Chapter 1

On the seventh turning of our Lunar Oath, I sat on my Alpha's lap, my hand resting on my flat stomach where our first pup was growing. I was waiting for midnight to tell him.

Then he spoke to his warriors in the Old Tongue.

"My new shadow-pet, Lirael... she tastes like an unplucked sweet-vine in the dark."

He was talking about my own sister.

While my mate smiled at me, playing the devoted Alpha, he had already ruined our sacred bond. And when my sister showed up at our gates claiming she carried his heir, I didn't scream, cry, or beg for the truth.

I just smiled.

Three days.

In three sunsets, Seren Thalyn will cease to exist.

By the time he breached his safe to find my wedding ring and my signed severance scroll, I would already be gone.

...

The faint, rhythmic thrum of the blood-seed crystal warmed my thigh through the silk of my gown. It was an undeniable magical pulse confirming I was finally carrying the Alpha's pup. Tonight marked the seventh turning of our Lunar Oath, and as I shifted atop Kaelen Voss's lap, letting my lips map the familiar hardness of his jawline, I savored the thought of revealing my pregnancy at midnight.

Rook Hale, the Coven's highest-ranking Beta, leaned across the table. His eyes glinted with feral amusement as a barrage of guttural clicks and rolling vowels spilled over his fangs. It was the Old Tongue.

"Our Alpha's new shadow-pet... Lirael," Rook purred. "How sweet does she taste in the dark?"

Kaelen's chest vibrated with a rumbling chuckle. "Like an unplucked sweet-vine," my mate answered in the same ancient dialect. His hand continued to trace the curve of my spine with possessive ease. "But keep your muzzles clamped shut. If my Luna catches the scent of this, my hide is forfeit."

Approving growls and the heavy clinking of flagons echoed his decree.

They were fools. Kaelen's recent descent into lust had apparently blinded him to my heritage; my grandmother was born of an ancient forest lineage. The Old Tongue had been my cradle-song. Every wretched, filthy syllable registered in my mind, severing the mating bond that tethered my soul to his, inch by agonizing inch.

I forced my inner wolf into submission, locking her devastated howls behind the serene, untouchable smile expected of the Luna. My hands shook. Sliding them out of sight beneath the table, I activated my Spirit-Comm Crystal. A runic invitation from the Ember Spire glowed in the crystal's depths—a secluded sanctuary dedicated to the study of ancient creature healing. Skipping any hesitation, I pressed my magical signature against the 'Accept' glyph.

Three sunsets. That was all it would take to vanish from Kaelen Voss's territory forever.

A calloused thumb brushed my bottom lip, wiping away a stray smear of crimson wine. "My sweet Luna, you haven't touched your moon-fruit," Kaelen murmured.

The raw devotion swimming in his eyes made my stomach twist violently. To pivot so seamlessly from discussing my sister's body with his warriors to playing the fiercely protective mate—it was a horrifying display of deception.

"I am fine," I lied, schooling my features. "I was only curious. What were you and the warriors discussing with such intensity?"

Kaelen's fangs flashed in a doting smile as he tweaked my cheek. "Merely a squabble over enchanted armaments with the northern packs. You despise the realities of bloodshed, my love, so we spared your ears by using the ancient dialect."

The suffocating aroma of roasting meat and cloying mead abruptly became too much to bear. I stood up, severing our physical contact. "Continue your duties, Alpha. I require the night air."

I didn't wait for his permission. Gliding through the grand hall of Moonstone Manor, I ignored the envious murmurs of the lower-ranking mated females.

"Look at our Luna... The Alpha spoils his Luna with such a magnificent festival..."

Yesterday, those whispers would have stoked my pride. Now, my chest felt hollowed out. None of these admiring wolves knew what a monster lurked beneath Kaelen's devoted facade.

The truth had already begun to fracture my reality the previous afternoon. Slipping past the lethal wards of his private Alpha den to leave a celebratory token on his desk, my heightened senses had instantly snagged on something foul. The cheap, acrid floral oils my sister Lirael favored had been smeared across the heavy pelts of Kaelen's chair, completely overwhelming the room. A wolf's nose does not lie; standing in that sanctum, I realized my seven-year mating tether had been rotting from the inside out.

A sharp pulse of magic at my waist pulled me back to the present. The crystalline voice of Mage-Scholar Elowen Veyra resonated directly in my mind through the encrypted runic link.

"Seren, the registry reflects your acceptance. It has been agonizing watching you waste your brilliant healing affinity for the Lunar Coven. I am overjoyed you are returning to your true path. An ethereal carriage will arrive at the border wards in three nights. Use this time to bid your kin farewell."

At the mention of 'kin,' my claws involuntarily unsheathed, slicing crescent moons into my own palms in the darkness. When a brutal pack war took my parents five years ago, Kaelen became my entire universe. After tonight, I was utterly orphaned once more.

"There is no one left to say goodbye to, Mage-Scholar," I projected back. "Please elevate my clearance to the Cross-Covenant Conclave. I need my aura masked, my scent-trails burned, and all public records of my wolf bloodline annihilated."

Elowen gasped through the tether. "Why? Truncating those ley-lines means Seren Thalyn will cease to exist. Kaelen is a lethal, territorial beast—he will tear the continent apart in a feral frenzy when he realizes you are gone."

"He will not care," I scoffed bitterly. "He fractured our bond first. He betrayed me."

Tears pricked my vision against the cold wind. Walking away from the enclave all those years ago, I had reduced my sacred healing arts to nothing more than purging liquid silver from Kaelen's veins and stitching his torn flesh after territorial conquests. I bled my own potential dry for a male who gave me nothing but lies.

Heavy silence dragged on the other end of the crystal before Elowen sighed in resignation. "I sensed a disturbance in your aura yesterday. Goddess above... Very well, child. I shall weave the supreme concealment wards myself. Conclude your affairs by the third night."

A suffocating weight lifted off my lungs. With the Conclave's ancient magic shielding my scent, I wouldn't have to fight my way out of this iron-clad territory.

"Thank you, Elowen."

The mental connection severed. I closed my eyes, but a massive silhouette blotted out the moonlight before me. The crushing, dominant aura of the Alpha flooded the terrace, paralyzing my limbs.

"My sweet Luna," Kaelen's deep, velvety growl brushed the shell of my ear, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. "Who exactly was betrayed?"