Chapter 1

Every time Kieran brought a new fling back to the castle, he made a point of bringing home a male Beta for me too.

"I need something fresh. You need company. Everyone gets what they need. No one has the right to complain."

That was his refrain these past three years, delivered with all the righteousness in the world, as though he weren't the Alpha and I weren't his Luna.

The last time, he miscalculated.

He brought yet another male Beta before me, his tone flat, as if discussing some trivial domestic matter:

"We tried, but she's pregnant anyway. Vera won't keep the pup unless I give her a proper title, so we'll dissolve the Mate Bond for the time being."

"Until we re-bond, you're welcome to spend time with him. I won't interfere."

Just when everyone in the hall expected me to do what I'd always done—turn cold, fling money at the Beta, and have him driven out—

I looked up and smiled. "All right. Whatever you say."

…

Kieran's hand froze on the ivory pendant he'd been turning between his fingers.

The hall fell silent for a heartbeat. Even the crack of logs in the fireplace sounded shrill.

His expression didn't shift much. The careless little curl at the corner of his mouth was still there.

But Vera, nestled against him, tightened her grip on his arm.

"Kieran." Her voice was soft and sticky, like velvet steeped in honey. "Leona's come around. You should be happy."

Kieran said nothing.

He set the pendant down, rose slowly, and walked over to the Beta. He clapped a hand on the man's shoulder, looking down at him from above.

"Take good care of Leona."

Then he wrapped his arm around Vera and headed for the master bedroom on the second floor.

I didn't watch him go. I simply withdrew my gaze and turned to the Beta, who was still standing where he'd been left, the tips of his ears flushing a suspicious red.

"Will you be staying outside the castle, or here?"

His throat bobbed. His voice came out low and hoarse.

"Either… either is fine."

"Stay, then."

I turned and walked toward the corridor.

Behind me came the whispering. They thought I couldn't hear—or perhaps they simply didn't care whether I could.

"No way. Is the Luna actually going through with it?"

"Every other time something like this happened, she'd lose her temper. We'd all catch hell for it."

"Come on—have a little faith in the Alpha. When has the Luna ever not stuck her nose in the air, slapping money at those outsiders like even touching them would dirty her?"

"That last Beta—she didn't even bother with the money. Just told the guards to drag him out."

"My guess? She knows Vera's carrying a pup now. She's putting on a show, trying to rile Kieran up."

I kept walking.

The corridor ended at my bedroom. Moonlight slanted in through the castle's arched windows, stretching my shadow long across the floor.

They weren't wrong.

I had been excessive before.

Excessively aloof. Excessively proud. Excessively convinced of "the purity of the Mate Bond."

Every time Kieran had paraded a Beta in front of me, I'd turned my face to ice and driven the man out with the sharpest look I owned, then ordered the steward to escort him from the grounds.

I'd thought that was winning.

I'd thought that, at the very least, I was cleaner than he was.

At least before the Moon Goddess, my purity, my Mate Bond, remained unblemished.

And in the end?

Vera's belly was swelling.

What had the Mate Bond, what had purity, preserved for me?

A dissolution petition lying on the nightstand, still unsigned?

A bed I'd slept in alone for three years?

The mocking glances downstairs in the hall?

I pushed open my bedroom door, lifted my hand, and let my fingertips brush the mark at the side of my neck—long scabbed over, yet still faintly burning.

Kieran thought I was still the Leona he'd always known.

That I wouldn't dare.

That I wouldn't do it.

That I'd guard that mark forever, guard that absurd notion of purity, live out my days alone and wait for him to come home.

He was wrong.

I lowered my gaze to the parchment spread open on the nightstand—*The Petition for the Dissolution of the Mate Bond*, the ink still wet, lacking only one last signature.

I picked up the pen.

And I signed.

*Leona Fenn.*

When I was done, I rolled the parchment up and tied it with a dark crimson ribbon.

Tomorrow it would go to the Council of Elders.

And then, under the witness of every wolf in the pack, the bond of purity Kieran had spoken of, the vigil I had kept all these years—all of it would be severed for good.

"Um… may I come in?"

Wren's voice, slightly stiff, came from beside me.

I looked up at the doorway and only then realized he had actually followed me. He was standing just inside the corridor.

He was young. Six foot three, tight-built, with beautifully drawn shoulders. The moonlight caught half his face and lit it bright.

The scent of cedar. Pleasant.

This wasn't some stranger Kieran had picked up at the tavern. Nor some wretch bought off the black market, still bearing the marks of silver chains.

Kieran had actually put thought into this one.

I gave a silent, bitter laugh.

"Selling yourself for money?" I asked.

The Beta didn't defend himself. He simply nodded.

Once, I might have thought him filthy. But now I saw it clearly—

which of these men was filthier than Kieran?

"Tell me if you need anything."

I turned and walked out onto the terrace.

He followed. "Luna. My name is Wren."

"I know," I said, without looking back. "Kieran told me."

I stood on the terrace and watched the figures below recede into the distance.

I'd lost count of how many times they'd watched me become their spectacle.

Three years ago—

something happened that drove Kieran and me apart.

After that, his behavior grew more and more outrageous, outrageous enough that he was willing to perform a dissolution ceremony with me.

But I had my own reasons for keeping silent.

I turned and looked at the signed petition.

If you want it severed, then severed it shall be.

"Luna, I'm done washing up."

Wren had slipped off to bathe at some point, and his voice broke my thoughts.