Chapter 2

The day after Dominic told me to go rest in Ashvale, Finn came down with pre-shift fever.

Our pups hit this stage around age five, when the body starts getting ready for the first shift. Bones reshape, body temperature spikes, and every joint aches like it's breaking. Without frostbloom, one of the rarest herbs in the pack's stores, brewed down into medicine to break the fever, a pup could end up with damage that never heals. Sometimes worse.

I grabbed Finn, his face burning red, sweat soaking through his shirt, and headed to the pack storehouse for the two stalks of frostbloom I'd set aside weeks ago.

The storehouse was locked tight. The omega in charge of the herbs bowed to me, awkwardly. "Luna, most of the stock got moved out yesterday afternoon. Alpha's people took it. The last two top-grade frostbloom stalks, the Alpha carried those off himself. Took them to the west wing."

"The west wing?"

My stomach dropped. That was where Camille and her daughter had been quietly moved in.

For Finn's sake, I swallowed it and dragged him straight there, his whole body shaking in my grip.

Maren had told me that morning that Finn walked past the west wing yesterday, and Camille laughed in front of the staff and said, "Why's that little runt hanging around here again? He's going to scare my Rosie."

I hadn't said anything at the time. Now I understood. That was what Finn's name had become in this pack.

I rounded a stand of trees and saw something that made my chest hurt.

Dominic, a man who never so much as smiled on a battlefield, was kneeling in front of a four-year-old girl. Camille's daughter, Rosie, dressed head to toe in something new, like a little princess.

Rosie lounged on a blanket, pouting. "Uncle Dom, it's so hot, my mouth's all dry, I don't want plain water."

Dominic had never once smiled at my son like that. His voice came out unbelievably gentle. "It's okay, Rosie. Don't worry about the heat. Uncle Dom made you your favorite."

He held out a bowl with both hands.

Inside, floating in clear ice water, were five whole stalks of top-grade frostbloom.

Five.

The medicine that could save my son's life, and he'd turned it into iced tea for another man's daughter.

Finn tugged at my finger, his voice barely there. "Mommy, why did Daddy give my medicine to that girl to drink as tea?"

He didn't say it loud, but Dominic heard him anyway.

He looked up, saw me and Finn standing there, sick and pale, and his face changed. By the time he stood up, he'd already put back on that cold, disapproving look he usually saved for me.

"What are you doing sneaking around the west wing this early instead of packing?" Dominic walked over fast and planted himself in front of the gate.

I looked him dead in the face. "Finn's hit pre-shift fever. I need the two frostbloom stalks that belong to my son to bring his fever down."

He didn't even glance at his own son shaking and covered in cold sweat. His mouth curled into something impatient, almost disgusted. "It's not that big a deal. A future Alpha who can't handle a little pre-shift pain, how's he supposed to fight later? You baby him too much. You're going to raise a weakling."

I couldn't say anything. I looked past his shoulder into the yard.

Rosie wouldn't even drink the frostbloom water. She dumped it on the ground out of spite.

My son's medicine, poured straight into the dirt.

"Why are you staring at her?" Dominic's eye twitched, and the lie came easy. "Camille's husband died fighting for this pack. Rosie's never had a father, and no pack would take them in. She's always been sickly. I'm the Alpha, so what's wrong with me looking after them a little? Keep giving me that look and you're not going anywhere south."

Lying to me, keeping secrets from me, using me, I could live with all that.

But how did he have it in him to give another man's kid whatever she wanted, and not even look twice at his own son shaking on his feet in pain?

I looked down and laughed, just once, quietly.

Dominic frowned. "What's funny?"

"Nothing. You're right, Alpha." My face gave away nothing. I crouched down slowly and touched Finn's burning ear. "A future Alpha like him has no use for something that's already been dumped in the mud and sipped from someone else's mouth."

"You," Dominic's face went dark.

I didn't bother looking at him. I took Finn's hand and walked away.

"Mommy, it doesn't hurt. I'll grow big and strong even without the medicine." Halfway back, Finn bit his lip so hard through the shivering that it bled.

I crouched down and pulled him into my arms.

"Silly boy. Who needs his stupid weeds."

I reached into my collar and pulled out a thin chain I'd kept hidden for years. A silver ring hung from it, stamped with the Frostcrown crest. My brother had pressed it into my hand the day I left home to marry into Blood Moon. He'd told me if I ever needed to come back, send it to him.

I closed my fist around the chain and said quietly, "Maren."

She stepped out from the shadows without a sound.

"Send word to Frostcrown. Tell my brother to get Finn the best healing bath and a full supply of frostbloom ready." I pressed the ring into her hand, my eyes cold. "Let that woman and her daughter pick through the scraps left in this place. We're going home."