The night wraps Ironfang Keep in a blood-soaked shroud. I kick the rusted grate loose and slide from the ventilation shaft into the master bedroom.

I came to stop the slaughter of my pack. I came to gamble on a ghost of a memory.

Moonlight bleeds through the stained-glass dome, hitting Kael Vane’s bare back.

His Alpha war tattoos crisscross his muscles like cracked tundra. Each jagged line marks a life he ended.

He doesn't flinch. He doesn't reach for a weapon.

"You took your time getting here." Kael turns around.

Golden-green wolf eyes lock onto mine. No alarm rings out. Just the sickening calm of a hunter watching the trap snap shut.

"You knew I was coming." I cross my arms, refusing to show fear.

"Your scent hit the perimeter alarms three miles out."

"Then why didn't you send your guards to shoot me?"

"Because I wanted to see if you were actually stupid enough to crawl into my bedroom."

"Call off the border strikes, Kael. The Silverbloods are done fighting."

"Elara."

He crosses the rug in three massive strides. His hand shoots out, fingers clamping around my jaw.

The pressure makes my back teeth ache.

"You think you can just drop into my stronghold and issue orders?"

"I think you owe me an audience."

"I owe you nothing. Your pack slaughtered my border patrol last week."

"We were defending our hunting grounds! You encroached on our land first."

He crashes his mouth against mine. It tastes of rye whiskey and stale gunpowder.

"I want a treaty," I demand against his lips.

"I'm going to fuck that arrogance right out of you."

He rips my shirt down the center. Buttons scatter across the floorboards.

"Don't pretend you don't want this," Kael sneers, unbuckling his tactical belt.

"You're a monster now."

"And you're spreading your legs for a monster."

He forces my knees apart, his heavy frame pinning me down onto the four-poster bed.

"Tell me to stop," he challenges, his thumb pressing hard into my clitoris.

"Fuck you."

"That's exactly what I'm going to do."

He thrusts two fingers deep inside my cunt, stretching me open.

"Ah!" I arch off the sheets.

"You're soaking wet for a warlord you claim to hate."

"Shut up and fuck me."

"Impatient bitch."

He replaces his fingers with his cock, driving into me with brutal force.

"Yes!"

"Say it louder."

"Fuck me harder, Kael!"

He grabs my hips, slamming his pelvis against mine over and over.

"I remember every weakness, Elara." He bites the thin skin behind my left ear.

"Don't..."

"I remember how you flinch on your left rib." He digs his thumb into my side, making me gasp. "I remember the exact sound you make when I hit your cervix."

He thrusts deeper, hitting the spot perfectly.

A high-pitched moan escapes my throat.

"There it is," he smirks, pumping into me relentlessly. "Three days, Elara. I'm going to keep you in this bed, fucking you until you forget why you came here."

"You won't break me."

"I don't need to break you. I just need to remind you who you belong to."

For three days, he keeps me tethered to this mattress. He doesn't use whips or chains. He uses the devastating precision of his memory.

He dismantles my defenses, exploiting every sensitive nerve until I mistake his rough obsession for lingering love.

Until Day Three.

Morning light floods the window sill. I open my eyes, a genuine smile curving my lips.

"Morning," I whisper to the empty side of the bed.

A bucket of liquid silver crashes over my skull.

"Ahhhhh!"

My flesh sizzles like raw steak thrown onto a hot iron skillet. White smoke erupts from my shoulders, neck, and cheeks.

I thrash wildly, tumbling off the mattress and slamming onto the hardwood floor.

The metallic liquid burns through my silk nightgown, melting straight into my muscle fibers.

Kael stands in the morning sun. He holds the empty steel bucket.

The corners of his mouth curve upward, mimicking the permanent ice of the northern wastes.

"Turns out immortal Silverbloods feel pain too?"

"What the fuck did you do?" I shriek, clawing at my own melting skin.

He squats next to me. His thumb and index finger pinch my scorched cheek.

He digs his knuckles directly into the festering, raw meat.

Tiny bubbles of silver poison froth inside the open wound.

"Stop! Stop it!"

"Does it hurt?" Kael asks, his voice entirely hollow.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you deserve worse."

"I gave you everything these past thirty days! I thought you understood why I came!"

"You thought you could fuck your way into a peace treaty?" He laughs, a harsh, grating sound. "You thought opening your legs would make me forget?"

"Forget what?"

"Your pain is worth nothing compared to what you did."

"I came here to negotiate!"

"You came here to spy. You took my parents from me."

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"They vanished the night your pack raided the southern ridge. Don't play dumb."

"I wasn't even at the southern ridge! I was negotiating with the River Pack!"

He twists his fist into my hair. My scalp screams in protest as he drags me across the room.

"Get your fucking hands off me, you psycho!"

"You're going to tell me exactly where they are."

He ignores my thrashing. He hauls me toward the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

"Look at them."

He smashes my forehead against the heavy steel window frame. Blood instantly rushes down my eyebrow, blinding my left eye.

"Look!" he barks.

I blink through the crimson haze.

Outside, massive iron racks dominate the courtyard. Flayed werewolf corpses hang from heavy meat hooks.

The morning wind blows. The gray, blood-matted fur sways gently in the breeze.

"My pack..." I choke out. "You killed them."

"I butchered them. This is just the beginning."

He leans in close. His breath scorches my ear like volcanic ash.

"Tell me where my parents are hidden, or you never leave Ironfang Keep."

"I swear to the Moon, Kael, I didn't take your parents!"

"You don't get to invoke the Moon in my house."

"I'm telling the truth!"

"Then you die here."

He drags me backward by my ankles. I claw at the floorboards, scraping my fingernails to the quick.

"Don't do this!"

He yanks my leg toward the foot of the bed. A heavy, cold metal cuff snaps shut around my ankle.

A silver shackle.

He locks the other end of the thick chain to the solid copper bedpost.

My ankle immediately begins to smoke. The hiss of burning skin fills the quiet room.

I collapse onto my stomach, panting through the blinding agony.

"Take it off!" I scream.

"It stays on until you confess."

"It's going to eat through my bone!"

"Then you better talk fast."

"You promised me," I gasp, staring at the smoking metal.

"I promised you nothing."

"When we were fifteen. At the moon altar."

He pauses by the door, his broad shoulders rigid.

"You knelt down," I force the words out, fighting the silver poison racing through my veins. "You gave me your carved wolf fang. You called me your Luna."

"I was a stupid kid."

"You said your territory, your bloodline, and your fate belonged to me."

"Now you're just a bitch chained to my bed."

"I loved you, Kael!"

"Love doesn't kidnap a man's family."

Kael steps out into the hallway and slams the heavy oak door shut. The lock clicks into place.

I lie on the floor, watching the silver burn deeper into my bone.

The agony radiates up my calf, settling deep in my marrow.

He doesn't know the truth about my kind.

He thinks he has all the time in the world to break me.

A Silverblood wolf dies if they stay away from the Moon Blessed Lands for three years.

I have been trapped inside Kael's territory for two years and eleven months.

My death sentence is already signed.

I only have thirty days left to live.

"Get on your feet."

Garrick, Kael’s scarred Beta, yanks the heavy silver chain attached to my collar.

The metal bites into my neck, cutting off my air. I stumble forward, my bare feet dragging across the rough stone floor of Ironfang Keep.

"I'm moving," I snap, my voice raspy from disuse.

"Move faster. The Alpha doesn't like to wait."

He yanks the chain again. I slam my shoulder into the stone wall. Pain flares down my arm, but I push myself off the wall and keep walking.

For over two years, I have counted the cracks in these bricks. My blood fills every crevice. Every corner of this fortress holds a memory of my torture.

"Where are we going?" I demand.

"You have a role to play today."

We turn a corner. Black obsidian stones and twisted thorn wreaths decorate the grand hallway. The scent of winter roses hangs in the air.

It is a political union. The lords of the North demand a proper Luna, and Kael is giving them one.

Garrick shoves me through a pair of heavy oak doors into the chapel’s dressing room.

He drives his heavy boot into the back of my knee.

My joint buckles. I crash onto the hardwood floor, my knees hitting the ground with a loud thud.

"Stay down." Garrick thrusts a small velvet cushion toward me.

Resting on top is a massive obsidian ring. The Luna’s band.

I stare at the black stone. "Give it to her yourself."

"You'll hold it, prisoner, or I'll break your fingers one by one."

"Try it. I heal faster than you can break them."

"Not anymore," he sneers. "You look paler every day, mutt."

I look past Garrick. Kael stands in front of a tall mirror at the far end of the room. He wears a tailored black suit. His golden-green eyes meet mine through the reflection.

"You look miserable for a groom," I tell his reflection.

"And you look exactly like what you are," Kael shoots back, turning around. "A murderer in chains."

"I didn't kill them, Kael. Two years, and you still haven't found a single piece of proof."

"I don't need proof. I have you."

"Is that why you're marrying her? To secure the northern borders so you can keep torturing me in peace?"

He crosses the room in three massive strides. He grabs my chin, his large fingers digging into my jaw.

"I'm marrying Lilith because she is loyal. Something you know nothing about."

"She's a political pawn."

"She's my Luna."

"You promised that title to me once."

His grip tightens until my teeth grind together. "I told you to forget that night."

"I refuse to. It's the only thing keeping me sane in this hellhole."

"Then you'll go mad."

He drops his hand and turns away just as footsteps approach from the hallway. A rustle of heavy silk follows.

Lilith steps into the room. Her white wedding gown drags across the floorboards, scattered with tiny diamonds that catch the light.

"Is this the little spy?" she asks, her voice coated in fake sweetness.

"Yes, my lady," Garrick replies, stepping back.

Lilith stops right in front of me. She looks down at me, her eyes filled with disgust.

"She smells like copper and defeat," Lilith complains.

"She won't be here long," Kael says, adjusting his cuffs.

Lilith reaches out and pinches the obsidian ring between her manicured fingers.

She lifts it to the chandelier, inspecting the dark jewel.

"It feels light," she murmurs. "Are you sure this is the real Luna ring, Kael?"

"It belonged to my mother," he answers flatly.

Lilith's smile falters for a second, but she recovers quickly. She opens her fingers.

The ring clatters onto a silver tray resting on the vanity table. The tray is completely filled with sharp, upright silver nails.

"Pick it up, Silverblood mutt." Lilith smiles, her red lips curving upward.

"Pick it up yourself."

She kicks my injured shoulder. "You are a captive of this pack. You obey."

I look at Kael. "Is this how you let your bride behave? Like a spoiled child?"

"Watch your mouth," Garrick warns, stepping forward with his hand on his blade.

"Let her speak," Lilith laughs. "It's amusing. A dog barking at its betters."

"I am an Alpha's daughter," I growl, glaring up at her. "I bow to no one."

"You bow to my future husband," Lilith replies. "And you will bow to me. Pick up the ring."

I turn my attention back to the silver tray. The nails gleam under the bright lights.

I press my right hand flat against the spikes.

The metal pierces my flesh instantly. The silver burns like fire.

I bite the inside of my cheek to stop the scream. White smoke erupts from my palm. The foul stench of burning meat fills the small room.

I curl my fingers inward, grasping the obsidian ring.

Blood drips from the back of my hand. A single red drop splashes onto the pristine white hem of Lilith’s gown.

It sizzles, burning a tiny hole through the silk.

"My dress!" Lilith shrieks, jumping back. "You filthy animal!"

She raises her hand to strike me.

"Enough," Kael commands. His voice is absolute ice.

Lilith freezes. "She ruined my gown, Kael! Look at it!"

"Don't stain the rug," he says, staring directly at my bleeding hand. "Leave the ring on the table."

I drop the obsidian band back onto the vanity. The silver poison races through my veins, making my vision blur.

Lilith pouts, snatching the ring from the table. She rubs the black stone against her dress, then slides it onto her finger.

She walks over to Kael and wraps her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his.

"Darling," she purrs. "I want to hear her sing tonight."

"She doesn't sing," Kael replies, his jaw tight.

"But I heard a Silverblood's whine sounds like a nightingale. Let her entertain the guests during the reception."

"She stays outside."

"Just for a little while? It would be so fun."

"I said she stays outside, Lilith. Do not push me on this."

Lilith sighs dramatically. "Fine. You're no fun."

Garrick grabs my chain again. "Let's go, mutt."

He drags me out of the dressing room. Kael never looks back.

Garrick hauls me through the courtyard. The northern wind howls, carrying the bitter sting of frost. The sky above Ironfang Keep is entirely black.

He shoves my back, forcing me against a massive silver pillar just outside the chapel doors.

"Stay put."

He yanks my arms around the thick column and locks the heavy cuffs around my wrists, securing me to the freezing metal.

The silver immediately burns my skin. I grit my teeth, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a scream. My knees hit the icy cobblestones.

Garrick checks the padlock. "Enjoy the music."

"You're making a mistake, Garrick," I tell him. "He's going to destroy this pack."

"He's saving it from trash like you."

He walks back inside, pulling the heavy chapel doors shut.

The massive organ roars to life.

The deep, vibrating notes rattle the stained-glass windows above me. The sound is deafening, vibrating straight through my skull.

I lean my head against the cold stone base of the pillar.

Snow begins to fall, dusting the courtyard in a thick layer of white.

Through the slight crack in the heavy doors, the priest's voice echoes out into the freezing night.

"Do you, Kael Vane, take Lilith to be your Luna?"

"I do."

"To protect this pack, to enforce its laws, and to rule with eternal loyalty?"

"I swear it."

His voice is steady. Unshaken. There is no hesitation.

I close my eyes. The vows hammer against my mind, louder than the organ music. Two years of holding onto a ghost, and this is how it ends.

I open my right hand.

Snowflakes land directly on my ruined palm.

I stare at the gaping hole left by the silver nails.

Three hours have passed since I touched the tray in the dressing room. The ceremony inside is dragging on, moving from vows to rituals.

The edges of the wound are black and jagged. The flesh is completely dead.

I don't feel the freezing snow. I don't feel the sting of the winter wind.

The wound hasn't closed.

My heart skips a beat. A cold dread settles deep in my stomach, heavier than the chains binding my wrists.

Silverblood wolves heal in minutes. Even deep silver burns fade within an hour.

But my skin is just dead.

The regenerative power in my blood is fading. The silver sand in my hourglass is running out, dripping away with every drop of blood I lose.

I am far from the Moon Blessed Lands. The curse is finally taking hold.

I look up at the dark, starless sky.

Twenty-nine days.

I have exactly twenty-nine days left to live.

And Kael Vane is going to spend every single one of them making me suffer.

A sudden, sharp crack echoes from the woods beyond the courtyard walls.

I snap my head toward the tree line.

A pair of glowing red eyes stares back at me from the shadows.

"Why am I here, Kael?" I demand, straining against the thick leather straps binding my wrists and ankles.

The blinding surgical lights overhead force me to squint. The harsh glare reflects off the cold alloy table beneath my spine. The sterile stench of bleach coats the back of my throat, failing to mask the heavy, metallic smell of old blood lingering in the room.

"Lilith's Beta body is failing," Kael replies. He stands near a metal tray, adjusting the collar of his white medical coat.

"Failing at what?"

"Carrying my heir."

"She's barren."

"Watch your tone, prisoner," Lilith snaps from the adjacent hospital bed. She props herself up on a pile of plush pillows, glaring at me.

"It's the truth," I shoot back. "And how does strapping me to an operating table fix her?"

"Lilith needs your Silver Marrow," Kael states. "And you're the only living Silverblood who can provide it."

He picks up an electromagnetic scalpel. The tip hums to life, emitting a vicious violet glow.

"You're insane," I gasp, thrashing against the restraints. "An extraction that deep could kill me."

"A normal wolf would die. Silverbloods regenerate."

"Not from the sternum! Kael, the marrow binds my wolf to my body!"

"Stop lying," Lilith whines, crossing her arms. "You just don't want to help the pack. Kael, she's trying to scare me."

"Quiet, Lilith," he orders without looking at her. "It will be over soon."

"Where is the anesthesia?" I ask, my voice trembling as he steps closer.

"We don't waste sedatives on traitors."

"You're going to butcher me awake?"

"Consider it payment for my parents."

"I didn't take them!"

"Hold still."

He presses his left hand flat against my collarbone, pinning me down with crushing force.

"Wait. Kael, please."

He lowers the blade. The violet energy slices straight through the skin and muscle over my sternum.

"Ah—!" I scream, arching my back off the metal surface.

The leather straps groan under my desperate struggle. Fire rips through my chest.

He tosses the scalpel aside and grabs a heavy steel marrow drill.

"Don't do this!"

He plants the serrated tip against my exposed breastbone and pulls the trigger.

*Crunch.*

The drill punches through my sternum. The sound echoes through the clinic, a sickening grind identical to a saw biting into frozen wood.

I scream until my vocal cords tear. Blood fills my mouth, choking my cries into wet, gurgling sobs.

Kael fits a thick extraction needle into the hole in my breastbone and drives it deep into the marrow cavity.

Silver-blue light floods the glass chamber attached to the needle. It pulses in time with my heartbeat—the living marrow that binds every Silverblood wolf to their human body.

Our eyes lock.

For a fraction of a second, the dead winter in his golden-green gaze shatters. His jaw tightens. A sharp flash of raw, undeniable pain crosses his features. His hand trembles around the extraction handle.

"Kael?" I whisper, blood bubbling past my lips.

The hesitation vanishes instantly. Pure ice reclaims his expression.

"For the pack," he mutters.

He twists the valve and pulls the plunger.

"No!"

The needle tears a stream of radiant marrow from my bones.

My vision goes entirely black. The world drops out from underneath me.

Every organ in my body violently seizes. I choke on the thick, metallic foam rising in my throat, my spine bowing off the table in a massive, uncontrollable spasm.

"Is it done?" Lilith asks, leaning over the edge of her bed.

"The marrow is pure."

Kael pulls the blood-slick needle from my chest. The extraction chamber is half full of glowing silver-blue fluid.

I lie paralyzed on the alloy table, staring blindly at the ceiling. The deafening roar of my own erratic heartbeat fills my ears.

He transfers the radiant marrow into a large medical syringe.

He steps over to Lilith's bedside.

"Kael, be gentle," she whimpers, offering her pale arm. "I'm afraid of pain."

"I know." He leans down, pressing his lips softly to her forehead. "It won't hurt soon."

He pushes the needle into her vein.

I turn my head weakly, forcing my eyes to focus on my own ruined body.

The drilled wound in my sternum gapes open beneath the harsh clinic lights.

Before Kael chained me in Ironfang Keep, my flesh would have knit together in three seconds. Muscle and bone would have sealed seamlessly.

Now, I watch the sluggish, agonizing crawl of tissue trying to repair itself.

One minute passes. Two.

Three full minutes tick by before the skin finally seals over my damaged breastbone.

The new scar isn't the usual faint, shimmering silver of my bloodline. It is a necrotic, dead gray.

Kael walks past my table toward the exit, wiping his hands on a towel.

He tosses a crumpled, blood-soaked gauze pad onto my stomach.

"Don't play dead," he orders, stopping at the door. "I'm taking another dose tomorrow."

"You drill into me again..." I cough, spitting a red glob onto the floor. "...and there won't be anything left to torture."

"Then you better heal fast."

The heavy steel door slams shut. The magnetic lock engages with a loud click.

Silence fills the sterile room.

I reach up with trembling fingers and touch the dead gray scar on my chest.

A broken laugh escapes my throat.

Tears spill over my temples, mixing with the blood smeared across my cheeks. The warm liquid pools inside my ears.

I laugh harder, my shattered ribs aching with every breath.

He doesn't know.

He thinks I am just another wolf. He thinks I will bounce back to entertain his cruelty.

One extraction weakens a Silverblood. A second cripples the wolf within. A third severs the bond between wolf, body, and soul. The physical body turns to ash soon after.

Nine days have passed since the wedding.

I only had twenty-nine days left to live then.

Now, I have exactly twenty days left before the curse of leaving the Moon Blessed Lands claims me.

Tomorrow, he will drain what remains of my Silver Marrow.

I will dissolve into ash right in front of him, and he will never get the answers he wants.

A low scraping sound interrupts my laughter.

I freeze, turning my head toward the ceiling.

The heavy iron ventilation grate above the door rattles.

The screws pop loose, clattering onto the tile floor.

A massive shadow drops silently from the ceiling, landing in a crouch beside the surgical supply cabinets.

Two glowing red eyes pierce the darkness of the clinic, staring directly at my exposed, ruined chest.

"Found you," a raspy, unfamiliar voice growls.