"Maybe if you pray hard enough, the Goddess will give you a better Ancestral Link in your next life!" a boy shouted.

A jagged rock struck my shoulder. I didn't flinch.

Frost coated my simple dress. I had knelt in the cedar forest at the edge of Ashborne territory all night. My lips felt completely numb. My knees were locked blocks of ice against the frozen earth.

"Look at her," another High-Lunar youth sneered, tossing a pinecone at my head. "The Alpha's mate, freezing in the dirt like a stray."

Words I had never learned spilled from my cracked lips. A heavy, rhythmic chant in the old tongue vibrated in my throat.

The boys laughed louder and walked back toward the main estate.

I shifted my weight. A sharp, blinding ache flared in my left leg, radiating from the massive, jagged scar that ran from my knee down to my ankle.

*Weak wolf.* Kael’s insult from last night echoed in my ears.

I traced the raised, ruined tissue through the tear in my skirt. Six months ago, my son had wanted to prove he wasn't weak. Serena had cornered him in the armory before his first winter hunt.

"Show them you aren't tied to her moon-blind apron strings," Serena had told him, her voice dripping with fake encouragement. "Take the northern ridge."

He had run straight into the restricted zone. Straight to a feral wolf rotting with moon poison.

I remembered the beast lunging. I remembered throwing my body over Kael's. The fangs tearing through my muscle. The snow turning crimson.

"Mom!" Kael had screamed, sobbing over my bleeding body as I lost consciousness.

But the next day, Serena stood in Caelan’s office, spinning her web.

"She lured him there, Caelan," Serena had lied smoothly. "She orchestrated the attack so she could play the hero. A desperate bid for the pack's sympathy."

And my husband had looked at my bandaged, mangled leg with absolute disgust.

"Don't use my son to secure your place," Caelan had warned me.

Kael had stood right beside them. He knew the truth. He knew I had nearly lost my leg to save his life. Yet he chose silence to hide his own broken rules.

A low whine broke my focus.

I looked up. A massive gray war wolf crept through the cedars. Then another. And another.

They didn't bare their teeth. As the morning moon hung pale in the sky, the lead wolf dropped its belly to the frozen earth. The others immediately followed.

"Get up!" a perimeter guard yelled, running into the clearing. He projected his Alpha command, the sheer force of it making my ears ring. "Up, you mutts!"

The wolves whimpered. They pressed their snouts into the dirt, pointing directly at me. They refused to move.

"What did you do to them?" the guard snapped, grabbing my arm and hauling me to my feet.

"Nothing," I answered, my voice raspy.

"Drag her to the hall," a second guard ordered, jogging over. He wiped sweat from his forehead, looking thoroughly spooked. "Father Aldren is tearing the relic room apart. He found some burned parchment from three hundred years ago."

"What parchment?" the first guard asked.

"Something about a kneeling pack," the second guard muttered, eyeing me nervously. "He keeps pointing at a drawing of a Moonbound Sigil. Swears it matches the silver streaks in her hair."

The first guard shoved me forward. "Serena wants her in the center ring anyway. Pack's whispering too much. Time to shut it down."

They threw me into the center of the grand assembly room.

The entire Ashborne pack surrounded me. Serena stood on the raised platform, wearing a sharp black suit. Caelan sat in the high-backed Alpha chair, his expression carved from stone.

"Elara," Serena announced, her voice echoing off the timber walls. "The pack demands clarity. The rumors about your stunts are disrupting the peace."

I stood up straight, ignoring the throbbing in my leg. "What stunts, Serena?"

"Your manipulation," she shot back. "You stage attacks to look like a savior. You use cheap tricks to make the border wolves act rabid today. You use your son to cling to a title you don't deserve."

"Is that what I do?" I looked past her, fixing my gaze on my husband. "Are you really going to let her do this?"

Caelan rested his chin on his fist. He looked utterly bored. "Confess, Elara. Stop dragging this out."

I turned my attention to Kael. My son stood by the bottom steps, arms crossed, avoiding my eyes.

"Kael," I said softly. "Tell them what happened in the snow. Tell them whose idea it was to go into the restricted zone."

Kael's jaw tightened. He shifted his weight, glancing nervously at the judging eyes of the High-Lunar elders in the front row.

"Just admit it, Mom," Kael groaned, rolling his eyes. "Then everyone can move on."

A strange calm washed over me.

I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I smiled.

A quiet, broken smile that made Kael take a sudden step back.

They didn't care about the truth. They all saw the reality perfectly well. But my guilt was the foundation they needed to build their comfortable, perfect lives. Admitting I was a villain made it so much easier for them to be the heroes.

"Fine," I said. My voice carried clearly across the silent room. "I confess."

Serena smirked. She stepped down from the platform, handing me a small microphone. "Say it properly. So the elders hear you."

I took the metal cylinder. I stared directly into Caelan's empty eyes.

"I was born without noble blood," I declared, my tone devoid of any sorrow. "I was never worthy of Ashborne."

Laughter rippled through the crowd. High-Lunar women whispered behind their hands, pointing at my mud-stained dress. The elders nodded in grim satisfaction.

Caelan waved his hand dismissively. "Take her to the lower cells until she packs her bags."

I lowered the microphone.

Under the roar of their mocking laughter, I let the ancient words slip from my tongue one last time, barely a whisper.

"Moon remembers."

The guards shoved me down the long stone corridor toward the holding cells.

As the heavy iron door slammed shut behind me, a deafening howl shattered the night air outside.

It wasn't just one wolf.

It was hundreds.

Through the tiny barred window near the ceiling, I heard the frantic shouts of the Alpha guards.

"They're doing it again!" a man screamed from the courtyard. "Every single wolf in the territory! They're all dropping to the ground!"

I reached up and touched the silver streaks in my hair. They pulsed beneath my fingertips, humming with a faint, chilling heat.

"Move." The perimeter guard shoved my shoulder. "Alpha wants you packed and gone by sunrise."

I stumbled down the stone corridor. "I will pack my things."

"You'll pack whatever Serena lets you take." He sneered. "She brought three rogues into the council room an hour ago. They sang quite a song about you."

"What song?"

"That you warmed rogue beds long before Caelan ever found you." The guard crossed his arms, leaning against the damp wall. "They told the elders you just needed a strong male to clean up your mess. Even hinted the boy isn't pure Ashborne."

"Caelan allowed them to speak?"

"He paid them." The guard laughed. "Easier to call you a whore than admit he's wrong."

I stared at the heavy iron torch brackets. My husband needed me to be a monster. Acknowledging my innocence meant acknowledging his own cruelty.

"Tell Caelan something for me." I kept my voice perfectly flat.

"I don't run messages for mutts."

"Tell him I remember the night before his Alpha challenge." I held his gaze. "I stayed awake until dawn grinding his sword."

"Shut up."

"Tell him I remember tearing my own winter cloak to bandage his arm when a silver blade caught him." I took a step toward the guard. "Tell him to check the inside lining of his hunting coats. I sewed a tiny moon into every single one."

"He doesn't care about your sewing."

"He cares about his pride. Ask him why his left shoulder never healed right. Ask him who sucked the silver poison out of his veins while Serena was hiding in the cellar."

The guard grabbed my collar, throwing me into my bedroom. "Pack your trash."

The door slammed shut.