Chapter 1

My fated mate held another woman against him while she cut the rope keeping me alive above a two-hundred-foot gorge.

Lucian tightened his arm around Elara's waist and watched the blade bite deeper into the rope.

The jagged rocks of Shadow Gorge tore at my fingertips. Far below, the black river churned, waiting to swallow me whole.

"Pull me up!" I gasped, my grip slipping on the wet stone.

Lucian made no move to help me.

His golden eyes, the ones that had promised me forever six years ago, stayed locked on mine.

"I'm sorry, Rhea," he murmured, his voice carrying over the howling wind. "The pack needs a Luna with an army behind her. Not a weak-blooded diplomat."

Elara smiled as she sliced through the last strand.

I plunged into the gorge.

The impact with the icy water shattered my ribs. Darkness rushed in, heavy and suffocating.

When I dragged myself onto the muddy bank hours later, every breath felt like inhaling crushed glass. A normal wolf would have died on impact. I should have died.

But deep inside me, my long-buried wolf clawed to the surface, desperate to survive. Silver heat flooded my veins, hot and violent. My shattered bones ground back into place. I choked on a scream and vomited river water into the mud as my torn muscles knitted shut.

The healing left me weak and shaking, close to collapse in the dirt. But my wolf, the one I'd buried since childhood, was awake.

I'd hidden this power my whole life, letting the pack see me as a harmless political Luna with no stomach for a fight.

Letting Lucian play the protective Alpha was the perfect cover. It kept me off the Royal Court's radar, the power that ruled every pack and wiped out any bloodline it deemed dangerous.

My buried wolf had always kept the mate bond faint. When I fell, it went silent.

Even after my wolf woke, the bond stayed sealed. Only my pack link came back.

He never knew what I really was.

I forced myself to my feet. I had a Bonding ceremony to crash.

When I kicked open the heavy iron doors of the Obsidian Pack's Great Hall, the music died. Three hundred guests froze.

They'd come for the traditional feast after the Alpha Hunt. But beneath the white winterbloom, a bonding altar already stood ready. Lucian and Elara meant to announce my death and forge their new bond before midnight.

Fated mates couldn't just break their bond. One of them had to die before a new chosen bond could be forged. They'd never planned to bring me home alive.

I stood in the doorway, soaked to the bone, dripping muddy water and my own blood across the pristine marble.

At the altar, Lucian dropped his ceremonial binding blade. It clattered against the stone. Elara, kneeling before him in a white winter pelt, scrambled back.

"Rhea?" Lucian's voice cracked.

He recovered fast. He rushed forward, forcing his face into a mask of frantic relief. "Thank the Moon Goddess! You lost your grip on the cliff. We thought the river took you!"

The nerve of it made my jaw tighten.

"Don't turn your murder into a tragic accident, Lucian," I said, loud enough for the pack elders in the front row to hear. "I saw Elara cut the rope. And I saw you watch."

Gasps rippled through the hall. Lucian's eyes darkened. He stepped close and dropped his voice to a vicious hiss meant only for me.

"Are you crazy? You have no proof." His gaze flicked to the altar, then back to me, cold and calculating. With me alive, the ceremony couldn't be completed. "Elara's father controls the western armies, and the elders demand this alliance. Guards!" he barked suddenly, his voice echoing. "The Luna has been driven mad by her injuries! Seize her before she hurts herself!"

The guards advanced two steps, then faltered. Until the bond broke, I was still their Luna, and Lucian was ordering them to lay hands on me with no proof.

I stared at the man I'd spent six years protecting.

I reached into my torn jacket and pulled out the heavy obsidian Luna crest. On the back, someone had once carved a vow he'd made me as a teenager: Side by side. Always.

I tossed it into the roaring bonfire. Sparks flew as the metal hit the coals.

"You can have the title, Elara," I said, turning my back on them. "And you can keep the coward who wears the Alpha crown."

"You do not turn your back on me!" Lucian roared.

He unleashed his Alpha aura, a heavy, suffocating pressure meant to force me to my knees.

His command hit me and dissolved. The ancient silver power in my blood rejected him before I even tried. I didn't break my stride.

Then a sharp pain spiked behind my eyes.

"Rhea? Your link just flared back to life. Thank the Goddess." A panicked voice echoed in my skull. Fenrir, one of my border scouts. "The Alpha ignored my warnings all afternoon. The western ridge is breached. They crossed the perimeter ten minutes ago. At this speed, they'll hit the Great Hall in under a minute."

I stopped at the iron doors and looked back at Lucian. His chest heaved, his face pale with the shock that his command had failed.

"Lucian," I called over the crackling fire, "when you threw me off the war council this morning, did you even ask who was still guarding the western pass?"

"The western ridge is secure," Lucian snapped, cutting me off. "Elara's scouts reported them retreating hours ago. Stop trying to start a panic."

"The feral pack didn't retreat," I said flatly. "They bypassed the western ridge."

Elara shot up from the floor. "That's impossible! My father left a garrison at the ridge!"

"Your father," I said, looking at her with cold pity, "pulled the entire western garrison off the ridge to escort you here and guard this ceremony. The pass has been unmanned since noon."

An elder stood up, terror draining the color from his face. "That path leads straight to the valley!"

I looked at the giant grandfather clock by the entrance.

"The ferals crossed the perimeter ten minutes ago," I told the silent, horrified room. "Which means they're about to hit the front gates..."

A deafening crash shook the stone walls, followed by a blood-curdling howl.

"...Right now."