Chapter 1

By the time I entered the council hall, Celeste Arden was already

sitting in my chair.

Not just any chair. The one beside Ronan. The one that belonged to the

Luna of Blackthorne.

For three years, every wolf in this pack had known where that seat

belonged.

Tonight, my place had been moved two seats down.

Celeste looked up as I stopped beside the table. Her dark hair fell over

one shoulder, and the silver pendant at her throat caught the firelight.

I knew that pendant.

Not because I had seen it before.

Because something inside me reacted to it.

I didn't understand why, but the moment I saw it, something inside me felt awake.

So did everyone else.

It was the proof Ronan had carried in his mind for years—the token that

belonged to the woman who had supposedly dragged him out of a ravine and

saved his life when he was twenty-one.

"Ronan," I said.

He glanced up from the documents in front of him. "Elara."

"That's my seat."

The room went quiet.

Celeste immediately put a hand on the chair arm as if she meant to

stand. "I can move."

Ronan stopped her.

"No. Stay."

His answer came too quickly.

Then he looked at me. "It's one evening. She just returned after years

away, and half the packs represented here remember what she did for me.

I want her welcomed properly."

I knew what he was asking of me.

I usually did.

Three years earlier, I had married Ronan Blackthorne because Blackthorne

and Silvercrest needed an alliance. He had needed a Luna. My family had

needed the protection of his pack.

And I had been the safest choice because everyone knew exactly what I

lacked.

A wolf.

At twenty-five, I was still Wolfless in a world where a wolf was blood,

identity, and power. No one had ever let me forget it.

Especially when they wanted to explain why a man like Ronan had married

a woman like me.

I took the seat that had been left for me.

Across the table, Celeste smiled as though I had passed some private

test.

The meeting was meant to prepare Ronan for the cross-pack leadership

selection. He spoke about alliances, territory, and the image

Blackthorne would present when the other Alphas arrived.

Celeste said almost nothing.

She didn't have to.

Every time Ronan looked toward his right, he found her where his Luna

should have been.

And every wolf in the room saw it.

When the meeting ended, Ronan was surrounded before I could reach him. I

gathered my notes and stepped into the corridor alone.

Celeste followed.

"You handled that well," she said.

"I wasn't aware there was something to handle."

Her smile sharpened.

"You always were good at pretending things don't hurt."

I turned to face her.

Up close, the silver pendant rested against her collarbone.

My gaze stayed there half a second too long.

Celeste noticed.

Her fingers closed around it.

Then she leaned closer and lowered her voice.

"If I hadn't saved him, there wouldn't be a husband for you to marry."

I looked at the pendant.

Then at her.

Something about that sentence had always been wrong.

I just didn't tell her I knew it.