Chapter 1

Another woman's scent, all over my mate.

It was soaked deep into his skin.

Into his neck, the one place that was only ever supposed to smell like me.

The hall was packed. Three hundred wolves. Elders in their grey furs, servants pressed shoulder to shoulder along the walls. Every bench full. Every eye on the doors.

Then the big doors flew open, the whole hall cheered.

And Callum walked in with General Blaire right beside him.

So close their smells had already mixed into one, his and hers, and I couldn't even tell them apart anymore.

"Callum." I lifted the cup and made my voice soft. "Welcome home."

He looked right through me and kept walking.

He went up the steps, straight to my chair, and pulled it out. Then he sat Blaire down in it.

The room went dead quiet.

"That's my seat," I said.

"Is it?" Blaire's green eyes never left mine. "Funny. I've been sitting closer to him than this for a month."

Three hundred wolves breathed in at once.

Then the whispering started along the walls and I could hear every word of it.

She didn't know.

Poor thing. The whole border knew.

"She won us the war. She's earned it." Callum poured her wine himself, without even a glance at me.

"She's earned my seat."

"Astra." He finally looked at me, and his face already said he'd made up his mind and I was just being difficult.

"Don't make a scene in front of everyone."

Even now, with her smell all over him, the bond still pulled me toward him.

And here's the part I hate to admit.

I locked my knees and stayed where I was.

"Then say it to me alone," I said. "Right now."

"No."

He sat back next to her, comfortable, like he owned the whole world.

"Whatever you want to say, say it here. And I think they should hear the news."

Cold crawled up the back of my neck. "What news?"

He took Blaire's hand right there on the table, in front of the elders and his mother and every wolf who'd ever bowed to me as their Luna.

"I'm making Blaire my new Luna," he said.

A cup shattered on the floor somewhere down the table.

And then the worst thing happened.

They cheered.

Warriors came up off the benches with their cups in the air, howling her name---Blaire! Blaire!

Men who'd eaten all winter on grain I bought with my own family's gold, roaring for the woman taking my place.

And they drank. That whole hall lifted their cups to the woman sitting in my chair and drank.

"To the new Luna!"

I looked down the table for Grand Elder Merrick. He was staring hard at his plate, turning his cup slowly between his fingers, and he would not lift his eyes to me. Not once.

Nobody stood for me. Three hundred wolves, and not one.

"Nothing has to change for you, Astra." He softened his voice, like he was calming a scared horse.

"You keep your rooms. You keep doing what you're good at. You take care of the home, Blaire wears the crown. Everybody's happy."

Suddenly, Blaire laughed---bright and mean. She draped sideways in her chair, watching me like I was the night's entertainment.

"Oh, Astra," Blaire said. "Some women would kill to keep a roof over their heads after being thrown out. You should be thanking him."

I laughed and stared to Callum.

"You want me to do for the woman you're replacing me with," I said.

"I want you to do your job." His jaw went tight.

"It's the only thing you've ever been good at, Astra. You've never fought. You've never bled for this pack."

"You should be grateful I'm even letting you keep the title."

Blaire laughed, loud and happy. Callum's sister-in-law Hadley put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

The whole room leaned in, waiting for me to finally cry.

My wolf wanted to give them something to remember instead.

She wanted to show them the teeth I'd hidden for a whole year.

I set the cup down on the edge of the table instead.

The bond in my chest gave one last tug and then it went quiet for the first time in three years.

"You made a mistake tonight, Callum," I said.

I walked the hall to the doors.

Behind me the bond hung loose and cold, and for once my wolf didn't fight me to turn around.

She just walked beside me, quiet, already looking for a way out.