Chapter 1 Chapter 1: The Sacrificial Lamb

The silk of the wedding dress felt like cold scales against my skin. It wasn't my dress. It was never supposed to be my life.

I stared into the vanity mirror, but the girl looking back was a stranger. Heavy white lace obscured my features, a delicate shroud for a living ghost. Behind me, the sound of my father’s pacing was the only thing filling the silence of the Alpha’s private study. Thump. Turn. Thump. Turn. Every step he took felt like a nail being driven into the coffin of my freedom.

"She’s gone, Nina," my father rasped, his voice breaking. He didn't look at me. He hadn't looked at me with anything other than disappointment since my eighteenth birthday, the day my wolf failed to manifest as anything more than a faint, pathetic hum in my blood. "Elena has fled with that… that human boy. She’s left us to face the King’s wrath alone."

"Then tell him the truth, Father," I said, my voice sounding small even to my own ears. "Tell King Fenris that his bride-to-be is a coward. Tell him the Blackwood Pack doesn't have his Luna."

My father stopped. He turned then, his eyes glowing a dangerous, desperate amber. "And have him burn our lands to ash? You know the legends of Fenris the Cruel. He doesn't take insults; he takes heads. If there is no bride at that altar in thirty minutes, he will cull the pack. He will start with me, and he will end with the pups in the nursery."

He stepped closer, gripping my shoulders with fingers that felt like iron talons. "You have the same eyes. The same hair. Under the veil, in the dim light of the Ancestor’s Hall, he won't know. Not until the Mark is set. And by then, it will be too late for him to turn back without looking like a fool."

"He will smell the difference," I whispered, a cold sweat breaking out across my collarbone. "They say the Lycan King can scent a lie from a mile away. I don't smell like Elena. I don't smell like a High Alpha’s daughter. I smell like… nothing."

"Then pray to the Moon that he’s as cold-blooded as they say," he hissed, shoving a bouquet of wilted white roses into my hands. "You are no longer Nina, the weakling twin. Tonight, you are Elena. You will walk, you will kneel, and you will bind your soul to a monster so the rest of us can live."

The heavy oak doors of the study creaked open. A guard stood there, his face pale. "Alpha. The King has arrived. He... he refused the traditional procession. He’s already in the Hall. He’s demanding the bride. Now."

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. This was it. The moment my life ended.

As I walked down the stone corridor, the heavy train of the dress hissing against the floor, I could feel the invisible weight of the pack’s survival on my shoulders. We reached the Great Hall, and the air changed. The temperature dropped ten degrees, smelling suddenly of ozone, old pine, and something sharp—like the edge of a blade.

The doors swung wide.

The Hall was filled with hundreds of wolves, all silent, all bowing their heads. But my eyes were locked on the figure standing at the altar.

King Fenris didn't wear a tuxedo. He wore black leather and furs, his massive frame dwarfing the priest standing beside him. His hair was the color of midnight, and even from the back, the sheer aura of his power made my wolf—my silent, useless wolf—shiver in a way I had never felt before.

He didn't turn around as I began my walk down the aisle. He stood perfectly still, a predator waiting for his prey to walk into the trap.

With every step, the scent intensified. It was overwhelming. It wasn't the scent of a man; it was the scent of a storm. My legs felt like lead. Don't trip. Don't faint. Don't scream.

I reached his side. The priest began to drone on about ancient pacts and blood ties, but I couldn't hear a word. All I could hear was the heavy, rhythmic thrum of the King’s heart beside me. It was slow. Steady. Terrifying.

"The blood bond," the priest commanded.

My father stepped forward, his hands shaking as he offered the silver ritual dagger. Fenris took it first. He didn't hesitate. He sliced a shallow line across his palm, the blood dark and thick.

Then, he turned to me.

For the first time, I looked up through the layers of lace. His eyes weren't amber or blue. They were a piercing, molten silver. He reached out, his hand wrapping around mine. His skin was burning hot, sending a jolt of electricity through my body that made me gasp.

He leaned down, his lips brushing against the silk of the veil right where my ear was.

"You're trembling, little bird," he whispered, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that vibrated in my chest.

He took my hand and pulled it toward his face, not to cut it, but to inhale. He drew a deep, slow breath against my wrist, where my pulse was leaping like a frantic drum.

His silver eyes narrowed. A dark, predatory smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Interesting," he murmured, so low only I could hear. "Elena always smelled like lilies and desperation. But you... you smell like a secret."

He didn't stop the ceremony. He pressed the blade into my palm, the sting of the cold steel sharp and real. He pressed our bleeding hands together, lacing his fingers through mine, forcing the blood to mingle.

"I do," he said, his voice ringing through the hall like a death knell.

But as he looked at me through the veil, I realized with a jolt of pure terror: He knew. He knew I wasn't her. And for some reason, he was going to let the lie continue.