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Chapter 1

The Full Moon Celebration was still underway when I left the banquet hall alone.Members of the Blood Moon Pack crowded around the wine table, waiting for the moon to reach its highest point. Rowan stood in line while Celine rested nearby with his formal coat across her lap.As my car pulled away, I looked back. A server passed too close to Celine, and Rowan raised an arm around her shoulders, shielding her from the crowd.He returned to the Alpha House at one in the morning and frowned when he found me beside the dying fire.“Why are you still awake?”“I was waiting for you.”His hand paused on his coat. “I told you to go home without me.”Moon-laurel wine stained his cuff and scented his collar.“When did the celebration end?”“Around eleven.”“And after that?”“Celine’s old back injury started hurting, so I took her home.”We had not completed the permanent mark, but six years together had taught me his expressions. Rowan was not hiding where he had been. He simply thought no explan

Chapter 2

Five days before the bonding ceremony, I went to the pack’s atelier for the final fitting of my Luna gown.The head seamstress adjusted the train while three members of the ceremony committee inspected the moon-gold crest and the accessories required for the ritual.By the time I changed into the third gown, Rowan still had not arrived. The embroidery grew heavier on my shoulders as I waited before the mirrors. Forty minutes later, a car finally stopped outside.Rowan entered with Celine behind him. She carried several crystal boxes.“The council added another vote,” Rowan said. “Celine was nearby, so I brought her with me.”Celine placed the boxes on the table. “I held him up. I was reviewing the ceremonial favors for the allied pack representatives and couldn’t decide between the designs.”“Why were the favors being redesigned?”“I approved the change.” Rowan opened one box and removed a gold-rimmed goblet engraved with the Blood Moon Pack’s crest. “The birchwood boxes you chose were

Chapter 3

The night before our bonding ceremony, Rowan’s parents hosted a family dinner at the Alpha House.I brought my mother’s recipe journal with me. I planned to give it to the kitchen so they could prepare her moonflower pudding for tomorrow’s bonding feast.It was the only dish I had insisted on choosing myself. My mother had served it at every winter celebration when I was a child, and I had spent weeks adjusting her notes for the larger feast.Rowan’s grandmother leafed through the journal.“You’ve taken good care of it. One day, you can pass it down to your children.”Celine, seated beside Rowan, held out her hand.“May I see it?”I took the journal from his grandmother and placed it back inside its wooden box.“Sorry. It belonged to my mother.”Celine drew back her hand, her smile faltering.“I was only curious. I didn’t mean anything by it.”Rowan glanced at me.“She only wants to look at a recipe book. You don’t need to be so protective.”“It’s the last thing my mother left me.”Row

Chapter 4

Rowan was already thirty minutes late for our bonding ceremony, and the priest had sent someone to find him three times.My phone lit up on the dressing table.[Your request to leave Blood Moon Pack has been approved. Your mental link to the pack will now be severed.]Pain tore through my chest as the connection broke. I gripped the edge of the table and waited for the hollow ache to subside.I had submitted the request after the Full Moon Celebration a week earlier. Now the only thing still binding Rowan and me was a bonding ceremony that had yet to begin.The door opened, and Celine walked into the room wearing her attendant’s gown. A healer’s support wrap was still fastened around her waist.“You’re still waiting for him?”She stopped beside my ceremonial gown and ran her fingers over the gold fabric.“Rowan and I grew up together. I was with him during his first shift. Do you really think six years with him can replace everything we shared?”I turned my phone facedown on the table.

Chapter 5

“She waited for you for six years, and today you made her wait in front of the entire pack.”Rowan’s face turned with the blow, leaving a thin line of blood at the corner of his mouth.“Where did she go?”“Now you care enough to look for her?”“Grandmother, I asked where she went.”It was the first time Rowan had ever raised his voice at her.His grandmother silently handed him the agreement bearing the seals of the priest and the pack council.“Elara canceled the bonding ceremony. She has also withdrawn from the Blood Moon Pack.”Rowan stared at my signature at the bottom of the withdrawal agreement, his face deathly pale.“When was this approved?”“Before the ceremony,” the priest replied. “Her application met every requirement. She had no permanent mark and had never formally assumed the title of Luna. The council had no grounds to deny her request.”Rowan immediately tried to reach me through the pack’s mental link, but there was nothing left for him to find.He pulled out his phon

Chapter 6

Two weeks later, on the day the dessert shop reopened, more than twenty people lined up outside.Marcus watched the line continue to grow.“Should we hand out numbers? Some customers might leave if the wait gets too long.”“Go ahead. Give everyone a moonflower cookie while they wait.”A young woman accepted her number and smiled at me.“Aren’t you worried you’ll lose money giving away so many?”“Waiting is hard. People deserve something for their time.”I placed the finished moonflower puddings in the display case just as the bell above the door rang.Rowan stood outside in a black coat, rain still clinging to his shoulders. He watched me for several seconds before approaching the counter.“Did you take a number?” I asked.“What?”“You need a number. There are twenty-three customers ahead of you.”Rowan looked back at the line outside.In the past, he would leave whenever he saw more than three people waiting. This time, he accepted a number from Marcus and took his place at the end of

Chapter 7

The man I had dinner with was Elias Reed, the son of one of Marcus’s friends.He owned the bookstore next to my dessert shop. Before we met, he had already helped me contact a paper conservator and offered to redesign the shop’s menu.At the restaurant, Elias handed me the menu.“Is there anything you don’t eat?”“Cilantro.”He nodded and asked the server to leave cilantro out of every dish.The request was so simple, yet it caught me off guard.After dinner, Elias walked me back to the shop beneath his umbrella. Rowan was standing under the awning, still holding the number he had taken earlier that day. Rain had soaked through the paper, softening its edges.When he saw us together, his gaze settled on the hand Elias held above me.“Who is he?”Elias closed the umbrella.“Questions about the owner’s private life aren’t something a customer is entitled to ask.”Rowan ignored him and looked at me.“You had dinner with him?”“Yes.”“We haven’t settled things between us.”“We have.”“I ne

Chapter 8

The moment the woman saw Rowan, she called him by his childhood nickname.Rowan gave no response and simply studied her.“My mother had a crescent-shaped burn behind her left ear. Where is yours?”The woman instinctively covered her ear and looked away.Celine immediately stepped in. “It’s been more than twenty years. She could have had the scar removed.”“I asked her.” Rowan turned to Celine. “Why are you answering for her?”He placed his phone on the table.While Rowan was on his way to Northgate Station, his Beta ran a full identity check on the woman.The childhood details she had given were accurate, but the woman herself had no connection to Rowan’s family. Her bank records showed a large transfer from Celine three days earlier.Rowan placed the report on the table.“You paid her to learn about my childhood and impersonate my mother?”Celine was silent for a moment, then smiled.“So what if I did?”“Did you deliberately knock the recipe journal into the syrup?”“Yes.”“And your i

Chapter 9

Two weeks later, Celine was summoned before the Blood Moon Pack council.She had hired a woman to impersonate Rowan’s mother, falsified identity documents, and fabricated medical emergencies. Rowan turned over all the evidence and dismissed her from her position in the Alpha’s office.Soon afterward, Rowan’s grandmother came to Greyhaven and placed a gold jewelry box in front of me.“This bracelet has been passed down to every Luna in Rowan’s family.”I did not open it.“I’m no longer the future Luna of Blood Moon Pack.”She stood quietly with both hands resting on her cane, then took out a property transfer agreement.“You and Rowan planned to move into the lakeside house after the bonding ceremony. You chose all the furniture and oversaw the renovations. He wants you to have it.”“I don’t want it.”“Elara, he moved out of the Alpha House. His Beta is handling most of his daily duties for now, and Rowan has started seeing a therapist.”“That’s his life.”Her eyes turned red.“He spent

Chapter 10

The following spring, Greyhaven held its annual dessert festival.Using my mother’s restored recipe, I prepared one hundred servings of moonflower pudding. By eight in the morning, the line already stretched from the shop to the corner.Marcus leaned out of the kitchen.“The cream for the last batch isn’t ready, and our assistant still hasn’t arrived.”At that moment, the door to the neighboring bookstore opened. Elias walked in, rolling up his sleeves.“I’ll help.”Marcus looked at him.“You know how to make it?”“I read the recipe last night.”Elias propped his phone beside the worktable. The screen showed photographs he had taken of the restored journal.He overheated the first batch, and the cream quickly turned lumpy. I stepped beside him.“Lower the heat and keep stirring.”He started again. This time, the mixture gradually became smooth.Someone called from outside.“How much longer will it be?”I dried my hands and went out to distribute more numbered tickets.“About forty minu

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