Chapter 1

My Alpha husband thought I was boring, so he wanted to take my sister as his lover.

I let him.Because my first love was coming to take me away, too.

*

By my tenth year as Luna of the Ravencroft Pack, I was finally tired of it all.

I stopped checking which border cabin Cassian Ravencroft had gone to at night, or whose bed he had ended up in.

I stopped wondering whether he loved me at all.

Even when the healer brought me a vial of moonvine contraceptive, I drank it without so much as frowning.

Cassian returned to the Ravencroft main house after nightfall.

He stood beside the bed and called my name in a low voice.

“Honey, I didn’t come home these past few days because Sable was hurt.”

“She chased a pack of rogues who crossed the territory line to poach in our valley. One of them cut her with a silver blade.”

“If I hadn’t gone after her, she would have kept pushing herself.”

I lifted the blanket and moved farther into the bed.

“It’s fine. Get some sleep. You have elders to meet tomorrow.”

Cassian seemed to pause.

“You’re really not going to make a scene??”

I nodded.

Everyone had someone they could never quite forget.

As it happened, mine had returned too.

…

Cassian stood by the bed for a long time without moving.

“I’m the Alpha of Ravencroft. I can’t exactly let her get hurt on my territory and do nothing.”

At last, I opened my eyes and smiled faintly.

“You’ve always been merciful.”

My gaze dropped to the smear of red on his cuff.

It was Sable’s favorite shade of lipstick.

Years ago, when the Ashcroft Pack had to send one of its daughters to marry into Ravencroft, my half sister Sable knelt in front of me.

“Lenora, I don’t want to be trapped in the Alpha’s house.”

“I still want to ride my motorcycle through the mountain roads. I want to chase rogues. I want to hunt in the northern forests. I want to be myself.”

“Will you become the Luna in my place?”

I agreed.

Later, I became the Luna of the Ravencroft Pack.

And she remained free, untamed Sable.

But after the bond ceremony, Cassian went to see her almost every night in the private cabin at the edge of the territory.

There, they lived like real lovers, wild and free.

And I was left inside the heavily guarded Ravencroft main house.

Cassian reached out as if to touch me.

I turned my face away.

His hand froze in midair.

After a moment, he took a paper bag from his coat pocket.

Inside was a caramel candy shaped like a wolf pup, already a little melted.

“I saw it on the way back.”

“The medicine is bitter.”

“Have something sweet.”

I looked at the misshapen candy wolf, unsure what expression I was supposed to make.

Once, when I said I liked the sweets sold at the town fair, he told me street food was dirty.

“The Luna of Ravencroft shouldn’t be greedy like a little pup.”

And now, he had remembered to buy me candy.

I didn’t take it.

“Thank you, Cassian.”

Cassian frowned.

“Lenora, I brought this to you myself. Don’t look at me like I’ve wronged you.”

“Is this still about Sable?”

Of course I had been upset.

On the night of our bonding ceremony, Sable sent someone to the estate, saying she was going alone to take down a nest of rogues who had betrayed Ravencroft.

Cassian had just taken off his suit jacket. The moment he heard her name, he stood.

I asked him, “Does it have to be tonight?”

He said, “You know what she’s like. She’s never been afraid of anything.”

“If no one stops her, she really will shift and charge into that abandoned warehouse district tonight.”

He came back at dawn.

There was a shallow scratch on his neck.

He said Sable had refused to come back, that she had scratched him by accident while struggling, and that he had spent the entire night calming her down.

I cried. I fought.

Eventually, I stopped asking.

Cassian seemed ready to explain further when a guard’s voice came from outside the door.

“Alpha, someone from Miss Ashcroft’s side is here.”

“She shook off the patrol team and left word that she was heading to Moon Harbor tonight to settle things with the rogues who crossed the border and stole our prey.”

Cassian’s expression changed.

I closed my eyes again.

“Go.”

He didn’t move.

I added, “If she really storms into Moon Harbor, you’ll blame me tomorrow for keeping you here.”

Cassian’s voice darkened.

“Lenora, do you have to turn everything into a jab?”

I said nothing.

A dull pain tugged low in my abdomen.

I frowned and held it back.

Even if I told him, he wouldn’t care.

In the end, Cassian still left.

Before he went, he threw one sentence behind him.

“Get some rest. Stop using your health to punish me.”

The door closed.

Then the window sounded with three soft taps.

An old silver ring was pushed through the crack.

A tiny wolf-head crest was engraved on the inside of the band.

V.

In that instant, heat rushed into my eyes and my heart began to pound.

Valehart.

Beneath the ring was a note.

There was only one line on it.

“Lenora, if the Ravencroft Pack won’t protect you, I will.”

Three years ago, the man I loved most—Ronan Valehart—died in a firefight on the northern smuggling route.

They never found his body.

The appearance of this ring meant one thing.

He was alive.

With trembling hands, I tucked the ring beneath my pillow.