My childhood scent-match, Fenris Ashcroft, postponed our Mating Ceremony.

He said he needed to take a secondary mate first.

Pack Law was clear: any unmated Omega past their third Blood Moon after coming of age would be assigned a mate by the Capital Pack Council. Fenris pitied this other she-wolf, who was already approaching her final Blood Moon. He feared she would be matched with some lesser Alpha unworthy of her.

But he forgot about me. I had waited five years for him, and next moon cycle, my own third Blood Moon would rise.

My mother brought me to the Ashcroft Pack Den to demand an explanation. All we received was a single, ice-cold sentence:

"She's waited this long. A little longer won't kill her."

Then he added, as though it were the most reasonable thing in the world: "Who else would claim her besides me? Seraphina Nighthollow, you still have your parents looking out for you. But Ivy is different. She has no one. She only has me."

Later, my mother scrambled to arrange a new mating for me.

As fate would have it, my Mating Ceremony and his Secondary Mate Moon Ceremony fell on the very same day.

My procession wound through the forest trail between territories, and there I passed Fenris Ashcroft astride a great black stallion in his ceremonial furs, silver torcs gleaming at his throat. Our eyes met. Every drop of color drained from his face.

——

"Mother, I am not going to mate Fenris Ashcroft."

My mother's hand jerked. The clay cup slipped from her fingers and shattered against the stone floor. "You... are you certain?"

I understood her shock. Pack Law required every Omega to be mated before their third Blood Moon after coming of age, and every Alpha before their twenty-fifth year. Anyone who failed to comply would have a mate assigned by the Capital Pack Council.

My Blood Moon was next month. If I did not mate Fenris, I would be matched with a complete stranger, my future handed over to the unknown.

I expected my mother to scold me, or tell me to endure it. Instead, Elara Nighthollow let out a long breath, and I caught the shift in her scent: the sharp edge of fury softening into something fiercer, something protective. The lavender and rain-washed petals that always clung to her turned steely.

"I always believed that boy from the Ashcroft Pack would give you a good life. I never imagined he would turn out to be..." She trailed off, pressing her lips together. Her jaw tightened, and for a moment her eyes flickered, a flash of pale gold before she steadied herself. "Seraphina, don't worry. Even if we only have one moon cycle, your father and I will find you a worthy Alpha."

My eyes burned. Deep within me, my wolf whimpered, curling small and wounded in a hollow place behind my ribs. There was a time I had believed the same thing my mother had.

Fenris and I had known each other since we were pups. The very first time he caught my scent, he grabbed the sleeve of my dress and refused to let go.

"She smells like moonlight," he declared, his little nose pressed to my wrist. "I'm going to protect her. Nobody will ever bully her!"

His father, Theron Ashcroft, the Supreme Alpha of the Capital Pack Council, laughed and ruffled his hair. "A true Alpha keeps his word, son."

"I will!" Little Fenris nodded with fierce determination, his eyes flashing bright amber, the way pups' eyes did before they learned to control the shift.

After that, whenever he found something delicious or exciting, I was always the first one he thought of. I was restless as a pup, too fidgety to sit through the lore lessons at the academy. Every time the elder threatened to rap my knuckles with a birch switch, Fenris would step in and take the punishment for me, baring his small teeth in a defiant grin as if the sting meant nothing.

I could not say exactly when that easy childhood bond had deepened into something else. By the time I realized it, I was already clutching the moonstone pendant he had given me as a token of his devotion, its surface warm against my skin, pulsing faintly whenever he was near.

He told me it would be just the two of us, for the rest of our lives. He told me I would be his only mate. And I believed him, my wolf singing in quiet contentment, heart brimming with joy, content to wait.

The first year, he earned the title of Alpha Ascendant, the highest-ranked young Alpha in the territory. "Once I take my seat on the Pack Council," he said, "I'll come to your family with a formal mating petition."

The second year, he took his seat among the Council. "Let me build something first. I want to give you the very best of everything."

The third year, he rose to one of the most powerful positions in the Capital Territory, his Alpha aura alone enough to make seasoned wolves lower their gaze. "Once things settle down, I'll send the grandest mating procession the territory has ever seen."

Year after year. It was not until five years had passed, when I was already approaching my final Blood Moon, that a ceremony date was finally set. I told myself, naively, that Fenris had only delayed because he wanted to give me a better life.

Then Ivy Mossgrove appeared, and I realized how wrong I had been.

Ivy was a packless orphan I had rescued. She had been running recklessly through a crowded market square during a Blood Moon Festival and nearly ended up trampled beneath the hooves of Fenris's warhorse. Fenris wanted to toss her a few gold moons and be done with it, but I worried the incident would tarnish his standing among the packs. So I took her into the Nighthollow household and looked after her myself.

Her scent was strange from the start. Faint, almost deliberately muted, like wildflowers crushed beneath something sharper. I could never quite place it.

From that day on, Ivy clung to me like a shadow. She grew familiar with Fenris too, slowly, steadily. Fenris even praised me for it. "You're too softhearted, Seraphina. I couldn't bear to watch you shoulder the burden of caring for her alone."

But little by little, I noticed that Fenris and Ivy were growing closer than they should have been. His gaze lingered on her a beat too long. His scent carried traces of hers when he returned from what he claimed were Council meetings. I tried to speak to him about it. Ivy was a young she-wolf, after all. There needed to be boundaries.

But Ivy suddenly lurched forward and dropped to her knees on the cobblestones with a heavy thud, her eyes rimmed red, her voice cracking with sobs. "Please, my lady, I would never dare harbor any delusions about Alpha Ashcroft. I only beg you to let me remain near him. Even if I must serve as the lowest omega in his household, scrubbing floors and tending fires, I am willing!"

Fenris's expression darkened like a storm rolling over the mountains. "Seraphina, is that really how petty you are? You can't tolerate a single other soul near me?"

"A jealous she-wolf like you, who would ever want to claim you as a mate?"

I stood rooted to the ground, watching him leave with his arm curled protectively around Ivy's shoulders. Her scent, that cloying sweetness of moss and river lilies, clung to him like a second skin.

It happened to be the main market trail through the Capital Territory that day, the kind of path every wolf in the district used. Every word of our exchange had carried on the wind to the gathered crowd, and the whispers started at once, sharp as thorns.

"Isn't Alpha Ashcroft already promised to Seraphina Nighthollow through a mating arrangement? How could he humiliate her in the open like that?"

"An Alpha taking more than one mate is nothing unusual. It's obviously the Nighthollow girl who's the jealous one. Bond yourself to a she-wolf like that and you're inviting a viper into your den!"

"If you ask me, Seraphina's nearly past the Blood Moon Deadline. If Alpha Ashcroft doesn't want her, with a reputation like that, she'll be fortunate to find a packless rogue willing to claim her!"

Each whisper landed like a claw dragged across bare skin. My wolf whimpered deep inside me, pressing herself flat against the floor of my mind, ears pinned back, trembling. I pressed my hands over my ears and ran for home.

The same Fenris Ashcroft who once swore before the Moon Goddess that he would protect me forever had become the very person tearing me apart.

I ran blindly, barely conscious of where my feet carried me, until the familiar scents of cedar oil and dried lavender and candied honey told me where I was. The West Market.

This part of the Capital Territory sold the kinds of things she-wolves loved: moonstone jewelry, hand-woven silks, perfumed oils infused with night-blooming jasmine. Alphas rarely wandered here without purpose, but Fenris had never cared about the curious glances. He would walk these narrow lanes beside me without a second thought, his large frame brushing mine in the crowd, his scent of pine and winter steel wrapping around me like a shield.

Every corner held a memory of us. My feet drifted along the familiar path out of habit, but in the next instant I stopped dead.

Two figures stood on the bridge not far ahead.

Ivy and Fenris, pressed close together on Moonseal Bridge, fastening a bonding charm to the iron chain along the railing. The charm was a small silver crescent etched with intertwined wolves, the kind lovers hung as a vow to the Moon Goddess that their souls were bound as one. Fenris and I had hung one just like it, once upon a time.

"Ivy... if only I'd met you sooner. If I hadn't been so reckless, rushing into that mating arrangement..."

Before he could finish, Ivy leaned in and kissed him. I watched, numb, as Fenris kissed her back with a ferocity that bordered on desperation, his hands gripping her waist as though he meant to pull her into his very bones. His wolf must have been surging beneath his skin because his eyes flashed amber for a heartbeat, bright as forge-fire, and a low growl of possession rumbled from his chest.

"As long as I can be with you, I don't care if I never receive a claiming mark. I'm willing."

"I am going to mate you properly! A full procession, every rite observed under the full moon down to the last howl. From this day forward, you are my mate in all but name!"

"And Seraphina Nighthollow will never lay a finger on you again."

Ice-cold tears slid down my cheeks. My heart felt like a fist had closed around it and squeezed until the blood stopped flowing. The pain was so sharp my knees nearly buckled, and deep inside me my wolf let out a long, broken keen, the sound of something dying that could never be brought back. I stared at them through blurred vision, and in the watery haze, I caught the look Ivy sent my way.

Triumphant. Deliberate.

Her lips curved into the faintest smile, and her eyes, moss-green and cold as river stones, held mine for exactly long enough to make sure I understood. Every word, every touch, every public display had been staged for me. She had known I would be here. She had always known.

Then they left, Fenris's arm still wrapped around her, his broad back disappearing down the bridge like a door closing forever.

I climbed the bridge one slow step at a time, making my way to the spot where Fenris's and my bonding charm still hung from the iron chain. It had been there for years. Rust and rain had eaten through most of the silver until the etched wolves were barely recognizable. I gripped the charm with both hands and wrenched it free.

A dull snap echoed across the water. The corroded metal broke loose easily. It had been falling apart for a long time. I stood there staring at it in my palms, the tarnished crescent no bigger than a coin, and then a drop of water landed on the back of my hand. I reached up to touch my face and realized I had been crying without knowing when I started.

I thought of the five years Fenris and I had been together. He had always been the picture of a proper Alpha: courteous, controlled, never once letting his wolf slip its leash around me. He had never so much as taken my hand without gloves between us. Back then, I believed it was respect. I told myself it was the conduct of an honorable mate-to-be, the kind of restraint that spoke of deep reverence.

But watching him lose all control today, watching his eyes blaze gold for another she-wolf, watching his wolf claw to the surface just to be closer to her, I finally understood. Love was supposed to be uncontrollable. Love was supposed to make you reckless, to make the wolf inside you howl and surge and refuse to be caged. All that propriety, all that careful distance he had kept between us, it had never been respect.

It was proof he had never loved me enough. His wolf had never truly reached for mine. Not once.

I closed my fist around the ruined charm and held it over the railing. For a long moment I just stood there, the wind off the water pulling at my hair, carrying the faint distant scent of pine and winter steel that still clung to the metal.

Then I opened my hand.

The charm hit the water and vanished without a trace, swallowed by the dark current as though it had never existed. Just like everything we had once been.

I will never love you again, Fenris Ashcroft.

I wiped away the last tear and slowly turned around.

Behind me, a pair of familiar dark eyes came into view. Fenris Ashcroft stood there, watching me with an expression I couldn't untangle.

I clenched my fists on instinct, not wanting him to see me this way. I had stumbled through the forest like a wounded animal, branches catching at my hair and cloak. My once-careful braids had come loose and hung in wild tangles around my face. The silver moonflower pin sat crooked against my temple, and one of my red coral ear cuffs was gone, lost somewhere on the trail behind me. I looked like a she-wolf who had lost her mind.

My inner wolf cowered low in my chest, pressing herself flat against the floor of my ribs. She wanted to hide. She wanted to bare her teeth. She couldn't decide which.

I didn't know whether Fenris had seen me tear that mating promise token free from the ancient oak and hurl it into the river. Perhaps he had. But I doubted he cared.

I swallowed the grief rising like bile in my throat and told myself, over and over, that this was the last time I would ever shed tears for this male.

Something that looked almost like pity flickered across Fenris's face, and for one disoriented heartbeat, I thought maybe he still felt something for me. His scent, cedarwood and steel and moonlight, drifted toward me on the wind, and my wolf whimpered before I could stop her. But then he spoke.

"You heard everything just now." His voice was calm, matter-of-fact. "Seraphina, I can't let Ivy go. I intend to take her as my secondary mate in a Moon Ceremony. But don't worry." He paused, as if what came next should comfort me. "I'll still complete our mating bond. You'll still be my only true mate."

I stared at him. He stood there like an Alpha dispensing favors, magnanimous in his own eyes, his aura steady and unbothered while my entire world crumbled around me.

So this was the male I had loved for five years.

"I won't mate with you," I said.

Fenris's expression darkened instantly. His Alpha aura flared, pressing against my skin like a sudden drop in temperature, and his voice turned cold and cutting. "If you won't mate with me, who else will have you? Go ahead. Ask around the Capital Territory. See which Alpha dares to claim you after you've been promised to the Ashcroft bloodline. You're nearly at your third Blood Moon, Seraphina. If you don't mate with me, what's your plan? Bond with some packless rogue? Become the laughingstock of every pack in the territory?"

My eyes flew wide. I never imagined those words could come out of his mouth. My wolf snarled, low and wounded, deep in my chest.

But Fenris knew exactly where to strike. He always had. He knew how to flay me open with a single sentence.

Maybe my face went too pale, because even he seemed to realize he'd gone too far. He exhaled slowly, and his aura pulled back, the pressure lifting from my shoulders. "That was out of line."

"Seraphina." His tone softened, coaxing now. "Be good. I'll give you the grandest Mating Ceremony the Capital Territory has ever seen."

"Seraphina, don't be stubborn. Our ceremony is next moon cycle. When the time comes, you and Ivy will both be mine, and I won't favor either of you."

The words were so absurd I nearly laughed. I wanted to throw it back in his face. Hadn't he been favoring Ivy all along? But I supposed that was the thing about a biased heart. It never recognized its own tilt.

My mind drifted back to the night of the Blood Moon Festival, to what happened when Fenris stepped away to find me a moonstone blessing from the festival stalls.

Ivy had found me alone beneath the great bonfire. Gone was the trembling, timid she-wolf she pretended to be. Her eyes glittered with triumph, and her scent, something sour and sharp beneath the mask of wildflowers, pulsed with satisfaction.

"Seraphina, what good does it do you to be some pureblood lady? Fenris Ashcroft will be mine."

And then, without a second's hesitation, she threw herself into the river.

"Someone's drowning! A she-wolf fell in!"

I flinched, moving toward the riverbank to see, but a violent force slammed into me from the side. I hit the ground hard, the impact jarring through my bones. When I looked up, Fenris was already tearing through the crowd, shifting mid-stride as he plunged toward the water after Ivy without a backward glance.

She was pulled out quickly enough.

She stood there in her pale, thin dress, the soaked fabric clinging to her body until it was nearly transparent, her small frame shaking with theatrical perfection. The gathered wolves stared and murmured. Ivy clutched her arms across her chest, weeping prettily, every tear perfectly placed, her scent flooding the air with distress so potent that every Alpha within range tensed. Fenris didn't hesitate. He stripped off his outer cloak and wrapped it around her, pulling her tight against his chest. His scent enveloped her completely, marking her with his protection in front of every wolf present.

He swept the onlookers with a look so sharp it could draw blood, his eyes flashing amber, his Alpha aura crashing outward like a wall of force. Everyone knew he was the Supreme Alpha's son. No one dared hold his gaze. They dropped their eyes, one by one, throats bared in involuntary submission. And Fenris, in the middle of that grand festival, in front of every soul present, lifted the half-dressed Ivy into his arms and carried her away into the darkness.

He forgot I existed.

I sat on the cold ground. My ankle was twisted and swelling fast where I'd been knocked down. The skin on my palms was scraped raw against the stone. I was a wreck. My wolf lay silent inside me, too stunned to even whimper.

Before the festival, Fenris had sent my personal attendant away on some errand for him. I sat there alone for hours, the bonfire burning down to embers around me, the festival crowd thinning until the clearing was empty and cold. Deep into the night, my frantic parents finally found me. My mother's howl of anguish when she saw me crumpled on the ground carried across the entire territory.

I fell gravely ill after that. For days, I burned with fever, my inner wolf thrashing weakly inside me as if she too were fighting to survive. The pack healer said the shock had destabilized my wolf. My mother sat at my bedside and pressed cool cloths to my forehead and whispered prayers to the Moon Goddess, and my father paced outside my door with his fists clenched and his aura crackling like a storm.

Fenris never came to see me. Not once.

His scent never drifted through my window. No moon-sealed letter arrived bearing his name. Nothing. As if the five years of our bond had been a dream I'd conjured alone.

Ten days later, he appeared at our pack den again. The first words out of his mouth were a request to take Ivy Mossgrove as his secondary mate through a Moon Ceremony.