Chapter 3

The news swept through the Blackwood Pack overnight.

"The heir to the Blackwood Alpha is dumping his fated mate."

"Finally. How could a good-for-nothing with no wolf ever be Luna?"

"Word is, the Moon Goddess messes up sometimes."

Gossip seeped in through every crack.

*****

The next morning, Cain's Beta, Marcus Blackwell, came to see me.

He was in his early forties, always dressed in a crisp, dark suit, wearing the elite expression of a man merely doing his duty. He set a scroll of parchment on the table and tapped the Council of Elders' seal.

He said, his tone all business, like he was reading off a routine memo, "It's the application to dissolve the mate bond. The Council of Elders has approved it unanimously.

"If you sign, the ceremony can be simplified, and the pain will be reduced by at least forty percent. This is the best option for you."

He looked at me like I was some weakling who should know her place, his gaze laced with a hint of patronizing pity and unassailable condescension.

I picked up the scroll. The handwriting on the parchment was neat and precise. Every clause was spelled out clearly.

Once the bond was dissolved, there'd be no more mind link, no shared emotions, and no fated attraction. I would voluntarily give up the Luna title and all its privileges.

At the very bottom was Cain's signature. It was scrawled and rushed, like he was signing for a delivery he didn't care about.

"He signed it himself?" I asked.

"Last night," Marcus said, pausing before adding, "He said he didn't want you to embarrass yourself at the ceremony. Since it's over, there's no reason to drag things out."

How thoughtful he was.

"One more thing." Marcus lowered his voice. "After you sign, the Alpha wants you to leave the Blackwood Pack. Sienna will be the new chosen mate, and it's not right for you to stick around the manor.

"He told me to set up a ride for you to the Greystone Pack."

The Greystone Pack was my birthplace, a remote and weak one so small that nobody in the Eastern Alliance bothered to notice it.

I would be sent packing back to where I came from, all dressed up to look respectable.

I stared at the scroll for a full minute.

Then I picked up the pen.

Marcus looked genuinely surprised for a split second. He clearly hadn't expected me to agree so quickly.

I signed my name.

The moment the pen touched the paper, the mark on the back of my neck suddenly flared with heat.

But it wasn't pain.

It was a strange, burning power rising up from deep within my bones, like something was struggling to break free beneath the mark.

My hand trembled.

Marcus didn't notice. He neatly rolled up the scroll and stood. "The ceremony is set for the full moon night in three days, at the moonstone in the sacred grove. The whole pack will be there."

He left.

I stood alone in that out-of-the-way guest room where I'd lived for three years, one hand pressed to the back of my neck.

Something was pulsing beneath the mark.

It was a faint but unmistakable heartbeat.

Grace had said, "Someone doesn't want your wolf to wake up."

I hadn't drunk that herbal brew in four days.

And right then, from deep inside my chest, came a voice. It was so faint and raspy, like it had clawed its way through endless darkness to reach me. 'Finally.'

It was my wolf.

It was there.

It had always been there.

*****

On the full moon night, the moonstone at the center of the sacred grove glowed with a cold, white light, and nearly the entire Blackwood Pack was present.

I walked into the crowd in a simple white dress Grace had prepared for me. Before I left, she hugged me without a word.

Cain was already standing before the moonstone, dressed in a black robe, his crimson eyes glowing. Sienna stood beside him in a silver-gray gown, her fingers curled around his sleeve.

The three elders of the Council of Elders sat around the stone platform. Edmund, the Elder Alpha, was absent.

"Let's begin," Cain said at once.

I walked to stand across from him. The full moon hung above us, and I saw it in his eyes. It was not hatred or regret. It was a cold, detached relief.

He took a deep breath. "In the presence of the Moon Goddess and all members of the Blackwood Pack, I, Cain Blackwood, formally reject Nora Greystone as my fated mate."

The bond snapped.

It hurt.

It felt like a red-hot chain was being ripped straight out of my chest. My knees slammed into the ground, blood trickling from my lips, and my vision blurred into a white haze.

Sienna leaned against Cain's chest. "She's bleeding so much."

Cain was trembling, too. The rejection also hit him. But he was the Alpha, and he could tough it out.

The elders were about to declare the bond dissolved.

Just then, my chest erupted.

It wasn't pain; it was power.

A tidal wave of power, sealed away for ages, suddenly unleashed. My bones cracked, my nails tore through my skin, morphing into white claws.

'My name is Iris,' my wolf said.

Its voice was no longer hoarse or distant, but rang out with an ancient power that demanded respect.

'I am the white wolf. I've waited eighteen years for you, Nora,' it added.