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.

The bridal suite was on the third floor, guarded by two Delta wolves who'd left for lunch rotation ten minutes ago. I'd counted. Timed it. Memorized their pattern while scrubbing floors this morning.

I shouldn't be doing this. If I got caught, they'd throw me out—or worse. But that sickly-sweet scent clinging to Kieran wouldn't leave my mind. Wolfsbane. I was sure of it now. And if someone was poisoning him, if someone was manipulating his memories...

I had to know.

The door wasn't locked. Ava was at the spa with her bridesmaids, wouldn't be back for at least an hour. I slipped inside, my heart hammering so loud I was sure someone would hear it through the walls.

The suite was obscene—all white silk and gold fixtures, like a wedding cake come to life. Ava's luggage sat open on the chaise, designer clothes spilling out in a waterfall of expensive fabric. I moved toward it, my hands shaking.

There. Tucked beneath a layer of lingerie—a leather case, small and discreet.

I pulled it out, fingers fumbling with the clasp. It opened with a soft click.

Vials. At least a dozen of them, filled with dark purple liquid that seemed to absorb the light. My wolf whimpered, recognizing the scent even through glass. Concentrated wolfsbane. Enough to suppress an Alpha's wolf for months. Years, even.

Beneath the vials lay a journal, the pages covered in Ava's precise handwriting. I flipped it open, my eyes scanning frantically.

*Day 47: Increased dosage to 15ml. His wolf is almost completely dormant now. He doesn't question the memory gaps anymore.*

*Day 89: Planted the false scent trail near the rogue border. Made sure his patrol found it. He believes she betrayed him now. Finally.*

*Day 120: The bond is nearly severed. Just need to maintain the dosage until the marking ceremony. Once I'm Luna, nothing can undo it.*

My hands trembled so badly the journal nearly slipped from my grip. Three years. She'd been poisoning him for three years, twisting his memories, making him hate me.

The rogue attack. She'd orchestrated it. All of it.

"Find something interesting?"

I spun around.

Ava stood in the doorway, still in her spa robe, her wet hair dripping onto the carpet. But her expression—there was no surprise there. No shock. Just cold, calculated satisfaction.

"You came back early," I whispered.

"I never left." She closed the door behind her, the lock clicking with a finality that made my stomach drop. "I saw you watching the guards this morning. Saw you counting their rotations." She smiled, and it was the cruelest thing I'd ever seen. "I wanted to see if you'd actually be stupid enough to take the bait."

My fingers tightened around the journal. "You poisoned him. You made him forget—"

"Forget?" Ava laughed, the sound sharp and brittle. "Oh, Estelle. He doesn't remember anything that didn't happen. I just... helped him see the truth." She crossed the room, her movements predatory. "That you were always beneath him. That the Moon Goddess made a mistake pairing a future Alpha with a changeling nobody."

"I'm his mate—"

"You're nothing." She ripped the journal from my hands, her nails scratching my skin. "You were nothing the day you were born, and you're nothing now. I'm the Alpha's true daughter. I'm the one who deserves to be Luna. Not some switched-at-birth charity case who can barely shift."

I backed toward the door, but she moved faster, blocking my path.

"The rogue attack," I said, my voice shaking. "You set it up. You wanted Kieran hurt—"

"I wanted you gone." Her eyes flashed gold. "I wanted him to see you for what you really are. A liability. A weakness." She pulled out her phone, her thumb hovering over the screen. "And now, thanks to your little breaking-and-entering stunt, everyone else will see it too."

"Ava, please—"

She pressed dial.

"Guards," she said sweetly into the phone, her eyes never leaving mine. "I have an intruder in my suite. The Omega girl—Estelle Anderson. She's stolen from me. Attacked me." She touched her neck, and I watched in horror as she dragged her own nails across her skin, drawing blood. "She's dangerous. Unstable. Lock her in the dungeons until after the ceremony. I don't want her anywhere near my mate."

Footsteps thundered in the hallway.

"You can't—" I lunged for the door, but Ava grabbed my arm, her grip iron-strong.

"Watch me," she whispered.

The door burst open. Four guards flooded in, their faces grim and determined. I tried to explain, tried to show them the vials, but Ava was screaming now, playing her part perfectly.

"She tried to poison me! She's insane—she can't accept that Kieran chose me!"

Hands seized my arms. I struggled, my weak wolf snarling uselessly, but it was four against one and I was already injured from the morning's fall.

"The vials," I gasped as they dragged me toward the door. "Check the vials—test them—"

But Ava was already tucking the leather case back into her luggage, her tears perfectly timed, her performance flawless.

The last thing I saw before they hauled me into the hallway was her smile.

Victorious. Poisonous. Absolute.

And I knew—with crushing, terrible certainty—that no one was coming to save me.

The dungeon smelled like rot and old blood. I sat on the stone floor, my back against the damp wall, wrists bound in iron chains that bit into my skin with every breath. Above me, somewhere in the world of light and music, Kieran was preparing to mark another woman.

I'd failed. Failed to prove the truth. Failed to save him. Failed at everything.

My wolf whimpered inside me, so weak I could barely feel her anymore. The mate bond pulled at my chest like a fishhook, dragging me toward him even as he prepared to sever it forever. In a few hours, I'd feel that bond snap. I'd feel the part of my soul that belonged to him die.

Maybe I deserved it. Maybe the Moon Goddess really had made a mistake.

Tears tracked down my face, mixing with the dirt and blood already there. I closed my eyes, too exhausted to even cry properly anymore.

Then the moon rose.

I felt it before I saw it—a beam of silver light cutting through the barred window high above. It touched my skin, and something inside me ignited.

Heat. Not the familiar warmth of a shift, but something else entirely. Something that burned through my veins like liquid fire, racing from my fingertips to my core. My eyes snapped open, and the dungeon blazed with light.

Violet light.

I stared at my hands. They were glowing, pulsing with an energy I'd never felt before. The iron chains around my wrists began to smoke, the metal heating until it glowed red.

"What—" The word died in my throat as power surged through me, so intense I thought I might shatter from it.

My wolf stirred. Not the weak, cowering creature I'd carried for years, but something ancient and fierce. Something that had been sleeping, waiting.

*Royal blood,* she whispered. *Our true blood.*

The chains snapped.

I gasped as the iron fell away, the broken links clattering to the stone floor. I stood on shaking legs, staring at my hands—still glowing that impossible violet, still burning with power that felt both foreign and intimately mine.

Above me, music drifted down. The ceremony was starting.

Kieran. I had to get to Kieran.

I crossed to the cell door, my body moving with a speed and grace I'd never possessed. The wood was old, rotting at the hinges. I pressed my palm against it, and the violet light flared brighter.

The door exploded outward.

I stepped into the corridor, my heart hammering. A guard rounded the corner, his eyes widening when he saw me standing there, free, glowing like some kind of avenging spirit.

"How did you—"

I moved before he could finish. One moment I was ten feet away, the next my hand was on his chest, shoving him back against the wall with strength that shouldn't have been possible. His head cracked against stone, and he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

I stared at him, then at my hands. What was happening to me?

No time. No time to think, to question, to understand.

I ran.

The dungeon corridors blurred past me, my feet barely touching the ground. I took stairs three at a time, my body responding to commands before my mind could process them. Guards shouted behind me, but I was faster. So much faster.

The ceremonial hall was on the main floor. I could hear the music growing louder, could hear the murmur of hundreds of voices. The elite of the werewolf world, gathered to witness the mating of an Alpha and his chosen Luna.

Gathered to witness my destruction.

I burst through a service entrance, startling a group of servers. They scattered, champagne glasses crashing to the floor. I didn't stop. Couldn't stop.

The grand doors to the hall loomed ahead, carved oak inlaid with silver. Through them, I could hear the officiant's voice, deep and resonant.

"We gather under the light of the Moon Goddess to witness the sacred bond between Alpha Kieran Foster of Shadow Creek Pack, and Ava Anderson, daughter of Alpha Marcus Anderson of Crescent Moon Pack..."

My hands hit the doors. The violet light flared one more time, so bright it hurt to look at.

The doors flew open.

Every head in the hall turned toward me. Hundreds of eyes, hundreds of faces frozen in shock. At the altar, Kieran stood in a black suit, his hand on Ava's waist. She wore white lace and a smile that died the moment she saw me.

I stood in the doorway, breathing hard, my dress torn and bloody, my wrists marked with burns from broken chains.

And my eyes—I could feel them still glowing that impossible, undeniable violet.

The color of Lycan royalty.

Kieran's face went white. "Estelle?"

I stepped into the hall, and the crowd parted like water, instinct driving them back from whatever I'd become.

"Stop," I said, my voice carrying through the sudden silence. "Stop this ceremony. Now."