Chapter 1
Last night, Kaine and I curled up in our leaking cabin.
Outside the cracked window, the moon hung low and full over the black pines.
The same fat, white moon that watched him sink his teeth into my neck and mark me his, five years ago.
This morning, his TRUE MATE walks through our door.
Her scent rolls in ahead of her. Cold perfume and rich pack-blood, nothing like the rogue-musk we've worn for five years. My wolf's hackles go straight up.
Pack enforcers behind her. A rejection scroll in her hand.
"Wren. Thank you for these five years. You kept him alive. That was sweet of you." She smiles like I'm a stray she's about to put back outside.
"But Kaine's real Luna is home now. And Rowan's real mother. So let's not make this ugly, hm? Time for you to run along."
Somewhere deep in me, my wolf goes still. My throat locks. My legs won't answer.
The mate-mark he pressed into the side of my neck five years ago goes cold. Then it starts to burn. I feel the bond behind it fraying, one thread at a time, like claws working loose under my skin.
The Moon Goddess is supposed to be the only one who ties that thread. Now, under her full white face, my own mate is tearing it out by the root.
Five years of my life. It was all just a trial. A test the Alpha's son had to pass before the council would hand him the crown.
My mate? Never my mate. My pup? Never my pup.
A game. A performance.
And me? Nobody. A random she-wolf they grabbed to play the loyal little Luna.
They think I'll take it. Swallow it. Slink away with my tail down.
WRONG.
Kaine loved playing the broke, broken rogue?
Fine. Then I'll make him one. For REAL this time.
Celeste flicks two fingers, and an enforcer lets the pack-link spill open across the den.
The council's words pour straight into every wolf's head. "...having survived his rogue trial, Kaine Ashford has proven his strength to the elders. From nothing, he has built the biggest pack in the Frostmark..."
Every word is a claw across my chest.
He took it all. Every hunt I ran on an empty stomach. Every night I gave up my share of meat so he'd stay strong. Every piece of myself.
And turned it into HIS crown.
Celeste keeps talking, sweet as poisoned honey. "It was a test, Wren. To see if he could survive as a nothing rogue. To see if he could find someone loyal enough to stay through the worst."
Her eyes sweep across our cabin. The dirt floor. The one blanket.
When she looks back at me, there's pity.
"And you were just part of the test. Randomly chosen. Nothing personal."
She tips her head to one side. "You wore the mate's face so well, though. I almost bought it myself."
"But the show's finished now."