Chapter 3

I wiped the blood from my cheek and stared at him.

The night breeze carried Seren’s white-flower scent from his clothes.

“Marry whom?”

His eyes dropped.

He did not answer.

I laughed without humor.

“It’s stained.”

The mantle was stained.

The promises were stained.

Whatever I had once believed existed between us was stained too.

He looked away,suddenly uncomfortable beneath my stare.

“Then send it to the pack weavers.It is ceremonial clothing.You cannot simply burn it.”

When he noticed how empty the room had become,his tone changed.

“I don’t have time to make you another one.You have always been wild and difficult.”

Wild?

Maybe I was.

I was Moonwolf’s youngest heir.If I had not spent a thousand years cutting pieces off myself for him,I would have been allowed to be as difficult as I pleased.

Together,we watched the mantle collapse into ash.

We would never wear it together.

At least we could watch it burn together.

Another thousand years of foolish hope seemed to turn to gray powder with it.

“Take care of Seren,”I said.“That matters more.I can arrange the rest myself.”

I turned to leave.

Perhaps I was too calm,because Rhydian suddenly caught me and pulled me into his arms.

“Wren,Seren is different from you.She lost her father.She has been having nightmares.I have neglected you because I needed to settle her here.”

I laughed,and tears came with it.

Different?

Here,I was the nameless orphan with no pack.

Seren carried the name of a fallen war hero.No one in Nightfall dared make her lower her head.

When Rhydian saw my tears,his voice softened into something that sounded painfully like the wolf I used to know.

“Wren,ask me for anything.Just stop crying.You know I can’t stand it when you cry.”

Maybe he had never been completely without feeling for me.

But my decision was already made.

I steadied myself and asked for one last thing.

“My fireplum wine is ready.Will you drink one cup with me tomorrow?”

Maelis loved wine,so I had learned to brew it well.This batch had originally been meant for the day I married.

I was leaving soon.

I did not want to waste it.

Unease flashed through Rhydian’s usually cold eyes,but it vanished the moment Seren’s attendant arrived saying her chest hurt.

“I’ll have the kitchens prepare a small feast,”he said.“I promise I’ll come.I also have something to announce.”

Before he had even finished the sentence,the edge of his black coat had disappeared through the door.

I reached after him and caught nothing.

Seren’s chest did not hurt.

She simply could not bear to see me have one peaceful evening with him.

A small feast was fine.

Every beginning deserved an ending.

Word of the Alpha’s feast spread through Nightfall almost immediately.Everyone assumed Rhydian was finally going to give me a formal place beside him.

The next day,I waited from sunrise until sunset.

Wolves came to watch whether the nameless stray would finally rise above her station.

Rhydian never appeared.

By dusk,the looks around me had changed from envy to mockery.

Seren arrived last.

“Rhydian took me to the lake today,”she said lightly.“He is tired from the journey.Why don’t I drink in his place?”

So that was where he had gone.

He had used my humiliation as the price of giving Seren a pleasant day.

Before I could stop her,Seren lifted Rhydian’s cup and drank.

A moment later,blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.

She clutched her chest and collapsed.

I had not even taken one full breath before Rhydian stormed through the garden gate.

His dominance hit me with the force of an Alpha command and drove me backward into the stone.Blood filled my mouth.

“Your heart is vicious enough without poisoning her too.”

He did not ask what had happened.

He did not let me speak.

He lifted Seren into his arms and turned toward Garran,the captain of the outer gate.

“Bind her wolf.Take her beyond the boundary and teach her what happens when she disrespects Lady Seren.”

I tried to explain.

“The cup was untouched until she picked it up.Search her cloak.Search the garden.”

Garran blocked my path.

“A servant giving orders to a captain?”

His palm slammed into my chest and stole the rest of my words.

Then his claws raked across my face.

Pain tore through my skin.

He seemed to enjoy how helpless I was.He struck me again and again until blood soaked through my clothes.

Finally,he crouched beside me and tapped my cheek.

“Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of.Keep talking and I’ll leave you to the border rogues.”

He threw me into the snow beyond Nightfall’s boundary.

I lay there through the night.

By dawn,I could no longer feel my hands.

Then gold light moved beneath my skin.

The hundred-year price had been paid.

The first Moon Mark returned as a spark beneath my collarbone.

The second restored warmth to my blood.

The third eased the pain in my lungs.

One after another,the remaining marks awakened.

When the ninth returned,heat rolled from my body and melted the snow beneath me.

My wolf tore free in a burst of red-gold light.

Bones shifted.

Old wounds sealed.

The weak servant body disappeared beneath crimson fur marked with nine silver crescent lines along my shoulders.

The Moonborn sigil burned bright across my brow.

I rose on four paws and howled.

The sound crossed the entire valley.

Every wolf in Nightfall heard it.

When I walked openly through the outer road in my true form,alarm bells began to ring across the territory.

Guards rushed to the gates.

Then they saw the Moonborn sigil and stopped.

I shifted back before them.

Blood still darkened my torn dress,but the mark of Moonwolf’s ruling bloodline shone on my skin.

Rhydian appeared above the gate last.

His face went white.

“You are Nyla Solmere.”

“I always was.”

I walked away before he could say anything else.

Behind me,Nightfall’s bells rang three times.

The guards whispered that Rhydian had ordered every road,den,and border crossing searched.

The Alpha was looking for a missing wolf...