My fingertips hovered half an inch over the hilt of the ceremonial silver dagger. The metal hummed against my skin, vibrating with a strange, lethal energy.

I curled my fingers inward into a fist and dropped my arm to my side.

A sickening crunch echoed through the clearing. The unseen weight drove Kael's knees straight into the jagged rocks of the altar steps. Dark blood instantly soaked through his charcoal wool trousers, pooling on the pale stone.

"Make it stop," Kael choked out. His face remained pinned to the rock, his jaw scraping against the rough edges.

I walked past him. As I descended the stairs, I planted my bare foot directly onto the back of his trembling hand.

Bones ground together under my weight.

Kael let out a muffled, agonizing scream.

"You wanted the crown," I told him, keeping my foot firmly in place. "You have it."

Lena sobbed beside him, her cheek flattened against the dirt. "You bitch, release us! You used some dirty human trick to sabotage the barrier!"

"A human trick?" I asked. I crouched down so my face leveled with hers. "If I possessed this power all along, do you think I would have let you sleep in my house for a decade?"

Lena flinched, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Fix it, Elara," Kael growled, struggling to lift his chin. "I command you."

"You command a rogue?" I stood back up and stepped off his crushed hand. "You just severed the bond. Your words mean nothing to me."

Jace whimpered from the grass at the bottom of the steps. "Mom, it hurts."

I stopped. I looked at the boy pressed into the dirt, his small hands clutching the grass.

"Aunt Lena will comfort you," I told him, my voice devoid of warmth. "She runs with you in the woods. Ask her to carry this weight."

"The rogues will slaughter us!" Kael roared, his voice straining against the invisible force. "Put the barrier back!"

The biting wind rushed into the clearing. Without the glowing dome above us, the first flakes of a harsh winter snow began to fall. The territory stood completely exposed.

I stared up at the massive packhouse looming behind the altar.

"Twelve years ago, you moved her into the master suite," I said, projecting my voice over the howling wind. "The morning after our wedding. You sent me to the attic where the roof leaked."

"We needed a strong Luna!" Kael argued, spitting blood onto the stone. "You were weak!"

"Now the whole territory gets to feel the draft."

I turned my back on the bleeding Alpha and walked toward the side door of the manor. The crushing pressure remained localized around the altar, keeping the crowd pinned to the dirt. I moved freely, my bare feet leaving shallow prints in the fresh snow.

Inside, the halls were dead quiet. The servants had all rushed outside to watch my banishment. I bypassed the grand staircase and headed straight for the small storage room near the kitchen.

I grabbed a worn green canvas rucksack from a wall hook. I shoved in two thick wool sweaters, a pair of heavy leather boots, and a steel hunting knife.

Footsteps pounded against the hardwood floor behind me.

"Stop right there," a gruff voice demanded.

I turned around. Two pack guards stood in the doorway. They had been patrolling the perimeter, missing the collapse at the altar.

"Alpha Kael ordered you stripped of everything," the taller guard said. He drew a wooden baton from his belt. "Drop the bag. You leave naked if the Alpha says so."

I slung the rucksack over my shoulder. "Step aside, Marcus."

"We do not take orders from humans," Marcus sneered.

He lunged at me, swinging the baton toward my head.

The silver wolf totem on my right wrist flared. A pulse of raw energy shot through my arm. I raised my hand instinctively.

An invisible wall of force slammed into Marcus. He flew backward, crashing through the wooden doorframe and skidding across the hallway. The second guard froze, his eyes wide with terror as he stared at the glowing mark on my skin.

"Tell Kael I took my severance," I told the trembling guard.

He pressed himself flat against the wall. I walked past him and pushed through the rear exit.

The backyard was plunged into darkness, save for the pale moonlight cutting through the swirling snow. I walked past the dead oak tree near the training grounds. The temperature plummeted, biting at my exposed arms.

An old man dragged himself around the corner of the house. Elder Thorne. He had escaped the worst of the pressure at the altar, but his legs barely supported him.

"Luna," Thorne gasped, stumbling toward me.

"That is not my title."

"You cannot leave us to freeze," Thorne pleaded. He dropped to his knees in the snow, his robes soaking up the wet frost. "The winter storms will wipe out the lower village by morning. The rogue packs will smell our exposed borders. They will attack before dawn."

"Then Kael can shift and fight them," I pointed out. "He is the strong Alpha, isn't he?"

"He cannot stand!" Thorne yelled, tears freezing on his wrinkled cheeks. "None of the warriors can stand! You cursed us!"

"I freed myself."

I stopped next to the dead oak. I pointed at the frozen roots protruding from the soil.

"Ten years ago, I dragged myself out here during a blizzard," I told the old man. "I screamed for help for six hours while my water broke. I nearly bled to death delivering Kael's heir against this trunk."

Thorne swallowed hard, his eyes darting away. "The Alpha was away on business."

"He was in the city buying Lena a diamond necklace," I corrected. "You knew. The whole council knew. You left me to die."

"We followed our Alpha's orders!" Thorne cried. He lunged forward and wrapped his frail arms around my right thigh. "Have mercy! You are the protector of this land!"

I looked down at his desperate face.

"I protect nothing anymore."

I kicked my leg out, driving my heavy boot into his chest. Thorne flew backward, tumbling into a snowdrift. He coughed violently, clutching his ribs as the wind howled around us.

"You will burn in hell for this!" Thorne shouted, spitting snow from his mouth.

"I have lived in hell for twelve years."

I adjusted the straps of my rucksack and turned toward the treeline. The wind whipped my hair across my face. The snow fell faster now, burying the tracks I left behind.

I stepped into the shadows of the pines.

"Smashing the crown was a beautiful move," a deep, raspy male voice echoed from the darkness ahead. "But you are walking in the wrong direction, little moon goddess."

I spun around, my hand instantly dropping to the steel hunting knife at my hip.

A man stepped from the dense wall of pine trees. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Dark gold eyes pinned me in place.

"Stay exactly where you are," I warned.

He ignored the blade gleaming in the moonlight. He took a steady step forward.

I retreated half a pace. My heavy boot struck something hard hidden beneath the fresh snow.

I glanced down. A charred chunk of oak lay half-buried in the frost. The jagged ear of a carved wolf stuck out from the blackened wood.

A year ago, I spent three months whittling that wolf for Jace's birthday. The boy took it from my hands, walked to the parlor fireplace, and threw it into the flames. "Dad says you are useless, and your gifts are garbage," my son had laughed.

I shifted my weight and ground my heel down hard. The brittle, burnt wood splintered into fine ash beneath my sole.

Shouts erupted from the manor grounds behind me.

"Find her!" Kael's voice ripped through the howling wind. "Do not let that bitch leave the territory!"

Heavy boots pounded against the frozen earth. Flashlight beams sliced through the falling snow, sweeping frantically toward the treeline.

I tightened my grip on the knife handle. "Did you bring them?"

"I brought no one," the stranger replied. His voice rumbled, deep and resonant.

"Then move out of my way."

"You broke a three-hundred-year-old barrier with a single thought," he observed, his golden eyes flicking to my right arm. "You do not need to run from them."

"I am not running," I said, my jaw clenching. "I am leaving."

"They will not permit that."

"They cannot stop me."

He closed the distance between us. I raised the knife higher, aiming the sharp tip directly at his throat.

He did not flinch. He walked straight into my personal space.

The sheer weight of his aura slammed into my chest. It was not a standard Alpha's scent. The air around him smelled of ozone and crushed pine, heavy enough to make my bones ache. Lycan.

My right wrist burned. The silver totem carved into my flesh pulsed wildly, reacting to his proximity.

"She went into the woods!" Marcus yelled from the distance. "Over here!"

The stranger dropped to one knee in the freezing mud.

I froze. The tip of my knife hovered just inches from his collarbone.

He reached up and gently curled his large, calloused fingers around my right wrist. His thumb brushed the edge of the glowing silver mark.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, pulling my arm back slightly.

His grip held firm, yet completely gentle. He lowered his head and pressed his lips directly against the glowing totem. The searing heat in my veins instantly cooled, replaced by a steady, thrumming hum of pure power.

"Paying respects to my Queen," he murmured against my skin.

I stared at the top of his dark hair. "I am no Queen. I am a rogue."

He lifted his head. Those dark gold eyes locked onto mine again. "You are Elara. And you belong to my court now."

"I belong to no one."

"A poor choice of words," he corrected. "You belong with me. I am Silas."

"I do not care if you are the Lycan King himself, Silas," I said. "Release my arm."

"I am the Lycan King," he stated.

My fingers twitched on the knife hilt. The stories Elder Thorne used to read in the archives flashed through my mind. The ruling monarch of the northern territories. A ruthless warlord who slaughtered entire packs for crossing his borders.

"Then you are far from home," I told him.

"I go where the moon guides me," Silas said. "And tonight, it guided me to a shattered crown."

"You watched the whole thing," I accused him.

"I watched a Luna break her chains," Silas corrected.

"You watched a mother get rejected by her son," I shot back.

"A boy who does not know the value of the blood in his veins," Silas said. "He will learn."

"I am not looking for a tutor for my son. I am looking for an exit."

"The woods are full of rogues tonight. Your broken barrier invited them in."

"Let them come. I have a knife."

"A steel knife against a hundred starving wolves," Silas noted. "You are brave, Elara. But bravery without an army is just a quick death."

"I am my own army."

The snapping of thick branches broke our quiet exchange.

Kael burst through the pines, flanked by four pack guards. He limped heavily, his crushed hand wrapped in a bloody, makeshift bandage. Snow clung to his dark suit, and his face was pale with fury.

"There she is!" Kael shouted, spitting blood onto the white ground.

He stopped dead when he saw the massive man kneeling before me.

"Get away from her, you stray!" Kael snarled.

Silas did not even turn his head. He kept his golden eyes fixed squarely on my face.

"Will you come with me?" Silas asked, his tone entirely conversational, as if the angry Alpha behind him did not exist.

"Why should I?" I countered.

"Because I can give you the one thing Kael never could," he said.

"My family's money?"

"Vengeance."

I stared at him. The cold wind whipped my hair across my cheeks.

"I do not need a man to fight my battles," I said.

"I am not offering to fight them for you," Silas replied. "I am offering to stand beside you while you burn this pack to the ground."

"Hey!" Kael roared, stepping forward. "I am talking to you, rogue! Step away from my former mate!"

Silas finally released my wrist. He stood up slowly, his massive frame towering over me, casting a long shadow across the snow.

"I claimed her first, stray," Kael spat. "She is broken goods, but she still owes this pack her life. Move aside before I put you in the dirt."

Silas looked down at me. "Do you want him dead?"

"Not yet," I answered. "Death is too easy for him."

"Agreed." Silas extended his broad, calloused hand toward me. "Make your choice, Elara."

Behind him, Kael let out a furious battle cry. "Kill him!"

Kael raised a long-barreled hunting rifle, the metal glinting under the pale moonlight.

The chamber was already loaded with silver-powder-coated rounds.

He aimed the muzzle directly at the center of Silas's broad back.