Shadowfang territory looked exactly how I remembered it and nothing like it at the same time.

The towering pines still stretched toward the sky like cathedral spires, their branches thick enough to block out most of the fading sunlight. The air still carried that distinctive scent of cedar and mountain water, crisp and clean in a way that made my wolf want to run through the forest until my lungs burned. But the security had intensified dramatically. We passed three separate guard posts on the way to the main compound, each one manned by warriors who watched our ragtag group with expressions ranging from curiosity to outright hostility.

Rogues weren't welcome in pack territory. Ever. The fact that Raven was bringing eight of us directly into the heart of Shadowfang was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.

I was betting on stupid.

"This is insane," Sage muttered beside me, keeping her voice low enough that only I could hear. She'd insisted on walking next to me despite my suggestion that she hang back with the others. Loyalty looked good on her, even when it was misplaced. "Do you see how they're looking at us? Like we're diseased. Like we might contaminate their precious pack lands just by breathing the same air."

"I know." I kept my eyes forward, my spine straight, refusing to show any weakness even though exhaustion was pulling at my bones. The confrontation with Thaddeus had drained me more than I wanted to admit, and the two-hour hike into Shadowfang territory hadn't helped. My legs felt like they were made of lead, and the silver veins creeping up my forearms seemed darker than they'd been this morning. "But we're here now. We survive this the same way we've survived everything else."

"By pretending we're fine when we're absolutely not?"

"Exactly."

Raven walked ahead of us, flanked by two of his warriors. He hadn't looked back once since we'd started moving, his shoulders tense and his stride purposeful. Every inch of him screamed Alpha, from the way other wolves automatically moved out of his path to the subtle dominance in how he carried himself. It should have been intimidating. It was intimidating. But underneath the power and control, I could feel his awareness of me through the bond. Constant and acute. Like he was tracking my every breath.

It made my skin itch and my heart race in ways I refused to examine.

The main compound came into view as we crested a hill, and I had to swallow hard against the memories that crashed over me. The central lodge was massive, built from stone and timber in a style that managed to be both rustic and imposing. Smaller cabins dotted the surrounding area, housing for pack members and visiting wolves. Everything was exactly as I remembered from five years ago, when I'd attended that gathering as a naive teenager who thought she understood how the world worked.

I'd learned better the hard way.

"Welcome to Shadowfang," Raven said, finally turning to address all of us. His eyes found mine and held for a beat too long before moving to the rest of my pack. "You'll be housed in the eastern cabins. They're normally reserved for visiting dignitaries, so they're comfortable and private. My Beta, Finn, will show you to your accommodations and get you settled."

A tall wolf with sandy hair and sharp green eyes stepped forward, offering a smile that seemed genuine despite the circumstances. This had to be Finn Ashford, Raven's second-in-command and childhood friend. I'd heard stories about him over the years, mostly about his level-headedness and unwavering loyalty. He looked like the kind of wolf who'd follow his Alpha into hell without asking questions.

"Follow me," Finn said, his voice easy and welcoming in a way that immediately put me on edge. People weren't this nice without wanting something. "We've got hot water, food, and actual beds. I'm guessing that's an upgrade from camping."

Marcus and the others moved to follow him, but I stayed rooted where I was. Sage shot me a questioning look, clearly torn between sticking with me and getting the rest of our pack settled. I gave her a small nod. Go. I can handle this.

She hesitated another second before joining the others, leaving me alone in the compound clearing with Raven and a handful of his warriors. The sun had nearly set, painting everything in shades of orange and purple, and somewhere in the distance I could hear the sounds of pack life. Children laughing. Adults talking. The normal, everyday existence of wolves who belonged somewhere.

I'd forgotten what that felt like.

"You need to rest," Raven said, his voice careful. "The healer will want to examine you tomorrow, assess the damage from the curse."

"I'm fine." The lie tasted bitter. "I don't need a healer."

"Lyrix." He took a step closer, and I immediately stepped back, maintaining the distance between us. Something flickered in his expression. Hurt, maybe. Or frustration. "You collapsed back at your camp. Don't think I didn't notice. And I can feel how weak you are through the bond."

"Then stop feeling it." I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold despite the mild evening air. "You're the one who broke the bond. Figure out how to tune it out."

"It doesn't work like that. You know it doesn't." Another step closer, slow and deliberate like he was approaching a wounded animal. Which wasn't far from the truth. "The bond is damaged, not severed. I feel everything. Your pain, your exhaustion, your fear. I've felt it all for five years, and it's been killing me just as surely as the curse is killing you."

"Good." The word came out venomous. "You deserve to suffer for what you did."

"I know." He stopped moving, staying just outside of touching distance. "I know I do. But you don't. You've never deserved any of this. So please, let the healer help you. Let me try to fix this."

"You keep saying that. Let me fix this. Let me help you." I laughed, the sound harsh and broken. "But you still haven't explained why. Why did you reject me, Raven? If you're going to stand here and act like you care, the least you can do is tell me the truth."

His jaw clenched, and for a long moment I thought he wouldn't answer. Then he looked at me with eyes that held five years of agony. "Because Thaddeus Crimson told me he'd kill your entire family if I claimed you. Your mother, your cousins, everyone you'd ever loved. He gave me until sunrise to reject you publicly or he'd start collecting bodies."

The world tilted sideways. I grabbed for the nearest tree to steady myself, my mind racing. "What?"

"He wanted you even then. He knew about your bloodline, knew what you could become. And he knew the fastest way to make you vulnerable was to break you first." Raven's hands were shaking, actual trembling in his fingers that he couldn't quite control. "So I broke you. I destroyed our bond to save your life, and I've regretted it every single day since."

I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Five years of hate and anger and hurt, all built on a foundation that was suddenly crumbling beneath my feet. "You're lying."

"I'm not." He pulled something from his pocket, a worn leather journal that looked like it had been opened and closed a thousand times. "I wrote you letters. Every week for five years. Explaining, apologizing, begging you to understand. I never sent them because I knew you wouldn't believe me. Wouldn't forgive me. But they're all here. Everything I should have told you that morning."

He held the journal out, and I stared at it like it might bite me. Taking it would mean accepting that maybe, possibly, the male who'd destroyed me had done it to save me. It would mean reconsidering five years of carefully constructed hatred. It would mean letting him back in, even just a crack, and I wasn't sure I was strong enough for that.

"I don't want your explanations," I said, but my voice wavered. "I don't want your letters or your protection or your guilt. I want to go back to my camp and pretend none of this is happening."

"You can't." His voice broke on the words. "The camp isn't safe. Thaddeus will come back, and next time I might not get there in time. And the curse is accelerating. You're dying, Lyrix. We're out of time for pretending."

A wolf howl split the evening air, long and mournful, and every warrior in the clearing went tense. Raven's head snapped toward the sound, his body language shifting from vulnerable to lethal in a heartbeat.

Finn came running back down the path, his expression grim. "Alpha, we have a problem. There's a messenger at the border. From Bloodmoon Pack."

Raven's eyes flashed gold. "What does he want?"

"To deliver a message." Finn glanced at me, something apologetic in his expression. "Thaddeus Crimson has formally declared his intention to claim Lyrix Thorne as his mate, and he's challenging you for the right to take her."

The war room in Shadowfang's main lodge was exactly what I expected: all dark wood and strategic maps, with a table large enough to seat twenty wolves and an atmosphere thick with tension.

I shouldn't have been there. Raven had tried to convince me to go rest with the others, to let him handle pack business without me hovering like a ghost at the feast. But the challenge was about me, so I'd planted myself in a chair at the far end of the table and refused to move. After a solid minute of staring each other down, he'd given in with a terseness that suggested this argument wasn't over, just postponed.

Now his council filled the remaining seats, a collection of warriors and advisors who looked at me with varying degrees of suspicion and curiosity. Finn sat to Raven's right, his expression carefully neutral. An older female wolf with silver streaking through her black hair sat to his left, her green eyes sharp and assessing. The pack healer, probably. She kept glancing at the silver veins visible on my forearms with a clinical interest that made me want to hide my hands under the table.

"Read it again," Raven commanded, his voice dangerously quiet.

Finn cleared his throat and lifted the piece of parchment that had arrived with Crimson's messenger. "Alpha Thaddeus Crimson of Bloodmoon Pack formally declares his intention to claim Lyrix Thorne as his chosen mate. As she currently resides under the protection of Alpha Raven Blackwood of Shadowfang Pack, and as Alpha Blackwood has publicly rejected said mate bond five years prior, Alpha Crimson invokes the Right of Challenge for the female in question. The challenge will take place in three days' time, at the neutral ground of Red Rock Canyon. Terms are as follows: combat to submission or death, winner takes the female, no pack interference."

The words hung in the air like poison. Combat to death. Winner takes the female. Like I was a prize to be won instead of a person with thoughts and opinions and absolutely zero interest in being claimed by anyone.

"This is bullshit," I said, my voice cutting through the heavy silence. Every head turned toward me. "I'm not a piece of territory you can fight over. I don't consent to this challenge, and I'm definitely not going with Thaddeus Crimson regardless of who wins what."

"It's pack law," the older female wolf said, her tone matter-of-fact. "An Alpha can challenge for an unclaimed female if she's of mating age and without pack protection."

"But she does have pack protection," Finn interjected. "She's in Shadowfang territory under Raven's direct protection."

"Protection she only has because of their mate bond," another council member said, a stocky male with gray at his temples. "A bond that was publicly rejected. Which technically makes her unclaimed."

"Technically?" I stood up, my chair scraping against the floor. "I'm sitting right here. You want to discuss my status as property, maybe include me in the conversation."

Raven's hand slammed down on the table hard enough to make everyone jump. "She's not property. She's my mate, rejected or not, and no one is taking her anywhere." His eyes blazed gold as he looked around the table. "I don't care what pack law says. I'll kill Crimson before I let him touch her."

"Then accept the challenge," the gray-templed wolf said. "Fight him, win, and the matter is settled. She stays here under your protection, and Crimson backs off."

"And if Raven loses?" Sage's voice came from the doorway, and I turned to find her standing there with Marcus behind her. Apparently my pack hadn't gotten the memo about staying in their assigned cabins. "What happens to Lyx then?"

No one answered, which was answer enough. If Raven lost, I'd be dragged to Bloodmoon territory in chains. Thaddeus would claim me, use me, breed me like livestock to create his super-wolf army. The thought made my stomach turn.

"He won't lose," Finn said firmly. "Raven's the strongest Alpha in the northern territories. Crimson doesn't stand a chance."

"Crimson doesn't fight fair," I said, memories of that afternoon flooding back. "He's been planning this for years. You think he'd issue a challenge if he didn't have an angle? Some way to stack the deck in his favor?"

The healer leaned forward, her sharp eyes fixed on me. "Tell me about your bloodline. Your real bloodline, not the story your mother told everyone."

I tensed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me, girl. I can smell the old magic on you, buried under that curse. You're not just a silver wolf. You're something else entirely, and that's why Crimson wants you badly enough to risk war." She glanced at Raven. "Did you know? When you marked her?"

"No." Raven's voice was tight. "She was nineteen. She seemed like a normal wolf. Stronger than most, but nothing that would indicate a special bloodline."

"Because it hadn't awakened yet." The healer stood and moved around the table toward me. I fought the urge to back away, to run, to do anything except stand there while she studied me like a science experiment. "May I?"

"May you what?"

"Touch you. I need to feel the magic to understand what we're dealing with."

Everything in me screamed to refuse, but the rational part of my brain knew we needed answers. If Thaddeus was willing to risk a challenge to the death, I needed to understand why. I needed to know what made me valuable enough to kill for.

I held out my arm, trying not to flinch when her fingers wrapped around my wrist. Her skin was warm, almost hot, and I felt her magic pulse against mine. Searching. Probing. It made my wolf snarl and my curse flare, silver veins spreading further up my arm in response to the intrusion.

The healer gasped and jerked her hand back. "Moon Goddess preserve us. You're a descendant."

"A descendant of what?" Raven demanded.

"Of the first children. The Moon Goddess's original bloodline, before it was diluted by generations of breeding with common wolves." The healer looked shaken, her usual composure cracking. "She's not just rare, Alpha. She's practically extinct. Her blood can create or break any supernatural bond. Pack magic, mate bonds, even the connection between a wolf and their animal. In the right hands, she could reshape the entire werewolf hierarchy."

The room erupted into chaos. Council members shouting over each other, arguing about what this meant, what they should do, whether I was a threat or an asset. I stood frozen in the middle of it, my mind struggling to process what I'd just heard. My mother had told me we were silver wolves, rare but not unheard of. She'd never mentioned goddess blood or ancient powers or being able to break bonds.

She'd never mentioned a lot of things, apparently.

Raven appeared in front of me, blocking out the rest of the room. His hands hovered near my shoulders but didn't touch, respecting the boundaries I'd set. "Lyrix. Look at me."

I dragged my eyes up to meet his, and the concern there nearly broke me. "I don't know how to do any of that. Break bonds or create them or whatever she's talking about. I'm just me. I'm just a dying wolf trying to keep her pack safe."

"I know." His voice dropped low, meant only for me. "But Crimson thinks you can do those things, which means he'll never stop coming for you. The challenge isn't just about claiming you. It's about eliminating me so he has a clear path to take what he wants."

"So what do we do?"

His jaw clenched, and I saw the war playing out behind his eyes. Alpha pragmatism versus something softer, something that looked dangerously close to the male I'd met five years ago. "We have two options. I accept the challenge and kill him, ending this permanently. Or..."

"Or what?"

"Or we complete the mate bond." The words fell between us like a bomb. "If you're claimed, truly claimed with a full bond, the challenge becomes invalid. You'd be mine in the eyes of pack law, and Crimson would have no legal grounds to take you."

My heart was hammering so hard I could barely hear my own thoughts. "You want to claim me. After everything. After you rejected me and broke me and left me to die slowly for five years."

"I want you to live." His eyes were blazing, intense and desperate. "I want you safe. I want Crimson dead and buried and unable to hurt you ever again. If claiming you accomplishes that, then yes. I want to claim you."

"And what I want doesn't matter?"

"What do you want, Lyrix?" The question was raw, vulnerable in a way that made my chest ache. "Tell me. I'll give you anything."

I wanted to hate him. Wanted to hold onto my anger like armor. But standing this close, feeling the damaged bond between us pulling taut, smelling his scent of pine and something darker that made my wolf whine with recognition, I couldn't remember why revenge had seemed so important.

"I want to not be dying," I whispered.

His expression cracked wide open. "Then let me save you."