Chapter 1
When I pushed open the door to the hunting lodge in the Silent Woods, Cassian Grey had Camille Hart pinned against the fireplace, his head lowered as his fangs sank into her neck.
It was the kind of mark that could only be given by fated mates.
I didn't scream, nor did I barge in. I simply stepped back outside and gently closed the door behind me.
An hour earlier, I had severed our mating bond by my own hand before the altar at Moonwell.
The old scar over my heart, the one that had been with me for twelve years, was splitting open inch by inch, blood striking the snow beneath me.
Cassian, did you think you were cheating on me?
No, you were wrong. I'd already stopped loving you long before you ever betrayed me.
Before the moon set, someone would be waiting for me at Border Crossing, and that would be the beginning of the second love of my life.
As for the bite you'd given another woman, it would be the first curse the Moon Goddess had ever laid upon you.
*****
The Nightfall Clan's Autumn Hunt Feast was set up at Silvermoon Square, right in the heart of our ancestral territory.
Tonight was a celebration to honor the warrior who'd brought in the most game this season, and half the pack from the woods showed up.
Tradition had it that the Luna's seat was always to the Alpha's left, right next to the old Alpha, Ambrose Grey, who'd stepped down.
And I'd been in that seat for twelve years.
Cassian made his entrance right as the moon hit its zenith, with Camille clinging to his side.
He gave me a cold look and spoke in a cold, dismissive tone, as though he were giving an order to a servant. "It's Camille's first hunt feast tonight. Go sit farther down."
The square went silent, and hundreds of eyes turned toward me from the shadows.
A few she-wolves exchanged glances, barely suppressing their smiles as they waited for the show to begin.
Ambrose slammed his cup down, his eyes burning with barely contained fury.
Without a second thought, I stood up, unclasped the pendant that marked me as Luna, and set it gently on the table.
The pendant struck the stone with a sharp little crack. It sounded like something had finally broken for good.
Cassian raised an eyebrow, thinking I was being dramatic again. Without a second thought, he took the visibly uncomfortable Camille by the arm and guided her into the seat I'd occupied for twelve years.
Camille kept her head down, nervously twisting the edge of her dress between her fingers, but she didn't refuse.
Cassian's voice rang in my head, carrying the same commanding tone I'd heard countless times before. 'Don't make a scene in front of the seven packs. I'll take you back to the hunting grounds after the feast.'
I picked up my cup of wine and downed it in one gulp, unfazed.
He didn't know it yet, but I wasn't ever going back there.
Before he showed up, I'd already stood at the Moonwell altar and sworn to the Moon Goddess, turning him down as my fated mate.
When the Moonwarden placed the first mark of a broken oath on me, I didn't flinch.
Camille stood up, her voice gentle and shy as she raised her cup. "To the old Alpha. May the Moon Goddess be with you."
Ambrose let out a snort. "You damn fool. Did you have to bring an outsider to our feast? Instead of caring about your own fated mate, you're all wrapped up in some outsider."
Camille's eyes welled up with tears as she glanced at Cassian for help.
Cassian idly turned his cup in his hand before fixing me with a sharp stare. "Were you complaining about me to Grandpa again?"
I smiled faintly.
I never had to say a word all these years. Everyone in the woods knew the young Alpha worshipped his first love like she was the most precious thing in the world.
As for his Luna? She was nothing more than a woman the Moon Goddess had forced upon him, someone he'd never truly wanted.
I stood up and gave Ambrose a slight nod. "Excuse me. I'll be heading out now."
He swallowed hard, then finally said in a low voice, "Izzy, if you ever need anything, you can always come to me."
*****
As I crossed the square, I passed beneath the old pine tree standing along the Ridgepine.
Cassian was only seventeen when he planted it there for me.
My name was carved into the bark, and beside it was his first fang, embedded into the tree as the token he'd given me all those years ago.
Right then, Camille was grinning as she stood on her tiptoes, reaching for the carving.
Cassian had quietly come out after her, his hands steady on her waist, holding her up.
"Don't worry. Reach higher. I've got you," he said.
It was the same gentle, indulgent tone I'd known better than anyone.
I turned away, taking one last look at the carving, then turned and headed for the Border Crossing.
Behind me, his voice chased after me in my head, carrying a panic he didn't notice himself. 'Isabelle, stop. Come back.'
I slowly shut the link that had bound us for twelve years, closing it off in my mind.
Almost at the same moment, Cassian's voice broke through again, and for the first time, there was unmistakable panic in it. 'Isabelle, don't you dare. You have no idea what you're doing.'
He was right.
I really didn't know.
The next second, my chest split open with a sudden, searing pain, sending me stumbling toward the snow.
On the other side of the Border Crossing, a howl tore through the night. It was the Greyrock Clan's guard, who had been waiting for me.
I stepped onto the ship, taking one last look back at the brightly lit square.
That was where I'd buried twelve years of my youth, and now another woman was slowly taking my place.
I'd once believed I was only severing a link that could be cut whenever I chose and that I was escaping a cage that had held me for twelve years.
I was too naive to know that what I had cut off was my own life.
And the werewolf who refused to let go would make me pay for it on every full moon to come, until I could learn the price.
*****
The snow in Northern Reach was way colder than anything I'd ever felt in Nightfall's woods.
The Greyrock guard led me in silence, guiding me over the ridge and back toward the land where I was born.
The farther north we went, the fiercer the wind got, but the pressure I'd been carrying in my chest for the past six months slowly began to ease.
In the wind, there was no trace of Cassian's pine scent, nor the cloying sweetness of Camille's favorite floral perfume.
Only then did I finally let my tears fall.
I remembered exactly how the past six months had brought me here.
On the night of the Frostmoon Hunt, I'd led the Shadow Guards at the northern gate and been mauled by three rogues.
My body had been covered in wounds, burning with fever in my wolf form, and I'd been too weak to get back on my feet in the snow.
When Cassian finally showed up, all he said was that he'd been off with Camille, showing her the ice falls at the cliff.
"She wanted to see it, and I didn't want to ruin her fun," Cassian said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
He didn't bother to show up for my promotion ceremony as the captain of the Shadow Guard.
Camille twisted her ankle out in the snow, and he scooped her up in his arms, rushing her straight to the healer.
He even forgot the anniversary of our mating bond, the day the Moon Goddess had first revealed that we were destined for each other.
That day, I made his favorite venison and waited for him in our den from moonrise until moonset.
I kept feeding the fire and reheating the meat, but he never showed up. Not once.
It wasn't until later that I learned he'd spent the entire night by the lake with Camille, staying up with her through the festival.
Every time I tried to reach him through the link, it was like shouting into the void.
The only time the link actually connected, it was Camille who picked up instead. 'Looking for Cassian? He's a little busy right now. I can pass along a message for you.'
That was the moment I began thinking about severing our mating bond.