The Dark Moon pulled at my wolf like a tide.

Astra paced under my skin while I worked the stolen pin inside my ankle cuff. Finn crouched by his cell door, watching the corridor. We had spent the day pretending exhaustion, whispering only when the guards passed above us.

The lock clicked.

I caught the chain before it struck stone.

Finn exhaled. "Remind me never to underestimate an alpha's daughter."

I froze. "What?"

"You give orders when you're feverish. Very royal orders."

"Rogues can be bossy."

"And your wolf nearly answered Cassian's command instead of submitting to it. I felt her." He slid his arm through the bars. "I don't know who you are, Nell, but you are not what you pretend to be."

Neither are you, I thought.

I picked the lock on my door, then his. "Questions later."

We moved barefoot through the corridor. I had mapped the guard changes by sound. At the first corner, I waited until a guard passed, then wrapped my chain around his throat and pulled. Finn caught the keys from his belt before he fell.

We locked him in my empty cell.

At the stairwell, another guard appeared.

Finn shifted first. His wolf was lean and black, the white streak becoming a pale slash over one ear. He struck the guard low. I shifted despite the risk, agony tearing through me as the disguise spell fought to hold my altered shape. Astra emerged smaller and brown instead of her true silver, but she was still fast.

We brought the guard down without killing him.

Then the bells rang.

"Run," I told Finn.

We raced through a storage room and into the night. Rain had turned the courtyard to mud. Wolves poured from the barracks, their eyes glowing. The western wall stood fifty yards away. Beyond it lay the forest and, if Finn's directions were right, a stream that crossed into neutral land.

An arrow flew.

I knocked Finn aside. The iron tip sliced my shoulder.

We reached the wall, but the gate was closing. Two guards blocked it. Finn attacked one while I took the other. My shoulder burned. The scent spell flickered, silver flashing through Astra's false brown coat.

Too many wolves surrounded us.

I shifted back to Finn, seized his face, and forced him to look at me. "Your need to go and find your brother."

"I'm not leaving you."

"That is an order, Prince Finnegan."

His eyes widened.

I snatched a fallen sword and slashed the gate rope. The heavy timber dropped behind Finn, separating us. On his side, open forest waited. On mine, Ashfang wolves closed in.

"Go!" I screamed.

Finn pressed one hand to the bars. "I will come back."

"Then come back with an army."

He ran.

A wolf crashed into me. I drove the sword into its shoulder, but another struck my knees. A silver chain wrapped around my neck. The metal burned through skin. I fell in the mud beneath Cassian's boots.

He looked from the gate to me. "The hostage escaped because of a rogue servant."

Seraphine arrived in a red cloak. "Kill her before she tells anyone."

Cassian's face hardened. "At dawn. In front of the pack."

They chained me to a post in the central square.

Rain washed blood down my arms. Pack members gathered at first light, whispering about the stranger who had freed their enemy prince. Some threw rotten fruit.

Cassian climbed the platform in ceremonial black. Seraphine stood at his right hand as if she were already Luna.

"This rogue entered our home under false pretenses," he announced. "She attacked our warriors and released a dangerous prisoner. The sentence is death."

The executioner placed a silver blade against my throat.

I laughed.

Cassian frowned. "What is amusing?"

"You are about to murder the alliance you planned to steal."

I tore Mara's disguise from my skin.

Pain rippled over my face. My dark hair bled back to silver-blond. My bones shifted beneath my cheeks. The scent of smoke vanished, and Silverpine wildflowers swept across the square.

Every wolf went silent.

Cassian staggered one step. "Elara?"

"Lady Elara Vale," I corrected. "Daughter of Alpha Rowan Vale and Luna Celeste. Your future bride, according to the contract you signed."

Seraphine went white.

Cassian ordered the blade removed so quickly the executioner cut his own hand.

I lifted my chin. "The marriage treaty promises Silverpine three seats on Ashfang's trade council. But your adopted sister crawls into your sheets every single night."

Murmurs swept the crowd.

Seraphine's fear sharpened into hatred.

Cassian came close enough that only I could hear him. "Why were you here?"

"To learn what kind of husband you would be. I learned enough."

His gaze flicked toward Seraphine. "You misunderstand our relationship."

"I heard every sound of it."

His face tightened.

I could denounce him. I could call for my father and end the engagement. But Finn had not had time to reach Nightcrest. If Cassian believed his secret was already lost, he might send hunters after him and kill me before Silverpine arrived.

So I offered the bait Cassian could never resist.

"I am willing to be practical," I said loudly. "Our packs need the alliance. I know you love Seraphine. I will tolerate her place in your bed, provided you respect my title and allow Silverpine to support Ashfang openly."

Seraphine stared at me.

Cassian stared harder.

I made myself look humiliated. "You cannot make her Luna. The elders would never accept an adopted dependent with no alpha blood. But I can give you legitimacy. My family can give you soldiers. In return, you keep your affair discreet."

The desire on Cassian's face was ugly and immediate. He wanted everything: my father's army, my bloodline, Seraphine's body, and the admiration of a pack that did not know its alpha had kidnapped a prince.

"Take her inside," he ordered. "No chains. Give her the east guest suite."

Seraphine caught his arm. "Cassian—"

"We will discuss this privately."

The east suite had velvet curtains, a feather bed, hot water, and bars hidden behind carved window screens. Luxury did not make it less of a prison.

A healer stitched my shoulder. Servants brought roasted meat and wine. Two guards remained outside the door.

By sunset, Cassian visited wearing the smile he used in treaty meetings.

"You have been treated badly," he said. "I regret the misunderstanding."

"Your maid hung me from a hook."

"Veda acted without full knowledge."

"She acted on Seraphine's orders."

His alpha scent thickened. "You agreed to tolerate Seraphine."

"I agreed not to expose you. That is not forgiveness."

He studied me, perhaps seeing for the first time that the bride he had dismissed had teeth.

"When your father arrives," he said, "we will tell him you came early to surprise me and were injured by border rogues."

"And Prince Finn?"

His expression went cold. "You will never speak that name again."

After he left, I hid a dinner knife beneath the mattress.

Midnight brought soft footsteps.

The door opened. Seraphine entered carrying a silver tray.

Three broad-shouldered men followed her.

She closed the door behind them.

"You should have let the executioner finish," she said.

Then she set a bowl of sweet-smelling broth in front of me and smiled.

The broth smelled of honey, cloves, and heat.

When I refused the bowl, the largest man held me down and another poured it between my teeth. Most of the liquid ran down my chin, but enough reached my stomach. I recognized moonroot under the sweetness, mixed with concentrated heatflower.

It was not poison.

It was worse.

Heatflower was used to help bonded couples during difficult mating seasons. This dose would strip away judgment and send a wolf into a desperate false heat.

I spat broth across Seraphine's white dress.

She slapped me. "Ungrateful bitch."

"Cassian will smell them on you," she said. "He will see you with three rogues in your bed. By sunrise, you will be the faithless bride, and I will be the woman who comforted him."

She left with Veda, locking the door.

The three men looked at me. They wore Ashfang guard trousers, though their shirts had been removed. The largest, a scarred wolf named Bram, reached for my nightdress.

I drove my knee upward.

He folded with a curse. I grabbed the hidden dinner knife and slashed another man's forearm. For several seconds, surprise made me faster than them. I cut Bram across the chest, kicked the third man into a table, and ran for the window.

Heat spilled through my veins. My skin became painfully sensitive. Every breath carried male scent, turning my stomach and confusing my wolf. Astra howled from the chemical command consuming us.

Bram caught my hair. He threw me onto the bed.

"Hold her."

A roar shook the room.

The door exploded inward.

The wolf who entered was not fully shifted. His eyes burned a frozen blue, and a white streak cut through his dark hair. Blood already covered the leather armor across his chest.

Nightcrest.

Finn's brother.

He moved with terrifying silence. One attacker reached for a sword. The stranger broke his neck before the blade cleared its sheath. Bram shifted, but the black wolf tore through him mid-change. The last man tried to surrender.

The stranger looked at my torn nightdress, the drugged bowl, and the bruises forming on my arms.

He killed him too.

Then the room became quiet except for my breathing.

The stranger turned toward me. His face was sharp, controlled, and merciless. He looked older than Finn by perhaps eight years, broad through the shoulders, every inch of him carrying the dangerous stillness of royal alpha blood.

"Lady Elara," he said. "Finn sent me."

His voice went through me like a hand along bare skin.

The reaction was not the drug. It was deeper. Astra stopped howling and went utterly still.

Mate.

The word struck inside my skull.

The stranger inhaled. His icy expression cracked. His pupils widened until only a thin ring of blue remained.

"No," he whispered, as if the Moon Goddess had made an impossible choice.

Another cramp twisted through me. I slid from the bed. He caught me before I hit the floor, and the contact detonated every nerve in my body.

His scent was winter pine, steel, and distant snow. Clean. Powerful. Safe.

I clutched his armor. "Help me."

His jaw flexed. "You were drugged."

"I know."

He lifted me. My body pressed against his, and a broken sound escaped my throat. His muscles locked. Beneath discipline and cold command, I felt his wolf answer mine with a violent, possessive hunger.

That knowledge made the false heat worse.

I pulled his mouth down to mine.

For one blazing second, he kissed me back. His taste was rain and blood. His arm tightened around my waist, and the bond opened between us, raw as lightning.

Then he tore himself away.

"Not like this."

I tried to reach him again. Shame and need fought inside me. "Please. It hurts."

His expression changed. Not to disgust. To fury at the people who had done this.

He bit his own wrist and pressed the wound to my lips. "Nightcrest royal blood neutralizes most herbal compounds. Drink."

I did. His blood was hot and strangely sweet. The effect came slowly. The claws inside my veins dulled. My mind rose through the fever in pieces, but the mate bond remained, bright and undeniable.

He carried me through a hidden passage while fighting echoed elsewhere in the pack house. Nightcrest warriors had invaded to recover their prince. I heard Cassian shouting orders.

In the forest, the stranger laid me beneath a cloak while his healer checked my pulse.

"The drug is leaving her," the woman said. "She’ll come around soon, but the bond awakening will keep her body sensitive."

The stranger knelt a careful distance away. "My name is Kael Thorne. You are safe, Elara. No one will touch you without your permission. Not even me."

That promise broke something open in my chest.

Cassian had spoken of using my body for heirs. Seraphine had tried to ruin me. Kael, whose wolf burned for mine, sat with his fists clenched and refused to take what the bond offered.

I reached for him after the healer withdrew.

"The drug?" he asked.

"Mostly gone."

"Mostly is not enough."

I waited through another wave. I told him my full name, my age—twenty-four—and why I had entered Ashfang. I named my parents, my sister, and the first horse I had fallen from as a child. He was gentle to listen to me.

At last, I touched his face. "I know who you are. I know where I am. I know I may regret the timing. I do not consent because of the drug. I consent because you are my mate, and I need one true thing after everything they tried to make false."

His forehead rested against mine. "If you say stop, I stop."

"Yes."

This time, when he kissed me, there was no violence in it. Only restraint breaking layer by layer. I pulled him close, and he held me as if strength meant protecting rather than possessing. The forest, the raid, and the pain disappeared beneath the fierce warmth of the bond.

What passed between us belonged to us, not to the drug and not to our packs. It was urgent, imperfect, and tender in places I had not expected tenderness. Each time heat threatened to sweep my thoughts away, he made me look at him and choose again.

When relief finally came, it carried the bright snap of the true bond awakening. Astra curled around his wolf in my mind. Kael pressed his mouth to my temple, breathing as hard as I was.

"Mine," his wolf said through him.

"Not owned," I whispered.

His arms loosened immediately.

I caught them and pulled them back around me. "Chosen."

His eyes closed. "Chosen."

Exhaustion claimed me before I could ask what the bond would mean.

I woke in a bed beneath a silver canopy.

Sunlight poured across black stone walls. My wounds had been cleaned and dressed. A maid in Nightcrest blue hurried out when she saw my eyes open.

Minutes later, Finn burst into the room.

He looked clean, fed, and furious. "You took an arrow for me."

"It barely touched me."

"You were nearly executed."

"Also barely."

He laughed once, then hugged me so carefully my throat tightened.

Kael did not come with him.

I tried not to feel disappointed.

Finn sat beside the bed. "My brother says you are his true mate. He also says he will not announce it unless you wish him to."

That restraint hurt more than a claim might have. I wanted to see Kael. I feared what I would feel when I did.

First, I had a war to prevent—or choose.

I told Finn everything: my real identity, Cassian's affair, the attempted framing, and Ashfang's plan to exploit Silverpine. By the time I finished, Finn's youthful face had become royal and hard.

"Nightcrest will stand with you," he said.

I looked toward the northern mountains beyond the window.

"I want revenge." I said.