Wrenna Voss's POV

Three months after Sela dragged me out of the river gorge, the Silvermoon war room smelled of bitter tobacco and wet iron.

"We hold the northern ridge." Maric slammed his massive fist onto the edge of the sand table, rattling the wooden blocks. "We fortify the perimeter. If we push out, we stretch our lines too thin."

I leaned against the heavy oak doorframe, crossing my arms over my chest. "If you hold the ridge, Maric, you bleed this pack dry in a week."

Maric spun around. He was the senior border commander, twice my size, a jagged scar splitting his left eyebrow. He glared at me.

"You have been here twelve weeks, amnesiac," Maric spat. "You do not know the terrain. You do not know these rogues."

I pushed off the doorframe and walked straight to the table. I did not care who I was before. I refused to ask Sela about the Luna mark on my neck. I only cared about proving I belonged in this room right now.

"I know a siege when I see one," I said, grabbing the cluster of blue wooden blocks Maric had positioned at the top of the sand ridge. "They attack in waves every night. They are not trying to breach your walls. They are trying to exhaust your night patrols."

"They want the high ground," Maric argued, stepping into my space. "If we surrender the elevation, they rain hell down on the main compound."

"Let them take the high ground," I said.

I swept the blue blocks backward, clearing the ridge completely.

"Are you insane?" Maric demanded, his voice echoing off the stone walls.

"Watch the board," I ordered, dropping a handful of red enemy flags into the newly emptied space. "You give them the ridge. The moment they set up camp, they need food. They need weapons. Their supply line has to cross the narrow gorge at Viper's Pass."

I grabbed a single black block and slammed it down on the carved sand gorge.

"You send a strike team to choke the pass," I said, looking up to meet Maric's furious gaze. "You cut off their rations. You starve them out in three days. When they get desperate and try to retreat, you crush them in the bottleneck."

Jaxon, the Beta, leaned over the table. He stared at the arrangement, his brow furrowing. "It is a massive risk. If they break through the pass, they flank us."

"They won't break through," I insisted. "They are impatient."

Jaxon reached into his coat pocket and tossed a blood-stained object onto the sand. "Scouts pulled this off a dead rogue at the border this morning."

I stared at the item.

A thick, braided red leather cord.

My stomach dropped. The war room faded for a fraction of a second. The smell of bitter tobacco vanished, replaced by the heavy scent of freezing rain and wet fur.

Thirty thousand gold coins.

The voice ripped through my skull, sharp and cruel, belonging to a massive gray wolf. I saw a flash of crimson silk. An umbrella spinning in the storm.

I blinked hard, digging my fingernails into my palms to force the memory away. I did not know the context, but the red cord meant death.

"They wear these tied tight around their throats," Jaxon said, oblivious to my reaction.

"They are not normal rogues," I said, my voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "They are organized. Mercenaries."

Maric scoffed, crossing his thick arms. "All the more reason to keep our walls manned. We do not abandon our defenses for a mercenary trap."

Cassian stepped out of the shadows.

He had not spoken a single word for twenty minutes. He wore a dark wool coat, his broad shoulders filling the space as he approached the table. The Alpha of Silvermoon looked at the red flags on the ridge, then shifted his cold steel eyes to me.

"We execute Wrenna's plan," Cassian ordered.

Maric stiffened. "Alpha. She wants to abandon our primary defense line."

"She wants to win," Cassian corrected. His tone left absolutely no room for debate. "Assemble the strike team, Maric. Choke the pass."

Maric ground his teeth together. "Yes, Alpha."

Fourteen hours later, the war room remained suffocatingly quiet.

I paced the length of the floorboards, my boots avoiding the creaking planks. The oil lamps flickered, casting long shadows across the sand table. If the mercenaries broke the bottleneck, Silvermoon would lose its entire northern flank. And it would be my fault.

The heavy oak doors burst open.

Mud-spattered scouts marched in, their faces smeared with dirt and sweat. Maric followed them. His leather armor was severely dented, coated in thick black blood.

Cassian stood at the head of the table, his expression unreadable. "Report."

Maric stopped at the edge of the sand table. He looked down at the wooden blocks, then up at me. His jaw worked, tightening and releasing twice before he spoke.

"The pass was a bottleneck, exactly as she predicted," Maric announced, his rough voice carrying across the silent room. "They starved. When they tried to retreat down the gorge, we crushed their vanguard. We took zero casualties."

A heavy sigh of relief escaped Jaxon's lips.

Maric stepped around the table, stopping directly in front of me. He did not glare. The hostility in his eyes had completely vanished.

The massive commander dropped to one knee, bowing his head.

"Strategist," Maric said.

A low murmur of approval rippled through the gathered scouts. Jaxon nodded at me, a rare smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. The validation rushed through my veins, hot and undeniable. I did not need a past. I had built a future right here on this sand table.

"Dismissed," Cassian said.

The commanders and scouts filed out quickly, their heavy footsteps fading down the corridor. The door clicked shut, sealing Cassian and me inside the dim room.

I reached over the table, gathering the red flags from the sand, my hands still buzzing with the adrenaline of the victory.

Cassian walked around the edge of the board. He stopped inches from me. The heat radiating from his chest cut through the drafty air of the war room.

I looked up, dropping the wooden flags back onto the table.

He raised his hand. His rough fingertips brushed the side of my neck, tracing the edge of the thick linen bandage I still wore.

I stiffened, but I did not pull away.

"You earned your place today," Cassian said, his voice dropping to a low, resonant rumble.

He tilted my chin up, forcing me to meet his intense gaze.

"That scar," Cassian murmured, his thumb grazing the ruined flesh beneath the linen. "It is time it healed."

Wrenna Voss's POV

"Sela can cut away the rotting flesh," Cassian said, his rough fingertips dropping from my bandaged neck. He took a measured step backward, putting cold air between us. "But she cannot heal a severed soul."

I rubbed the coarse linen at my throat. The heat of his touch lingered on my skin, sharp and entirely unexpected.

"I do not feel a soul tie," I told him, keeping my voice steady. "I do not even remember a face."

"A mate bond does not care about your memory," Cassian stated. He crossed his arms, his massive frame blocking the only exit to the war room. "It anchors deep in the marrow. Only death breaks an Alpha-level claim. If the male who bit you is still breathing, that bond is still pulling on your life force."

"Then how do I sever it?" I demanded.

"You ask the Moon Goddess." Cassian tilted his head toward the frosted window. "Tonight is the festival. The pack gathers at the Moon Stone in one hour. If your old bond survived your fall into the river, the stone will force it to answer."

"And if it did not survive?"

"Then you are a free wolf." Cassian turned the heavy iron doorknob. "Be at the courtyard."

One hour later, the rhythmic pounding of hide drums vibrated through the thick soles of my boots.

I walked through the center of the Silvermoon compound. Hundreds of wolves crowded the dirt square, their faces painted with silver ash. They parted silently as I approached. Three months ago, I was a nameless liability bleeding out on a cot. Today, I was the strategist who broke the northern siege. They respected the blood I saved.

A massive slab of jagged white quartz dominated the center of the courtyard. The Moon Stone.

Cassian stood waiting at the base of the rock. He had stripped off his heavy wool coat, wearing only a dark tunic that stretched tight across his chest. The flickering torches cast sharp angles across his jaw.

"Put your hand against the surface," Cassian ordered as I stopped beside him. "Do not pull away, no matter how much it burns."

I stepped up to the quartz. The stone hummed, emitting a faint, high-frequency vibration that rattled my teeth.

"Are you afraid?" Cassian asked, his voice dropping low enough that only I could hear.

"I am tired of carrying a ghost on my neck," I answered.

I slammed my bare palm flat against the jagged quartz.

A violent jolt of static electricity shot up my arm, sinking directly into my chest. I braced my knees, waiting for the agony. I waited for the phantom pull of a forgotten mate to rip my mind apart. I waited for the jagged scar on my neck to split open and bleed.

Nothing happened.

The static faded into a dull, comforting warmth. The thick scar tissue beneath my bandage remained entirely numb. No pull. No agonizing tether dragging me back to a life I could not remember.

I dropped my hand from the rock.

"It is gone," I whispered, staring at my empty palm.

Cassian moved closer. "You are certain?"

"The bond broke." I turned to face him, my pulse steadying. "When I fell off that cliff into the gorge, my heart must have stopped. The bond registered my death. It severed completely."

I looked up into Cassian's steel eyes.

For twelve weeks, I had analyzed this man across a sand table. I knew exactly how he deployed his scouts. I knew the precise angle of his shoulders when he prepared to order a strike. Now, standing inches from him in the torchlight, I realized something else entirely.

The old life was dead.

But my heart hammered against my ribs, loud and frantic, beating for the Alpha standing right in front of me.

"You are free," Cassian murmured, his gaze dropping to my lips before snapping back to my eyes.

"I am," I agreed, taking a half-step toward him.

The white quartz behind me erupted.

A blinding flash of silver light swallowed the courtyard. The pack gasped in unison, stumbling backward to shield their eyes.

Before I could turn around, a searing, white-hot agony exploded at the base of my skull.

I screamed, my knees buckling instantly.

Cassian caught me before I hit the dirt. His massive hands gripped my waist, hauling me up against his chest.

"Wrenna!" he shouted over the sudden roaring wind.

"My neck!" I gasped, clawing blindly at the linen bandage. "It burns!"

The heat did not feel like rotting flesh. It felt like liquid fire pouring directly into my veins, rewriting my DNA. The thick linen wrapped around my throat incinerated in a flash of silver sparks, leaving my bare skin exposed to the freezing air.

Cassian stared at the back of my neck, his pupils blown wide.

He released my waist and dropped heavily to one knee in the dirt right behind me.

"The Moon Goddess," Cassian said, his voice completely tight, rough with a fierce, undeniable awe. "She forged a new one between us."

I reached up with a trembling hand and pressed my fingertips against the burning skin of my neck.

The jagged, ruined scar of my past was gone, replaced entirely by the raised, scorching shape of a perfect silver crescent moon.