Chapter 2

At Hawthorne Manor, Damon treated Selene like a fated mate from the old stories.

Everything she needed, he provided. Scent balms for her anxiety. Silver-nettle salves for the shallow cuts on her palms. A private suite overlooking the eastern woods. The pack whispered that she would be their future Luna.

When he visited, Selene smiled. She let him settle blankets around her and accepted every gift, though she still asked me to stay close.

"Mira," she said one afternoon, her fingers twisting together. "What if the Council refuses to let Damon mate me? I'm just a Beta. My family pack is gone."

I knelt beside her, smoothing the hem of her gown. "Selene, Damon is the Alpha. He'll find a way."

She was a Beta. Her father had led the Silvermane Pack before the attack that killed her parents and scattered its survivors years ago. Now someone was hunting the survivors too.Her father had led the Silvermane Pack until the night it was destroyed, and someone was still hunting its survivors. Selene had nowhere safe to return to. Damon's family expected him to choose a high-ranking she-wolf, preferably an Alpha's daughter.

But I knew better than anyone how stubborn he could be.

"Really?" Selene loosened her grip on her gown."Really?" Selene's fingers stopped twisting.

I nodded. "Really."

I wasn't lying. In my past life, Damon had fought the entire Council to claim me—a woman he believed was a Beta. The attack had left gaps in my memory; I hadn't known enough to correct him. He had taken lashes for me. Challenged his own uncle. I had reason to believe he could overcome the Council for Selene too. Whether that would make her happy was another question.a woman he believed was a Beta. In that life, the rogue attack had left gaps in my memory, and I hadn't known enough to correct him. He had taken lashes for me. Challenged his own uncle. He could do the same for Selene.

The door opened. Damon strode in carrying a velvet-lined box. He opened it to reveal a cloak—midnight black, trimmed with white wolf furtrimmed with white snow-lynx fur, thick enough for a northern winter.

"For you," he said, draping it over Selene's shoulders.

She gasped, running her fingers over the fur. "This is… Damon, this must have cost a fortune."

He smiled, that rare, private smile I remembered too well. "I hunted the wolf myself. Killed it on the northern ridge.I hunted the lynx myself. Took it on the northern ridge."

Selene laughed with delight. I looked away.

In another life, Damon had shown me that cloak's twin. He had rolled up his sleeve to reveal the scar on his wrist—a claw mark from the same hunt—and I had cried when I accepted it.

Now I kept my eyes on the floor. But when I glanced up, he was staring at me.

His dark eyes lingered on my face for a heartbeat too long.

A chill went through me.

Later, as I escorted him to the main hall, his good humor vanished. His voice dropped to a low growl, barely audible. "Don't reach for what isn't yours, Mira."

I kept my head bowed. "I wouldn't dream of it, Alpha."

He didn't respond. Just left.

I waited until he was gone before lifting my head. I hadn't asked for his gifts or his attention.I hadn't asked for his attention. Whatever he suspected, I had no intention of competing with Selene for him.

The next morning, I asked Selene for my freedom.

"My brother is alive," I told her. "He wrote to me. I want to leave after your mating ceremony. Find my own pack."

There was no letter. I knew where my brother might be because of my first life, but I hadn't contacted him yet. I needed a reason Selene could understand without asking about memories I couldn't explain.There was no letter. I only knew where my brother might be because of my first life, and I couldn't explain that to Selene.

Selene was quiet for a long moment. Then she nodded, her eyes wet. "You saved my life, Mira. I won't trap you here." She handed me a folded document—my servitude contract, with her signed release at the bottom.

I pressed it to my chest. "Thank you."

"But stay until I'm settled," she added. "Please. I trust no one else."

I agreed. I folded the release into my pocket. A short stay, I told myself. Long enough for her to settle in, then I would go.

Damon grew busy after that. Pack politics. Territory disputes. He visited Selene less often.

One evening, Selene handed me a lidded ceramic crock of hot stew wrapped in a thick cloth. "Take this to him. He's been skipping meals."

I hesitated.

"Mira, please." She bit her lip. "The household staff are all his grandmother's spies. You're the only one I trust."

I took the crock.

At Damon's study door, I offered the crock to his Beta guard. He left it in my hands and called inside, "Alpha! Mira's here with your dinner."

I winced.

A long pause. Then: "Tell her to wait."

I waited. The crock grew heavy in my arms. My muscles ached. Twenty minutes passed. Thirty.

Finally, the guard waved me in.

Damon sat by the window, cleaning a hunting knife beside a wolf skull on his deskbeside a stag skull on his desk. He didn't look up. "Set it down."

I crossed the room. Before I could set the crock down, he stood and knocked it from my hands. The stew splashed across the floor. Shards of ceramic scattered.

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped his fingers, and smiled coldly. "I warned you, Mira. Don't reach."

I stared at the mess. At the cut on my palm where a shard had nicked me. I closed my eyes.

When I opened them, my voice was steady. "The stew was from Selene, Alpha. She worried you weren't eating."

Damon froze.

I knelt and gathered the pieces without waiting for permission. As I turned to leave, he grabbed my wrist.

He looked at the cut, then toward the open door. He shoved a small jar into my hands. "Healing salve," he muttered. "Put it on that cut. I won't have Selene asking why your hand is bleeding."

I took it without thanks and walked out.

In the hallway, I pressed my forehead to the cool stone wall and breathed.

I waited until my hands stopped shaking before going back to Selene.