My Mother's Blood, His Pack's Ruin

"Miss Thornwood, we've found a body in the wildlands. The features match your mother's. We need you to come and identify her."

My smile, reflected in the mirror of the ceremonial-robe den, shattered with a single call across the sending-stone.

The Healer's morgue reeked of wolfsbane and something older, something that clung to the cold stone walls like a confession no one wanted to hear. When they pulled back the shroud, her body was barely recognizable. Her eyes, gone. Her organs, ripped out like she'd been nothing more than game dragged down by a starving pack. The scent that should have been hers, silver cherry-blossom and warm hearthsmoke and clean linen left in the sun, had been hollowed out of her, leaving only blood and rot.

I collapsed, a scream tearing from my throat as the world turned black. Deep inside me, my wolf threw back her head and howled a sound I had never made before.

When I came to, my intended mate, Lucan Bloodfang, was sitting by my side in the dim Healing Hall. He gently wiped away my tears and pressed his lips to my forehead with the tenderness of a man who'd rehearsed the gesture.

"We caught the bastard who did it," he whispered against my skin. "I made sure… he paid for what he did to your mother."

He swore that, for the rest of his life, he'd love and protect me the way she used to.

But that night, jolted awake by another nightmare, my mother's hollowed face swimming behind my eyelids, I caught something outside the bedchamber. A scent that didn't belong. Through the crack in the door, golden lamplight spilled across Lucan's back as he held my half-sister, Mirella Thornwood, in his arms. Her scent reached me first, overripe jasmine with sweet rot beneath it, and my wolf rose under my skin with a low, suspicious growl I had to swallow down.

She was sobbing into his chest, her whole body trembling like a wounded animal.

"If she ever finds out the truth… she'll kill me."

Lucan cupped her face, gentle as ever, gentler than he'd ever been with me.

"Hey, it's not your fault. You didn't know those wolves were slavers. You're a victim too."

The chill in my bones cut deeper than any winter wind off the coast. I could hardly breathe.

So this was it. My mother died… because of Mirella. And the man who swore to protect me was shielding her.

Lucan finally sent Mirella away, the heavy oak door clicking shut behind her, and turned around, only to see me, collapsed on the cold stone floor like a broken doll.

His expression flickered, guilt, frustration, then hardened into something I didn't recognize.

"So you heard everything?"

His tone turned cold, like I was the problem. Like I was the inconvenience.

"Don't blame Mirella. Your mother got greedy, okay? She kept pestering Mirella to help her trade for territory rights. She brought this on herself."

He tossed a blank Blood Oath parchment on the table like it meant nothing. The page landed with a whisper that echoed like a slap.

"Write whatever claim you want. But forget what you've heard. Let's pretend nothing happened for now. The Mating Ceremony is in five nights. We'll go through with it, peacefully."

I stared at the man who once swore he'd love me for the rest of his life. Now, he felt like a stranger wearing a familiar face.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

If my mating was doomed to become my mother's funeral, then five nights from now… I'd return the favor, with interest.

……

I said nothing. He grew impatient, yanking the leather cord from his throat and tossing it on the nightstand with barely concealed irritation.

"If you get it, then go to sleep."

But something snapped in me. The grief, the rage, it all poured out, raw and shaking, like blood from a wound that refused to close.

"Pretend? Are you fucking serious?!"

"You knew. You knew my mother was the only family I had. And you knew how much it meant to her to see me robed before the Moon Goddess. And Mirella fucking destroyed it!"

Did he really not understand why my mother was desperate to earn her place?

The Bloodfang Pack had looked down on us from the start. His parents, Alpha-Patriarch Mordecai and Luna Vesper Bloodfang, barely tolerated my presence at their table. To them, I was the daughter of an Omega servant, no matter that my mother had once saved their precious pup-heir's life. And my mother, Goddess, she tried so hard to make me worthy in their eyes. That's why she went to Mirella, thinking maybe this time, things would be different. Maybe blood would finally mean something.

I could still hear the arbiter's voice in my head: "Your mother tracked those wolves down to try and get her share back. She didn't know they were part of a rogue slaver-pack, the flesh trade. They carved her up and took everything they could sell."

I couldn't stop crying. Each word came out like a blade. "If it weren't for Mirella and her mother, none of this would've happened. All I want is justice for my mother, and you want to keep me from that?"

"Enough, Selene!" Lucan barked, his face suddenly dark as a storm rolling in off the sea, and for an instant his alpha aura pressed down on the room like a hand at the back of my neck. "Mirella was conned too. She lost everything. And you? Instead of showing any compassion, you've been running around the territory telling everyone she's your father's baseborn whelp. Do you even have a heart?"

"Compassion?" I let out a hollow, bitter laugh that scraped my throat raw. "What about my mother? She died in the most horrific way imaginable!"

"She died because she got greedy and made stupid choices," he scoffed, his lip curling back from his teeth in contempt. "Mirella had nothing to do with it. Don't even think about laying a finger on her."

His voice was frost-edged now, sharp enough to draw blood. I shook from the inside out. My wolf paced behind my ribs, hackles up, snarling at the wrongness of his scent, scorched oak and copper and the sour note of ash gone cold.

I gripped the front of my silk nightgown like it would hold my chest together, like it could keep my heart from spilling out onto the floor. The pale stone blurred under the torrent of my tears.

"Lucan," I whispered. "Have you forgotten? When you were snatched, when that rival pack dragged you off our hunting grounds, who risked everything to save you? Who fought off those wolves with her bare hands until your father's warriors arrived?"

"And what about the day she lay in that Healing Hall, broken and bleeding, and you knelt at her side and swore before the Moon Goddess you'd never hurt me? That you'd take care of me for the rest of your life? That was a blood debt, Lucan. A sacred oath of blood. And you swore on your bloodline's honor."

His jaw clenched, his expression hardening into granite. "Don't throw ancient history in my face. I've given you and your mother everything for years, food, shelter, a place in this den, respect you never earned. Whatever debt I had, I paid it off a long time ago."

Then, as if to twist the knife deeper, he let out a bitter laugh.

"This is about gold moons, isn't it?"

He flicked the parchment at me again. The edge sliced across my cheek, drawing a thin line of blood that dripped onto the pristine pale stone. I caught the scent of my own blood in the air, and my wolf went very still.

I bit down hard, fists clenched until my nails bit like claws into my palms. "I don't want your moon-credits. I want Mirella held accountable for what she's done."

He chuckled, a smug little breath through his nose, the sound of a wolf who'd never been told no. "Go ahead. Let's see which bound advocate is dumb enough to take that case and face the Bloodfang Pack before any Council in these territories."

"Know your place." His eyes narrowed, cold and reptilian. "I won't have a hysterical lunatic as my Luna. This ends now."

His crystal communicator chimed. He glanced at the surface, and just like that, his face lit up like a pup at the Blood Moon feast.

"A gift? From you? That's so thoughtful. Honestly, those packmates only swore on because of you."

"What? No carriage? Don't worry, I'm coming to fetch you right now. Just stay put, bella."

He didn't even look back at me as he walked out, his footsteps echoing down the corridor like a death knell.

I stared at the door as it closed behind him. My tears burned down my cheeks like acid.

Fine. If this is how it's going to be, so be it.

I just stood there, staring after the man I used to love, tears searing tracks down my face. Fine. If that's how he wanted to play it, then so be it.

I turned to pack my belongings, my hands steady despite the trembling in my chest. But then the sending-stone hummed again.

"Miss Thornwood," the arbiter's bound advocate said cheerfully, his voice dripping with false courtesy, "since you've withdrawn the claim in your mother's case, the Council is closing the investigation. Just letting you know."

The link went dead.

I hadn't withdrawn anything.