I turned to leave the sickening celebration.

"Stop!" Mark's voice shouted from behind me.

I didn't turn around.

"I said, stop!" He strode forward to block my path. "You think you can just walk away?"

"Move," I said coldly.

"Move?" Mark snarled. "You know too much. You really think we're just going to let you walk away?"

Several large wolves closed in, surrounding me.

"What are you doing?"

"Make a blood oath!" Mark pulled a silver dagger from his belt. "Swear you'll never reveal any of the Blackmoon Pack's strategies or secrets!"

The silver blade gleamed.

"In your dreams," I said, taking a step back.

"Then don't blame us for being rough!" Mark lunged at me.

I dodged, but another wolf grabbed my arm.

"Let her go!"

Everyone froze.

Not because someone was defending me. But because the person who spoke was Riven.

He strode over, his eyes burning with fury.

But the fury wasn't for Mark. It was for me.

"What are you all doing?" Jenna followed him. "Just get rid of her already."

"Wait," Jenna said. Her eyes locked on the faint glow at my chest. "What is that?"

I looked down. A delicate crystal pendant was glowing faintly.

"A communication crystal?" Mark narrowed his eyes. "You've been wearing this the whole time?"

"So what if I have?"

"What's on it?" Jenna shrieked. "Filthy little secrets with all your other Alphas? You're disgusting!"

"Get it!" Riven ordered.

Mark reached for it, but I clutched the crystal to my chest.

"It's private!"

In the struggle, the crystal was ripped from my neck.

Riven took it and tried to activate it.

Nothing happened.

"What's wrong with it?" he scowled.

"It's sealed," I said, my voice ice. "It requires a key. A memory only we should share."

"What memory?"

"You've forgotten?" A hollow, cruel laugh escaped my lips. "The first words you ever spoke to me. The moment our bond snapped into place."

Riven froze.

He struggled to remember, sweat beading on his forehead.

The pack members started whispering.

"What's wrong with the Alpha?"

"He can't remember that?"

"Did he really forget?"

Riven's face flushed a deep, ugly red. He couldn't remember. In front of his entire pack, he couldn't remember his first meeting with his fated mate.

"I remember!" he suddenly shouted. "You said—no, I said—"

The crystal remained dark.

"Wrong," I said flatly.

The whispers grew louder.

"He doesn't even know his own mate?"

"Are they really fated?"

"The Alpha wouldn't..."

"Enough!" Riven roared, snatching the crystal.

He forced his own energy into it.

The crystal finally lit up, projecting a memory.

But it wasn't a vision of me with another Alpha.

It was a vision of me fighting alongside Damien.

The golden-haired Prince wielded the Royal Sword while I unleashed powerful psychic energy beside him.

We moved in perfect sync, like partners who had faced death together countless times.

"What is this?" Riven's eyes went wide.

"That was two years ago," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "My brother and I were hunting rogues."

"Brother? That man really is—"

"The Crown Prince Damien," I snatched the crystal back. "And I really am a princess."

The color drained from Riven's face.

If I was truly a princess, then everything he had just done...

"No!" he suddenly exploded with rage. "Impossible! You're lying!"

He grabbed the crystal again.

"If you were a princess, why would you come here? Why would you suffer through all this?"

"Because I loved you!" The words finally tore out of me. "I wanted to prove myself! I wanted to build something with you!"

Riven froze.

But a second later, an even more insane fury lit his eyes.

"Lies! It's all lies!"

With a guttural roar, Riven snatched the crystal from my hand. He smashed it on the frozen ground. The goddess-blessed artifact shattered into a thousand glittering shards.

The fragments of the crystal scattered across the ground, catching the last of the firelight.

"No!" I fell to my knees, trying to gather the pieces.

It was a sacred object, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself. It was my only link to my royal family.

"Chain her in silver!" Riven commanded.

Two guards rushed forward, binding my hands with special silver chains.

The metal seared my skin, sending bolts of agony through me.

"Riven, are you insane?" I struggled. "I'm your mate!"

"Mate?" He walked up to me, his eyes full of loathing. "You think someone with your tainted blood is worthy of me?"

"What tainted bloodline?"

"A traitor's blood runs in your veins! Your whole bloodline is cursed!" he snarled viciously.

The pack members joined in.

"Curse her!"

"May her line end!"

"Filthy she-wolf!"

Listening to their vile words, a rage I had never known boiled up inside me.

"I'll appeal to the Alliance Council!" I shouted. "I will expose what you've done to me!"

"Appeal?" Riven laughed. "You think the Council will believe a she-wolf who sells her body?"

"They will!"

"Kill you? No," he knelt, his voice a venomous whisper in my ear. "I'm going to let you live. I want you to watch as I rise to heights you could only ever dream of."

I felt the malice in his words, and a fire ignited in my heart.

"Riven, you will regret this!" I stared him down. "I swear, your pack will never set foot in the central lands!"

"Hahaha!" The entire crowd erupted in laughter.

"She's lost her mind!"

"A she-wolf about to be exiled is still making threats!"

"This is hilarious!"

Mark walked over, looking down on me.

"Who do you think you are, threatening our Alpha?"

"I'm nobody," I said, slowly forcing myself to my feet. Even in silver chains that burned my skin, I held my head high. "But—"

"But what?" Jenna mocked. "Your prince brother is going to come save you?"

"That's right," I snarled back, a queen in chains. "Touch me, and the Crown Prince and the Alpha King will burn your entire pack to the ground."

Silence.

Then, even more manic laughter.

"Hahahaha!" Mark bent over, laughing. "Yeah, right. And if you're a princess, I'm the Moon Goddess herself!"

"A princess? You?" A pack member pointed at my torn clothes. "Look at yourself! Stop pretending!"

"Would a real princess suffer with a pack like ours?"

"You must have been poisoned. Your brain is full of delusions!"

Jenna was crying with laughter.

"Riven, look at your 'mate'! She can't even lie properly!"

"I knew you were a traitor," he said, his voice dripping with disgust. "I didn't realize you were insane, too."

He waved a hand. "Take her away. Lock her in the prison cart. We can't have a madwoman ruining the ceremony tomorrow."

"Yes, Alpha!"

The guards dragged me away toward the edge of the camp.

The crowd's mocking laughter faded behind me.

"A princess! Haha!"

"If you're going to dream, at least make it believable!"

"Pathetic, crazy woman!"

A guard threw me into the prison cart, and the cold iron bars slammed shut.

The laughter was cut off. The world was finally quiet.

But they didn't know. This quiet was the calm before the storm.

I struggled to lift my burned hands and felt for the hidden seam inside my collar.

Tucked inside was a small, smooth piece of obsidian. It looked like nothing. It was my emergency beacon.

My brother, Damien, had forced it on me before I fled the capital.

A pact. A promise. Only for the very end.

Back then, I was so sure I’d never use it. So confident my fated mate would never betray me.

He had failed me.

Using the last of my strength, I poured a short, lethal message into the beacon:

"Damien. The time has come. Unleash the contingency. All of it. I want them ruined."