Chapter 1 1

On the fifth day after fake princess Elena vanished, they chained me in the Moonshadow Dungeon.

Silver on wrists, ankles, throat. Bone circlet on my head. A dark moonstone in front of me, pulsing faint light, waiting to eat my memories.

Across from me sat my father, the Alpha; my mother, the Luna; and my brother Karl. All three watched me like I was some filthy stray that had wandered into their hall, not the blood daughter they’d “finally found” three years ago.

“I’ll ask one last time,” my father said. “Where is Elena?”

He crushed a letter in his hand. I knew which one. Elena’s farewell.

“I don’t know,” I said.

He flung the letter at me. It hit my face and dropped into my lap.

In it, Elena called herself a “picked-up wolf,” said she’d stolen my spot, that she was leaving to give back my parents, my brother, my home. Over and over she begged them not to blame me. Not to force me to tell them where she went.

Every line looked like she was shielding me.

Every line screamed:

She left because of me.

She left for my sake.

Her disappearance is my fault.

My mother’s voice shook. “Lia, when has Elena ever wronged you? The first day we brought you back, she stayed up all night boiling moon tea for you. She burned her hands so you’d relax in the carriage. She was always the one trying.”

I looked down at the letter.

That tea. My first cup in a noble carriage.

Also the first time I lost control like some half-feral pup.

“I really don’t know where she went,” I repeated.

Five days locked in a room. No visitors. No windows. I truly didn’t.

Karl laughed, ugly and sharp. “She doesn’t know? Of course she doesn’t.”

He stood, came closer. “Three years ago, we dragged you out of the lower packs. What have you done since? First day, you pissed yourself in the carriage like a mongrel. First week, you tore the dress Luna gave you. Later, you skipped training, smashed cups, threw Elena’s silver comb away… She’s spent three years cleaning up your mess.”

His eyes were full of disgust. “Now she disappears after writing that letter, and you still play innocent?”

He grabbed my jaw, forcing me to look up. “Lia, do you think you’re a wolf at all?”

The slap came a second later. My head snapped to the side, blood flooding my mouth.

No one stopped him.

“Karl!” my mother gasped. “What are you doing?”

My father only frowned. “Don’t break her. We still need her soul intact.”

Karl shook out his hand like he’d touched something filthy. “She’s from the lower packs. Trash is trash. We gave her food, clothes, a roof. We let her sit at Luna’s side at banquets. And she still acts like the victim.”

He sneered. “Even Elena, with no blood ties, knows how to be grateful. And you? You hoard coins like a rat, glare at everyone, and now pretend you don’t know where she went?”

I wiped the blood from my mouth with my shoulder. “I didn’t push her down the stairs,” I said quietly. “I didn’t throw her comb. I didn’t—”

“Enough,” my father cut in. “You made your choice. You’d rather lie than talk.”

He turned his head. “Witch.”

A cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows, carrying a wooden bowl. The liquid inside was thick and black, smelling bitter and sweet.

“Alpha,” she said.

“Start the Moonshadow Ritual,” he ordered. “Use her memories. I want Elena’s whereabouts. Now.”

The witch set the bowl by the moonstone. Servants poured small amounts into three silver cups and handed them to my father, mother, and Karl.

“Drink,” she said. “You’ll see what she sees. But listen—her soul can endure at most three full runs. A fourth may shatter her mind. She could lose herself. Forever.”

My mother went pale. “Then—”

“We won’t need four,” my father said. “Once we see what happened that night, we stop.”

He looked at me. His eyes were like ice. “You chose this.”

All three lifted their cups and drank.

The witch came to me, placed her hand on the bone circlet. “Close your eyes,” she murmured. “Don’t fight it.”

I stared at my parents and brother. All three had their eyes shut, waiting to watch my sins.

I laughed once, barely a sound, and obeyed.

Cold rushed into my skull. The world tilted.

“First,” the witch whispered, “we go back to the day you returned. To the carriage. To the first time she called you sister.”

When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in the dungeon.

I was sitting in a moving carriage.

Opposite me, Elena smiled, a porcelain cup of steaming moon tea in her bandaged hands.