Chapter 4

I was dead.

Or at least, before another moon had risen, the entire werewolf world would believe I was.

The rejection scroll was still clutched in my hand as I walked away from the Frostfang Pack for the last time. My cheek still burned where Evander had struck me, but the pain was nothing compared to the emptiness inside my chest.

No one tried to stop me.

Not the warriors guarding the pack gates.

Not the elders.

Not even my mate.

The Moon Goddess had blessed me as Luna once.

Now I was nothing.

Not a mate.

Not a mother.

Only a woman cast aside.

I tightened my grip on the small satchel hanging from my shoulder.

Inside were the only treasures I had left—Maeve's favorite carved wooden wolf, the tiny silver bracelet Evander had given her on her fifth birthday, and the little cloak she always insisted on wearing whenever she followed him through the pack lands.

Evander could keep the Alpha's manor.

He could keep every jewel, every possession, every memory tied to our life together.

But he would never take away the last pieces of our daughter.

I wandered through the forest until my legs ached, unable to silence the memories that chased me.

His slap.

His rejection.

The disgust in his eyes.

The way he had allowed Celestine and her son to strip away every shred of my dignity before the entire pack.

No.

This was not the end.

At last, I reached into my robes and withdrew a moonstone communication crystal.

Only a handful of wolves possessed one, and there was only one person I trusted enough to contact.

The crystal glowed beneath my fingers.

"Ronan."

A moment later, his voice echoed softly inside my mind.

"Aurelia?"

"I need you."

Silence lingered before he answered.

"Where are you?"

"It doesn't matter."

I drew a slow breath.

"I need a body... a fire... and I need every pack on this continent to believe I've returned to the Moon Goddess."

Another pause followed.

Then a quiet laugh.

"So you've finally stopped living for him."

"Can you do it?"

"I can."

"Then make sure no one doubts it."

"Leave the rest to me."

The crystal dimmed.

Without another thought, I crushed it beneath my heel.

Aurelia Frostfang ceased to exist that night.

**

The plan was simple.

Years ago, I had saved Ronan's life after he had been abandoned by his own Alpha.

He had sworn a life debt before the Moon Goddess.

Now he intended to repay it.

By dawn, he had secured everything we needed.

A wandering she-wolf whose body had never been claimed after a rogue attack.

Clothing bearing my scent.

Several of my personal belongings.

Enough to deceive even the keenest wolf nose once the flames had done their work.

We carried the body to an abandoned hunter's cabin deep within the mountains, far beyond the Frostfang territory.

The dry timber would burn quickly.

No one would question the ashes.

Ronan was arranging the final preparations when I raised a hand.

"Wait."

"There is one last thing I have to do."

Using another communication crystal, I reached for the only bond I had once believed would never break.

Evander.

The crystal glowed.

Once.

Twice.

Then another voice answered.

"The Alpha is unavailable."

My entire body stiffened.

"Celestine."

She laughed softly.

"Still clinging to him? Even after he rejected you?"

"Put Evander on."

"Why?" she asked sweetly. "So he can reject you a second time?"

My fingers tightened around the crystal.

"You think you've won?"

"Oh, Aurelia." Her laughter grew brighter. "I already have."

I refused to answer.

Then her voice lowered into something almost playful.

"Do you know what I find funniest?"

A chill crawled down my spine.

"Your little Maeve never had to die."

The world stopped.

"...What?"

"Because Alaric was never suffering from the Blood Curse."

I couldn't breathe.

"The High Healer believed exactly what I wanted her to believe."

My knees nearly gave out beneath me.

"The Blood-Binding Rite was never meant for my son."

Every word struck harder than the last.

"Evander sacrificed your daughter..."

She laughed.

"...for nothing."

The crystal went dark.

I remained frozen, unable to move as her laughter echoed inside my head.

Maeve...

My little girl...

She had not died because fate had demanded it.

She had died because they had lied.

Because Evander had believed Celestine without question.

My daughter had been stolen from me by deceit.

A hand settled gently on my shoulder.

Ronan.

"You heard everything."

I nodded once.

No tears came.

Only fire.

Celestine.

Evander.

Every wolf who had watched my daughter die in silence.

Every one of them would answer for it.

"Once the cabin burns," Ronan said quietly, "there is no returning."

I looked toward the waiting pyre.

"There is nothing left for me to return to."

He lowered a burning torch onto the oil-soaked floor.

Flames climbed the walls almost instantly, swallowing the cabin in hungry tongues of fire.

The scent of smoke filled the night.

Soon only ashes would remain.

The Frostfang Pack would mourn the tragic death of their former Luna.

Evander would hear that his rejected mate had perished in the blaze.

Whether he grieved or not no longer mattered.

I was not dying for him.

I was burying the woman who had loved him.

Before sunrise, Ronan led me beyond the borders of every pack that had ever known my name.

I became a wandering she-wolf with forged lineage, hidden beneath a new identity that no Alpha would think to question.

When we finally stopped days later, I caught my reflection in the still surface of a forest pool.

My golden hair had been stained as black as a raven's wing with herbs known only to wandering healers.

The woman staring back at me looked nothing like the Luna Evander had once cherished.

I touched the dark strands gently.

He had loved weaving his fingers through my golden hair while whispering promises beneath the moonlight.

Those promises had burned with the cabin.

I looked into my own eyes and spoke the words aloud.

"Welcome back."

The world believed Aurelia Frostfang had returned to the Moon Goddess.

They were wrong.

The woman they had destroyed was gone.

The one who remained would make them pray they had never betrayed her.