Chapter 1

For five years, I loved my fated mate, Lucian. As the Alpha's daughter, I used my influence to raise him from a low-status warrior to our pack's third-in-command. I believed our bond was a gift from the Moon Goddess.

That belief shattered when Rogues ambushed me on patrol. I screamed for him through our mind-link as they held a silver knife to my throat, but he never answered. I later learned he ignored my pleas while he was in bed with my half-sister.

When I confronted him at a pack ball, he publicly humiliated me before slapping me across the face. After I uttered the words to reject him, he had me arrested and thrown into the dungeons.

On his orders, the prisoners tortured me for days. They starved me, cut me with silver, and left me tied to a stone pillar in the cold. The man I had given my soul to wanted me utterly broken.

Lying on that filthy floor, I finally understood. He never loved me; he only loved the power I gave him.

Three months later, I invited him to my Mating Ceremony. He arrived beaming, believing this was his grand reconciliation. He watched from the front row as I walked down the aisle, turned my back on him, and placed my hand in that of a powerful rival Alpha-my true, Second Chance Mate. This wasn't forgiveness. This was revenge.

Chapter 1

LYRA POV:

The sheets were tangled around our legs, still warm from the heat of our bodies. Lucian's scent, a familiar mix of pine and damp earth, clung to my skin like a second self. It was a scent I had breathed in for five years, a scent I had once believed was my future.

While he was in the shower, the steam hissing from under the door, I closed my eyes and reached out through the Mind-Link. The Mind-Link is a silent, invisible thread that connects all members of a pack, a way to speak heart to heart without a single word. The link between an Alpha and his family is the strongest.

"Father, it's done," I sent, my thoughts aimed directly at Alpha Robert Costa, my father. "I agree to the alliance with the Blackmoon Pack. But my condition stands."

A wave of concern, followed by stern approval, washed back over the link. "Are you certain, my little wolf? Marrying their Alpha is a great sacrifice."

"It's the only way," I replied, my voice firm even in my mind. I didn't tell him the real reason. I didn't tell him my heart was a frozen stone in my chest.

The bathroom door opened, and Lucian stepped out, a towel slung low on his hips. Water droplets clung to the hard planes of his chest. He was beautiful, and the sight of him sent a phantom ache through me, a memory of a love that was now dead.

He came to the bed, leaning over me. He nuzzled my neck, his familiar scent sinking into my skin, a possessive claim I once cherished. Now, it felt like a brand.

"You smell like me," he murmured, his voice a low rumble. "Just as it should be."

For five years, I had loved him. I had used my influence as the Alpha's daughter to help him climb from a simple warrior to the pack's Gamma, our third-in-command. He was my Fated Mate, the other half of my soul, chosen for me by the Moon Goddess herself. I thought our love was destiny.

I was a fool.

Three days ago, that illusion shattered. I was ambushed on patrol, taken by Rogues-packless wolves who live by savagery. They dragged me to their filthy camp where their leader held a silver knife to my throat and opened a Mind-Link to my mate.

"Lucian!" I had screamed in my mind, my terror a raw, bleeding thing. "Rogues... they have me... please..."

Silence.

The Rogue leader laughed, his mind-voice a greasy slick against mine. "He's not answering, little princess. Busy, is he?"

All night, I called for him. All night, there was only silence. I finally broke free on my own, a desperate, bloody escape that ended with me being shoved off a cliff. My own pack warriors found me, broken and bleeding at the bottom of the ravine.

When I woke in the Healer's Den, my father was by my side. His face was grim. He told me everything. Lucian hadn't been on a mission. He hadn't been sleeping. He had spent the entire night with my half-sister, Elara. He had ignored my pleas for help while he was in her bed.

In that moment, five years of love curdled into ash. The only thing that bloomed in its place was a cold, sharp-edged need for revenge.

Now, lying in our bed, Lucian's lips found mine. The kiss was hungry, but I felt nothing. Just as his tongue traced my lips, a flicker of a thought brushed against my mind. It was Elara, her voice a sickly sweet poison on the pack's general Mind-Link, directed at Lucian.

"Lucian, can you come? I think there are Rogues outside my cottage. I'm scared."

Lucian pulled back from me instantly. "I have to go," he said, already swinging his legs off the bed. "Pack business."

He didn't even look at me as he pulled on his jeans and a shirt. He was already gone, his mind already with her.

As his hand touched the doorknob, I whispered the words into the space between us, too quiet for him to hear.

"I don't need you anymore."

He paused, his back to me. "What was that?"

"Nothing," I said, my voice smooth as glass. "Go. The pack needs its Gamma."

The moment the door clicked shut, I reached for my phone.

"He's on his way to her. Follow him," I sent to one of my most trusted warriors. "I want video."

The reply was instant. "Yes, future Luna."

Less than ten minutes later, my phone buzzed. A video file. I opened it, my hand steady.

The screen lit up with an image that shattered the last fragment of my heart. Lucian, my Lucian, was pressing Elara against a tree at the edge of the forest. His lips were on hers. But it was his words, caught by the warrior's enhanced hearing, that truly destroyed me.

"I swear by the Moon Goddess," he was murmuring against her skin, the same sacred vow he had once made to me, a promise only meant for a true mate. "It's you. It has always been you."

My vision blurred. I dropped the phone and slowly, methodically, began to gather every item in the room that belonged to him. His clothes, his books, the stupid wooden wolf he carved for me on our first anniversary. I remembered how I had fought the pack elders for him, defending his lower birth status, insisting that our fated bond was all that mattered.

The love was gone. Now, only the fire of vengeance remained. And I would let it burn everything to the ground.