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.

"Seraphina, what are you thinking about?"

The memory shattered like ice struck by a stone.

I lifted my gaze to Fenris. "It's late. I should go."

I had no desire to stir old wounds, and even less to trade words with him.

He seemed thrown by the stillness in me, by the frost where fire used to be. For a long moment he just stood there, unmoving, as if the ground beneath him had shifted without warning.

I pulled my hand free from his grip. His fingers loosened reluctantly, and I caught the faintest tremor in them before I turned away. I walked home at my own pace, leaving him standing alone beneath the pale wash of moonlight, his scent of pine and iron fading behind me with every step.

The next day, I went to the finest ceremonial atelier in the Capital Territory, the one nestled on the eastern ridge where the master weavers crafted mating gowns threaded with silver and moonstone.

When I had first learned I was to be mated to Fenris, I had commissioned the most skilled weaver a full year in advance to craft my ceremony gown. Every moonstone bead, every silver clasp, every stitch of luminous embroidery along the bodice and train, I had chosen myself. I had run my fingers across the fabric samples, held them up to candlelight, imagined how the threads would catch the glow of the full moon on the night I would stand before the pack and receive his claiming bite.

Since I no longer intended to mate him, I wanted my gown back.

But the shop owner's face crumpled with unease, her hands twisting in her apron. "The thing is... Alpha Ashcroft came and took that gown two days ago. I assumed he was collecting it on your behalf, since the arrangement was still..." She trailed off, reading my expression. "I'm so sorry, my lady."

My heart sank, slow and heavy, like a stone dropped into black water.

I knew exactly why Fenris had taken it.

He was about to mate Ivy Mossgrove. The ceremony had been thrown together in haste, rushed through before the current moon cycle ended, and nothing had been properly prepared. Of course there was no gown ready for her.

So he had given her mine.

The gown I had dreamed over. The gown I had poured a year of hope into, bead by bead, thread by thread. He had draped it over the shoulders of the she-wolf who had stolen my place, as casually as tossing a cloak to a servant.

My inner wolf, who had been so quiet these past days, so still that I had almost feared she had gone dormant, stirred with a low, aching whimper that turned into something harder. Something with teeth.

The attendant beside me was so furious she stamped her feet against the stone floor. She seized my hand, her voice already thick with tears. "My lady! How dare he! We should go to the Ashcroft Den and take it back!"

But I only said, my voice steady as river stone, "I don't want something that's been dirtied by another wolf's touch. But mark my words. He'll pay it back. Every last thread."

I returned home with my attendant, and the moment I stepped through the front entrance of the Nighthollow Den, I caught an unfamiliar scent in the main hall. Sour and sharp, like overripe berries and cheap tallow. Two strangers sat on the receiving chairs, both wearing fawning smiles that showed too many teeth. The man was stocky and barrel-chested, his beard thick and unkempt, covering half his face. He reeked of low-rank musk and something greedy beneath it. My wolf's hackles rose immediately.

"Father, Mother, who are they?" I asked, bewildered.

The woman's face lit up the instant she saw me, her eyes darting over me with a calculating gleam. "So this is little Seraphina! I'm a distant cousin of your bloodline, barely connected anymore, truth be told. I heard that Ashcroft boy rejected your mating arrangement, and I was worried you'd get matched with some worthless, packless drifter, so I brought my son here to make a proper introduction!"

Every muscle in my body went rigid. I stared at her in disbelief. My wolf pressed against the inside of my ribs, snarling.

"Throw them out!" My mother was on her feet in an instant, trembling with rage. Her own wolf surfaced in the flash of amber that burned through her eyes. "Throw these shameless wretches out of my den!"

The woman panicked as the pack guards stepped forward, their shoulders squared and jaws tight. "Now hold on! Luna Nighthollow, don't get offended by plain talk. Everyone in the Capital Territory knows your daughter was promised to that Ashcroft heir since they were pups. Seraphina's reputation is already ruined. What decent Alpha would want her now? And that intended mate of hers is so brazen he's taking a secondary mate before the mating ceremony even happens! If he'll humiliate her like this before she's even received his mark, what kind of life do you think she'll have after?"

She pressed on without pausing for breath, her words tumbling out in a desperate rush. "Better to take in a mate who'll live here under your roof. My boy is honest and hardworking. After he mates Seraphina, he can stay right here at the Nighthollow Den. Your daughter stays by your side, you keep your pack whole. Everybody wins!"

"That's right!" The man leaned forward, nodding eagerly. "I'd treat Seraphina real good."

I looked into his eyes and saw nothing but lust and greed, naked and undisguised, the hunger of a scavenger circling something wounded. My wolf surged beneath my skin, and revulsion crashed through me like a wave of nausea.

I raised my hand and slapped him across the face with everything I had.

The crack echoed through the hall. He recoiled, sputtering, a red welt already blooming across his cheek. "You, you hit me!"

"So what if she hit you?" A low, cold voice cut through the room like a blade drawn from a sheath. "She could rip the tongue out of your head and you'd deserve it."

My entire body went stiff. I turned around.

It was Fenris.

He strode through the entrance of the Nighthollow Den with a face like a gathering storm, and the air in the hall changed. It thickened. Grew heavy. His Alpha aura rolled outward from him in a crushing wave, and I watched the color drain from the strangers' faces as the pressure bore down on them like a physical weight. He closed the distance between himself and the pair step by deliberate step, his eyes blazing molten gold, and the fury radiating off him was suffocating. The woman let out a choked whimper. The man's legs buckled beneath him and he dropped to the stone floor with a heavy, graceless thud, his body folding into involuntary submission, head bowed, shoulders hunched, unable to resist the sheer dominance pouring off the Ashcroft heir.

Fenris spoke through clenched teeth, every word carved from ice. "Seraphina Nighthollow is my mate. That is a fact no one can change. If I hear so much as a whisper of you sniffing around her again, I won't be this generous."

He flicked his wrist in dismissal. The two of them scrambled over each other in their haste to flee, practically crawling through the doorway on hands and knees, the man's sour scent trailing behind him like a stain. The hall fell deathly silent.

Then Fenris turned to me, and just like that, his expression softened. The gold faded from his eyes, leaving them that deep, familiar grey. He smiled. "Seraphina. Are you alright?"

I looked at the concern on his face, and for one disorienting moment, the world tilted beneath my feet.

He looked exactly like the boy he used to be. The young Alpha who couldn't stand to see me wronged, who would have thrown himself between me and any threat without a heartbeat's hesitation. The one whose scent had once meant safety, whose presence had once meant home.

My wolf went very, very still. And said nothing at all.