I woke before dawn, my fingers already itching for my paintbrush. The soft glow of approaching sunrise filtered through the curtains of our bedroom in the Blackwood pack house, casting Alexander's sleeping form in golden light. Even after 999 days as his chosen mate, the sight of him still took my breath away—his powerful shoulders, the sharp line of his jaw, the dark hair that fell across his forehead when he slept.

I slipped from beneath the silk sheets, careful not to wake him. Today was too important to risk his scrutiny before I was ready. The inter-pack alliance ceremony at Moonstone Territory would be my first major appearance before the neighboring packs as Luna of the Blackwood Pack. I needed everything to be perfect.

My bare feet made no sound as I padded across the hardwood floor to my studio—the one space Alexander had given me that felt truly mine. The painting waited on its easel, nearly complete after weeks of work. 'Rebirth,' I'd titled it. A phoenix rising from ashes, its wings spread wide against a backdrop of midnight blue.

'He'll love it,' whispered Aria, my wolf, her voice a soft echo in my mind.

'I hope so,' I replied silently, picking up my finest brush. 'It needs to be perfect.'

'Like everything else,' Aria sighed.

I ignored the hint of resignation in her tone. Aria had emerged late—my first shift at twenty had marked me as a 'late bloomer,' an object of quiet pity in werewolf society. Even now, she remained timid, her brown fur unremarkable compared to the magnificent wolves of true Alphas and Lunas. I'd spent my life feeling inadequate until Alexander had chosen me, proving that even a late bloomer could be worthy of an Alpha's attention.

The painting had to be worthy too.

---

The grand hall of Moonstone Territory blazed with light and power as Alphas from five major packs gathered with their Lunas. I stood beside Alexander, my heart hammering beneath the silver silk dress he'd selected for me. My painting had been placed alongside offerings from other packs—territorial treaties, ceremonial weapons, and other symbols of alliance.

'You look beautiful,' Alexander murmured, his hand possessive at the small of my back. 'Like a proper Luna.'

I smiled up at him, warmth spreading through me at his rare compliment. 'Thank you, Alpha.'

The ceremony began with Elder Kane's formal invocation to the Moon Goddess. One by one, pack leaders stepped forward to present their offerings. When Alexander's turn came, I felt a flutter of nervous anticipation.

'The Blackwood Pack brings two offerings,' Alexander announced, his Alpha voice resonating through the hall. 'First, this exceptional work by my true mate, Luna Catherine Whitmore.'

My smile froze as he gestured to a small, faded landscape painting I'd never seen before. The technique was amateur at best—uneven brushstrokes, poor perspective, muddy colors.

'Though she has been gone these ten years, her spirit lives on through her art,' Alexander continued, his voice thick with emotion. 'I've commissioned a wing in the Territorial Art Museum to be dedicated to her work, funded with fifty thousand in gold.'

Gasps of appreciation rippled through the crowd. Fifty thousand? For a collection of mediocre paintings? I felt Aria shrink within me, confused and hurt.

'And your second offering, Alpha Blackwood?' Elder Kane prompted.

Alexander's eyes slid past my painting without pause. 'That concludes the Blackwood contribution.'

The blood drained from my face. My painting—my weeks of work—ignored completely. As if it didn't exist. As if I didn't exist.

'Alpha,' I whispered, too low for others to hear, 'my painting—'

'Not now, Sarah,' he cut me off, his tone pleasant but his eyes flashing a warning.

I fell silent, mortification burning through me as I felt the curious stares of other pack members. Alpha Marcus Sterling of the Crescent Moon Pack caught my eye briefly, his expression unreadable before he turned away.

---

'Did you enjoy the ceremony?' Alexander asked the next morning as we drove deep into his private territory in the Northern Highlands. His voice was light, as if nothing had happened.

'It was... illuminating,' I managed, staring out the window at the passing trees. Aria whimpered softly within me.

'I have a surprise for you,' he said, turning onto a narrow dirt road. 'For our thousandth day together.'

My heart lifted slightly. Perhaps this explained yesterday's behavior—he had something special planned, something that would make everything right again.

The car stopped in a secluded glade surrounded by ancient pines. Alexander led me through a path lined with white stones to a small clearing. There, arranged in a perfect semicircle, stood eight marble memorial stones, each bearing a name and dates spanning exactly one year.

Elena Rivers. Sophia Walsh. Melissa Tanner. Five more names I didn't recognize.

And at the end, an empty space. Waiting.

'What is this?' I whispered, though something cold and terrible was already unfurling in my stomach.

Alexander's face transformed, all pretense of warmth vanishing as his Alpha aura crashed over me like a physical weight, forcing me to my knees.

'This, my dear Sarah,' he said, his voice as cold as the marble before us, 'is where you belong. The ninth and final tribute to my true mate, Catherine.'

Alexander's car brought us back to the pack house in silence. My mind was a frozen wasteland, unable to process what I'd just seen. Eight stones. Eight women. Eight lives—each ending after exactly one year.

And I was to be the ninth.

As we pulled into the circular driveway, I noticed the pack members averting their eyes. They knew. They had always known what I was.

'Get out,' Alexander said, his voice devoid of the warmth I'd foolishly believed was love for nearly a thousand days.

My legs trembled as I followed him through the grand entryway. Beta Victoria waited for us, her thin lips curved in a smile that never reached her eyes. Catherine's sister. The woman who had welcomed me with cold formality three years ago, who had always looked at me as if I were something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

'Is it time?' she asked, her voice eager.

Alexander nodded. 'Take her to the preparation room.'

Victoria's fingers dug into my arm as she dragged me up the spiral staircase. I should fight, should scream, should shift—but Aria was cowering deep within me, paralyzed by Alexander's overwhelming Alpha aura that still pressed down on us like a physical weight.

'You've lasted longer than the others,' Victoria remarked casually as she shoved me into a stark white room I'd never been allowed to enter. 'Almost made it to a thousand days. That's some kind of record.'

She threw open a wardrobe, revealing a row of identical white dresses—simple, elegant, with delicate lace at the collar.

'Catherine's design,' Victoria said, removing one. 'She wore this style the day they mated.'

My fingers clutched at the silver dress I still wore from the ceremony. 'I won't—'

Victoria's hand cracked across my face, the force snapping my head to the side.

'You will,' she hissed. 'Or I'll call the guards to help. Trust me, you don't want that.'

Humiliation burned through me as I changed, Victoria's cold eyes never leaving my body. The white dress fell like a shroud around me, too loose in some places, too tight in others. It wasn't made for me. Nothing here had ever been meant for me.

'Perfect,' Victoria said, stepping back to admire her work. 'Almost like looking at her. Almost.'

She reached for a silver brush on the vanity and began yanking it through my hair, styling it in a way I'd never worn before. 'He likes the tea served precisely at noon,' she continued conversationally. 'The ceremony will begin at sunset.'

'What ceremony?' I whispered.

Victoria's smile widened. 'The completion, of course. Nine tributes for nine years without her. You should be honored.'

She left me then, locking the door behind her. I rushed to the window, but we were three stories up, with no ledge or trellis to aid an escape. The room had been chosen carefully.

At exactly noon, Victoria returned with a delicate porcelain cup. Steam rose from the pale liquid inside, carrying a bitter, herbal scent I recognized immediately. Wolfsbane. Diluted, but present.

'Drink,' she ordered, pressing the cup into my hands.

'It's poison,' I said, my voice stronger than I felt.

'Not enough to kill you. Just enough to keep your pathetic little wolf subdued.' Victoria folded her arms. 'Drink it yourself, or I'll force it down your throat.'

I raised the cup to my lips, my mind racing. If I refused, they'd only force me. At least this way, I knew exactly what I was consuming. I could prepare Aria for it.

*Stay with me*, I whispered to my wolf as the bitter liquid slid down my throat. *We'll find a way out*.

The effect was almost immediate. Aria whimpered as her strength drained away, retreating deeper within me. My own limbs felt heavy, my senses dulling around the edges. I swayed on my feet.

'Good girl,' Victoria said, taking the empty cup. 'Alexander wants you in Catherine's room until sunset.'

She led me down the hall to another locked door—this one requiring a key from the ring at her waist. The room beyond was a shrine frozen in time. Photographs of Catherine covered the walls, her belongings arranged precisely on every surface, the air heavy with artificial lavender scent.

As Victoria locked me in, I sank onto the edge of the bed, fighting the wolfsbane's effects. I needed to think, to plan, but my mind kept slipping away from me. In desperation, I lowered myself to the floor, pressing my cheek against the cool hardwood beneath the bed.

That's when I saw them—tiny scratches in the wood, hidden from casual view.

*Help me. Elena Rivers. 2019.*

*She'll kill you next. Sophia. 2018.*

Message after message, year after year. The desperate pleas of women who had come before me, who had realized too late what I had just discovered.

I wasn't Alexander's chosen mate.

I was his sacrifice.

The pack dinner was a nightmare of forced smiles and watchful eyes. I sat at Alexander's right hand, the white dress Victoria had forced me into feeling like a funeral shroud against my skin. My fingers trembled as I pushed food around my plate, unable to stomach a single bite. The wolfsbane tea from earlier still dulled my senses, Aria's presence a faint whisper in the back of my mind.

My gaze drifted to the visiting Delta wolves seated at the far end of the long table. Their pack was known for their independence, their Alpha one of the few who sometimes challenged Alexander's territorial decisions. If I could just catch one of their eyes, signal somehow...

"Sarah." Alexander's voice sliced through my thoughts. "You've barely touched your dinner."

Every head turned toward me. I swallowed hard. "I'm not very hungry, Alpha."

"Our guests might think you find their presence... distasteful." His words were casual, but I felt the weight of his Alpha tone pressing down on me like a physical force.

I forced a smile. "Of course not. I'm just—"

"Kneel."

The command hit me like a blow. The dining hall fell silent as I slipped from my chair to my knees beside the table, the marble floor cold through the thin fabric of the dress.

"Tell our guests," Alexander continued, his voice pleasant as he sipped his wine, "what your only crime is."

Humiliation burned through me as every eye in the room fixed on my kneeling form. Victoria smirked from her seat across the table.

"My... my only crime is weakness," I whispered, the words acid on my tongue.

"Louder," Alexander commanded. "So our guests can hear."

"My only crime is weakness," I repeated, my voice echoing in the silent hall. "I am a late bloomer, unworthy of an Alpha's attention."

Alexander's hand came to rest on my head, a mockery of affection. "And yet I chose you anyway. Remember that, Sarah."

I kept my eyes fixed on the floor, feeling the pitying glances of the visitors. No one would help me. No one would dare challenge an Alpha in his own territory.

I was truly alone.

---

"You embarrassed me tonight," Alexander said later, his voice cold as he escorted me back to my room. Except it wasn't my room he led me to—it was Catherine's shrine.

"I didn't mean to," I said, panic rising as I realized where we were headed. "Please, Alexander, not this room."

"You need time to reflect on your behavior," he replied, unlocking the door. "Perhaps surrounded by Catherine's things, you'll learn how a proper Luna conducts herself."

He pushed me inside, the cloying lavender scent immediately making my head swim. "Victoria will bring your tea in the morning. Until then, I suggest you contemplate your failures."

The lock clicked behind him, and I was alone in the dead woman's shrine. My fingers curled into fists as I fought back tears. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of breaking down.

I paced the room, examining the photographs that lined the walls. Catherine's face stared back at me from every angle—beautiful, serene, perfect. The woman I had been chosen to replace. The woman whose death had twisted Alexander into the monster he now was.

As darkness fell, despair threatened to overwhelm me. The wolfsbane was wearing off, but Aria remained subdued, exhausted from fighting its effects.

*We need to rest*, I told her silently. *Gather our strength*.

I curled up on the edge of the bed, as far from Catherine's pillow as possible, and closed my eyes.

Hours later, I woke to Aria's urgent voice in my head.

*Sarah! Listen!*

I sat up, heart pounding. "What is it?"

*The wardrobe. Look behind it.*

Frowning, I slipped from the bed and approached the massive oak wardrobe that held Catherine's clothing. It was pushed flush against the wall, too heavy for me to move in my weakened state.

*Not move it*, Aria insisted. *Inside. The back panel.*

I opened the wardrobe doors, pushing aside the hanging dresses that smelled of mothballs and artificial lavender. Running my fingers along the back panel, I felt a slight give in one section.

A false panel.

With trembling hands, I pressed against it, and it slid aside to reveal a narrow ventilation shaft, just wide enough for a person to squeeze through.

An escape route.

Hope, dangerous and fragile, bloomed in my chest as I peered into the darkness beyond.