to the Prince of the Blood Court.

Then I pressed my seal beneath the lie.

The next evening, a black carriage bearing the vampire royal crest waited outside the packhouse.

Father stood at the top of the steps.

“Remember whose daughter you are. Do not disgrace this family.”

Mother’s eyes were red. “When you come home, I’ll make everything up to you.”

I said nothing. Apparently, even my silence offended someone.

My brother folded his arms and frowned at me. “Stop looking at us as if we’ve wronged you.”

Evelyn sobbed into Mother’s shoulder. “Please come back safely. I’ll never forgive myself if you don’t.”

Finally, Rowan walked me to the carriage.

“Wait for me,” he murmured. “I’ll come for you.”

I climbed into the carriage without looking back.

As the gates of the Silvermoon Pack closed behind me, the pain in my chest slowly faded.

Once I stopped hoping they would choose me, there was nothing left for them to hurt.

After my carriage left the Silvermoon Pack, Rowan still believed everything was under control.

He returned to my room to retrieve the Alpha’s moonstone.

His plan was to present it to the Alpha before I reached the vampire border. Once the Alpha honored his life debt, I could be brought home.

Then my sacrifice would be exactly what they had always imagined— painful, but temporary.

But when Rowan opened the box beside my bed, there was no moonstone inside.

Only the broken chain and a folded record bearing the Alpha’s seal.

The words were written clearly across the parchment:

Favor granted: Full pardon for Rowan Hale.

Rowan froze. He remembered the night the Alpha pardoned him.

Elara had been telling the truth. The moonstone was gone, there was nothing left to bring her home.

The record slipped from Rowan’s hand and fell to the floor. The last trace of color drained from his face.