جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

Lamia Blackmoor POV“You cannot marry me?” I say.My heart goes fast. It hits my ribs hard like a trapped wolf. My skin goes very cold and my hands shake so much that the hot drink spills on my fingers. It hurts but I do not move.“I am sorry, Lamia,” Rham says. He does not look at my eyes. He looks at the big rug on the floor. “The eternal moonmark is not there. I cannot do this. Not next week, not ever.”“We are six days away from the Blood Moon Celebration,” I say. My voice sounds small. It sounds like a little girl, not the future Luna of the Jasperfang Pack. “The whole Moonshadow Dominion is coming. The Sacred Moon Temple is ready for us.”He takes a big breath. His face is very white and he looks sick. He wears his dark hunting coat but he looks small inside it. He looks like a ghost.“My father is dying on the pack bed upstairs,” Rham says. His voice is shaking. “He wants the Silverclaw Throne to be safe. But I cannot lie to the Grand Wolf Assembly. I cannot take you as my Luna

Clay Jasperfang POV“Why are you looking at me like that, Lamia?” I ask.I take a deep breath. My broad chest expands, the tight leather of my dark vest stretching against my shoulders. I know what the pack says about me. They call me the rogue prince, the playboy who spends too much time breaking hearts and causing trouble while my brother Rham played the perfect soldier. But I am the one standing here now.“You are crazy, Clay,” Lamia says. Her voice shakes. She looks at me like I am a dangerous monster from the Shadowfang Wilds. “Your brother just left me in the dirt. He ran away with a low wolf. And you come in here and say this?”“Rham is a coward,” I say. I step closer to her. My heavy combat boots click against the stone floor, and a dark, lethal aura fills the space between us. “He does not care about the Jasperfang Pack legacy. He does not care that King Aldric is dying in his bed right now. He gave up the Silverclaw Throne for Christine Thornfield. But I am the firstborn. I

“But I still think this marriage is the best thing for the Blackmoor Moonfang Pack and my family. I have a wolf's honour, Lamia. I want my brother to be happy with his true fated moonmate, vt I will not let my pack ruin your name. It is not right. I do not even care about the Alpha title. I only want it so I can protect Rham and Christine from the pack elders. I will make Rham do all the boring pack work anyway. But this? You and me? I really think we can rule well together.”He looks like he means it. His dark eyes do not leave my face. He places his large hand over my knees. The silver ring sparkles in the firelight. He strokes my leg gently, his touch sending a sudden jolt of electricity straight up my spine. I do not pull away.The truth is very scary. I have thought about being close to Clay for a long time. But I never thought about this. I never thought about being his wife.I look down at the most dangerous, lethal wolf I know. Marriage to Clay Jasperfang could be the lonelies

Lamia Blackmoor POV“Does it feel weird to you,” my sister Hazel Blackmoor asks me, “that everything about today is going just as it should, except that you are marrying a different wolf?”I meet her eyes in the silver glass of my vanity table while the pack stylist finishes braiding my dark fur. My hair looks perfect, just how we practiced at the Pack Grove Manor. Hazel is eleven winters younger than me, and her wolf is still immature. I try with her because I love my sister, but she is hard work. At seventeen winters old, she cares too much about silk robes and shiny stones.“A bit,” I tell her. My wolf stirs inside my chest, nervous and tight. “It makes it feel like a dream. But I am glad the ceremony is ready. I could not handle another change today.”That is only half the truth. My blood is still cold from Rham’s betrayal. I am not crying for him, but my temper is hot. I am still getting what my family needs: a prince of the Jasperfang Pack and the Silverclaw Throne for our futur

Lamia Blackmoor POV“I consider this an exceptionally noble compromise,” my father, Marcus Blackmoor, says as our heavily armored iron carriage rolls through the dark, winding trails of the Silvercrest Capital. “Wouldn’t you agree, my girl?”The question is completely rhetorical.In the Blackmoor Moonfang Pack, there is only one acceptable answer from a daughter, and that is obedience.I wish I were traveling to the sacred grounds with my Beta companions instead of sitting across from the Alpha who raised me. This journey was always going to be tense, but swallowing his fake, pompous pride makes my stomach churn.The Blood Moon Celebration should have been my execution. After Rham Jasperfang stood in our main hall and broke our sacred covenant, I had to endure three days of my father’s roaring anger and my mother’s endless dramatic weeping. Their grand political dreams were shattered in a single night. Our pack stood on the brink of complete humiliation, facing the mockery of every Hi