I gave up half my soul and my rare White Wolf bloodline to save Alpha Silas from deadly silver poisoning.

For three years, I hid my painful scars, believing my sacrifice was the foundation of our eight-year love.

But on the morning of our mating ceremony, he wrapped my handwoven bridal cloak around another woman.

He had mistaken a lying Beta female for his savior, and to pay off her family's massive debts, he decided to sell me off.

He forced me to drink wine laced with Wolfsbane, entirely paralyzing my inner wolf.

He took my dead mother's sacred amulet and gifted it to the liar.

Then, he threw my weakened body into a transport vehicle, sending me as a tribute bride to a rumored mad and dying Alpha.

When wild rogues ambushed our convoy and trapped me in a burning car, Silas was right there.

But instead of saving me, he rushed to shield the lying woman from a tiny scratch, leaving me to burn alive.

As the flames licked the windshield, my heart shattered completely.

I had torn my own spirit apart to keep him alive, and this was my repayment?

To be poisoned, robbed, and left to die in the ashes for a parasite?

But I didn't die in that fire.

The "dying" Alpha tore open the crushed metal to pull me out himself.

He wasn't a cursed old man, but a terrifyingly powerful Lycan—and my true fated mate.

This time, I will embrace my new empire, and watch Silas lose absolutely everything.

Chapter 1

Aria POV

The night before my mating ceremony, the packhouse was quiet, but my werewolf hearing caught every whisper.

I stood outside the heavy oak door of the Alpha's study.

Inside, the scent of expensive cigars mixed with the sour smell of anxiety from the pack Beta.

"We can't afford Serena's family debts," Alpha Silas said, his voice a placid, toneless instrument, stripped of the rumbling warmth that once vibrated through my own collarbones.

"But Alpha," the Beta replied, "to give Aria as a tribute bride to the Shadow Pack? The whispers from that territory speak of an Alpha afflicted by some curse—withering from age and a decaying mind."

"It is the only way," Silas stated. "They will forgive the debt for a bride. Serena is too delicate a creature for the man whose territory is said to be lined with the skulls of challengers."

My breath caught in my throat; it was the sickening lurch of a misstep on a darkened staircase, a sudden, weightless fall that seized my limbs.

Silas, the man I had loved for eight years, was planning to trade me to a rumored madman.

"And if she resists?" the Beta asked. "Aria is not a docile wolf."

"My mother has seen to it," Silas answered with unnerving ease. "She is introducing Wolfsbane into the ritual tea tomorrow morning."

Wolfsbane was a toxic herb that would suppress my inner wolf, leaving me as weak as a human.

"Once she has taken it, any capacity to shift or fight will be nullified," Silas finished. "She will be loaded into the transport before she grasps that the wedding has been cancelled."

My jaw ached from the force of its clenching, and a thin, metallic taste bloomed under my tongue—the physiological backlash of my wolf attempting to tear its way up my throat.

She wanted to splinter the door from its hinges and demand a reckoning.

But I forced her down, keeping my breathing entirely silent.

A scream formed at the base of my throat, only to be swallowed back down. As a hot pressure built behind my eyes, I drove the nails of one hand into the palm of the other, until the sharp sting of breaking skin eclipsed the burn of unshed tears.

I simply turned around and walked back to my room in the dark.

My mind did not conjure visions of the future, but a single, cold resolve took root in my marrow. One day, I would be the one with power. One day, I would stand over Silas as he knelt in the mire, and I would make him watch as I ground the moonlight cloak, the one woven with my own blood, into the filth with my heel.

But that was a vow for another time.

The sun rose on the day of the mating ceremony.

I sat in my room, staring at the mirror, my face pale and emotionless.

The door swung open, and Silas walked in.

He was flanked by his Warriors, but my eyes went straight to the woman clinging to his arm.

Serena.

She was a Beta's daughter, wearing a dress that was far too white and far too expensive for a mere guest.

She started crying the moment she stepped into my room, her manufactured tears carrying the cloying scent of spoiled sugar.

"Oh, Aria," Serena sobbed, purposefully pulling down the collar of her dress.

Right there, on her pale neck, was a fresh, bruised bite mark.

It was a temporary marking. A werewolf male bites a female to claim her temporarily, mixing their scents together.

My best friend and bridesmaid, Maya, stepped forward, her eyes flashing with pure rage.

"Have you lost your senses?" Maya shouted. "Appearing in the bride's chamber displaying a love bite from the groom?"

I placed a hand on Maya's arm, sending a wave of calm to her angry inner wolf.

"It is of no consequence, Maya," I said softly, though my chest felt like a hollowed-out cavity.

The other bridesmaids hurried into the room, carrying the ceremonial garments.

They brought out the moonlight cloak, a sacred item meant to be worn by the bride during the vows.

Silas took the beautiful, shimmering cloak from their hands.

But he did not walk toward me.

He turned and wrapped the moonlight cloak gently around Serena's shoulders.

"Serena endured a difficult shift last night," Silas announced to the room. "Her constitution is weak. She requires the warmth."

He then picked up a rough, cheap woolen blanket from a nearby chair and tossed it at my feet.

"Put that on, Aria," he commanded. Tomorrow, I would be gone—but I already knew every poison they planned to pour down my throat.

Aria POV

I stared at the cheap woolen blanket on the floor, and then at the moonlight cloak wrapped around Serena.

Memories flooded my mind, thick and suffocating.

I was twenty years old when I made that cloak for Silas.

It was his first full shift, a painful process where bones break and reshape under the light of the full moon.

To soothe his agony, I had woven that cloak by hand.

I used rare silver thread, an element that burns werewolf skin upon touch.

My fingers had bled for weeks, covered in raw blisters, just to give him a gift of comfort.

And now, he was giving my blood and sweat to another woman.

Silas picked up the scratchy blanket and draped it over my shoulders. His face showed absolutely no guilt.

"A kiss for the bride! A blessing!" one of the Warriors cheered, oblivious to the tension in the room.

Serena suddenly stumbled, feigning a loss of balance, and fell perfectly into Silas's chest.

Silas wrapped his strong arms around her waist to steady her.

Instead of pushing her away, he leaned down and pressed his lips firmly against hers.

They kissed in front of everyone, their scents mixing into a sickening display of disrespect.

Maya let out a vicious growl.

"You did that deliberately, you manipulative bitch!" Maya yelled, stepping toward Serena with her fists clenched.

Silas pulled back from the kiss, and the very air in the room seemed to thin and grow taut. A palpable, electric pressure descended, prickling the skin of everyone present as the amber at the edge of his irises began to bleed inward, consuming the gold.

He unleashed the Alpha's Command.

It was a heavy, invisible pressure that crashed down on the room, forcing lower-ranking wolves to submit to his absolute will.

"Kneel, Maya," Silas's voice echoed with supernatural power.

Maya gasped, her knees hitting the wooden floor with a loud thud. She struggled against the invisible weight, her teeth gritted.

"You are making a spectacle over nothing," Silas scolded Maya, treating her loyalty to me like a crime.

I looked at Silas, remembering the past two years.

Every time Serena stole my hunting kills, every time she bullied the Omega servants, Silas called it "nothing."

I walked over and gently pulled Maya up, breaking the tension. I did not want to fight anymore.

Just then, the door opened wider, and the Dowager Luna entered.

Silas's mother carried a silver bowl filled with the ritual wine, a tradition meant to bless the pack with strong pups.

She smiled warmly at me, but her eyes were cold.

"Drink, my dear," she said, holding the bowl to my lips.

My advanced senses immediately picked up the bitter, burning scent hidden beneath the sweet wine.

Wolfsbane.

It was exactly as I had overheard last night.

Maya saw the recognition on my face and moved to strike the bowl from the Dowager's hands, but I caught her wrist. I shook my head, my eyes conveying a silent message. Do not fight. It is finished.

"No, Aria, you cannot!" Maya whispered, her eyes wide with panic.

I gently disengaged her hand and took the silver bowl. My gaze met the Dowager Luna's, and for a fleeting instant, I saw a flicker of triumph in her cold eyes. I held the bowl steady, my mind a vessel of pure clarity. For ten years, this pack had offered me shelter after my parents' deaths. This poison would serve as the final settlement of that account. After this, the ledger would be clear. I would owe them nothing, and they, in turn, could expect nothing from me.

Without another moment of hesitation, I raised the bowl to my lips and drained the poisoned wine, swallowing every bitter drop.

Almost instantly, a freezing numbness spread through my veins. My inner wolf whimpered and fell into a deep, dark sleep. I was now powerless.

Silas stepped forward and scooped me into his arms, following the tradition of carrying the bride down the stairs.

Being in his arms reminded me of the night my parents died.

He had carried my twelve-year-old self just like this, whispering that he would protect my wolf spirit forever.

We reached the bottom of the grand staircase.

Instead of carrying me out the front door to the transport vehicles, Silas suddenly stopped.

He opened his arms and let me drop.

My feet hit the hard floor, my weak legs trembling from the Wolfsbane.

"Walk the rest of the way yourself," Silas said, turning his back on me. I took a step forward, the ice spreading toward my heart—and I knew the betrayal had only just begun.

Aria POV

I climbed into the back of the dark transport vehicle, my body heavy and sluggish from the poison.

Maya had insisted on coming with me as my bridesmaid, and she sat beside me, her arms crossed in anger.

The engine rumbled to life, and the convoy began its lumbering journey, leaving the territory I had called home for a decade. We had just cleared the main gate when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I drew it out to see a message from an unknown number. It was a picture: a self-portrait of Serena, a sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her face. She was pointing to her chest, where a beautiful moonstone amulet rested against her collarbone.

The back of my neck prickled, and my stomach seemed to lose all gravity, a sensation akin to being in a carriage whose driver has just whipped the horses toward the edge of a cliff. That amulet belonged to my dead mother. It was a relic of the White Wolf bloodline, given to the Dowager Luna for safekeeping until my wedding day.

Silas had given my mother's soul to that thief.

My hands trembled as I dialed Silas's number. He answered on the first ring. "How could you give her my mother's moonstone?" I screamed into the phone, a pain sharper than any physical wound searing through my chest.

Silas just sighed on the other end, his voice laced with annoyance. "Serena saved my life three years ago. She is deserving of a reward. You will have no need of it where you are going."

"You are sending me to a marriage destined to fester in darkness!" I cried out, my voice cracking.

"Oh, cease this melodrama," Silas scoffed. "The old Alpha is impotent and dying. Play your part, remain quiet, and live out your days. Do not cause trouble."

He ended the connection. The dial tone buzzed in my ear, a final, definitive severing. I dropped the phone, my sobs finally breaking free.

After twenty minutes of driving through the dense forest, Maya leaned forward, looking out the window.

"Driver," Maya called out. "You missed the turn at the river. We are headed North. Turn this vehicle around."

I reached out and placed my cold hand on Maya's arm.

"He made no mistake, Maya," I said quietly. "We are on the road to the Shadow Pack territory."

Maya turned to me, her eyes wide with confusion. "What? Why would we travel to the lands of the cursed Alpha?"

I took a slow breath and told her everything.

I explained the debt Serena's family owed, the tribute bride arrangement, and the Wolfsbane coursing through my veins right now.

Maya's face turned red, and her eyes flashed yellow as her wolf surfaced.

"After what you did for him?" Maya hissed, her voice trembling with fury. "Three years ago, you nearly died to cure his silver poisoning! You gave him the essence of your own wolf-spirit, and this is his repayment?"

I closed my eyes, the finality of it all settling into my bones like a deep frost. There was nothing left to be said. But as I inhaled, a strange, wild scent drifted through the window—cedarwood and snow, a promise I did not yet understand.