Chapter 1

Twenty-four hours before I was supposed to stand beneath the Blood Moon and accept the mating mark of Alpha Dominic Ashford, my mother was killed on Thornridge Pass.

The pack's boundary crystals recorded it in brutal clarity—the red-coated she-wolf belonging to my fiancé's stepsister didn't stop after the first impact. She accelerated, shifting between wolf and human as she dragged my mother's body half a mile through gravel and pine.

By the time I reached the healer's ward, my mother was unrecognizable, her wounds so deep they exposed bone.

"This was premeditated," Elder Callum, the pack's chief enforcer, said grimly. "Seraphina Ashford was completely sober at the time. There are no hesitation marks."

My fingers traced my mother's cold cheek as tears blurred my vision. Just yesterday, she'd been threading moonflowers into my ceremonial veil, her eyes glistening. "My sweet girl, you're finally going to be happy."

Now her smile was frozen in this cold ward. She would never see me accept my mate.

"Seraphina went too far this time." Dominic gripped my hand, his voice seemingly filled with fury. "Elara, I'm completely on your side. I promise she'll pay for this."

In eight years, this was the first time he'd chosen me over Seraphina. I threw myself into his arms with reddened eyes, thinking I'd finally earned his loyalty.

I immediately petitioned the Pack Council for a blood trial under the Old Law—prosecuting Seraphina for intentional killing. The crystal evidence was irrefutable, the recordings undeniable.

But the night before the hearing, Dominic lured me into the silver-lined cellar beneath the packhouse and tossed a blank check at my feet.

"Seraphina is only twenty-one." His voice became a stranger's. "I'll let you teach her a lesson, but I won't let you destroy her life under pack law."

He paused. "Elara, I'm grieving your mother too. Write any amount on this check—consider it my restitution."

I stared wide-eyed. Meeting his cold gaze that held no trace of sorrow, I could hear something inside me crack apart.

"You want me to trade my mother's life for money?"

"It was an accident." His calm was terrifying. "She'd had moonwine. She wasn't thinking clearly. You shouldn't condemn a girl for one mistake."

"An accident?" My voice rose, bouncing off stone. "The crystals show her wolf clearly accelerating! She dragged my mother half a mile! Half a mile, Dominic!"

"Enough!" He turned and locked the iron door. "We'll talk when you've calmed down."

The bolt slammed home. I crumpled to the floor. The silver in the walls pressed against my senses like a slow poison, muting my wolf until she was barely a whisper inside me.

I remembered his claiming-promise beneath a winter sky a year ago. Snowflakes on his dark hair, one knee on the frozen ground, the ring in his palm: "Elara, I will protect you and your family with my life. That is my oath as your Alpha."

Yet now, replaying every scene where Dominic had shielded Seraphina without a second's hesitation, I finally understood—between her and me, he would never choose me.

My hand drifted to my belly, where a second heartbeat fluttered, tiny and stubborn. Tears fell silently. "I'm sorry, little one. I'm so sorry for bringing you into this pack."

To make me miss the blood trial, Dominic kept me sealed in silver for three full days. When the cellar door opened, the light hit my eyes like a blade.

"Elara, have you reconsidered dropping the petition?"

His first words. No concern for my hollowed cheeks or the pallor in my face. My wolf had gone silent inside me, smothered by three days of silver. All he cared about was keeping Seraphina free.

I clenched my jaw and enunciated each word: "I will never drop the charges. Seraphina must pay for what she did."

His expression was unreadable, but the cold rolling off him was unmistakable.

"Your mother was only fifty-two. If a rogue had killed her, the Council would award a few hundred thousand in blood-debt at most. But now—" his voice was ice, "—I'm letting you name any amount, Elara. You should be grateful."

"Grateful?" I gasped. The pup in my belly kicked hard, as if sensing my anguish through the bond.

"Can a life be measured in money? This is murder! She must face the Council!"

Dominic's patience snapped. He signaled his Beta, who placed a tablet in front of me. On screen: my comatose father's room in the pack infirmary. A masked figure held scissors to his oxygen tube.

Blood rushed to my head. I screamed, only to be cut short by Dominic's flat voice.

"Sign the withdrawal. Or your father doesn't survive tonight."

Years ago, during a rogue ambush, my father had been the pack's lead tracker assigned to retrieve Dominic. In a life-or-death moment, he'd thrown himself between the Alpha and a silver blade. He'd never woken since.

Dominic had taken over our family's care to repay the debt—all medical expenses, my education at the pack's law academy, everything for my mother. Eight years of daily closeness, and we'd fallen in love. At least, I thought it was love.

At my academy graduation, he'd claimed me publicly before the entire pack, promising the happiest mating in territory history. But everything changed when his stepsister Seraphina returned from the European packs.

"Have you forgotten?" My voice was raw. "My father is comatose because he saved your life!"

"It's precisely because I remember that I'm giving you this chance." His eyes held no warmth. "Sign the papers, and your father continues receiving treatment."

Those words, cold as the grave, pierced through me. I watched my father's pained face on the screen, remembering what he'd said before slipping into the coma: "Stand for justice, Elara. Always."

But now the price of justice was his life.

"You're threatening your mate to protect a murderer?" I whispered. "Using my father's life?"

I trembled with rage, lips quivering. Even seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn't believe Dominic would go this far for Seraphina.

He sighed. "We're pack, Elara. Family. Why drag this before the Council for the whole territory to mock?"

On screen, the scissors pressed deeper into the tube.

"You have three minutes." He tapped his watch. "When time's up, I give the order."