Chapter 1

I'd barely made it back to my room and settled into bed under my mother's care when the door slammed open, hard enough to rattle the frame.

Leon's mother strode in, her ceremonial robes immaculate, her face twisted with disgust. She grabbed my arm without a word, fingers digging in like claws. The decayed wound underneath screamed. I sucked in a sharp breath, cold sweat breaking out across my skin.

"You have the nerve to come back? I told you to disappear!"

Her cold stare told me everything. Same play. Same script. Five years ago, it was exactly like this.

I'd been ambushed by hunters. The silver bullet had burned through my insides, poison eating me alive. While I writhed on the floor in agony, she walked in like she owned the place.

"Don't blame me for being cruel, Sophia. Leon is meant to be Alpha. His mate must be the strongest she-wolf in the pack. And you? You're a dying waste. You can't even produce a healthy heir. For the pack's future, I'm ordering you to reject him. Now."

I didn't understand back then. Why, when I was already broken, did I still have to endure this? But I swallowed it all. For Leon. So the elders wouldn't question him. So he could take his place as Alpha without anyone whispering behind his back.

So I lied to him. I used coldness as a weapon, pushing him away piece by piece. I hurt him until he couldn't recognize me anymore. And when he finally broke down, begging me to tell him why, I said it.

"I don't love you anymore. There's someone else."

The words ripped out of me like a blade. My heart shattered on the spot. And Leon lost it. He punched a stone pillar in the doorway until it cracked. And with that crack, something between us died forever.

I knew then that we could never go back.

But his mother still wasn't satisfied. She was terrified I'd slip. Terrified Leon would find out the truth and never take another mate. So she had us driven out that very night. She told Leon I'd run off with another man.

Five years I spent trying not to remember. Telling myself if I just didn't look back, the pain would fade. But standing here now, staring at her again, her expression hadn't changed one bit.

She spoke coldly, just like before.

"Sophia, you left. Why come crawling back now? Leon's new mate, Shelly, has the purest white wolf blood in the pack. She's worthy of him. You're not. The silver poison has reached your heart. Since you're dying anyway, just stay in this room and rot. Don't step outside. Don't run into Leon. And don't you dare ruin this for him."

The moment she said the word "dying," my mother snapped. She threw the bloodstained rag at the floor and looked ready to tear her apart. I grabbed my mother's arm before she could lunge, squeezed once to calm her. Then I turned back to Leon's mother, voice steady.

"Mrs. Frost, I'll take your secret to my grave. I won't disrupt Leon's ceremony. But I can't promise I won't see him."

Because I couldn't, not really. In all five years of this poison burning through me, there wasn't a single day I didn't think about him. When the pain got so bad I couldn't breathe, I'd bite down on the pendant he gave me and hold on. When I flatlined, when I couldn't wake up, my mother would scream in my ear.

"Sophia! You promised! You said you'd make it through! You said you'd go back and find him! If you die now, you'll never see Leon again!"

That name, Leon, it pulled me back from death more times than I can count.

But in the end, I couldn't heal myself. I'm dying anyway. And Leon has moved on. He has Shelly. He has a ceremony to prepare for.

I don't want to do anything. I don't want to ruin what he has now. All I wanted was to catch a glimpse of him from far away. Just a few more looks.

I didn't mean for him to see me.

His mother's face went pale with rage, ready to strike. But my mother had lost it completely. She grabbed the former Luna by the arm and shoved her out the door.

The door slammed. And I couldn't hold it in anymore, blood spilled across the sheets.

My mother broke down, sobbing, clutching me like she could keep me here by force. I leaned into her, weak, wiping the red from my lips.

"Don't cry, Mom. I chose this."

"Just ten more days."

"Then it won't hurt anymore."