Beatrice POV 

The next morning came too soon and not soon enough. I'd barely slept, my chest aching like someone had carved out my heart with a dull knife. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Eamon's disgusted face, heard his words echoing in my head.

The moon goddess made a mistake.

Maybe he was right. Maybe I was the mistake.

"Get up." Cook's voice was gentler than usual, but still firm. "We have the inter-pack gathering today. Three packs are visiting, and they'll expect proper service."

I dragged myself from bed, every movement feeling like I was walking through mud. My face was puffy from crying, my eyes red-rimmed. I looked exactly like what I was-a broken, rejected wolf with nowhere to go.

The visiting packs had arrived early that morning. Ashthorn, Moonhaven, and Ironwood delegations filled the great hall with conversation and laughter. I recognized the Ashthorn wolves immediately-the auburn-haired man from last night stood with their group, talking quietly to an older woman who must be their Luna.

"Beatrice." Alpha Riven's voice stopped me as I carried a tray of drinks toward the tables. "A word."

He led me to a quiet corner, his expression unreadable. Up close, I could see where Eamon got his looks-the same strong jaw, the same cold blue eyes.

"What happened last night," he began slowly, "was unfortunate."

Unfortunate. Like it was bad weather, not the destruction of my entire world.

"Yes, Alpha," I said, keeping my voice steady.

"Eamon made the right choice for the pack," he continued. "You understand that, don't you? An alpha heir can't mate with a servant, regardless of what the moon goddess intended."

Each word was another nail in my coffin. "I understand."

"Good. Then we won't speak of it again." He straightened his shoulders. "Continue your duties. Our guests expect excellent service."

I nodded and walked away, my legs shaking. The message was clear-pretend it never happened. Go back to being invisible. Accept my place at the bottom of the pack hierarchy.

The great hall buzzed with conversation as I served drinks and cleared plates. Most of the visiting wolves ignored me completely, which was a blessing. The last thing I needed was questions about last night's ceremony.

I was refilling water glasses when a gentle voice said, "Excuse me."

I looked up to find the auburn-haired man standing beside me. Up close, his eyes were the most beautiful green I'd ever seen, like sunlight through forest leaves. He was tall but not imposing, with broad shoulders and calloused hands that suggested he worked with them.

"Yes?" I managed, my voice barely above a whisper.

"I was wondering if you could tell me where to find the washroom," he said, though something in his tone suggested that wasn't really what he wanted to ask.

I pointed toward the hallway. "Down that corridor, second door on the left."

"Thank you." He paused, then added quietly, "I'm Darius, by the way. Darius Veylor."

The name meant nothing to me, but I nodded anyway. "Beatrice."

"I know." His voice was so gentle it made my throat tight. "I wanted to say... I'm sorry about last night."

My cheeks burned with shame. Of course he'd witnessed my humiliation. Everyone had. "Please don't," I whispered.

"What happened wasn't right," he said, and there was anger in his voice now. Not at me, but for me. "You deserve better."

I stared at him in shock. No one had ever said anything like that to me before. No one had ever suggested I deserved anything at all.

"I should get back to work," I said, because I didn't know how to respond to kindness.

He nodded, but his eyes lingered on my face like he was memorizing it. "Of course. Thank you for the directions."

I watched him walk away, something fluttering in my chest that had nothing to do with mate bonds or rejection. It was such a small thing-a moment of kindness from a stranger-but it felt like sunlight after weeks of rain.

He smells so good, Luna said weakly. She'd been quiet since last night, retreating deep inside my mind to lick her wounds. And something else. Something that makes me restless.

I didn't have time to think about what that meant. The afternoon stretched on with endless tasks serving food, cleaning tables, listening to conversations I wasn't part of. The visiting packs discussed politics and trade agreements while I refilled their cups and pretended to be invisible.

Eamon appeared around midday, looking perfectly composed. He laughed with the other young alphas, flirted with unmated females from the visiting packs, and acted like nothing had changed. Like he hadn't destroyed my entire world less than twenty-four hours ago.

"He's already moved on," Selene said, appearing at my elbow with a cruel smile. "Look how happy he seems. I bet he's relieved he doesn't have to pretend to want you anymore."

I kept my eyes down and continued clearing plates. Anything I said would only make it worse.

"The Moonhaven alpha has a daughter," she continued conversationally. "Beautiful, well-trained, perfect breeding. I heard Eamon's parents are already discussing a match."

The words hit their target perfectly. I fumbled a glass, nearly dropping it on the floor.

"Careful, Bea," Selene said sweetly. "We wouldn't want you to embarrass the pack in front of our guests."

She walked away, leaving me standing there with my heart in pieces all over again. Of course Eamon would find someone better. Someone worthy of an alpha heir. Someone who wasn't me.

I was carrying a tray of empty dishes toward the kitchen when it happened. The scent hit me like a wall as my step faltered, and I looked up to see Darius watching me from across the room.

Our eyes met, and something electric passed between us. Not the mate bond-that was impossible so soon after a rejection. But something else, something that made Luna pace restlessly in my mind.

There, she said urgently. That one. He's important.

Before I could process what she meant, Selene's voice cut through the air. "Beatrice! Stop staring at our guests and get back to work!"

Heat flooded my cheeks as every head in the room turned toward me. Darius's expression darkened, and I saw his hands clench into fists at his sides.

I ducked my head and hurried toward the kitchen, my face burning with humiliation. But I could feel his eyes following me, and for reasons I couldn't explain, that mattered more than all of Selene's cruelty.

Maybe I was still broken. Maybe I'd never be worthy of love or kindness.

But for one moment, a stranger had looked at me like I was worth something.

And somehow, that was enough to keep me breathing.

Beatrice pov 

Three weeks passed after the inter-pack gathering. Three weeks of pretending my world hadn't ended, of serving meals and cleaning floors while my chest felt hollow and broken.

The servant's quarters had always been cold, but now they felt like a tomb. I shared the space with five other unmated wolves-outcasts and orphans who had nowhere else to go. They tried to be kind after my rejection, but pity was almost worse than cruelty.

"You could come with us to the market today," offered Nessa, a quiet girl whose parents had died in a rogue attack. "Get out of the pack house for a while."

I shook my head, folding another load of laundry. "Too much work to do."

The truth was, I couldn't bear the stares. Word of my rejection had spread to neighboring packs. Everywhere I went, wolves looked at me with curiosity or disgust, whispering about the servant girl who'd dared to dream above her station.

My daily routine had become a prison. Wake before dawn, start the fires in the kitchen hearths, prepare breakfast for sixty pack members. Serve the alpha family first, then the betas and gammas, then everyone else. Clear the tables, wash the dishes, scrub the floors.

Afternoons meant laundry, mending clothes, tending the vegetable garden, whatever other tasks needed doing. Evenings brought dinner service, more cleaning, and finally collapse into my thin bed as the sun set.

I'd been doing this work for years, but now it felt different. Heavier. Like chains around my wrists that grew tighter every day.

"Bea!" Selene's voice carried across the kitchen. "The alpha wants fresh linens in his study. Now."

I gathered clean sheets from the supply closet and climbed the stairs to the second floor. Alpha Riven's study was his private domain-dark wood, leather chairs, walls lined with books about pack law and territory management.

He was sitting behind his massive desk when I knocked. "Come in."

I changed the linens on the small couch where he sometimes napped, hyperaware of his eyes on me. Since the rejection, he'd been watching me differently. Not with kindness, but like I was a problem he needed to solve.

"How are you adjusting?" he asked as I folded the old sheets.

"Fine, Alpha," I lied.

"Good. I was concerned you might have... unrealistic expectations after the ceremony."

My hands stilled on the fabric. "No, Alpha."

"Excellent." He leaned back in his chair. "Because I've been thinking about your future here. A rejected wolf needs purpose, direction. I've decided to arrange a match for you."

The blood drained from my face. "A match?"

"Gerald Ashworth from Ironwood Pack. He's thirty-five, widowed, needs a wife to help raise his children. He's agreed to overlook your... circumstances... in exchange for a modest dowry."

Gerald Ashworth. I remembered him from the gathering-a gruff man with cold eyes and rough hands. He'd looked at me like I was livestock being evaluated for purchase.

"I don't want to marry him," I whispered.

Alpha Riven's expression hardened. "What you want is irrelevant. You're a servant with no family, no prospects, and now the stigma of rejection. Gerald is offering you security and a home. You should be grateful."

Grateful. For being sold off to a man who would treat me like property. For having my entire future decided without my input.

"When?" I asked, my voice barely audible.

"Next month. That gives you time to prepare and for the paperwork to be filed with the Council."

I nodded numbly and finished changing the linens. My hands moved automatically while my mind screamed. Four weeks. Four weeks until I was shipped off to Ironwood Pack to raise another woman's children and warm a stranger's bed.

This isn't right, Luna said weakly. She'd been getting stronger lately, but she was still recovering from the broken mate bond. We don't belong with that male. We belong somewhere else.

Where? I wanted to ask her. Where could a rejected servant possibly belong?

I escaped to the gardens after finishing the study, needing fresh air and silence. The vegetable plots were my responsibility, and I took pride in keeping them neat and productive. Out here, I could pretend I was something more than a burden.

I was pulling weeds when footsteps approached on the gravel path. Heavy boots, confident stride. My shoulders tensed, expecting more bad news.

"Miss Beatrice?"

I looked up to find a man I didn't recognize standing at the garden gate. He was tall and lean, dressed in traveling clothes that suggested money and status. His dark hair was streaked, and his brown eyes were kind but serious.

"Yes?" I stood slowly, wiping dirt from my hands.

"My name is Matthias Grey. I represent certain... interests... who have been looking for you for a very long time."

My heart started hammering. "I don't understand."

He stepped closer, and I caught his scent-something clean and expensive, with underneath notes that made Luna suddenly alert and interested.

"Tell me," he said quietly, "do you remember anything from before you came to Silvermist Pack? Anything at all?"

The question hit me. "I was a baby," I said slowly. "The alpha and luna found me at the border. My parents were killed by rogues."

"Were they?" His tone suggested he knew something I didn't. "Or is that simply what you were told?"

I stared at him, my mouth dry. "What are you saying?"

He glanced around the garden, making sure we were alone. Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small silver locket on a delicate chain.

"Do you recognize this?" he asked, holding it out to me.

The locket was beautiful, clearly expensive, with intricate engravings of wolves running beneath a full moon. But it was the scent that made me gasp. Luna went wild in my mind, pacing and whining like she'd found something precious that had been lost.

"I..." I reached for it with shaking fingers. "I don't know. Maybe. It smells like..."

"Like home," he finished for me. "Like family."

I looked up at him, hope and terror warring in my chest. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

Matthias Grey smiled, and for the first time in weeks, it wasn't a cruel expression. "I want to take you home, Beatrice. To the family that has been searching for you for twenty years."

Before I could respond, Luna's voice rang through my mind with desperate urgency.

Run.

That's when I heard them-footsteps approaching fast, multiple sets. Matthias's expression shifted to alarm as he grabbed my arm.

"We need to go. Now."

"Wait," I said, confusion overwhelming me. "I don't understand what's happening."

That's when Selene appeared at the garden entrance, flanked by three pack warriors. Her face was twisted with rage and something that looked like fear.

"Step away from her," she snarled at Matthias. "That servant belongs to Silvermist Pack."

Matthias positioned himself between Selene and me, his posture shifting to something dangerous. "Actually, she doesn't belong to anyone. Especially not to wolves who've spent twenty years abusing her."

How did he know about that? I stared at his back, my mind reeling with questions.

"You have no authority here," Selene said, but I caught the tremor in her voice. "This is pack territory."

"And I'm a neutral party acting under Council jurisdiction," Matthias replied smoothly. "I suggest you reconsider your next move very carefully."

The warriors looked uncertain, clearly outranked by whatever authority Matthias represented. But Selene's eyes were locked on mine, and what I saw there made my blood run cold.

Not just anger. Fear. Desperation.

Like her entire world depended on keeping me here.

"Beatrice," Matthias said without turning around, "trust me. Come with me now, and I'll explain everything. Stay here, and you'll never know the truth about who you really are."

The locket pulsed warm against my palm, and Luna's urgent voice echoed in my head.

Choose quickly, little sister. Our real family is waiting.

Real family? The words didn't make sense. But as I looked at Selene's terrified face, one thing became crystal clear.

She knew exactly who I was

Beatrice pov

My hand closed around the locket. The metal was warm against my skin.

"Beatrice, don't listen to him," Selene said. Her voice was too high, "He's lying to you."

Matthias kept his eyes on the warriors. "I have documentation. Proof of her identity. Would you like to see it, or would you prefer to explain to the Council why you've been hiding a kidnapped royal for twenty years?"

Royal. The word hit me like a punch to the gut.

"She's not going anywhere," Selene said as she stepped forward, and the warriors moved with her.

Luna snarled in my head. Run. Now.

I bolted.

My feet knew the garden paths better than anyone. I ran through the vegetable beds, jumped the low fence, and headed for the tree line. Behind me, I heard shouting and the sound of pursuit.

The forest was thick here, dense with old pines and twisted oaks. I'd explored these woods for years, gathering herbs and mushrooms for the kitchen. My thin shoes slipped on pine needles as I ran deeper into the shadows.

"Beatrice!" Matthias's voice echoed behind me. "Wait!"

I didn't wait. My lungs burned and my legs ached, but I kept running. I didn't know what was true anymore. Matthias could be lying. Selene could be lying. The only thing I knew for sure was that I needed space to think.

The forest floor sloped downward. I followed a deer trail that wound between massive tree trunks. Sunlight barely reached the ground here. Everything was green and quiet except for my ragged breathing.

I finally stopped at a stream, my hands on my knees, gasping for air. The locket dangled from my fingers, catching what little light filtered through the canopy.

What's happening to me? I asked Luna.

She paced in my mind, agitated and excited at the same time. That man spoke truth. I can feel it. This locket... it calls to something in our blood.

I held the locket up to examine it closer. The engravings were beautiful, detailed work that must have cost a fortune. When I turned it over, I found a tiny clasp. My fingers fumbled with it until it clicked open.

Inside was a miniature painting. A woman with dark hair and grey eyes smiled out at me. Beside her was a man with a strong jaw and kind expression. Between them sat four boys of varying ages, all with the same dark coloring.

And in the woman's arms was a baby. A baby with a small birthmark on her left shoulder, just like mine.

My legs gave out. I sat hard on the mossy ground, staring at the painting.

"No," I whispered. "This can't be real."

But the scent that clung to the locket was unmistakable now. Everything my soul had been crying out for my entire life.

A twig snapped behind me.

I spun around, expecting Matthias or the warriors. Instead, I saw three men I didn't recognize. They were dressed in rough clothes, their faces hard and scarred. Rogues. The smell of them made Luna recoil in my mind.

"Well, well," the largest one said. He had a thick beard and cold eyes. "What do we have here?"

I scrambled to my feet. "I'm from Silvermist Pack. You're on their territory."

"We know." The second rogue circled to my right. He was thin and moved like a snake. "We've been watching that pack for weeks now. Imagine our surprise when their little servant girl runs off into the woods alone."

The third rogue, shorter but muscular, blocked my path back toward Silvermist. "Seems like nobody's coming to save you."

Luna surged forward in my mind. Let me out. Let me fight.

But I'd only shifted once, I had no idea how to fight in wolf form. I was helpless here, and these rogues knew it.

"My pack will come looking for me," I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

The bearded rogue laughed. "That pack doesn't care about you. We've heard the stories. The rejected servant nobody wants."

He was right, and we both knew it. Selene might send warriors after me, but only to bring me back for whatever plans she had. These rogues would kill me here, and nobody would even miss me.

The thin rogue pulled a knife from his belt. "Nothing personal, girl. But your scent is all wrong. You smell like power and that makes you valuable to certain people."

"Or dangerous," the muscular one added. "Safer to just get rid of you."

They moved in unison, closing the circle around me. I backed up until my heels hit the stream. There was nowhere left to run.

Luna, I thought desperately. Help me.

She threw herself against my mental barriers. I felt my bones begin to shift, my vision sharpening. But the transformation was slow, too slow. The bearded rogue raised his knife.

Then a howl split the air.

It was the most beautiful and terrifying sound I'd ever heard. Deep and powerful, it echoed through the forest and made every hair on my body stand up. The rogues froze, their faces going pale.

"Shit," the thin one said. "That's a beta wolf."

"Run!" the bearded one shouted.

But it was too late. A massive russet-colored wolf burst through the undergrowth, moving faster than anything that size should be able to move. His green eyes locked onto the rogues with deadly focus.

More wolves poured into the clearing. Grey ones, black ones, brown ones. At least a dozen of them, all massive and clearly trained fighters.

The rogues tried to scatter, but the wolves were everywhere. The russet wolf went straight for the bearded rogue, taking him down with a single leap. His jaws closed around the man's shoulder, and the rogue screamed.

I pressed myself against a tree, trying to stay out of the way. My heart hammered so hard I thought it might break through my ribs.

The fight was over in seconds. The rogues who could still run fled into the forest. The ones who couldn't lay on the ground, bleeding but alive. The wolves had been careful not to kill them.

The russet wolf turned to look at me. His green eyes were familiar somehow, gentle despite the blood on his muzzle. He took a step toward me, and Luna went absolutely wild in my head.

Mate, she said. That's him. That's our mate.

"No," I whispered. "I already had a mate. He rejected me."

This is different, Luna insisted. This is real.

The wolf shifted. Bones cracked and reformed, fur receding into skin. In seconds, a man stood where the wolf had been. He was naked, but someone tossed him pants from a pack near the trees. He pulled them on without taking his eyes off me.

"Beatrice," he said softly.

I recognized that voice. That face. Those green eyes.

"Darius?" I managed.

He took another step forward. "Are you hurt?"

I shook my head, unable to form words. My entire world was spinning. First Matthias and the locket, then the rogues, now this.

"We need to get you somewhere safe," Darius said. He reached out slowly, like I was a spooked animal. "Will you let me help you?"

Before I could answer, four more howls echoed through the forest. These were different from Darius's beta call. These were alpha howls, full of power and rage and something that made my blood sing with recognition.

Darius's expression changed. He looked past me toward the sound, and I saw respect and maybe a little fear cross his face.

"They're here," he said quietly.

"Who?" I asked.

Four enormous wolves emerged from the shadows. They were the biggest wolves I'd ever seen, easily twice the size of the others. A massive black one with white markings led the pack. Behind him came a large grey one, then a sleek black one, and finally a pure white wolf that moved like a ghost.

They stopped at the edge of the clearing, and every other wolf immediately lowered their heads in submission. Even Darius dropped his gaze.

The black wolf's golden eyes fixed on me. He took one step forward, then another. His massive head tilted as he scented the air.

Then he shifted.

The man who stood before me was tall and powerfully built, with black hair and those same golden eyes. He was maybe thirty, with sharp features and an air of absolute authority. He stared at me like I was a ghost he'd been searching for his entire life.

"Sister," he said, his voice breaking on the word.

The other three wolves shifted. The grey-haired one had a pack slung across his back, and he quickly distributed clothing to his brothers. Four men now stood in the clearing, pulling on pants and shirts with practiced efficiency, all of them staring at me with identical expressions of shock and desperate hope.

The grey-haired one stepped forward. His amber eyes were wet with tears. "Beatrice? Is it really you?"

I looked down at the locket still clutched in my hand. At the painting of the four boys who'd grown into these four men.

"I don't understand," I whispered.

The black-haired man moved closer. When he spoke again, his voice was rough with emotion. "My name is Theron Wynter. These are my brothers. And you... you're our sister. The one we've been searching for since the day you were taken from us twenty years ago."