"What condition?"
Cain's tone carried a thread of impatience, as though he'd agree to anything so long as I stopped being difficult.
"Give me back my moonstone pendant."
Cain went still.
The pendant was a Kingsley Pack heirloom, passed down through generations of Alphas — given only to one's true mate. The day I placed it in his hands, he'd stared at it for a long time and said he'd wear it for the rest of his life.
"Why do you want it back?" A flicker of hesitation crossed his voice. "Isn't it… only meant for someone you love?"
The corner of my mouth twitched. I was about to say, "Because you don't deserve it" —
His phone lit up.
Vivienne's soft voice came through, the coy lilt audible even at a distance.
Cain's entire expression shifted. The coldness and irritation he wore around me melted away in an instant, replaced by a tenderness I had never once seen on his face.
"Okay. Wait for me."
He hung up and turned back to me.
"What were you saying?"
"Nothing."
I looked away.
"Give me back the moonstone pendant. After that, whatever you want to give Vivienne is none of my business."
His mind had already drifted to Vivienne. Without looking up, he called to the butler: "Have the pendant delivered to the treatment room."
Then he left.
I spent an entire week in the treatment room. The wolfsbane burns went from open sores to scabs to fresh skin. The healer said I'd recovered quickly, but a few faint scars remained — they'd fade with time.
The day I was discharged, an official notice arrived from the Alpha Council:
[Luna Wren, the Mate Bond dissolution will take effect in two days, on the night of the full moon.]
Two days.
I took a deep breath, tucked the notice away, and started packing.
I'd barely stepped through the treatment room doors when three rogue wolves lunged out of nowhere.
My wolf still hadn't recovered. I couldn't shift. They knocked me out in seconds.
When I came to, I was locked in a sealed room, my wrists chained to the wall with silver cuffs.
The door opened. Vivienne walked in.
Her makeup was flawless, her composure absolute.
Nothing like the trembling, teary-eyed waif she played in front of Cain.
"Let me go." I stared at her, my voice roughened by the silver burning into my wrists. "Vivienne, do you have any idea what you're doing?"
She slapped me across the face.
Hard. Clean. No hesitation.
"I know exactly what I'm doing."
Her voice was venom.
"Wren Kingsley, Cain doesn't love you. Why are you still clinging to the Luna title?"
"I'm the one who belongs with him. But because of you, everyone treats me like some shameless Omega."
She stepped closer, hatred pooling in her eyes.
"Do you have any idea what my life was like after you had me thrown out of Ashford Pack? No pack would take me. I did the filthiest work for people who beat me and screamed at me. Rogue wolves nearly caught me and sold me off—"
"And all of that was because of you."
She stopped in front of me and looked down. Her lips twisted into a smile.
"If you'd never taken me in, I would never have come to Ashford Pack. I would never have met Cain, never fallen in love with him, never ended up like this."
"So everything that happened — that's on you."
The sheer, deranged logic of it sent ice crawling down my spine.
She turned and beckoned toward the door.
Several rogue wolves filed in. Their scents were chaotic and dangerous. There was nothing in their eyes but raw brutality.
Vivienne glanced at them, her tone as casual as if she were placing a lunch order.
"She's yours tonight. Beat her until she's begging on her knees. Don't leave anything a healer could trace."
"The harder you hit, the bigger the payout tomorrow."
She walked out.
The rogues closed in.
I fought — thrashing, pulling — the silver cuffs grinding fresh burns into my wrists. The wolfsbane still lingering in my system kept my wolf crushed. I couldn't summon even a tenth of my usual strength.
"Back off!"
"I carry Alpha blood from Kingsley Pack! I'm the Luna of Ashford Pack! Touch me, and none of you walk away!"
They didn't stop.
"Whatever Vivienne's paying you, I'll double it!"
My voice was shaking, but I couldn't let them see it.
Then — on the far side of the room, behind a massive glass wall, a light clicked on in an adjacent chamber.
A tall figure stepped through the door.
Cain.
I screamed his name with everything I had left.
"Cain—!"
Something made him pause. He turned his head and glanced toward the glass.
