Chapter 1

The war between vampires and werewolves has raged for centuries. But Dorian, the most revered vampire prince, shattered every rule and bound himself to me—a werewolf.

The Elders punished him for it.

For this, he was chained in sacred silver for days on end. Forced to drink the blood of beasts. He nearly died in a baptism of holy water. The pain was absolute.

But when he saw me again, his eyes were bloodshot as he kissed my tears away. "The moment we bonded, I made a vow," he whispered. "You are my eternal mate. I will never forsake you."

Finally, his family—the Valkyries—agreed. But they had one condition.

He could leave the vampire world with me. But first, he had to sleep with Liliana, the pureblood noblewoman. He had to give his family a new, powerful heir.

Dorian held me, his voice tight with desperation. "Please, Freya. Just wait a little longer. A few more years, and we can go to the human world. We can have our eternity."

I waited. Night after night, he went to her bed. A hundred nights of betrayal passed before she finally conceived.

But their daughter, Aria, was born without the proper bloodline mark. She couldn't be the heir. They had to have another.

I endured another two hundred nights of their betrayal. Liliana was pregnant again.

But on Aria's first birthday, sunlight somehow flooded her room. She was dying.

Everyone thought I did it.

I was locked in a cellar lined with silver. Dorian's face was a mask of pain and exhaustion as he confronted me.

"I told you we could leave after the next child was born. You're the only one here immune to the sun. Why would you hurt my daughter?!"

Tears streamed down my swollen face as I tried to deny it, but the silver poison burning in my bones had already stolen my voice.

By the time the cellar door opened again, the wolf inside me was fading.

I forced myself to my feet and walked toward the Valkyrie Elders. This eternal bond he promised? I was done.

...

A full day and a night. That’s how long I burned in silver before the cellar door finally creaked open.

The poison had seeped into my marrow. Every breath was like swallowing shattered glass. The wolf inside me whimpered, too weak to fight back.

"Elder Viktor." I pushed myself up against the wall, my silver-burned skin still weeping blood.

The head of the Vampire Council stood in the doorway, a satisfied smile on his pale face.

He had waited a long time for this moment.

"So, you've finally come to your senses?"

"I have." I met his cold, red eyes. "I'll leave Dorian."

Viktor’s eyes narrowed. "Your terms?"

"Send me somewhere he can never, ever find me."

"Ha!" He let out a scornful laugh. "You she-wolf. If you had given up sooner, you wouldn't have had to suffer in here. The Blood Moon is in ten days. I'll arrange everything."

I nodded and walked out of that hell, the stench of corroding silver clinging to me.

A soft cooing sound drifted from the grand hall.

I stopped. My heart seized.

Dorian was holding his nine-month-old daughter, Aria, softly humming an ancient vampire lullaby.

Liliana snuggled against his side, one hand resting on her newly swollen belly.

She was carrying their second child. The heir who was supposed to grant Dorian his freedom.

What a perfect family. My eyes burned with unshed tears. I refused to let them fall.

A bond between our kinds was never meant to be. Especially not between a werewolf and a vampire, whose war had raged for centuries.

And I was the fool who thought I could change that.

The wolf inside me howled, curling up in pain.

"Freya?" Liliana spotted me first, her body instantly pressing closer to Dorian in a protective gesture.

Dorian looked up. Those deep blue eyes that once burned for me were now cold with suspicion.

He instinctively shifted, shielding the baby from my gaze.

After all this time, he still didn't trust me.

"You're out," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm.

I didn't answer, turning to escape the suffocating scene.

"Wait." He handed Aria to a nearby thrall and walked toward me. "Let me see your wounds."

"Don't bother."

"Freya." His tone became firm. "Come here."

When he reached for my blood-stained sleeve, I flinched away.

The silver burns were still raw, the skin blackened and festering.

But the hole in my heart hurt more than any physical wound.

"Don't touch me."

His hand froze in mid-air. A flash of hurt crossed his eyes, quickly replaced by weariness.

"I couldn't stop them," he explained, his voice ragged with exhaustion. "It would have only made them angrier. If I had stepped in, they would have found a crueler way to execute you. If you hadn't tried to harm an innocent child—"

"I didn't do it!" I cut him off, the tears finally breaking free.

He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes filled with a disappointment and pain that told me he didn't believe me.

Just then, Liliana walked over, holding the baby, her face a mask of false concern.

"Freya, I want to apologize for yesterday. Perhaps I misunderstood something."

I gave a numb nod, but my eyes were suddenly glued to something around her neck.

An exquisite moonstone necklace, glowing with a soft blue light in the dim castle halls.

It was the last relic of my slaughtered pack.

The day Dorian and I became blood-bound mates, I told him how much that necklace meant to me.

It held the last memories of the Crescent Moon pack. It was my only tie to the world I had lost.

"Where did you get that?" I stared at the necklace, my voice shaking.

Liliana touched it instinctively, then glanced at Dorian.

"I gave it to her," Dorian said, taking a deep breath, his voice artificially calm. "Liliana's been emotional with the pregnancy. She needed a gift to soothe her."

A gift to soothe her.

Using my pack’s sacred relic. My life’s anchor.

"That's mine!" I lunged forward, trying to snatch it back.

Liliana let out a sharp cry, stumbling back as if I'd struck her.

"Oh!" she gasped, one hand flying to her stomach. "The baby… I’m cramping…"

"Are you insane?!" Dorian's voice was a low growl of terror and suppressed rage.

He looked from Liliana’s pale face to her hand protecting her belly, and a bottomless exhaustion filled his eyes.

The next second, he shoved me. Hard.

The force of his shove slammed me against the stone wall. The wound on my back tore open, drenching my clothes in fresh blood. The agony was so intense, I couldn't breathe.

But Dorian didn’t even look at me.

He caught Liliana as she pretended to faint, and they vanished in a cloud of black mist.

The only thing left in the hall was the echo of his last gentle words to her. "Don't worry. Our heir will be fine."