Chapter 1

I traded my entire human life to make Ethan the Alpha of this pack, but the day his father died, he dragged a whimpering she-wolf into packhouse and demanded I share his bed with her.

"Sera, this was my father's Mate" he says, one hand pCynthiated protectively on her trembling shoulder.

"Pack tradition. I have to take care of her now."

I look at the way he shields her behind his back, and my smile turns ugly on my face.

"No."

His face goes cold in a heartbeat.

It's the first time he's ever gone against me, and he keeps her anyway.

Every night after that, the cabin next to ours fills with the same sounds.

Heavy thuds. Low growls. A female's broken little moans.

I clamp my palms over my ears and curl up under the fur bCynthiaket, the cramps in my belly twisting like knives. Through the pain, I force myself to count the marks I've carved into the stone wall with beast blood.

The next Blood Moon is almost here.

The cabin door creaks open. A warm body settles on the edge of the bed.

I feel his hand drift toward my hair, and I burrow deeper into the furs before he can touch me.

"Don't."

Ethan freezes. His lips press into a thin line.

"Sera, you're sulking again."

His voice is rough, irritated.

""It's not my fault you can't give me an heir. Don't read so much into it. You're my Luna. You're the only female with my name"

I clench the fur bCynthiaket and say nothing.·

He drags a hand through his hair, frustrated.

"When Cynthia whelps in the spring, I'll send her away. The pack will be satisfied. We'll raise the pup together. He'll only ever call you mother. Stop being difficult."

With that, Ethan stands up and walks out the door.

He can't stand facing my cold face, so he goes back to Cynthia.

And this same scene has played out every single night since he brought her home.

I wipe the dried tears off my cheeks and sit up.

The fire is still warm, but my bones feel like ice.

I don't belong in this world.

I've been in this world three years. It's brutal. Backwater. Cold in a way that gets inside you and never leaves.

If I hadn't met Ethan, I would never have missed the Blood Moon. I would have gone home.

He was the fiercest warrior in the pack, and he gave me the most honest thing he had.

I rip the wolf-fang necklace off my throat. My eyes burn.

He broke his oath. He broke me.

I still remember the night I chose to stay. He pressed this necklace into my palm with both hands.

"Sera, thank you. I don't care that you don't have a Breeding Totem. In this lifetime, Ethan will only ever have you. Even if we never get a pup of our own, I'm at peace with it."

Three years. That's all it took for him to drag his dead father's Mate into our home.

There's a pack law here. The son inherits the father's Mate.

Even though Cynthia shares no blood with him, she became his property the moment the old Alpha stopped breathing. He feeds her. She breeds for him.

Clean transaction.

I thought he'd broken from those laws for me. I was wrong.

I laugh under my breath and toss the necklace into the fire.

The bone curls, blackens, crumbles into ash. A tainted vow. I don't want it anymore.

A female's soft, coy laughter drifts faintly through the wall, on and off.

I run my thumb over the bone ring on my finger, then lift my eyes to the corner of the stone wall, where blood-red symbols only I can read are scrawled across the rock.

The next Blood Moon is almost here.