My mate was handling pack business during the Moon Festival—or so he claimed. I decided to travel through the waystation network and surprise him.
But only the upper tier passage remained available.
I stared at the territory tribute cost and, gritting my teeth, drained an entire year's gathered resources.
Then I couldn't even figure out how to adjust the resting alcove.
The elegant female beside me let out a cold laugh.
"Never traveled upper tier before?"
I forced an awkward smile. "Sorry about that. You must be an Alpha, right? You have that... powerful scent about you."
"Me? No." She waved a manicured hand. "But my kept Alpha is. If I'm not in the upper tier, he arranges a private escort through protected territory."
I blinked. "A kept Alpha? That must be hard to find."
"Not really. I serve under his command in the pack. I keep making mistakes in my duties—cost him quite a bit of territory resources, actually. He growls at me until I whimper, and then... well." She smiled knowingly. "You can imagine what happens next."
A chill crept down my spine.
"What a coincidence," I said slowly. "My bonded mate also has a female pack member who keeps making mistakes."
"You're mated?" Her eyes swept over me, assessing, her nostrils flaring slightly as she caught my scent. "My kept Alpha has a bonded mate too. About your age, actually."
She examined her claws, filed to elegant points.
"But he says he grew tired of her ages ago. Her scent feels stale, he told me. Less exciting than catching my scent when I shake out my hair."
My stomach turned.
"I told him I wanted to see him during the festival." She smiled. "So he just told his mate he had pack obligations."
That's when I saw it.
The ring on her finger.
A moonstone bond ring identical to the one I'd lost.
I went rigid.
Wait—Fenris Nightthorn isn't some low-ranked pack member?
When did he become an Alpha?
1.
My gaze locked onto her ring finger.
"But that ring..." My voice came out strange, foreign. "It's a bond ring, isn't it? Did he claim you as mate?"
"This?" Selene Bloodthorn held up her hand, admiring the moonstone as it caught the waystation's amber light. "I made him take it from his bonded mate."
The air left my lungs.
"I wasn't planning to make things hard for her, honestly." Selene's lips curved. "But on my birth moon, that female suddenly lost her pup and made him rush to the healer's den to tend to her."
She pouted.
"I spent my birth moon alone."
My hand drifted to my stomach.
The memory hit me like ice water—that brutal winter. The forest path home from the trading grounds had been slicked with frozen mud. Fenris's share of pack resources was barely enough to survive on; even a proper den was a luxury we couldn't afford.
I'd fallen hard.
Three moons along, and my pup became nothing but blood on frozen earth.
Fenris had dropped everything. Stayed by my healing nest for three days and three nights without sleeping.
When I finally woke, my bond ring had vanished along with our pup.
He'd held me close, voice cracking. "It's okay. We'll have another pup. The ring—I'll make you a new one."
I'd sobbed and shaken my head. "Aren't they reducing territory shares in the pack? We need to save our resources. When you rise in rank someday... you can get me a new one then."
His eyes had been red-rimmed, tears threatening to spill. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I can't give you a better life."
I'd shaken my head again, unable to speak.
Beside me, Selene was still admiring the ring.
"So..." My throat was sandpaper. "You made him give you his mate's ring?"
"Well, he didn't want to at first. Said he'd hunt me something more valuable." She tilted her hand, watching the moonstone shimmer. "But that worn-out female acts so superior just because she carries his bond mark. If I don't put her in her place, she'll think she can walk all over me."
I bit down until I tasted copper.
"Honestly, compared to everything else he's given me from the pack vault, this ring isn't worth much." She shrugged. "But it's a bond ring. That's what makes it special."
Selene turned to me with a pitying smile.
"When a female lets herself become as pathetic as that mate of his? There's no hope left for her."
I gripped the fabric of my sleeve until my knuckles went white. Forced my lips into something resembling a smile.
"If your kept Alpha spends so much on you... he must be paying his mate a fortune in territory rights to keep quiet, right?"
Selene laughed—a bright, tinkling sound.
She leaned in close, her perfume cloying, mixed with the faint musk of an Alpha that wasn't hers to carry.
"Here's the thing," she whispered. "That pathetic old female doesn't even know he's the Alpha."
