As she spoke, she produced a small crystal vial, dark liquid swirling inside. "I went through a great deal of trouble to find this little gift for you…"
The malice in her smile sent my heart plummeting.
Before I could react, the senior den attendants pinned me down and forced the ice-cold liquid down my throat.
Moments later, fire blazed through my lower belly, and I understood at once: wolfsbane-laced heat serum. A brutally potent concoction designed to strip a she-wolf of every shred of control.
Vesper clapped her hands. Two rogues shuffled in, mangy and rank, their faces twisted with leering grins.
"Filthy, feral vermin. A perfect match for a cheap she-wolf like you."
She backed toward the door.
"When my cousin comes home tomorrow and finds you tangled up with rogues… what do you think he'll do?"
A vicious scheme.
But she needn't have bothered. She didn't need to destroy whatever was left between Cassian and me. I'd stopped hoping long ago.
The moment my body healed, I would leave on my own.
The drug surged hotter. My mind began to scatter, but I bit down on my lip until the pain kept me anchored. Somewhere inside me, something stirred. Not quite a voice. Not quite a shape. A presence I didn't recognize, pressing against the edges of my awareness like a wolf trapped under ice.
The two males closed in from either side.
I fought with everything I had, but my broken hands had no strength to strike back. They slammed me to the ground.
The back of my skull cracked against a stone millstone. Blinding white pain split my vision open.
And then the memories came flooding in.
Dust and ash swallowing the sky above the Frostfang Northern Borderlands. Me in battle-scarred armor, standing before ten thousand wolves in formation. Atop the walls of the High Den, the Sovereign Alpha gripping my hand, eyes red, calling me "sister."
Every elder, every war commander on their knees, voices shaking the heavens: Long live the Alpha Princess!
I remembered.
I was no orphan called Nira. I was Lyra Nightbane, Alpha Princess and Defender of the Mooncrown Dominion.
Commander of war packs at twelve. Conqueror of three strongholds at fourteen. Pacifier of the Frostfang Borderlands at sixteen. The elder sister the Sovereign Alpha revered. The Alpha Princess the entire Moon Court had been desperately searching for.
My eyes flew open. Gold blazed through my vision. I ripped a slender silver dagger from my hair and dragged it across both their throats.
The next morning, a mating procession stretched for miles from the gates of the Thornridge pack estate.
Vesper wore the ceremonial regalia of a royal mate, and Cassian himself pinned a moonstone into her hair before sending her off to be claimed.
Heir Alpha Kael Nightbane had come in person to receive her. The pomp and spectacle already far exceeded anything a mere consort arrangement deserved.
Looking at Vesper's delicate face, something nagged at him. Her scent carried notes of jasmine and copper, but beneath it was something hollow, something that didn't match the presence of the voice whose moonsong had first drawn his attention.
Still, he stepped forward and clasped both of Vesper's hands.
She lowered her eyes in a show of bashful grace and was about to lift her foot toward the ceremonial carriage
when a voice, cold and clear, cut through the crowd and silenced the entire procession. The air thickened. Every wolf in attendance felt the pressure slam down on their shoulders like a physical weight, an Alpha aura so ancient and absolute that several attendants dropped to their knees without understanding why.
"I, the Alpha Princess, do not consent to this mating."
