Chapter 2
Night wind threaded through the Douglas firs of the Pacific Northwest mountains, carrying the scent of pine needles and damp, earthy loam.
I pulled my coat tighter, stepping over a carpet of dead branches as I made my way toward the abandoned altar on the old pack grounds.
The text message glowed on my phone screen like a splinter lodged in a nerve.
When I pushed through the last wall of brush, my feet stopped dead.
Beneath the crumbling stone pillars of the altar stood two figures.
Moonlight poured over them without restraint, merging their shadows into one intimate silhouette.
Jack and Joanna.
Joanna leaned against Jack's chest, her fingers toying with the buttons of his shirt. That rich bay-laurel fragrance drifted on the night wind and stung the inside of my nose.
Joanna's voice was soft, threaded with unmistakable arrogance: "She can't even produce an heir for the Carter Pack."
Jack lowered his head and kissed her hair, his tone gentle. "Soon. Once the Elder Council confirms your Awakened status, I'll formally petition to dissolve the mate bond."
He hesitated slightly. "Her mental state has only just started to improve. We should give her a little more time."
"Improve?" Joanna laughed lightly. "All I did was crush her Moonlight Grass. It wasn't exactly a big deal."
"I told her it was just a delusion caused by her mental instability. Don't bring it up either — just let her go on believing it was never real." Jack's voice held not a single ripple of emotion.
My stomach lurched violently. A wave of cold shot from the soles of my feet straight to the top of my skull.
They both knew.
Jack had always known the truth.
He had watched me tremble in the dead of night from that old trauma. He had watched me writhe in the treatment pod at the clinic. And all the while, in the gentlest voice, he had twisted my real memories into the ravings of a madwoman.
I don't know how I managed to step forward. A twig snapped beneath my foot.
Both of them spun around.
When they saw me, a flicker of surprise crossed Jack's eyes — but it was quickly replaced by icy indifference.
He didn't release his arm from around Joanna's waist. He didn't even move toward me.
"Evelyn." He said my name calmly, as though I were nothing more than an uninvited guest who had stumbled in.
"You lied to me." My voice shook. My gaze was locked on Joanna. "You destroyed my Awakening Ceremony all those years ago. And now you're trying to drive me insane."
Jack frowned. "Don't overthink this. I just didn't want any misunderstanding between the two of you."
"Misunderstanding?" I stared at my bonded mate in disbelief. "You're calling this a misunderstanding, Jack? Do you have any heart at all?"
Joanna straightened from Jack's embrace, the corner of her mouth curling into a mocking arc.
She took two steps forward and looked down at me.
"Yes, I did it. So what?" She lifted her chin with brazen defiance. "Evelyn, your inferior bloodline was never worthy of the Moonlight Grass. I took it from you and crushed it — I was simply preventing you from wasting the pack's precious ceremonial resources. And the facts have proven me right. You're nothing but a defective product who can't even bear children."
"Enough, Joanna." Jack spoke up.
He turned to me, his tone brooking no argument. "Evelyn, face reality. The pack's survival law is the continuation of the bloodline. You can't give me an heir — but Joanna can. She carries the rare Moon Wolf bloodline and has achieved a full Awakening. I can promise you that I'll still be good to you. Isn't that enough?"
Every word was a dull blade, slowly and cruelly sawing through my dignity.
What I once believed was my salvation had been nothing but a lie.
"You've destroyed my entire life…" I murmured, my fingers slipping into my pocket to close around the folding knife I carried for protection.
The ice-cold touch of metal brought back a sliver of reason — but it also ignited a fury I had suppressed for ten years.
I pulled out the knife and charged at Joanna.
"Evelyn! Have you lost your mind?!" Jack roared and lunged to stop me, but the distance was too great.
Joanna clearly hadn't expected me to fight back.
The blade grazed her chest. She cried out in shock and stumbled backward.
The edge of the ruined altar was a sheer cliff. Below it, a swift, dark river roared.
"Stay away from me! You psycho!" She flailed her arms in panic. Her heel caught on a jutting stone.
A piercing scream split the night sky. Joanna's body lost its balance and toppled backward, plunging into the boundless darkness below.
"Joanna!" Jack threw himself toward the cliff's edge, but it was already too late.
I stood frozen in place, the bloodstained knife still in my hand.
The wind howled. From the base of the cliff came only the thunderous roar of the current.
Deep in the trees, lights flared. The pack's patrol unit, alerted by the scream, was closing in fast.
"I did it." A figure burst from the depths of the forest and threw herself in front of me.
My sister, Claire.
She wrenched the knife from my grip and shielded me behind her body.
The Elders and pack guards surged onto the altar.
They saw Jack at the cliff's edge. They saw me standing motionless. And they saw the knife in my sister's hand, glinting in the firelight.
"It was me!" Claire shouted, her chest heaving violently. "I discovered that Joanna had been secretly bullying Evelyn. I came to confront her. We argued — and I… I killed her and pushed her over the edge! Evelyn had nothing to do with it!"
"Claire, what are you saying…" I reached for her sleeve in shock, but she caught my hand and squeezed my fingers hard — a silent command to stay quiet.
Her palm was drenched in cold sweat.
"Claire Harper, do you understand the penalty for murdering a high-blooded Awakened?" The Grand Elder leaned on his bone staff, his voice solemn and frigid.
"I do." Claire lifted her chin, her gaze resolute. "I accept all consequences."
Guards stepped forward and clamped heavy silver shackles around Claire's wrists. She didn't resist. Just before they led her away, she turned and looked at me one final time.
At the cliff's edge, the guards found only a few spatters of blood and a shattered Moon Wolf totem pendant that had belonged to Joanna.
After that night, Claire was cast into the Abyss Dungeon.
Every day I knelt before the doors of the Elder Council, begging for the chance to tell the truth. But Jack's testimony and Claire's confession rendered my pleas hollow and powerless.
They said I was mentally unstable from the trauma — that I couldn't even trust my own memories.
Until one morning, a month later.
The warden of the Abyss Dungeon delivered a cold wooden box.
"Claire Harper could not endure the dungeon's cold. Her death was confirmed last night." The warden announced it without expression.
I opened the box with trembling hands. Inside there were no ashes — only a necklace stained with dried blood. It was the silver pendant Claire had worn since childhood, shaped like a scar.
I knelt on the ground, gripping the pendant so tightly its sharp edges broke the skin of my palm.
Blood dripped onto the stone slabs. I didn't feel a thing.
Claire.
I…
It was my fault.
