Chapter 1

My fiancé, Sebastian Wellington, Alpha of the Steelmoon Pack, and my best friend Amelia—a human from the borderlands of the Crosswind Pack—had never gotten along.

Every time they were in the same room, the temperature seemed to drop.

Yet just as my mating ceremony drew near, I caught a glimpse of the blazing current hidden beneath the ice.

Today, Amelia flew across three werewolf territories to join me for the final week of my bachelorette celebration before the ceremony.

For a human, that was far from safe.

She had changed a lot.

Her once waist-length hair now barely brushed her ears, dyed a deep wine red.

New piercings glinted along her ear cartilage and brow, and a tiny silver stud now adorned the side of her nose.

In my world—built on bloodlines, laws, and order—any piercing was taboo. She was a complete anomaly.

But she was my closest friend.

We ordered takeout on her phone, planning a fully indulgent, rule-breaking girls’ night.

When she went to shower, her phone vibrated on the couch.

The screen lit up. I glanced at it, assuming it was a delivery notification.

“Evelyn, can you check if the food’s here?” Amelia called out.

But it wasn’t a food app.

It was a text message.

Sender: Bloodnight Q

[The hunt begins. My fangs are sharpened for you tonight.]

My hand froze above the screen.

That nickname… was strange enough. But stranger still—this contact was pinned to the top.

The phone vibrated again.

This time, it was an image.

I shouldn’t have looked. It was Amelia’s privacy.

But my eyes were already locked on the screen.

The photo showed a set of crimson lace lingerie, thin as cicada wings, nearly transparent.

Beside it—

my face burned. Things I had only ever seen illustrated in the pack’s forbidden ancient books.

Restraints.

My heartbeat fell completely out of rhythm.

Amelia… liked things like this?

Then my breath nearly stopped.

In the background of the photo was a man’s body.

A solid torso, sun-bronzed skin.

A vicious old scar, re-outlined with deliberate black tattoo lines.

My hand began to tremble.

I knew that tattoo.

I had seen it countless times.

In our most intimate moments, I had traced it with my lips, my teeth, my tongue.

Sebastian said it was a memento from a purge of fallen rogue wolves.

The black lines were meant to remind him how close he had once come to death.

No.

Impossible.

I had to be mistaken.

There were plenty of men with scars and tattoos.

And Amelia—how could she possibly be involved with a werewolf…

The phone slipped from my fingers and fell onto the carpet without a sound.

But at that moment, my heart felt as though it had been smashed to the floor.

This couldn’t be real.

Amelia was my best friend.

Sebastian was my fiancé.

They despised each other—like fire and water.

Amelia saw Sebastian as dangerous and authoritarian, someone who stripped others of choice in the name of bloodlines.

Sebastian, on the other hand, had always viewed her as a mortal outsider—someone destined to age and die, yet daring to taint my eternal life with fleeting human passion.

I practically had to tie them to their chairs just to get through a single meal together.

And I’d only managed that once.

I grabbed the phone and quickly dialed Sebastian.

The video call connected.

“My Luna.” Sebastian’s face appeared—handsome as ever, black hair slightly disheveled.

“Already missing your Alpha?”

“Where are you?” I forced my voice to sound steady.

“Handling pack business. Dealing with hyenas who only respect fangs, not blood bonds.” He frowned.

“You don’t look well. What happened?”

“Nothing.” I took a deep breath.

“Tonight… can you come over?”

“Of course. One hour.” His gaze softened.

“Evelyn, are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m sure.”

I wasn’t.

That tattoo was still burning in my mind.

“Oh, right,” Sebastian said suddenly.

“Amelia came to see you, didn’t she?”

“Yes. She’s showering.”

His expression hardened.

“Evelyn, I’ve told you many times—she’s a liability.

You’re adjusting to your future role as Luna, yet you keep spending time with this human, picking up all those weak, sentimental, pointless human habits.”

“Sebastian—”

“I’m serious,” he cut in.

“She crawled out of chaos beyond the bounds of order, Evelyn.

Uncontrolled circles, lawless worlds—that’s where she belongs. Not you.”

Memories surged without warning.

After that so-called Human–Werewolf Cultural Exchange Course,

in the buffer zone on the way back to pack territory, three rogue wolves cornered me.

Amelia appeared.

She was only human—no shifting ability—armed with nothing but a rusted iron bar torn from an abandoned guardrail.

She beat one of them to death.

The other two fled in terror.

She stood in front of me, her eyes cold enough to kill.

That was the first time I truly understood the meaning of violence.

And the first time I fell in love with the fire in her that refused to be tamed.

“She saved my life,” I said softly.

“That was a long time ago.” Sebastian’s voice softened again.

“Now you have me to protect you.

You don’t need a human friend like her. Your loyalty, your time, your heart—

they should belong to the pack. To me.”

I nodded, though the knot in my stomach tightened further.

“Baby, I love you,” he said.

“I’ll see you in an hour.”

The call ended.

I sat on the couch, staring at Amelia’s phone.

Maybe I was overthinking it.

The sound of running water stopped.

Amelia would be out any moment.

I put the phone back where it had been and pretended nothing had happened.

But the images were burned into my mind—

red lace.

Restraints.

And that unmistakable tattoo.

I stepped onto the balcony and put on my headphones, trying to calm myself.

The mating ceremony was a week away.

I was about to marry the most powerful man in the Steelmoon Pack.

My best friend had risked her life to come keep me company.

Everything should have been perfect.

So why did I suddenly feel—as if my blood bond had been disturbed?

The scent of smoke reached me before Amelia’s voice did.

A hand landed on my shoulder, yanking out one side of my headphones.

“Evelyn,” she said. “Want a cigarette?”