The crate of wine bottles dug into my palms as I stumbled after the other servants through the grand entrance of the Silver Lake Pack's ceremonial hall. My arms screamed in protest, muscles burning from the two-hour journey carrying supplies that should have been transported by cart. But Omegas didn't get carts. Omegas got splinters and contempt.

"Move faster, Anderson!" Beta Thomas's voice cracked like a whip behind me. "You think the Wedding of the Century waits for useless baggage?"

I bit down on my tongue hard enough to taste copper. Three years ago, he would have called me "Miss Estelle" and bowed his head. Now I was just Anderson—not even worth a first name.

The Silver Lake Pack's neutral territory was breathtaking, all marble columns and crystal chandeliers that caught the afternoon light like captured stars. Under different circumstances, I might have appreciated the beauty. Instead, all I could think about was how my worn servant's dress—gray and shapeless—looked against the opulent backdrop. How perfectly it advertised my fall from grace.

"Listen up." The head servant, a stern she-wolf with silver streaking her dark hair, gathered us in the service corridor. "This is the most important pack alliance in a decade. Shadow Creek Pack's Alpha is marrying Crescent Moon's true daughter. You will be invisible. You will be silent. You will not embarrass your packs." Her eyes landed on me with particular emphasis. "Some of you especially."

Heat crawled up my neck. Even here, hundreds of miles from home, my shame preceded me.

They handed me a tray of champagne flutes filled with golden liquid that probably cost more than I'd earn in a year. "Cocktail hour. Circulate. Don't speak unless spoken to. Don't make eye contact with anyone above Delta rank."

I nodded, throat too tight for words.

The ballroom was a sea of elegant wolves in designer suits and silk gowns. Alphas from a dozen packs mingled, their powerful auras creating an almost visible pressure in the air. I kept my eyes down, my wolf whimpering softly inside me—she'd always been weak, barely able to manifest even when I'd been the Alpha's daughter. Now she was nearly silent, broken by years of searching for a mate who'd vanished without a trace.

I wove through the crowd, offering champagne with mechanical precision. Accept. Move. Repeat. Don't think. Don't feel. Don't remember that three years ago, I was supposed to be planning my own Mating Ceremony.

"More champagne here," someone called from near the raised platform where the ceremony would take place.

I turned, balancing my tray carefully as I approached. The groom stood with his back to me, surrounded by well-wishers. He was tall, broad-shouldered, commanding even in stillness. Something about the set of his shoulders made my breath catch, but I shoved the feeling down. Every Alpha looked the same from behind—powerful, untouchable, nothing to do with me.

"Excuse me," I murmured softly, extending the tray.

He turned.

The world stopped.

Kieran.

Those storm-gray eyes I'd known since childhood. The sharp jaw I'd traced with trembling fingers the night before our Mating Ceremony. The small scar above his left eyebrow from when we'd climbed too high in the old oak tree at age twelve.

Kieran Foster. My Kieran. My mate. My—

The mate bond, dormant and muted for three agonizing years, suddenly flared to life like someone had set my veins on fire. The champagne flutes began to rattle on the tray. My hands shook violently.

His eyes widened in recognition. But there was no joy. No relief. No love.

Only cold, burning hatred.

"No," I whispered. The tray slipped from my numb fingers.

Crystal exploded against marble. Champagne spread like a golden accusation across the pristine white floor. The conversation died as if someone had cut the strings of a puppet show.

Every eye in the room turned to me.

"You." Kieran's voice was barely recognizable—rough and cruel where it had once been warm. His Alpha aura slammed into me like a physical blow, driving me back a step. "You dare show your face here?"

My wolf curled into a ball of agony. This wasn't right. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. He was supposed to be missing. He was supposed to have been taken. He was supposed to—

"Kneel." The Alpha command in his voice left no room for resistance.

My knees hit the floor before I could stop them, glass shards biting through the thin fabric of my dress. Pain bloomed sharp and immediate, but it was nothing compared to the devastation ripping through my chest.

"Three years," Kieran said, his voice carrying to every corner of the silent ballroom. "Three years of this traitorous filth pretending to be my mate. Pretending the Moon Goddess chose her." He kicked a large shard of glass toward me. It skittered across the marble, coming to rest near my bleeding knee. "Clean up your mess. With your hands. Maybe it'll teach you that some stains can never be washed away."

Somewhere in the crowd, I heard Ava's delicate gasp of shock, perfectly performed.

And I understood.

He hadn't been taken.

He'd chosen to leave.

The servant's quarters smelled like bleach and desperation. I knelt on the cold stone floor, scrubbing champagne and my own blood from my hands with a rag that had seen better days. The glass cuts stung, but I welcomed the pain. It was real. It was something I could understand.

The door swung open without a knock.

Ava.

She stood in the doorway like a vision in white—her mating gown was all lace and pearls, probably custom-made in Paris or Milan. The kind of dress I'd once imagined wearing. Her blonde hair cascaded in perfect waves over her shoulders, and her smile was sugar-sweet poison.

"Oh, Estelle." She pressed a manicured hand to her chest, eyes wide with fake concern. "Are you alright? That was such a terrible scene you caused."

I kept scrubbing. Didn't look up. "I'm fine."

"Here, let me help you." She crossed the room in a whisper of silk, kneeling beside me. Before I could move away, her fingers dug into my shoulder—nails biting through the thin fabric of my dress like claws. The pressure was just shy of drawing blood.

I sucked in a breath.

"You should be grateful," she whispered, her voice dropping to something cold and sharp. "Grateful that Kieran is merciful enough to let you serve at our ceremony. Grateful that you're even allowed to breathe the same air as him." Her nails pressed harder. "He's mine now, Estelle. He always was. The Moon Goddess just needed time to correct her mistake."

I jerked away from her grip, my wolf snarling weakly inside me. "Get out."

Ava stood, smoothing her dress with deliberate care. "Clean yourself up. You're bleeding on the floor again." She paused at the door, glancing back with that perfect smile. "Oh, and Estelle? Don't even think about approaching him tonight. Security has orders to remove any... disturbances."

The door clicked shut behind her.

I waited until her footsteps faded before I let the tears come.

---

I shouldn't have gone to the Alpha guest wing.

I knew it was stupid. Reckless. The kind of thing that would get me thrown out or worse. But I couldn't stop myself. The mate bond was screaming inside me, demanding answers, demanding him. My wolf—weak as she was—kept pushing me forward through the darkened corridors.

The moon pendant burned against my palm, the silver warm from my grip. He'd given it to me on my sixteenth birthday, the night my wolf first emerged. "So you'll always have a piece of the moon," he'd said, fastening it around my neck. "And a piece of me."

I had to make him remember.

The guest wing was quiet, lit only by sconces that cast long shadows across expensive carpets. I pressed myself against the wall as voices echoed from a nearby room—pack business, probably. I waited, heart hammering, until the door opened.

Kieran stepped out, alone.

He was adjusting his cufflinks, his profile sharp in the dim light. For a moment, he looked exactly like the boy I'd loved. Then he turned, and I saw the stranger he'd become.

"Kieran." My voice cracked. "Please. Just listen—"

He moved faster than I could track. One second I was standing in the hallway, the next my back slammed against the wall, his hand beside my head, caging me in. His eyes flashed gold—his wolf rising to the surface.

"You don't get to say my name." His voice was a growl, barely human. "You lost that right when you sold us out."

"I never—" I fumbled with the pendant, holding it up between us with shaking hands. "Look. Remember? You gave this to me. You promised we'd always—"

His hand shot out, snatching the pendant from my grip. He held it up to the light, his expression twisting into something cruel. "A trophy of your betrayal. I should have taken it back the night I found out what you really are."

"What are you talking about?" Tears streamed down my face. "I never betrayed you. I never betrayed anyone!"

"Liar." He leaned closer, his breath hot against my cheek. "I remember everything, Estelle. Every. Single. Thing. I remember you handing those patrol routes to the rogues. I remember the money changing hands. I remember your face when you thought no one was watching."

"That's not—that never happened!" My wolf whimpered, confused and hurt. "Kieran, please, you have to believe me—"

But something was wrong. His scent—it should have been cedar and rain, the smell that had always meant home. Instead, there was something else underneath. Something cloying and sickly sweet, like flowers left too long in a vase.

Wolfsbane.

"You're being poisoned," I whispered, the realization hitting me like ice water. "Kieran, someone's been giving you wolfsbane. That's why you can't—"

His hand wrapped around my throat. Not squeezing, but the threat was clear.

"Enough." His eyes were pure gold now, his wolf fully present. "You had your chance to tell the truth three years ago. Now you'll watch me mark my true mate tomorrow, and you'll know exactly what you lost."

He released me, shoving the pendant into his pocket.

"Stay away from me, Estelle. Next time, I won't be so gentle."

He walked away, leaving me gasping against the wall.

And I knew—with horrible, crushing certainty—that the Kieran I'd loved was gone.

The morning air bit at my skin as I stumbled to keep pace with the pack. My human legs burned, muscles screaming with every step while wolves the size of small cars streaked past me in blurs of fur and power.

I wasn't allowed to shift. Omegas ran in human form during ceremonial hunts—a reminder of our place at the bottom of the hierarchy. A reminder that we were less.

Kieran's wolf led the pack, massive and silver-gray, his Alpha aura rolling off him in waves that made my weak wolf cower. Beside him ran a smaller wolf with golden fur that caught the sunlight like spun honey.

Ava.

They moved in perfect sync, their bodies flowing together like they'd been running side by side for years instead of months. My chest tightened. That should have been me. That was supposed to be me.

The forest path narrowed, forcing me closer to the edge where rocks jutted out like broken teeth. I focused on my footing, on breathing, on anything except the bond that kept pulling me toward the silver wolf at the front.

Then Ava's wolf dropped back.

I didn't understand why until her shoulder slammed into my legs.

The world tilted. My feet left the path. I had one heartbeat to realize I was falling before my body hit the embankment, tumbling over rocks and roots that tore at my skin and dress. Pain exploded across my ribs, my shoulder, my face.

I came to rest at the bottom in a heap, tasting blood and dirt.

Laughter echoed from above. The pack elites had stopped to watch, their wolves' eyes gleaming with amusement. Entertainment for the privileged.

Paws thundered on the path. The silver wolf appeared at the top of the embankment, and for one stupid, hopeful second, I thought he'd come to help.

Kieran shifted, his human form replacing his wolf in a ripple of power. He stood there naked and perfect, looking down at me like I was something he'd scraped off his shoe.

"Clumsy," he called down, his voice carrying to the watching pack. "The Moon Goddess punishes weak blood. Maybe if you'd been stronger, you wouldn't keep falling."

More laughter. Ava shifted beside him, and he immediately draped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

They left me there.

All of them left me there.

I lay in the dirt until the sound of paws faded, until I was sure they were gone. Then I dragged myself up, every movement agony, and limped back toward the pack house.

---

The Silver Lake gardens were supposed to be neutral ground—a place of peace where visiting wolves could find solace away from pack politics. I stumbled through the ornate gates, desperate for somewhere to hide, somewhere to breathe.

Moon Flowers grew in a secluded corner, their white petals luminescent even in daylight. The sight of them stopped me cold.

Kieran had planted Moon Flowers outside my bedroom window when we were seventeen. "So you can see them every morning," he'd said, dirt under his fingernails and hope in his eyes. "So you'll think of me."

I sank onto a stone bench, my battered body grateful for the rest. The flowers swayed in the breeze, innocent and beautiful, and I hated them for reminding me of everything I'd lost.

Footsteps crunched on gravel.

I looked up to find Kieran standing at the garden entrance, still in his running clothes, dirt smudged across his chest. His eyes locked on the Moon Flowers, and something dark crossed his face.

He crossed the garden in long strides and grabbed the nearest plant, ripping it from the soil with savage force. Roots tore. Dirt flew. White petals scattered like snow.

He moved to the next one. And the next.

"Stop." The word left my mouth before I could stop it.

His head snapped toward me. For a moment, we just stared at each other across the ruined garden, him holding an uprooted flower, me bleeding and broken on the bench.

Then he walked over and threw the plant at my feet. Dirt splattered across my torn dress.

"These were always a lie," he said, his voice flat and cold. "Pretty things hiding poison underneath. Just like you."

I couldn't speak. Couldn't move.

"Tonight," he continued, brushing dirt from his hands with deliberate care, "at the ceremony, I'm going to reject you. Formally. In front of every Alpha in the region." He crouched down, bringing his face level with mine. "I'm going to sever our bond completely, Estelle. No more cursed connection. No more mistakes. Just me and my true mate."

My wolf howled inside me, a sound of pure anguish.

"You'll watch me mark Ava," he said softly, almost gently. "You'll watch me choose her. And you'll know, finally, that the Moon Goddess never meant for us to be together."

He stood, looking down at me one last time.

"Wear something nice. I want you to look presentable when I destroy you."

He walked away, leaving me surrounded by uprooted flowers and the ruins of everything we'd been.