"Miss Hollowthorn, we've recovered a body in the borderlands. The scent-markers match your mother. We need you to come to the Healing Hall and identify her."
My smile, reflected in the mating-gown mirror, shattered with a single call through the crystal communicator.
The recovery den reeked of wolfsbane and something older, something that clung to the cold stone walls like a confession no one wanted to hear. When they pulled back the sheet, her body was barely recognizable. Her eyes, gone. Her organs, ripped out like she'd been nothing more than livestock to be harvested. Beneath my skin my wolf went utterly still, the way a creature goes still when it scents its own death.
I collapsed, a scream tearing from my throat as the world turned black.
When I came to, my intended mate, Dorian Ravenmoor, was sitting by my side in the dim of the Healer's Den. He gently wiped away my tears and pressed his lips to my forehead with the tenderness of a man who'd rehearsed the gesture. His scent reached me first, black pepper and cold ash, and something in me flinched at an undertone I couldn't name.
"They caught the rogue who did it," he whispered against my skin. "I made sure… he paid for what he did to your mother."
He swore that, for the rest of his life, he'd love and protect me the way she used to.
But that night, jolted awake by another nightmare, my mother's hollowed face swimming behind my eyelids, I caught something beyond the bedroom. Through the crack in the door, golden lamplight spilled across Dorian's back as he held my half-sister, Mira Hollowthorn, in his arms.
She was sobbing into his chest, her whole body trembling like a wounded animal. Her scent drifted to me through the gap, overripe jasmine and sugared decay, and my wolf lifted its head, hackles prickling. Something in that scent did not smell right. It never had.
"If she ever finds out the truth… she'll kill me."
Dorian cupped her face, gentle as ever, gentler than he'd ever been with me.
"Hey, it's not your fault. You didn't know those rogues were running a scam. You're a victim too."
The chill in my bones cut deeper than any wind off the high ridges. I could hardly breathe.
So this was it. My mother died… because of Mira. And the man who swore to protect me was shielding her.
Dorian finally sent Mira home, the heavy oak door clicking shut behind her, and turned around, only to see me, collapsed on the cold stone floor like a broken doll.
His expression flickered, guilt, frustration, then hardened into something I didn't recognize.
"So you heard everything?"
His tone turned cold, like I was the problem. Like I was the inconvenience. A low growl I shouldn't have been able to suppress sat trapped in my throat, and I swallowed it down.
"Don't blame Mira. Your mother got greedy, okay? She kept pestering Mira to help her with that investment. She brought this on herself."
He tossed a blank moon-credit oath onto the table like it meant nothing. The parchment landed with a whisper that echoed like a slap.
"Write whatever number you want. But forget what you've heard. Let's pretend nothing happened for the meantime. The Mating Ceremony's in five days. We'll go through with it. Peacefully."
I stared at the man who once swore he'd love me for the rest of his life. Now, he felt like a stranger wearing a familiar face. Even his scent felt wrong against my skin, like a coat that no longer fit.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.
If my Mating Ceremony was doomed to become my mother's funeral, then five days from now… I'd return the favor, with interest.
……
I said nothing. He grew impatient, yanking the silk knot loose at his throat and tossing it on the nightstand with barely concealed irritation.
"If you get it, then go to sleep."
But something snapped in me. The grief, the rage, it all poured out, raw and shaking, like blood from a wound that refused to close.
"Pretend? Are you fucking serious?!"
"You knew. You knew my mother was the only family I had. And you knew how much it meant to her to see me marked beneath the Moon in white. And Mira fucking destroyed it!"
Did he really not understand why my mother was desperate to make money?
The Ravenmoor Pack had looked down on us from the start. His parents, Alpha Magnus and Luna Vesper Ravenmoor, barely tolerated my presence at their table. To them, I was the daughter of a den-keeper, no matter that my mother had once saved their precious heir's life. And my mother, Moon Goddess, she tried so hard to make me worthy in their eyes. That's why she went to Mira, thinking maybe this time, things would be different. Maybe blood would finally mean something.
I could still hear the warrior's voice in my head: "Your mother tracked those people down to try and get her money back. She didn't know they were part of an Omega-trafficking ring. They carved her up and took everything they could sell."
I couldn't stop crying. Each word came out like a blade. "If it weren't for Mira and her mother, none of this would've happened. All I want is justice for my mother, and you want to keep me from that?"
"Enough, Selene!" Dorian barked, his face suddenly dark as a storm rolling in over the peaks. For an instant the air thickened with the press of his aura, and my wolf cowered low inside me even as I refused to. "Mira was conned too. She lost everything. And you? Instead of showing any compassion, you've been running around telling everyone she's your sire's bastard whelp. Do you even have a heart?"
"Compassion?" I let out a hollow, bitter laugh that scraped my throat raw. "What about my mother? She died in the most horrific way imaginable!"
"She died because she got greedy and made stupid choices," he scoffed, his lip curling with contempt. "Mira had nothing to do with it. Don't even think about laying a finger on her."
His voice was frost-edged now, sharp enough to draw blood. I shook from the inside out.
I gripped the front of my silk nightgown like it would hold my chest together, like it could keep my heart from spilling out onto the floor. The stone blurred under the torrent of my tears.
"Dorian," I whispered. "Have you forgotten? When you were taken, when that enemy pack snatched you off the trail, who risked everything to save you? Who fought off those rogues with her bare hands until your father's warriors arrived?"
"And what about the day she lay in that Healing Hall, broken and bleeding, and you knelt at her side and promised you'd never hurt me? That you'd take care of me for the rest of your life? That was a life-debt under the Moon, Dorian. And you swore it on your bloodline's honor."
His jaw clenched, his expression hardening into granite. "Don't throw ancient history in my face. I've given you and your mother everything for years. Food, shelter, a place in this den, respect you never earned. Whatever debt I had, I paid it off a long time ago."
Then, as if to twist the knife deeper, he let out a bitter laugh.
"This is about money, isn't it?"
He flicked the blank oath at me again. The edge sliced across my cheek, drawing a thin line of blood that dripped onto the pristine pale stone. The scent of it bloomed in the room, and I felt his wolf register it, register it and not care.
I bit down hard, fists clenched until my nails carved crescents into my palms. "I don't want your money. I want Mira held accountable for what she's done."
He chuckled, a smug little breath through his nose, the sound of a man who'd never been told no. "Go ahead. Let's see which advocate is foolish enough to take that case and stand against the Ravenmoor Pack before the Commission."
"Know your place." His eyes narrowed, cold and reptilian. "I won't have a hysterical lunatic as my Luna. This ends now."
His communicator chimed. He glanced at the crystal, and just like that, his face lit up like a pup on the first night of the Blood Moon.
"A gift? From you? That's so thoughtful. Honestly, those allies only pledged because of you."
"What? No escort? Don't worry, I'm coming for you right now. Just stay put, bella."
He didn't even look back at me as he walked out, his footsteps echoing down the corridor like a death knell.
I stared at the door as it closed behind him. My tears burned down my cheeks like acid.
Fine. If this is how it's going to be, so be it.
I just stood there, staring after the man I used to love, tears searing tracks down my face. Fine. If that's how he wanted to play it, then so be it.
I turned to pack my things, my hands steady despite the trembling in my chest. But then the communicator chimed again.
"Miss Hollowthorn," the Beta's Omega liaison said cheerfully, his voice dripping with false courtesy, "since you've withdrawn the grievance in your mother's case, we're closing the pack's investigation. Just letting you know."
The line went dead.
I hadn't withdrawn anything.
