My mate was handling pack business during the Moon Festival—or so he claimed. I decided to travel through the waystation network and surprise him.

But only the upper tier passage remained available.

I stared at the territory tribute cost and, gritting my teeth, drained an entire year's gathered resources.

Then I couldn't even figure out how to adjust the resting alcove.

The elegant female beside me let out a cold laugh.

"Never traveled upper tier before?"

I forced an awkward smile. "Sorry about that. You must be an Alpha, right? You have that... powerful scent about you."

"Me? No." She waved a manicured hand. "But my kept Alpha is. If I'm not in the upper tier, he arranges a private escort through protected territory."

I blinked. "A kept Alpha? That must be hard to find."

"Not really. I serve under his command in the pack. I keep making mistakes in my duties—cost him quite a bit of territory resources, actually. He growls at me until I whimper, and then... well." She smiled knowingly. "You can imagine what happens next."

A chill crept down my spine.

"What a coincidence," I said slowly. "My bonded mate also has a female pack member who keeps making mistakes."

"You're mated?" Her eyes swept over me, assessing, her nostrils flaring slightly as she caught my scent. "My kept Alpha has a bonded mate too. About your age, actually."

She examined her claws, filed to elegant points.

"But he says he grew tired of her ages ago. Her scent feels stale, he told me. Less exciting than catching my scent when I shake out my hair."

My stomach turned.

"I told him I wanted to see him during the festival." She smiled. "So he just told his mate he had pack obligations."

That's when I saw it.

The ring on her finger.

A moonstone bond ring identical to the one I'd lost.

I went rigid.

Wait—Fenris Nightthorn isn't some low-ranked pack member?

When did he become an Alpha?

1.

My gaze locked onto her ring finger.

"But that ring..." My voice came out strange, foreign. "It's a bond ring, isn't it? Did he claim you as mate?"

"This?" Selene Bloodthorn held up her hand, admiring the moonstone as it caught the waystation's amber light. "I made him take it from his bonded mate."

The air left my lungs.

"I wasn't planning to make things hard for her, honestly." Selene's lips curved. "But on my birth moon, that female suddenly lost her pup and made him rush to the healer's den to tend to her."

She pouted.

"I spent my birth moon alone."

My hand drifted to my stomach.

The memory hit me like ice water—that brutal winter. The forest path home from the trading grounds had been slicked with frozen mud. Fenris's share of pack resources was barely enough to survive on; even a proper den was a luxury we couldn't afford.

I'd fallen hard.

Three moons along, and my pup became nothing but blood on frozen earth.

Fenris had dropped everything. Stayed by my healing nest for three days and three nights without sleeping.

When I finally woke, my bond ring had vanished along with our pup.

He'd held me close, voice cracking. "It's okay. We'll have another pup. The ring—I'll make you a new one."

I'd sobbed and shaken my head. "Aren't they reducing territory shares in the pack? We need to save our resources. When you rise in rank someday... you can get me a new one then."

His eyes had been red-rimmed, tears threatening to spill. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I can't give you a better life."

I'd shaken my head again, unable to speak.

Beside me, Selene was still admiring the ring.

"So..." My throat was sandpaper. "You made him give you his mate's ring?"

"Well, he didn't want to at first. Said he'd hunt me something more valuable." She tilted her hand, watching the moonstone shimmer. "But that worn-out female acts so superior just because she carries his bond mark. If I don't put her in her place, she'll think she can walk all over me."

I bit down until I tasted copper.

"Honestly, compared to everything else he's given me from the pack vault, this ring isn't worth much." She shrugged. "But it's a bond ring. That's what makes it special."

Selene turned to me with a pitying smile.

"When a female lets herself become as pathetic as that mate of his? There's no hope left for her."

I gripped the fabric of my sleeve until my knuckles went white. Forced my lips into something resembling a smile.

"If your kept Alpha spends so much on you... he must be paying his mate a fortune in territory rights to keep quiet, right?"

Selene laughed—a bright, tinkling sound.

She leaned in close, her perfume cloying, mixed with the faint musk of an Alpha that wasn't hers to carry.

"Here's the thing," she whispered. "That pathetic old female doesn't even know he's the Alpha."

"Why?"

Selene admired her moonstone-encrusted claws, tilting them to catch the flickering torchlight of the waystation.

"Because there's no point, is there? That female already spent her best years serving beside him while he expanded his territory and consolidated his dominance." She buffed an invisible smudge from her ring claw. "Think about it—if you were an Alpha, and you finally claimed your rightful power, would you keep spending resources on a bonded mate who's already faded? What's the purpose? No amount of rare herbs or territory wealth is going to restore her vitality."

The polished obsidian panel reflected my face back at me—hollow-cheeked, shadows pooling beneath my eyes, my wolf barely visible behind the exhaustion.

Selene leaned closer, her scent sickeningly sweet and artificial.

"You know, sister, you're older than me, but you've still got some appeal left. Since we're getting along so well, let me offer you some guidance." Her gaze swept over me with clinical assessment. "Females need to invest in themselves—some healer treatments, proper restoration rituals. Your skin's looking a bit... depleted. I bet your mate hasn't shown interest in your scent lately, has he?"

I stared at her without answering.

Her skin was flawless. Moonlight-smooth. Not a single imperfection visible.

I used to look like that.

No—I used to look better.

Ten years in that cramped outer-territory den, weathering every hardship alone, had taken their toll. When I looked at old reflections of myself now, I barely recognized the female staring back.

"Healer treatments... require considerable resources."

"So?" Selene shrugged, utterly unbothered. "My benefactor grants me half a vault's worth each moon cycle just for basic provisions. And all the restoration rituals? He covers those separately."

I watched the tiny crystal glinting at the corner of her lined eyes. Delicate. Expensive. Frivolous.

My fingers twisted into the hem of my traveling cloak, trembling.

"How long... have you been his kept mate?"

"Started the twelfth moon of the harvest season, last cycle." She examined her claws again. "Why?"

My grip on my cloak tightened until my knuckles went white.

The twelfth moon of the harvest season.

The day my mother died.

That day, my mother needed urgent healer intervention and rare herbs that cost the equivalent of a small territory's seasonal tribute.

I remembered every detail with brutal clarity—Fenris begging every allied pack he knew, scraping together every connection, emptying his personal stores.

He managed to gather seventy percent of what we needed.

That was everything, he'd told me. Every resource he'd accumulated since establishing himself as a young Alpha.

I'd nearly destroyed myself trying to come up with the rest. Traded everything I could. Pleaded with every pack member who might help.

I scraped together a fraction more.

Mother still died.

Afterward, Fenris had held me so tight I couldn't breathe, tears streaming down his face, his wolf howling in shared grief.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm worthless—I couldn't even secure the healing supplies for your mother. You've suffered so much being bonded to me..."

The pain had been fangs tearing through my chest.

But I'd wiped his tears anyway.

"You gathered seventy percent of what we needed for me. That means everything." My voice had cracked. "Mother said... you did your best. She doesn't blame you. I don't blame you either. It's my failing—I couldn't come up with the remaining portion..."

His tears had dripped onto the back of my hand. Hot. Wet.

He'd gripped my fingers like a wolf drowning in a frozen river.

"Lyra, just endure a little longer. Please. I swear—I won't let our pack suffer like this forever..."

I'd nodded through my tears, believing every word.

The full amount she needed.

He'd had access to it all along.

"You know what's amusing, sister?" Selene's voice cut through the memory. "That female's mother needed exactly that amount of healing resources that same moon."

I looked at her.

She winked, a conspiratorial little flutter of her left eye.

"He was actually going to provide it. Originally."

The air vanished from my lungs. "You took it? For your monthly allowance?"

"Oh, no, no." She waved dismissively. "He controls vast territories. Granting me those resources still left him with plenty more in the pack vaults."

"Then why didn't he give it for his bonded mate's mother?"

"Because..."

Selene propped her chin on her hand, a she-wolf savoring fresh prey.

"I told him—once her mother was dead, that female would have no pack left. No bloodline. And if he ever got caught keeping me as a shadow mate?" She smiled. "She wouldn't dare challenge him. What's she going to do? She'd have no territory to flee to."

My teeth ground together so hard I thought they'd shatter into fragments.

"Oh, and that moon, I'd had my eye on a new set of ceremonial adornments. The exact same cost, coincidentally."

I stared at her, unblinking.

"Aren't you afraid his bonded mate will discover what you did?"

"Please." Selene laughed, light and careless. "I'm cleverer than that."

She leaned back, satisfaction radiating from every pore.

"I'm the one who devised the scheme. Told him to hand over seventy percent and pretend it was everything he possessed. His bonded mate would believe her Alpha gave his all for her." Her lips curled. "She'd be so grateful, so consumed with guilt about not securing the rest herself—she'd never think to question if he had another female hidden away."

Her expression shifted again as she continued.

"The annoying part? His reason for finally deciding to do it was to make sure that if I ever got exposed, his precious Matriarch wouldn't strip him of his Alpha title."

She let out a derisive snort. "Tch. That old she-wolf sure is lucky."

Slap!

My palm connected with Selene's face before she could react.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she shrieked.

Her drink went flying, spilling everywhere across the polished wood of the waystation's upper tier. An Omega aide rushed over to help clean up the mess, her movements quick and nervous.

Selene was seething. "Are you insane?!"

"Being a shadow mate and still acting this arrogant?" I shot back, my voice shaking with fury. My wolf stirred beneath my skin, hackles raised.

The Omega aide quickly stepped between us, pulling us apart with surprising strength for her rank. She guided Selene to an empty seat farther away from me, speaking to her in soothing tones until her temper finally cooled.

Selene dabbed at her hands with the cloth the attendant had given her, then cast me a contemptuous glance. I could smell the bitter tang of her anger mixing with something else—smug satisfaction.

"Moon above, I can't stand self-righteous females like you. 'Shadow mate' this, 'bond-breaker' that—let's be honest here."

Her lips curled into a sneer. "You're just bitter because your scent has gone stale and you can't hold your Alpha's attention anymore. Back when you were freshly bonded? I bet you threw yourself at dominant wolves harder than anyone."

"You—!"

The Omega aide grabbed my arm before I could lunge, her grip firm despite her trembling.

I didn't want to make their duties harder. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself back into my seat, my claws retracting slowly.

Selene looked me up and down with undisguised disdain, her nostrils flaring as she scented my distress.

"Let me give you some real talk. You're not a fresh-bonded Omega anymore. Your Alpha definitely has someone warming his den on the side." She tilted her head, feigning sympathy. "Go home and check his scent trail if you don't believe me. I mean, looking like that? Smelling that desperate? No wonder he doesn't want to return to your den."

Splash!

The fresh drink the attendant had just brought me hit Selene square in the face.

She screamed, the sound piercing enough to make several wolves in the passage wince.

The waystation attendants scrambled to get between us again.

Senior Pack Liaison Corvin approached with an apologetic smile plastered on his face. "Ms. Ashvale, this traveler holds rank-protected status. Please, let's all calm down. How about I bring you some fresh-caught game? Help you relax?"

"Rank-protected?" I bit out through clenched teeth.

The Senior Liaison leaned in close, lowering his voice. "She's claimed by Alpha Nightthorn—the rising power of the Nightthorn Pack. I'm telling you to keep your distance for your own good. He's very protective of her. His territory influence extends even here."

I laughed bitterly. Of course it did.

The transport vessel docked at the transfer waystation.

Neither Selene nor I departed.

I pulled out my communication crystal and sent a message to Fenris.

[Where are you?]

He sent back an image of his command chamber desk.

[Securing territory resources for my mate]

[For me? Or for someone else?]

No reply.

I sent a single question mark.

The next second, a familiar voice drifted over from Selene's seat. The sound made my stomach turn—I knew that warm, indulgent tone. I'd once believed it was reserved only for me.

"Someone threw juice on you? Who dares treat my little Selene like that?"

"Some dried-up she-wolf!" Selene whined. "Hmph, this is all your fault! If you'd been here, she never would've had the guts!"

"Okay, okay... it's your Alpha's fault."

Ding.

The soft chime of a vault transfer notification sounded from Selene's crystal.

[Territory resource transfer received: 500,000 gold marks]

Fenris's voice was warm, indulgent. "Go acquire yourself something nice from the trading posts."

My fingers dug into the fabric of my sleeve, claws threatening to pierce through.

The smile on Selene's face vanished as quickly as it appeared. She pouted dramatically.

"Hmph! That won't work. You're the one who said you missed my scent, that you wanted to spend the Winter Moon celebration together! Otherwise, I never would've gotten on this stupid transport and run into that crazy she-wolf!"

Her voice pitched higher. "No amount of resources can make me feel better now! Hmph!"

Fenris didn't get angry. If anything, his tone grew lighter, amused.

"What about the new den estate your Alpha secured for you? The one by the northern hunting grounds?"

Selene's eyes widened slightly, and I caught the spike of greedy excitement in her scent.

"There it is. My little Selene's smiling now. Happy?"

"I am not!" She puffed out her cheeks again. "But... hmph, fine. I'll give you a chance. Only because I'm devoted to you."

"Good girl. Your Alpha will make it up to you properly tonight, okay? I'll worship every inch of you."

"Three hours. Not one second less!"

"You can have the whole night. Until the moon sets."