Chapter 1

My fiancé, the Alpha King, rejected me before the entire pack, called me a wolfless waste, and demanded the Moon Pendant my mother had left me.

He thought I was the pack's laughingstock.

But the moment his hand touched the pendant, the altar that had been dormant for five hundred years blazed to life.

Silver marks climbed to the center of my brow, and the Moon Goddess statue opened its eyes.

Only then did he realize that the one he'd humiliated wasn't a waste but the Moon Goddess bloodline he should have been kneeling before.

*****

"Lina Sterling, pick up that marriage contract and get out of the throne hall." Kane Voss said.

He sat on the throne draped in a black wolf-pelt cloak, his voice pitched low but loud enough for every noble in the hall to hear.

The parchment scroll hit me in the face.

The wax seal scraped across the bridge of my nose and fell at my feet.

My father had pressed that seal with his own hand on his deathbed.

The hall fell silent for a heartbeat before scattered laughter broke out.

"She actually showed up."

"Can't even shift, and she's been clinging to the title of the Alpha King's bride for three years. About time she stepped aside."

"Sophia Winters awakened a mid-rank bloodline. She's the real match for Kane."

I bent down to pick up the marriage contract.

The moment my fingertips touched the parchment, the Moon Pendant against my chest flared with a faint burn.

This wasn't the first time. Three years ago, when I first set foot on the altar in the capital, it had done the same. The former king, Henry Voss, pressed his hand on my shoulder and told me not to let anyone touch it.

I held the marriage contract in my hand and looked up at Kane.

I asked him, "Have you forgotten who carried you back from the snowfields of the North three years ago?"

Kane tapped two fingers on the armrest of the throne.

His gaze slid away from the old scar on my shoulder.

That scar was from a silver bullet I'd taken for him. It ached on rainy days. On full moon nights, it was worse.

"I've already repaid that debt." Kane replied.

Sophia leaned against him, her pale gown pooling across the steps, her voice soft.

She said gently, "Lina, that Bell Tower was already signed over to you, wasn't it? Don't be so greedy."

I looked at her.

On her wrist was the string of silver bells that had gone missing from my mother's belongings last year, only to show up on Sophia's vanity.

"That wasn't a deal, " I said. "It was a life I saved."

Kane finally stood.

The instant his Alpha pressure bore down, most of the low-rank wolves dropped to their knees.

I didn't kneel.

I just held the Moon Pendant tighter.

Kane descended the steps one by one. His boot ground over the edge of the marriage contract, cracking my father's wax seal.

He told me, "Lina, this world only respects bloodline and strength.

"You can't even shift," he said. "What makes you think you deserve the Luna's throne?"

Sophia let out a quiet laugh.

Kane raised his hand and pointed at my chest.

"Hand over the Moon Pendant. It's a sacred relic only the Alpha King's mate is worthy of wearing. It doesn't belong on a waste like you." He demanded.

I stepped back half a pace.

I had not stepped back out of fear.

The pendant was burning so hot it felt like it would sear into my flesh.

"And if I refuse?"

Kane's expression darkened.

"Then I'll take it myself."

He reached for it.

His fingers shifted into claws, black fur already spreading over the tips.

The instant his claws grazed the pendant, a deep rumble shook the throne hall from somewhere far below.

Every candle went out at once.

The altar blazed to life.

Silver moonlight surged from cracks in the stone floor and climbed up my ankles, cold and sharp yet completely painless.

Kane was hurled back several steps, slamming into a stone pillar with a choked grunt.

Sophia screamed and stumbled away.

I looked down and watched silver marks crawl from my wrist bones up my arms, tracing along my collarbone before sinking into the center of my brow.

In the elders' gallery, someone's staff clattered to the ground.

"Full Moon Marks," the white-haired elder's voice was shaking. "A direct descendant of the Moon Goddess."

Every trace of laughter in the hall died.

I stood in the altar's glow, reaching up to touch the silver marks on my brow.

So I wasn't without a wolf spirit after all.

No ordinary wolf spirit could contain my blood.

Kane braced himself against the pillar, his face ashen.

"Impossible." He stared at me, his voice raw. "You're nothing but a waste."

I stepped down from the altar, one step at a time.

The silver marks flared with each step I took, and the nobles shrank back without thinking.

I stopped in front of Kane. "Kane."

I looked at the claws he still hadn't retracted.

"Who did you say should kneel?"