The royal chambers were even colder than I'd imagined.

They'd brought me here after the ceremony fell apart into chaos. Guards had escorted me through marble corridors as nobles whispered and pointed. I'd never been in this section of the palace before. Everything shone with wealth I couldn't begin to understand. Gold fixtures. Silk drapes. Portraits of former kings looking down with judgmental eyes.

I now stood in King Alaric's private meeting room, still clad in my servant's robe with wine spills, as the most powerful wolves in the kingdom decided my destiny.

The bond hummed beneath my skin, pulling me toward him like gravity. Alaric stood at the window, his back to me, rigid and silent. Even from across the room, I could feel his wolf calling to mine. The bond was strong enough that it made my hands shake.

"This is a mistake," someone said. Beta Kael, I think. I recognized him from the packhouse, always standing beside the king. "The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes. If she chose Eira as the king's mate, we have a duty to honor that choice."

"Honor it?" Seraphine's voice dripped with scorn. She circled me like a predator, her mortally pale eyes taking note of every flaw. "This thing is cursed. Born beneath the blood moon. Her mother died in disgrace. She has no status, no upbringing, no blood worthy of claiming. And the prophecy is clear. If the king claims her as his mate, his crown will burn. His reign will end in disaster."

My throat tightened. I wanted to defend myself, to prove I was more than the circumstances of my birth, but words died on my lips. What could I say? Everything she'd listed was true. I was nobody. Nothing. A servant girl who'd been somehow chosen for something impossible.

"The prophecy isn't certain," Kael argued. "It says she'll either save us or destroy us. That leaves room for salvation if the right decision is made."

"Or guarantee destruction by claiming her as his own," a second voice added. Lord Marcus, the head of the noble council. "The risk is too great. The king's duty is to the kingdom above all else, always. Personal desires cannot come before the safety of thousands."

Personal desires. As if this bond was something insignificant. As if my entire being wasn't screaming for the man who still hadn't turned, hadn't looked at me, hadn't spoken one word in my defense.

"Your Majesty," Seraphine said softly, coming forward beside Alaric. "You know what you must do. The kingdom needs a strong Luna. A proper queen of noble blood who can sit beside you without inviting doom prophecies. This child is a liability. Denying her is the only sane choice."

Deny. The word hung in the air like a poison. My wolf whimpered inside me, already sensing what was to follow.

Alaric's shoulders strained. His fists were clenched at his sides. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough. "Leave us. All of you."

"Your Majesty...." Seraphine started.

"Now." The command tore through the room like thunder.

They left unwillingly, filing out with backward glances and murmured worries. Kael was the last to go, and he caught my eye briefly. Something in his face looked like pity, which only made it all worse.

The door closed. It was quiet, aside from my racing heart.

Alaric slowly turned. Up close, he was ruinous. Chiseled bone structure. Silver eyes that seemed to see right through me. A mouth set in a hard line. He looked at me like I was a riddle to solve rather than the other half of his soul.

"What's your name?" he asked gruffly.

"Eira." My voice was little more than a whisper.

"Eira." He tried it out, and my name in his voice sent shivers down my back. The bond was constructed. "What's happening here?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

"Then you realize that this connection, this draw between us, cannot be allowed to be." He sounded like he was discussing the weather, remote and clinical. "The prophecy is explicit. You are a threat to everything I have built, everything my father and grandfather built before me. I have an obligation to this kingdom that comes before emotions."

"I would never hurt you," I managed to say. "Or the kingdom. I don't want power or a throne. I just want.... "

"What you want is irrelevant." His words were as sharp as glass. "What I want is irrelevant. Only the kingdom is relevant. Only the prophecy is relevant. And it says that claiming you will destroy us all."

Tears burned the backs of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I had survived eighteen years of abuse and loneliness. I would not break now, not in front of him.

"There are rituals," Alaric continued, turning away again as if he could not bear to look at me. "Ways to sever a mate bond before it's fully formed. It will cause pain, but you'll survive. We both will. And then you'll leave Silvercrown territory. I'll provide you with gold, enough to start a new life somewhere far removed from here. You'll never have to work as a servant again."

Money. He thought he could bribe me into agreeing to this.

"And if I refuse?" The words escaped before I could stop them.

His jaw clenched. "You won't refuse. Because if you truly care about this kingdom, about the innocent lives that would be lost if the prophecy is carried out, you'll do what's necessary. You'll let me go."

The unfairness of it took my breath away. He was asking me to be unselfish, to sacrifice my one chance at happiness for people who'd never been nice to me. And the worst thing about it was that I understood. I'd seen the fear in everyone's eyes. I'd heard the prophecy. What if they were right? What if loving me would kill him?

"When?" I breathed.

"Tomorrow night. Beneath the new moon when the goddess's strength is at its lowest." He faced me again, and for a moment, I saw something crack in his controlled expression.

They clothed me like a doll for my own funeral.

The slaves who came to ready me for the ritual of rejection did not glance in my direction. They labored wordlessly, weaving my hair into a complex headpiece, coloring my mouth, covering me in a white gown that resembled a burial shroud. White for innocence. White for terminations. White for the Luna I would never be.

I stayed perfectly still and let them get on with the job. What option did I have? In a few hours, it would be over. The bond that was just beginning would be severed, and I'd be sent away to form a life around the vacuum inside me.

The guest room they'd given me was nicer than I'd ever rested my head. Soft bed. Fresh bedclothes. A window to gaze out onto the gardens. I'd slept fitfully through the night, my gaze on the ceiling, feeling Alaric in the palace, his presence tugging at me through walls and distance. My wolf tossed uneasily inside me, confused and afraid. She had no idea why our mate was rejecting us. Mates were sacred in the animal world. Unbreakable. Humans made everything complicated with their prophecies and fears.

A knock at the door. I had been expecting another servant, but Kael appeared instead. The Beta looked tired, like he hadn't slept either.

"I'm sorry," he said without inflection. "For what it's worth, I think this is wrong."

"Then why isn't anybody stopping it?" I asked.

"Because I'm not king." He walked over to the window, looking out at the very gardens I'd gazed at all night. "Alaric is my best friend. We were raised together. I've seen him make tough choices before, but never one that's destroying him like this. He hasn't eaten. Haven't slept. His wolf is fighting him so hard he can barely keep going."

"Good," I snapped. "He should suffer."

Kael stood before me, his expression somber. "You two will. That's how rejection works. It doesn't just shatter the connection. It leaves traces of it with you, rough edges that never mend. You'll both spend the rest of your lives unfinished."

"Why are you explaining this to me?"

"Because I want you to see that he's not doing this lightly. He's not heartless. He's only scared. The responsibility of the kingdom is on his shoulders, and all of the people that he loves have informed him that taking you will bring destruction. He's trying to save lives, even if it costs him his own happiness."

I understood that. I even enjoyed it in a twisted way. But understanding didn't hurt any less.

"There's still time," Kael said quietly. "You can run. I'd help you. We could get you a leave from the palace before the ceremony, far enough away that.".

"No." I stood and smoothed out the white dress. "Running won't accomplish anything. The bond is there whether we are in the same room or on different continents. If this is going to occur, let it occur cleanly. Let him do what he feels is right."

Kael regarded me for a long time. "You're stronger than anyone would ever credit you as being."

"Strength accomplishes nothing when you're powerless."

He left after that, and I was once more concerned only with my own thoughts. The sun slowly set, the sky becoming red and gold. Beautiful and terrible, as everything else in regards to this day.

When they came to take me into the throne room, I walked with my head held high. I had been invisible for eighteen years, nothing. If this was going to be the last time I saw Alaric, I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing me crack.

The throne room was filled. Every noble, every notable pack member, all to witness the omega be turned down. They sat along the periphery of the room, their expressions a plaster of interest and relief. This was a spectacle to them. A show. The tainted omega in her place.

Alaric stood on the dais, crown and official robes on his somber figure. A king carved from marble, beautiful and distant. But I could feel the tension in his shoulders, the stiffness of his hands gripping the arms of his throne too tightly.

Seraphine stood at his side, her white eyes glowing with triumph.

They led me down the aisle in the middle. Every step was walking through water. The bond pulled tighter the further I went, my wolf whimpering and fighting, begging me to run to him, to make him understand. But there was nothing to grasp. This was always going to be the end.

I stopped at the bottom of the platform and stumbled into a curtsy, for in all this, in what I was witnessing here, I could not help but recall what rules of etiquette had been drummed into me. Servants bow. Kings stand taller.

"Rise," Alaric bade, and his voice was unfeeling.

I stood. We exchanged glances, and for one moment, the façade fell away. I saw his pain, naked and desolate, before he concealed it again.

"Eira of no clan, no rank, no blood," he began rigidly. "The Moon Goddess in her wisdom brought us together. But I, Alaric Silvercrown, Alpha King of the Northern Territories, cannot tolerate this union. For the safety of my kingdom and the good of my people, I hereby disavow you as my mate and Luna."

The words hit like body blows. My legs went weak, but I braced them. The people around us murmured. The official rejection had begun, but it wasn't completed until I said I accepted.

"Do you accept this rejection?" Alaric asked. His voice cracked on the last word.

This was it. My moment of choice. I could decline, could force him through more involved rituals, could make this harder for all of us. But for what purpose? He'd made his choice clear. Struggling would just prolong the agony.

"I accept," I whispered.

The bond snapped. It was like something integral inside of me shattered, running shock waves down each nerve. I screamed, unable to hold it in, and collapsed. Pain I'd never experienced enveloped me. My wolf howled in pain, struggling and scratching, not comprehending what was happening.

Amidst the torment, I heard Alaric's roar. He too had been brought down, his own wolf fighting against the broken bond. Seraphine and the guards held him back, pinned him to the platform as I writhed on the ground below.

"It is done," Seraphine announced. "The bond is broken. The prophecy is foiled. Long live the king."

"Long live the king," the crowd chorused, but their words were far away.

I have no idea how long I stayed there. Time ceased to exist. Finally, the burning agony faded into a dull, throbbing pain. Someone propped me up. Kael, I think, his face in a scowl and rage.

"Get her out of here," Alaric's voice echoed above me. "Give her the gold. Make sure she reaches the border."

I did not look back. I could not. If I saw his face again, I would collapse completely.

They half-dragged me across the palace and out to a waiting horse. A pouch of gold coins lay in the saddle bag, Alaric's pay for breaking me. The guards pointed me onto the forest road that led one away from Silvercrown lands.

"You are to be gone by dawn," one of them said to me. "After that, you are a danger to the kingdom."

A danger. Even though I was rejected, I was dangerous.

I rode into darkness, my body screaming with pain, my soul torn asunder. Behind me, the lights of the palace fell away. Ahead of me, the forest yawned.

I traveled maybe three miles before I realized I wasn't alone. Shadows moved through the trees. Eyes glowed in the dark. I thought they were regular wolves at first, but then I saw the weapons.

Hunters. Sent to make sure the damned omega never returned.

I should have been afraid of them, but I was too broken to care. Bring it on. Let them finish what Alaric started.

The first arrow hit my shoulder. I got off my horse, falling onto the ground. Red bloomed warm over my dress, mixing with white. More arrows flew in. Pain burst in my leg, my side, my chest.

I crawled towards a cluster of trees, and a streak of red blood marked my path behind me. I saw something fuzzy through my eyes. The hunters were speaking, but now I couldn't hear them anymore. I could only hear the pounding of my heartbeat, slowing, quieting.

The blood moon rose above me, red and full and beautiful. The same moon that had witnessed my birth would witness my death. There was something beautiful about that, I thought far away.

My last thought as the darkness took hold was of silver eyes and a love that never had a chance.

I woke to pain and darkness and the smell of old blood.

For a long moment, I couldn't remember anything. Where I was. Who I was. Why every breath felt like swallowing glass. Then the memories came rushing back, and I wished desperately for the emptiness again.

The rejection. The hunters. The arrows. I should be dead.

But I was breathing. Thinking. Existing in some form that didn't make sense.

I opened my eyes slowly. I was lying in a cave, wrapped in furs that smelled like earth and magic. Firelight flickered from somewhere nearby, casting dancing shadows on stone walls covered in ancient symbols. The markings glowed faintly, pulsing with power that made my skin tingle.

"You're awake." The voice came from the shadows, female and old and amused. "I wasn't certain you would be. You were more dead than alive when I found you."

A figure emerged from the darkness. She was ancient, her face lined with a thousand wrinkles, her eyes milky white with blindness. But she moved with certainty, as if she could see better than anyone with working eyes. Power rolled off her in waves.

"Who are you?" I managed to croak.

"I am Morganna. Witch. Seer. Keeper of forgotten things." She settled beside me, her crooked fingers reaching out to touch my forehead. "And you, little wolf, are supposed to be dead. Shot full of arrows and left to bleed out under a cursed moon. But death didn't want you. Not yet."

I tried to sit up, but pain lanced through my body. Looking down, I saw bandages covering my shoulder, my side, my leg. Everywhere the arrows had struck.

"Why did you save me?" I asked.

"Because I saw your future in the smoke and stars. Because you have a destiny that goes beyond this death." Morganna tilted her head, those blind eyes somehow staring straight into my soul. "Tell me, child. Do you know what happens to a wolf whose mate bond is severed violently? Whose heart is broken beyond healing? Who dies calling for a love that was stolen?"

I shook my head.

"Their soul becomes unmoored. Untethered to the living world. And if that death happens under a blood moon, when the veil between worlds is thinnest, something interesting occurs." She smiled, showing teeth too sharp to be human. "The soul doesn't move on. It waits. It grows. It feeds on pain and rage and betrayal until it becomes something new. Something powerful. Something that can cross back."

My breath caught. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you didn't just survive those arrows, little wolf. You died. Your heart stopped. Your blood turned cold. But your soul refused to leave. It clung to this world with such fury that the Moon Goddess herself took notice." Morganna leaned closer. "She offered you a choice. Rest in eternal peace, or return with power enough to claim your revenge. What do you think you chose?"

The words didn't make sense. I was alive. I was breathing. But as I focused on my body, I realized something was wrong. My heartbeat was too slow. My breath too shallow. And beneath my skin, I felt something foreign. Something dark and hungry and ancient.

"What did she do to me?" I whispered.

"She made you a bridge between life and death. Gave you centuries to grow strong, to learn magic, to become something the Wolf King would fear." Morganna stood, moving to a shelf filled with bottles and bones. "But there's a price. There's always a price. You'll live, but not as you were. You'll have power, but it will hunger for destruction. And when you finally face him again, when you stand before the man who rejected you, your very existence will fulfill the prophecy he tried so hard to avoid."

She turned back, holding a mirror. "Look at yourself, child. See what vengeance has made you."

I took the mirror with shaking hands. The face staring back wasn't entirely mine. My features were sharper. My eyes darker. My skin had a strange pallor, like I was carved from moonlight. I looked dead and alive all at once. Beautiful and terrible.

"How long?" I asked. "How long have I been here?"

"In this cave? Three days. In this world? That's the interesting part." Morganna's smile widened. "Time works differently when you're caught between life and death. For you, it's been days. For the rest of the world, centuries have passed. Your Wolf King is still alive, still cursed by his guilt, still ruling a dying kingdom. But everyone else you knew is dust."

Centuries. The word echoed in my mind. Everyone I'd known, even the few who'd shown me kindness, were gone. The world I'd left was history. Only Alaric remained, trapped in the same hell I was.

"Why would the Moon Goddess do this?" I asked. "Why not just let me die?"

"Because she's not as benevolent as the wolves believe. She's ancient and cruel and loves her games." Morganna sat back down, her expression serious now. "The prophecy was always going to come true, one way or another. He could have chosen love and faced destruction with you at his side, or choose fear and face destruction at your hands. He made his choice. Now you get to make yours."

"What choice?"

"Whether to become the doom he feared, or something else entirely. The power is yours now. The magic, the time, the opportunity for revenge." She gestured to the cave entrance where I could see night sky through the opening. "Out there, the Silvercrown Kingdom rots. Alaric's rejection brought divine punishment. Crops fail. Children die. The pack grows weaker with each generation. He lives on, ageless and guilty, watching everything he tried to save crumble anyway. Some say it's justice. Others say it's tragedy."

I thought about that. About Alaric suffering for centuries, alone and haunted. Part of me felt satisfaction. Let him hurt the way he'd hurt me. But another part, the part that remembered loving him for those brief hours we were bonded, felt something else. Something uncomfortably like pity.

"What happens now?" I asked.

"Now you train. I'll teach you to control the magic burning in your veins. You'll learn to command shadows, to walk between worlds, to hide your true nature. And when you're ready, when you're powerful enough that even kings kneel before you, you'll return to Silvercrown. You'll stand before him and decide whether to be his doom or his salvation."

She stood, offering me her hand. "But first, you need a new name. Eira died in that forest. What rises from her ashes must be something different."

I took her hand and pulled myself up, ignoring the pain. My body felt strange, like wearing clothes that didn't quite fit. But there was power humming beneath my skin, dark and intoxicating.

"Lyra," I said, remembering a constellation my mother had supposedly loved. "Call me Lyra."

"Lyra." Morganna tested the name and nodded. "Yes. That will do. Come then, Lyra who was Eira. Let me teach you how to become a nightmare."