"Bow to the true Luna," Jace repeated.

He pressed the bone blade a fraction closer. A tiny bead of blood welled against the sharp edge, trickling down my neck.

"Move the knife, Jace," I warned.

"Not until you submit."

"You are my son. You do not give me orders."

"You are nothing to me now! Submit!"

"I bow to no one," I answered, keeping my voice dead level. "Especially not to a pup who hasn't even seen her first winter hunt."

"She is your Luna!" Jace yelled.

"She is a parasite."

"Watch your mouth, Mother," Jace warned.

"Or what? You will slit my throat in front of the entire pack?" I challenged, locking eyes with my son. "Do it, Jace. Show them the coward your father raised."

"Enough," Kael growled. He stepped around Jace, his massive frame blocking the bonfire's light. "Make her kneel, Jace. Break her legs if you have to."

"You want me broken, Kael?" I asked. "Do it yourself."

"I don't dirty my hands with traitors."

"Since when?" I mocked. "You had no problem dirtying them when we slaughtered the northern scavengers together."

"That was a different lifetime," Kael replied coldly.

Suddenly, Lyra gasped. "Alpha, wait—my stomach!"

"Lyra?" Jace dropped the blade and spun toward her. "What is it?"

"It burns!" Lyra cried out.

She doubled over. She clutched her middle tightly and staggered sideways, throwing her weight toward Kael. Her flailing arm swiped across the altar stone.

The second ceremonial chalice tipped over.

Silver liquid splashed onto the dirt floor.

The moment the sacred spring water touched the earth, it hissed. Thick, black smoke plumed upward. The silver pooled into a dark, bubbling venom. It burned a vicious scorch mark into the grass, eating through the roots in seconds.

"Poison," Elder Thorne shouted. He pointed a trembling finger at the puddle.

"Keep back!" a warrior yelled.

"The altar is cursed!" another voice screamed.

Lyra sobbed wildly. She buried her face in Kael's chest. "She tried to kill me, Kael! The water—she prepared the altar!"

"I didn't touch the spring water," I stated.

"Liar!" Jace shouted. "You were the only one up here!"

"I prepared the wine," I corrected him. "Thorne brought the water."

Thorne stepped back, his face pale. "I drew it from the moon well, Luna. It was pure when I set it down."

"Then she tainted it while we waited," Kael accused.

"Why would I poison the water?" I asked. "I was going to drink from it too."

"You wanted to kill Lyra," Jace said. "You knew she would drink first as the new Luna."

"I didn't even know she existed until five minutes ago!" I argued.

"She is a witch!" someone shouted from the back of the crowd.

"She cursed the land!" another added.

"Silence!" Kael roared, his voice booming over the clearing.

Kael didn't listen to reason. His eyes locked onto the bubbling black sludge, then snapped directly to me. The cold indifference vanished, replaced by pure, unadulterated hatred.

"You poisoned the blessing," Kael snarled.

"Are you blind?" I shot back. "Your Omega just knocked it over. She brought the taint! She is the curse!"

"She is pure!" Kael roared.

He lunged.

Kael's large hand clamped around my throat. The sheer force lifted me completely off my feet.

"Kael!" I choked out.

He slammed me backward. My spine hit the jagged edge of the altar steps.

Pain exploded through my ribs. The impact drove all the air from my lungs in a sharp, violent rush. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't form a single word.

"Did you think I would let you murder my chosen?" Kael barked. He leaned in, his face mere inches from mine.

I clawed at his wrist. "I… didn't."

"You are no mate of mine. You are a murderer."

He tightened his grip. My vision grayed around the edges. Black spots danced across my eyes.

With his free hand, he grabbed the neckline of my white dress. He yanked hard. The heavy fabric tore straight down the middle, exposing my collarbone and the faded crescent moon mark resting just above my left shoulder.

The night wind bit into my bare skin.

I stared up into his eyes. Gold flared in his irises. Not a shred of hesitation existed in that gaze. His disgust was a physical blade, carving away every shared memory. Not a single flicker remained of the man who used to trace that very mark with reverence.

These were the same fingers that used to weave wildflowers into my hair during the spring festivals. Now, they were a pair of iron tongs crushing my windpipe.

My hands dropped to my sides.

I stopped fighting.

I let the cold air sweep over my torn clothes and my bruised skin. I let him see what he was doing. Let him feel the life draining from the woman who had fought beside him for twenty years.

His jaw flexed. He didn't care.

"Look at her," Jace sneered from somewhere above us. "She isn't even denying it."

"Why would she?" Kael spat. "Her jealousy has rotted her mind."

I swallowed against the agonizing pressure of his thumb. "You… are a fool."

"And you are exiled," Kael proclaimed. He didn't look at the crowd. He kept his furious gaze pinned to my face. "Thorne, bring it."

"Bring what, Alpha?" Thorne stammered.

"The branding iron," Kael commanded.

A collective gasp rippled through the pack.

"Alpha, please," Thorne begged. "She was your Luna for two decades. Banishment is enough."

"She attempted to murder my new mate," Kael countered. "She will carry the mark of a traitor until the day she dies. Bring it!"

Footsteps hurried across the dirt.

"Alpha, are you certain?" Thorne asked. His voice wavered.

"Bring the iron!" Kael roared.

A bright orange glow illuminated the side of Kael's face. The intense heat radiated outward, warming the freezing sweat on my neck.

Thorne pulled the long metal rod from the ritual fire pit. The heavy iron tip glowed white-hot in the dark.

Kael snatched the handle from the Elder.

He held the glowing metal up. The reversed letters branded into the raw iron spelled a single, damning word.

*Rogue.*

"Hold her steady, Jace," Kael ordered.

My son grabbed my shoulders, pinning me flat against the harsh stone.

"Don't move, Mother," Jace whispered. "It will only hurt more if you struggle."

"You are no son of mine," I replied.

Kael lowered the searing iron, stopping exactly one inch above my mate mark.

"Burn it deep," Kael ordered.

The white-hot metal slammed into my bare flesh.

Foul, gray smoke plumed upward. The scent of scorched skin and roasted hair instantly drowned out the pine needles burning in the bonfire.

"Acknowledge your crime!" Kael shouted over the hiss of melting flesh.

"Go to hell," I grunted through clenched teeth.

Jace pressed his knees harder into my ribs, pinning me flat against the altar stones. "Stop fighting it. You lost."

"I built this pack," I forced the words out, my voice straining against the agony. "I built you."

"You built nothing," Kael spat. He twisted the iron rod.

The flesh over my collarbone tore open.

I stretched my right hand out. My bloody fingers trembled as I reached for my son's ankle. "Jace."

He looked down at my hand. He drew his leg back.

His heavy boot collided with my knuckles, kicking my hand away with brutal force.

"Don't touch me," Jace sneered.

"I am your mother."

"My mother died tonight."

Kael lifted the iron. The crescent moon mark was gone, forever replaced by a hideous, charred lump of ruined tissue.

"I, Alpha Kael," he boomed, his voice echoing through the silent crowd, "reject Elara as my mate."

The words struck my chest like a physical hammer.

A violent spasm seized my lungs. My heart contracted, squeezing tight enough to rupture. The invisible tether connecting my soul to Kael's snapped in a single, devastating second.

I turned my head and vomited a thick puddle of black blood onto the sacred stones.

"The bond is gone," Elder Thorne announced, stepping away from the dark stain.

"Throw her out," Kael commanded. He tossed the cooling branding iron into the dirt.

Torin and Rurik, two massive guards I had trained myself, stepped out of the shadows.

"Grab her legs," Torin instructed.

"Don't get her blood on your uniform," Rurik replied.

Torin clamped his massive hands around my left ankle. Rurik seized my right.

I spat a glob of dark blood onto the stone steps. "I can walk."

"Rogues don't walk on our soil," Torin grunted.

They yanked me backward.

My spine slammed against the jagged edge of the altar stairs. I didn't scream. I kept my mouth shut as they hauled me through the dirt. The jagged rocks tore through the back of my ruined dress, scraping raw lines into my skin.

"Careful," Jace called out from the altar. "Don't let her filth touch the new Luna."

"We have her, young Alpha," Rurik answered.

The pack members parted silently. No one offered a hand. No one spoke a word in my defense. They simply watched the guards drag their former Luna through the snow and mud.

The boundary fence loomed ahead, a towering wall of rusted wire and sharp metal barbs.

"On three," Rurik muttered, adjusting his grip on my ankle.

"One. Two. Three."

They swung my body sideways. I flew through the freezing air. My shoulder slammed into the frozen snowbank on the other side of the boundary line.

Ice immediately seeped into my open wounds.

"Patrol the perimeter," Torin ordered his partner, turning his back on me. "Shoot her if she crosses back."

Footsteps crunched on the gravel inside the fence.

Lyra stood at the boundary line. Jace's heavy fur cloak swallowed her small frame. A smug, victorious smile curled the corners of her lips.

"You dropped something, old woman," Lyra whispered.

She bent down. Her fingers pinched a rusty copper coin from the dirt. She flicked it through the chain-link fence.

The metal disc struck my cheek, leaving a hard sting before dropping into the snow next to my face.

"Consider it a parting gift," Lyra taunted. "Buy yourself a shallow grave."

I pushed myself up onto my elbows, ignoring the screaming pain in my collarbone. "Enjoy my leftovers, little girl."

"Kael is mine now," she replied softly. "The pack is mine. And your son?" She let out a soft laugh. "He obeys my every command."

"He is a fool."

"He is loyal to his true Luna," she corrected.

Lyra turned her back on me and walked away.

I lay in the freezing snow.

Jace marched beside Lyra, his hand resting protectively on the small of her back. He never looked over his shoulder. He walked away from me without a single moment of hesitation.

My eyes burned with a terrible, stinging heat. The urge to cry clawed at my throat, yet my tear ducts remained entirely dry.

The brand on my left shoulder throbbed.

Every frantic beat of my heart pushed fresh agony through my veins. The brand wasn't just burned flesh. It was a permanent reminder of severed bloodlines. My family was dead.

I swallowed the foul taste of blood lingering on my tongue.

Using my elbows, I dragged my upper body upward. The snow crunched beneath my weight. Freezing wind bit into my exposed skin, numbing my scraped back, but the brand pulsed with white-hot fury.

I forced my knees under my hips.

"Get moving," I muttered to myself.

Then, a sound hit the frigid air.

*Awooooo.*

A low, guttural wolf howl echoed from the deep woods behind me.

I froze.

*Awooooo.*

A second howl joined the first.

*Awooooo.*

A third voice layered over the others, vibrating through the frozen ground beneath my palms.

I slowly turned my head, squinting into the dense thicket of black pines.

Leaves rustled. Branches snapped under heavy paws.

One by one, five pairs of glowing green eyes illuminated the dark gaps between the bushes.