Chapter Two: The Price of Peace

“You will marry him.” My father’s hands slammed against the wooden table, the sound echoing like thunder across the chamber walls.

I had never seen him this furious—not since the day my mother died. Her name was Lumber, and even now, the memory of her loss clung to our family like a curse. My father had always said she was his great love, the wound he could never heal from. Yet in moments like this, when his rage towered over me, I wondered if her absence had carved him into something colder, something unrecognizable.

His eyes burned into mine, cold and sharp, “Nico, you must understand—the fate of this kingdom rests in your hands.” His voice wasn’t gentler, but the raw anger in it had eased into something heavier, something unyielding, like bitter steel.

My throat tightened. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, but I held them back with every ounce of strength I had. Why would he do this to me? Why would he place this burden—this prison—on my shoulders, when all I had ever wanted was freedom?

It wasn’t that I hated Alpha Rowen. He was strong, respected, the kind of man others looked to as a leader. But he already had a mate, a woman chosen for him by the Moon Goddess herself. Who was I to stand in the way of fate? Who was I to replace a love blessed by the heavens?

To the Moon Goddess, every wolf’s destiny was etched in the stars long before we ever took our first breath.

And me? I wasn’t a woman in his eyes. I wasn’t a daughter. I was leverage. A tool. An alliance wrapped in flesh and bone.

The weight of it crushed me from the inside. I wanted to fall to my knees, to grab my father’s hand and beg him to stop. To remind him that he still had a choice, that he was powerful enough to tear this decree apart if he truly wished to. But some words are better left unsaid, especially when spoken against an Alpha who had long since forgotten how to listen.

“Sit,” he ordered, his voice sharp enough to shatter my thoughts with that single command.

I lowered myself into the chair opposite him, my chest tight, my hands trembling in my lap.

“It’s for our good,” he pressed, his tone softening but not with kindness. “Imagine it—no more killings. Peace for the pack. A safe future for generations to come.”

But what of my future? My heart whispered the question he would never answer.

I excused myself before he could say more, fleeing his office as quickly as I could. My father’s decision was final. I was to marry Alpha Rowen, even though destiny had not bound us.

I had no voice. No choice. My only answer was, “Yes, Alpha”.

By the time I reached my room, my tears spilled freely, hot and relentless. I pressed a hand over my mouth to muffle the sobs, choking on the storm inside me. My father would see tears as weakness, and I couldn’t let him know how broken I truly was. Weakness, in his eyes, was unforgivable.

⸻

Three months passed.

The killings had stopped after the Luna’s death, as though her blood had been the final offering the shadows demanded. Peace—cold and uneasy—draped itself over Moonshadow like a heavy cloak. We pretended to breathe easier, to live without fear, but the silence was hollow. It was the kind of peace that felt borrowed, the kind that could be snatched away at any moment.

Until the night of my eighteenth birthday.

At midnight, the fragile quiet shattered. Another wolf was murdered. And another.

Again.

The bloodshed began all over, and this time, it clawed straight into my chest. My body shook as though I had been struck by the same claws that tore into them. The illusion of safety crumbled, and with it, the last shred of hope I had clung to.

I buried my head in my palms, trying to make sense of it all—trying to unravel the endless knot of death, betrayal, and secrets strangling the pack. But the more I dug, the deeper the pit seemed. And some holes were meant to swallow you whole.

By sunrise, I forced myself to lift my chin. A new day had come, whether I wanted it or not.

And this day wasn’t just any day.

It was the day the Moon Goddess would reveal my mate. The day every wolf awaited with trembling hearts and desperate hopes. The day the stars would decide my future, whether I welcomed it or not.

If I was fated to someone today, maybe—just maybe—the chains my father had forged for me would finally break.

“Nico!”

I turned to see Manna hurrying toward me, her face pale, her voice carrying an edge of guilt she couldn’t quite hide.

“I’m so sorry your eighteenth birthday turned out like this,” she said, forcing a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

I studied her for a moment before giving her a faint nod, pulling my lips into a smile I didn’t feel. “I’m fine, Manna. Don’t worry about me. Marrying Alpha Rowen is… for the good of the kingdom.” My voice cracked slightly, but I turned away before she could see the tears threatening again.

She reached out as if to stop me, to urge me to walk with her, to share my burden. But I couldn’t. If I let myself crumble now, I would sob like a child—and I couldn’t afford that. Not today.

Instead, I went back to my father’s office, my heart pounding so loud it nearly drowned out my courage. But this time, I wasn’t trembling. This time, I was done being silent.

“I won’t marry him, Alpha James.” My voice was steady, though my pulse roared in my ears like a war drum. “I respect you, but I won’t destroy my life for this kingdom’s sake.”

He looked at me, and to my shock, he laughed. A low, humorless chuckle that made my skin crawl.

“Do you think you are anything without me?” His words cut deeper than claws, slicing into the fragile hope I had built.

“Yes,” I shot back before I could stop myself. “I am more than your control. I always have been.”

The truth slipped out like venom, bitter and undeniable. My father was a good Alpha. But he had never been a good father.

His expression hardened, his jaw tight enough to crack. He turned his back on me, pouring himself a glass of red wine from the bar in the corner of his office. The liquid swirled in the glass as he faced the window, the sea beyond stretching calm and endless, mocking the storm raging inside me.

“All I want,” he murmured, his tone heavy with exhaustion, “is a kingdom that is at peace.”

My voice cracked with anger, trembling with everything I had been forced to bury. “And is that at the expense of my peace?”