After I was captured by the werewolves of the Ashenfang Pack, I sent my future mate, Lachlan, ninety-nine encrypted distress messages.

He deleted them all and severed our mind-link.

"After Rhiannon injured Cora with a silver weapon, I sent her back to her family's territory—and I sent my most elite guards to escort her. The Ashenfang Pack couldn't have possibly touched her." He took a sharp breath. "I only gave the moonstone necklace to Cora. That's all. And now Rhiannon is making a scene again, just to get my attention. How pathetic."

He paced irritably.

"Cora's brother died protecting my father. He was my father's most trusted warrior, and I swore I'd protect her in his place. Tell Rhiannon—no matter what tantrum she throws, I will not abandon Cora. If she keeps this up, I'll postpone our bonding ceremony."

Three days later, he arrived at my family's territory, holding the bonding sigil, ready to bond with me.

At that exact moment, an emissary from the Ashenfang Pack delivered an exquisite silver box.

Lachlan glanced at it and breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like the peace offering has arrived. All that drama for nothing."

The lid opened.

Inside was—

My head.

The manor's mourning bells began to toll.

Slow. Heavy. Final.

The doors to the Hall of Ancestors parted. The Great Elder emerged, dressed in dark robes, his face solemn.

"Lady Rhiannon Sinclair has returned her soul to the Moon Goddess. The funeral will begin immediately."

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1

"Alpha, an urgent encrypted message from Lady Sinclair. Three days ago, on her way back to her family's territory, she was captured by werewolves from the Ashenfang Pack. Their Alpha is demanding a ransom."

Lachlan Sterling's Beta, Ronan, stood pale-faced, the communicator in his hand trembling. "This is the ninety-ninth distress message she has sent. You're not even going to look?"

Lachlan sneered and deleted the message. "Seeking attention again. Ignore it. The Sinclair territory borders Ashenfang—true—but a few roving patrols aren't enough to start a war. Captured? Does she take me for a fool?"

Ronan swallowed hard, daring to press on. "These messages are coming from Ashenfang territory. They're real."

"Enough."

Lachlan shattered his wine glass. Shards of crystal scattered across the floor. "She's blinded by jealousy. I was just kind to the sister of a loyal warrior, and she attacks Cora for it."

"If she had truly encountered Ashenfang wolves, she would have escaped long ago. How could she possibly be caught? I sent my most elite guards to escort her. Capture was impossible."

By then, my head had already been severed by the Ashenfang Alpha's silver blade. We had not yet formally bonded, so our mind-link wasn't strong, and Lachlan couldn't sense my death.

But my soul had returned to the Sterling Pack.

I floated above them, listening to Lachlan's certainty, and let out a faint, bitter laugh.

He seemed to have forgotten one thing.

He had given Cora Shaw his Alpha's sigil, a token of authority equal to his own.

Before the entire pack, he had declared: "Cora Shaw's word is my word. Anyone who defies her will be executed."

Wielding this sigil, she dismissed all the guards he had assigned to me. When I crossed the border into the Sinclair territory, I had only one loyal guardian by my side.

Before dusk, the werewolves of the Ashenfang Pack captured us.

One of them muttered carelessly, "This is the Sterling Pack's future Luna? How come she doesn't have a single guard? Was our intel wrong?"

My route had been leaked. That was the only answer.

So, was it Cora?

That day, my followers fell one by one, their bodies forming a barrier between me and the enemy's claws.

As we fled, my handmaiden pulled me into a thicket of bushes. She threw on my cloak and ran toward the border in my place.

Silver-tipped arrows pursued her, striking her until her body was riddled with them, like a pincushion.

I watched them die, one after another. My heart was torn apart. And I could do nothing.

Soon after, the Alpha of the Ashenfang Pack, Silas Thorne, captured me himself.

"Oh, look at this," he said, his eyes raking over me, a cruel glint in them. "A little abandoned thing. How do you want to die? By silver arrow, or kneeling on the executioner's block?"

I choked down my fear. "You can't do this to me. I am the fated mate of the Sterling Pack's Alpha—Lachlan. Kill me, and you're declaring war."

"Oh?" he sneered. "The Alpha's mate? You look more like an outcast. I'll give you one chance. Prove it. If you're truly the future Luna, I might just let you live."

He allowed a messenger to carry my encrypted messages.

But the distress calls I sent went unanswered.

"Shameless liar," Silas Thorne spat. "You know the price for deceiving me."

He ordered me to be hung by silver chains in the center of their territory for three days and three nights.

Every day, I begged the messenger to take one more message.

Not a single one was answered.

On the morning of the fourth day, as the first rays of sunlight touched my face, he gave the order. My head was severed from my body with a silver blade.

They placed it in an exquisite silver box and gave it to the messenger.

"Deliver this to Alpha Lachlan personally. Tell him we've disposed of the liar who tried to deceive us."

My body was thrown into the barren borderlands.

My family's old steward, who had been searching for me relentlessly, finally found my headless corpse there and brought me back to the Sinclair manor.

After Lachlan deleted my ninety-ninth distress message, no more came.

The Full Moon Celebration was approaching. Every year, I would make him a gift with my own hands.

This year, his gift for me was ready.

Mine would never be delivered.

He grew restless.

He believed I had shoved Cora onto a silver-laced dagger—all for a moonstone necklace meant exclusively for a mate. In a fit of rage, he had sent me back to my family's territory.

He felt no guilt. In fact, he even considered himself merciful for sending his most elite guards to escort me home.

Now his subordinates were saying it was Cora who had dismissed that guard in his name.

He must have been thinking: Ridiculous. Cora might be bold, trading on my favor, but she's gentle by nature. She'd never do something like that.

In his eyes, I was petty and jealous. The kind of woman who would fake ninety-nine messages just to get his attention.

Lachlan threw the gift he had prepared for me onto the table, his face dark. "Rhiannon, Rhiannon… when will you ever grow up?"

My soul hovered above him. My body was long gone, but the pain remained.

Cora resented me. She loved to take what was mine. Lachlan would only say she was young—that I should indulge her.

So I did.

Time and time again.

I never thought she would reach for the sigil meant for his mate.

I refused her, and she snatched the moonstone necklace—then threw herself onto the silver dagger.

Lachlan helped her up from the floor. The disappointment in his eyes when he looked at me was palpable.

"It was wrong of Cora to covet your necklace. But how could you be so petty? To injure her with silver over such a small matter? If you had just given it to her, none of this would have happened. How can you ever be the Luna of this pack with a heart that small?"

So, the girl who stole from me—and used his Alpha's sigil as she pleased—she was fit to be the Luna of the Sterling Pack?

That day, he ordered me to kneel and apologize to Cora.

I refused.

Even when he compelled me with his Alpha command, I did not bow my head.

He sneered and said, "Letting a petty woman like you into my life was the biggest mistake I've ever made."

His words pierced my chest like a silver-laced blade.

When he banished me back to my own territory, I didn't argue. I packed nothing. I walked out of the headquarters in silence, the guards following behind me.

My heart had already shattered.

The Full Moon Celebration arrived.

Lachlan still hadn't received my gift.

He summoned a messenger and thrust an order into his hand. "Tell Rhiannon to come back. This has gone on long enough. Her birthday is in three days. We'll hold the bonding ceremony then."

The messenger set off for the Sinclair family's territory.

My family's territory bordered Ashenfang, but it was close to the headquarters. He returned in less than half a day, his face etched with unease.

"Alpha, Lady Sinclair refused the order. She said… unless you go to her yourself, she will never forgive you."

My soul floated above them, cold and numb.

I saw Cora's servants intercept the messenger just as he was leaving the headquarters' gates.

They spoke in low voices for a long time.

Then the messenger turned right back around—he never even made it to the Sinclair territory.

If he had gone, he would have seen the manor shrouded in mourning, my funeral already being prepared.

My family's old steward had already brought my body home.

All except for my head.

Lachlan knew nothing of this.

The messenger's lie ignited his fury.

"If she won't come back, then let her stay in her own territory."

The next morning, Cora burst into Lachlan's office, covered in blood mixed with moonpetal herbs.

"Alpha, I failed… I angered Rhiannon. She sent people to kill me. Don't blame her, it's all my fault."

Lachlan's eyes blazed with fire. He pulled her into his arms.

"Where is the healer? Go, now! If anything happens to Cora, none of you will live!"

Then, his face turned to ice.

"Bring me Rhiannon. Immediately. If she doesn't come and beg Cora for forgiveness, I will publicly desecrate the Sinclair family's sacred relic—the 'Ancestral Fang'."

The Ancestral Fang. The relic left by my father, Declan, the late leader of the Sinclair family.

I watched him, hollow.

Even as a soul, a tremor of anguish shook me.

But I was already dead.

How was I supposed to go and beg for forgiveness?

This time, the messenger did not linger. He galloped toward the Sinclair family's territory without stopping.

He returned with my mother, Eleonora.