The Alpha ceremony preparations buzzed around me like static I couldn't quite tune out. I stood in the corner of the ceremonial hall, arranging white roses—Luca's favorite—along the altar where he would take his oath tonight. My hands trembled slightly as I worked, not from nervousness but from anticipation. Seven years. Seven years since he saved my life, gave me a chance to live when every wolfless Omega before me had withered and died. Tonight, he would become Alpha, and I would stand beside him as his mate, finally worthy of the bond the Moon Goddess had blessed us with.

I touched my neck absently, feeling the faint scar where his mark should be. Soon, I told myself. Once the ceremony concluded and his position was secure, we would complete our bond publicly. He'd promised.

"Riley, the crystal arrays need adjusting in the antechamber," one of the Deltas called out, and I nodded, grateful for another task to occupy my restless energy.

The antechamber was quieter, lit only by the soft glow of the communication crystals used for long-distance pack correspondence. I began realigning them according to the ceremonial requirements when one of the larger crystals suddenly flared with violet light. A private mind-link channel—left carelessly open.

I shouldn't listen. I knew that. But Luca's voice filtered through, clear as if he stood beside me, and my hands froze.

"Everything is prepared?" That was Luca, but his tone carried none of the warmth he used with me. It was cold. Business-like.

"Of course." A woman's voice, crisp and confident. Selene Montgomery. "The elders are thoroughly impressed with your 'sacrifice' for your weak mate. You've proven you can control even the most pathetic of bonds."

My breath caught. Control?

"The trial was more tedious than I anticipated," Luca replied, and I heard him sigh. "Seven years of playing devoted mate to a wolfless Omega. But it worked. Father said I passed with the highest marks in generations."

The roses in my hand fell, petals scattering across the floor like drops of blood.

"The essence graft was expensive," Selene continued, "but worth every resource my family invested. How much longer before it fades completely?"

"Marcus estimates she has seven years from the ritual. Maybe less." Luca's voice held no emotion, as if discussing crop rotations rather than my life. "By then, I'll be established as Alpha, and her... usefulness will have naturally expired. No one can blame me for a failed essence graft. These things happen with artificial bonds."

Artificial. The word stabbed through me, sharp and cold.

I stumbled backward, my hip catching the edge of a table. The crystal's light flickered, and I held my breath, terrified they would sense my presence through the link. But they continued, oblivious.

"I'll see you after the ceremony," Luca said, his voice dropping to something intimate, something he used to use with me. "Wear the Luna dress. The real one."

Selene laughed, low and satisfied. "Finally. Seven years of watching you pretend with that pathetic creature. Tonight, you're mine, Luca. Officially."

The connection severed, and the crystal dimmed.

I stood there, surrounded by scattered roses and shattered illusions, trying to remember how to breathe. Seven years. Not of love. Not of sacrifice. A trial. A performance. An elaborate lie funded by the woman who would take my place.

My legs moved without conscious thought, carrying me through corridors I'd walked a thousand times but no longer recognized. Everything looked different now, tainted by the truth. I found myself outside the Healer's quarters, my fist pounding against the door before I could think better of it.

Marcus Stone opened it, his weathered face creasing with concern. "Riley? What's wrong?"

"Tell me the truth." My voice came out raw, barely above a whisper. "About the ritual. About what Luca did to me."

Something flickered in his eyes—guilt, pity, resignation. He stepped aside, letting me enter. The door closed with a soft click that sounded like a coffin sealing.

"You know," he said quietly. It wasn't a question.

"I want to hear it from you." I gripped the back of a chair, my knuckles white. "All of it."

Marcus moved to his desk, pulling out a leather-bound journal. "The essence Luca grafted into you wasn't a gift, Riley. It was borrowed. Artificial. Designed to give you the appearance of a wolf bond without the substance."

"How long?" The words tasted like ash.

"Seven years from the ritual. The magic is already degrading." He met my eyes, and I saw the truth he'd been carrying. "I'm sorry. I was sworn to secrecy by Alpha command. I thought... I hoped Luca might find another solution before—"

"Before I died." I finished his sentence, my voice eerily calm. "He never intended to save me. Just to use me long enough to pass his trial."

Marcus said nothing, but his silence confirmed everything.

I left his quarters as the ceremony bells began to toll, their sound hollow and mocking. My feet carried me toward the sacred grove, drawn by some terrible need to see the full extent of the betrayal with my own eyes.

The grove glowed with moonlight filtering through ancient trees. And there, in the center where Luca had once knelt before me with false devotion, he knelt again. But this time, before Selene.

She wore white—not the simple dress of a mate ceremony, but the elaborate Luna ceremonial gown with silver embroidery that caught the light like stars. The dress I'd dreamed of wearing. Luca's hands cradled her face with a tenderness I'd convinced myself was real when directed at me.

"By the Moon Goddess," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion I'd never truly heard from him, "I claim you as my true mate and Luna."

His canines extended, and he leaned toward her neck.

The bond—the false, artificial, dying bond between us—flared with his awareness of my presence. His head snapped up, his eyes finding me in the shadows. For a moment, something flickered across his face. Not regret. Irritation.

"Riley." He straightened, not releasing Selene. "You shouldn't be here."

Selene turned, her ice-blue eyes raking over me with open contempt. "The trial mate. How quaint."

"Trial mate?" I forced the words past the tightness in my throat.

Luca sighed, as if I were a child interrupting important adult conversation. "Our arrangement served its purpose, Riley. I'm Alpha now. You should be grateful—I gave you seven more years than you would have had otherwise."

"Grateful," I repeated numbly.

"Don't be dramatic." His tone sharpened, the Alpha command bleeding through. "You knew what you were. Wolfless. Weak. Did you really think the Moon Goddess would gift someone like me with someone like you as a true mate?" He gestured dismissively. "Accept reality. I have my true Luna now. You... were always temporary."

Selene pressed closer to him, her smile victorious. "Run along, Omega. Some of us have important ceremonies to complete."

The false bond between Luca and me pulsed once, twice, then felt hollow. Empty. As artificial as everything else had been. I met his eyes one final time, seeing clearly now what I'd been too desperate to see before—he'd never loved me. Never even liked me. I'd been a project. A trial. A disposable tool.

"You're right," I said softly. "I was temporary. But so is your control over me."

I turned and walked away from the sacred grove, from the man I'd believed was my salvation, from seven years of beautiful lies. Behind me, I heard Luca complete his marking of Selene, her gasp of pleasure like shards of glass against my skin.

But I didn't look back. Because for the first time in seven years, I saw the path forward with terrible clarity. I had seven years left to live. And I would not spend them dying for the man who'd already killed me.

I didn't plan my escape. Planning required thought, and thought required a mind not shattered into a thousand jagged pieces.

I moved through my small room in the Omega quarters like a ghost, my hands selecting items without conscious decision. My mother's warrior medallion—the only thing of hers I'd kept. A worn jacket. The emergency supply pouch she'd made me promise to always keep packed. I didn't look at the photos on the wall, the ones of Luca and me smiling at pack gatherings, his arm around my waist in a pantomime of devotion. If I looked, I might stop moving. If I stopped, I might never start again.

The pack house was alive with celebration when I slipped out the back entrance. Luca's Alpha ceremony had concluded, and now the revelry would last until dawn. No one noticed the wolfless Omega—the expired trial mate—disappearing into the night. Why would they?

The forest swallowed me whole.

I ran until my lungs burned and my legs screamed, until the sounds of the celebration faded into memory. When I finally collapsed against an ancient oak at the edge of Black Moon territory, my mother's medallion pressed cold against my chest, a lifeline to a woman who'd believed I could be strong.

She'd taught me many things before she died. How to move silently through the woods. How to read the stars. And one thing she'd made me swear to keep secret—an old emergency communication spell, forbidden magic from before the packs formalized their laws.

"Only use this if you have no other choice," she'd whispered on her deathbed. "And only contact someone you trust with your life."

I had no other choice. And there was only one person left who might answer, despite everything between us.

My fingers trembled as I carved the symbols into the soft earth, whispering words in the old tongue my mother had drilled into my memory. The spell required blood—always blood—and I drew my knife across my palm without hesitation. Seven years left to live. What was a little blood?

The symbols flared silver in the darkness, and I sent my consciousness out across the territory lines, searching for the familiar presence I'd felt only once, years ago, before he'd torn it away.

*Cohen.*

The connection snapped into place like a physical blow. I felt his shock, his immediate alertness, the way his mind reached back instinctively before he could stop himself.

*Riley?* His mental voice carried disbelief and something else—guilt, perhaps, or old grief. *How are you—*

*I need your help.* I cut him off before I lost my nerve. Pride was a luxury I couldn't afford. *Please. I have nowhere else to go.*

Silence stretched between us, heavy with our history. Five years ago, when my wolf had failed to emerge at sixteen, Cohen had rejected our newly discovered mate bond with cold efficiency. "I can't mate with someone wolfless," he'd said, his voice carefully empty. "It would weaken the pack." Then he'd severed the bond before it could fully form, leaving me bleeding from a wound that never showed on my skin.

Now I was begging him for salvation he'd once denied me.

*Where are you?* His response came swift, carrying an urgency that surprised me.

*Black Moon border. Near the old standing stones.*

*Stay there. I'm coming.*

The spell dissolved, leaving me alone in the darkness with nothing but the weight of my choices and the distant howl of Luca's pack celebrating their new Alpha. I pressed my bleeding palm against the medallion, mixing my blood with my mother's memory.

"I'm trying to be strong," I whispered to her ghost. "Like you wanted."

The forest gave no answer, but somewhere in the distance, I heard the sound of powerful paws hitting earth. Cohen was coming. Whether that meant salvation or another betrayal, I would know soon enough.

I had seven years left to live. Tonight, I would start learning how to survive them.

Pain had become my constant companion over the past three nights. Not the dull ache of my artificial wolf essence slowly dying—this was something else entirely. Something alive and fierce, clawing its way through my very soul.

Cohen knelt beside me in the sacred clearing he'd prepared deep within Crimson Fang territory, his face etched with concern as another wave of agony tore through me. The ritual circle glowed with ancient symbols carved into the earth, each one pulsing with silver light that seemed to respond to my heartbeat.

"It's fighting to emerge," he murmured, his hand hovering over my trembling form but not quite touching. He'd learned not to touch me during these episodes—my skin burned like fire, and even his Alpha constitution couldn't withstand it. "Your wolf is stronger than we anticipated."

I could only gasp in response, my body convulsing as something immense and powerful stirred within me. This wasn't like Luca's artificial grafting, that cold insertion of borrowed essence. This felt like coming home to myself, like remembering a language I'd always known but had forgotten how to speak.

The moon reached its zenith above us, and suddenly the pain shifted. Instead of tearing me apart, it began to build something. I felt my bones lengthening, my senses sharpening beyond anything I'd ever experienced. But more than that—I felt whole. Complete. For the first time in my life, I wasn't broken.

"Riley," Cohen breathed, and I heard wonder in his voice. "Look."

I opened eyes I hadn't realized I'd closed, and the world exploded into clarity. Every blade of grass stood out in perfect detail, every scent in the forest separated into distinct layers of information. But it was my reflection in the small pool beside us that stole my breath.

A magnificent silver wolf stared back at me, her coat gleaming like moonlight on water. Her eyes—my eyes—blazed with piercing blue fire that seemed to hold depths of power I was only beginning to understand. She was beautiful. Strong. Everything I'd dreamed of being.

*Hello, Riley.* The voice in my mind was warm, familiar, like greeting an old friend. *I've been waiting so long to meet you properly.*

*You're...* I could barely form the thought. *You're really mine?*

*I've always been yours. The artificial essence was blocking our connection, but I never left you. I couldn't.* My wolf's presence filled me with strength I'd never imagined possible. *My name is Luna.*

Luna. Of course it was. The irony wasn't lost on me—I'd spent seven years believing I'd never be worthy of such a title, only to discover it had been my wolf's name all along.

The transformation rippled through the clearing like a shockwave, sending birds scattering from the trees and causing the very earth to tremble. Cohen stumbled backward, his eyes wide with something between awe and disbelief.

"Alpha blood," he whispered. "Riley, you carry Alpha blood."

I shifted back to human form, the change flowing as naturally as breathing. My skin still tingled with residual power, and I could feel Luna's presence like a warm ember in my chest, no longer hidden or suppressed.

"That's impossible," I said, but even as the words left my lips, I knew they weren't true. The strength flowing through me, the way the forest itself seemed to respond to my presence—this was real.

"Your mother," Cohen said suddenly, pieces clicking together in his mind. "Elena Patterson. She was from the Northern Territories originally, wasn't she? Before she mated into Black Moon?"

I nodded, not trusting my voice. My mother had rarely spoken of her past, only that she'd left everything behind for love.

"The Northern Alphas carry a rare bloodline—one that can skip generations, especially in daughters. It would explain why your wolf was so deeply buried." Cohen's expression shifted to something darker. "And why Luca's artificial essence could suppress it for so long. He didn't just steal seven years from you, Riley. He stole your true nature."

Rage flared within me, and Luna responded, her power surging through my veins. The trees around us swayed without wind, and I felt something else awakening—a healing warmth that seemed to flow from my hands into the earth itself.

"What's happening?" I gasped as golden light emanated from my palms.

Cohen's eyes widened further. "Healing abilities. Another trait of the Northern bloodline." He reached out tentatively, and when his fingers brushed mine, I felt his old injuries—scars from battles, the constant ache of leadership—begin to ease under my touch.

The implications hit me like a physical blow. I wasn't just some wolfless Omega who'd been granted artificial life. I was Alpha-born, with rare healing gifts that could have served my pack for generations. And Luca had buried it all, convinced me I was worthless, made me grateful for scraps when I should have been standing as an equal.

But even as power coursed through me, even as Luna's presence filled the hollow spaces Luca's betrayal had carved in my soul, I felt something else entirely. Pain. Raw, agonizing pain that had nothing to do with my awakening.

Miles away, across the territory lines, I felt the exact moment our false mate bond finally severed completely. The artificial connection Luca had maintained through his grafted essence snapped like a breaking chain, and his answering roar of rage and disbelief echoed through the night.

He knew. He knew I was gone, really gone, and that his control over me had shattered along with his lies.

"He felt it," I whispered, touching my neck where his false mark had once burned. The skin was clear now, unmarked, ready for a true bond if I chose to accept one.

Cohen's jaw tightened, his own Alpha instincts responding to the distant threat. "Let him come. You're under Crimson Fang protection now. And Riley..." He met my eyes, his gaze holding a warmth I'd almost forgotten existed. "You're not the same woman who ran from Black Moon three nights ago. You never have to be afraid of him again."

I looked down at my hands, still glowing faintly with healing light, and felt Luna's satisfied purr in my chest. For the first time in seven years, I wasn't afraid. I was angry. And I was finally, truly alive.