So he laced my favorite pastries with the drug, and I ate them without a second thought.

"Caelan, my stomach hurts so much. I just ate them, there's still time. Please, go find a healer."

He didn't move. My voice cracked raw with panic. "I won't mate with you, is that what you want? I just want my pup. I'll take her and leave, go far away. I won't be in your way, I swear."

No matter how I screamed and begged, Caelan didn't flinch.

He held out his arm. "Bite down on this. It won't hurt as much."

I shoved his arm away. "Go find a healer. I'm begging you, Caelan."

"Seraphina, don't be ridiculous. No pack healer is going to treat someone of your standing."

"The wolfsbane's already taken effect. It's too late. Be good. Once Sable gives birth to the legitimate heir, we can have another pup."

I seized his hand and held on with everything I had. "Caelan, listen to me. I am a princess. Princess Seraphina Silvercrest. Go get the healer. Save this pup."

But he thought I was lying. He wrenched his hand free, anger flashing across his face.

"You've truly disappointed me. If you're going to lie, at least make it believable. This is the Silvercrest Dominion's capital territory, not your little borderland den. One wrong word here can cost you your head."

He flicked his cloak and stormed out.

"A pup loss won't kill you. Look after yourself."

I watched his retreating figure until it disappeared. Every last shred of hope in me went with it. Deep in my chest, my wolf went silent. Not howling, not keening. Just silent, as though the part of her that knew how to make sound had been cut away.

I curled into the corner, the pain splitting me open. I could feel it, every moment of it, the pup slipping away from my body.

The pup I had longed for day and night, killed by its own father on the very first day he learned of its existence.

I was unconscious through the night. The furs beneath me soaked through with blood. The scent of it filled the small room, iron and salt and something sweeter underneath that I couldn't let myself name.

The door crashed open with a kick. Sable Ashveil strode in, flanked by several older den workers. Her scent hit me before I could focus my eyes: overripe plum and that cloying sweetness that never quite covered the sharper thing underneath.

She glanced at me, drenched in blood from the waist down, then settled into a chair by the table and poured herself a cup of tea as if she had all the time in the world.

"Don't blame me. The pup in my belly has to be the firstborn heir. That's the only way I'll have any standing in the Blackthorn Pack. Surely you understand."

I braced myself against the wall, barely upright. "So you had my pup killed."

Sable let out a short laugh. "Now that's unfair. Caelan was the one who laced the food. Caelan was the one who didn't want it. All I did was mention it in passing."

I stared at her, unblinking. My nails dug into my palms until the skin split.

She rose and walked over to me, one hand resting on her belly.

"Besides, you should count yourself lucky. Even if your pup had survived, it would have been taken from you and raised under the recognized mate. Better this way, really."

"Bring the tincture over. Make her drink it. Help her recover."

The den workers pried my jaw open and forced the liquid down my throat. I recognized the taste. Bitter and acrid, burning like poison. Concentrated wolfsbane tincture. The kind that kills the womb.

I thrashed, tried to spit it out, but they pinned me down and held my mouth shut. My wolf surged once, a single desperate lunge against the inside of my ribs, and then the wolfsbane reached her too. She collapsed somewhere deep inside me, and I felt the exact moment she went still.

Sable crouched beside me and patted my cheek, slow and deliberate, every touch a humiliation. "Can't have you bearing more pups down the line. All that squabbling over heirs gets so tiresome."

"My mating ceremony is in two days. I still need to go try on my jeweled ceremonial crest. If you'll excuse me."

As she stood, she let her robe fall open just enough to reveal the moonstone pendant at her waist.

Caelan's moonstone pendant. He told me once that his mother left it to him, the only thing he had of hers. And he had given it to Sable.

She was nearly at the door when she paused, as though something had just occurred to her. "Oh, one more thing. Caelan transferred this property into my name. I hear you're fond of the simple borderland life, so by all means, keep living here. Just remember, it's my territory now. My rules."

My whole body went rigid. When Caelan burned down our den, he told me he bought this place for me. Told me I could fill the grounds with moonflower bushes and herb gardens.

He never intended to give me anything. Not from the very beginning.

"Sable."

I called after her, my voice scraped hollow.

"Miss Ashveil, have you ever heard of Princess Seraphina Silvercrest?"

Sable froze for a beat. "What, are you going to tell me that reclusive princess has something to do with you?"

I forced a bitter smile. "I heard the Pack Princess adores moonfire flares. If we could make her smile and convince her to attend your mating ceremony, wouldn't that bring honor to the occasion?"

Sable eyed me with suspicion. "How would a worthless wretch like you know what the Pack Princess likes?"

"Believe it or don't. If it turns out to be false, it's no loss to you either way, Miss Ashveil."

After Sable left, I curled into the corner of the bed, my body burning with fever, my lower abdomen seized with stabbing pain. No one came. My wolf lay somewhere deep inside me, too weak to even whimper, just a faint tremor of warmth that kept guttering like a candle in wind.

Looking back now, meeting Caelan Blackthorn was the single greatest regret of my life.

Through the haze of unconsciousness, I caught a blurred glimpse of moonfire flares drifting past the window, their silver and violet light bleeding through the dark.

Only then did I let out a breath and smile.

Long ago, my father and I had made a pact: whenever moonfire flares were lit, it meant I was in danger, and someone would come to take me away.

At some point, Caelan appeared. He sat at the edge of my bed for a long time. I could smell him before I saw him, that charred oak and bitter iron, and something in my chest flinched away from it.

When he saw me open my eyes, he touched my forehead. "The fever's broken. Come on, sit up and have some porridge."

I struggled upright. "Sable came. She forced an entire bowl of that concentrated wolfsbane tincture down my throat. Did you know?"

Caelan's expression faltered for a moment. He lowered his gaze. "I knew."

"You knew?"

I clenched every muscle in my body to keep the tears from falling.

He reached for my hand. I pulled away.

"Seraphina, she was only protecting herself. If you'd given birth to the pup, where would that leave her and her child? It's only natural."

I let out a hollow laugh. Natural. What a convenient excuse.

Caelan set the bowl down and continued. "After Sable went home, she had terrible stomach pains. It's possible our pup's spirit unsettled her..."

He looked at me, hesitating, then pressed on.

"There's an elder at the Moonstone Shrine. Go to him and ask him to perform rites for the pup's soul. Then climb all nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine steps of the Wolf's Fang ascent on your hands and knees, one bow per step, and bring back a Moon Goddess blessing token for Sable. Do that, and we can put this whole matter behind us. Alright?"

I stared at him, my eyes burning red.

"Caelan Blackthorn, you and I are finished. If you want a blessing token, go get it yourself."

I dragged myself off the bed, trying to leave this wretched place.

He blocked my path.

He scooped me up, ignoring my thrashing, and threw me onto a horse. He rode hard until we reached the foot of the Moonstone Shrine.

"Take her up the mountain."

Two guards seized me by the arms, one on each side. I hauled my broken body forward, dropping to my knees and pressing my forehead to the stone with every step. The wolf inside me had gone silent. I couldn't feel her at all.

Two days without food or water, fresh from losing the pup. I passed out and woke and passed out again along the way.

I don't remember how I obtained the blessing token. All I know is that when I finally saw Caelan at the bottom, my legs gave out and I collapsed.

He caught me and gathered me into his arms.

"Seraphina, you've suffered so much. I promise, even after I mate with Sable, you'll be the only one in my heart."

I closed my eyes slowly. Three days ago, I might have believed those words. Now they made my stomach turn.

"I got you your blessing token. Let me go."

He ignored my plea and carried me back to the cottage.

"Seraphina, don't be stubborn. The mating ceremony is tomorrow. Sable has agreed to let you keep living in the cottage afterward. You'll stay out of each other's way. Alright?"

Before leaving, he added one last instruction: "The Pack Princess may come to observe the ceremony tomorrow. Stay in the cottage and don't cause trouble."

Shortly after he left, my father's secret agents found me. I caught their scent before I saw them, cedar heartwood and mountain granite carried faintly on their clothes, and something inside me that had been clenched for days finally loosened.

I looked in the direction he had gone, then at this little cottage that had never truly been mine, and a quiet smile crossed my lips.

I hope tomorrow, you won't regret this.

On the day of the mating ceremony, the Blackthorn estate was draped in ceremonial banners, every corner bursting with celebration. Caelan stood in his formal mating attire, Sable at his side.

They were about to begin the bonding rites when a voice rang out from beyond the gates: "Her Highness, the Pack Princess of the Silvercrest bloodline, has arrived!"

The ceremonial silk in Sable's hands trembled. A smile curled at the corner of her mouth. She hadn't expected the Pack Princess to actually come.