The ceremonial bells of Ironfang Keep rang out across the valley, each bronze note vibrating through the stone walls and into my bones. I stood at the threshold of the great hall, my silver gown trailing behind me like spilled moonlight.
The assembled wolves of the Heartlands filled every available space, their whispers creating a constant buzz of conversation. I caught fragments despite the bells echoing overhead.
"Look at her. Still no wolf scent."
"Twenty-four years old and nothing. How did she even catch the Alpha's eye?"
"She didn't. This is pure politics."
My fingers gripped the bouquet of nightshade and silver roses tighter, feeling the thorns bite through my gloves. Another one of Marisol's choices—beautiful flowers that drew blood if you weren't careful. My stepmother's taste always carried some hidden cruelty.
I lifted my chin and walked forward, my heels clicking against the ash-marked stones. Moon-petals scattered with each step, their sweet perfume thick in the air. This should have been the most important day of my life. The day I became Luna of the most powerful pack in the Heartlands. The day I finally found my place.
Instead, it felt like walking toward my own grave.
The great hall stretched ahead, all soaring arches and stained glass windows that caught the moonlight and threw colored patterns across the floor. Hundreds of wolves lined the walls, tracking my every movement. Some watched with pity. Others barely hid their disdain. A few younger she-wolves looked hungry for drama, as if they expected me to stumble before reaching the altar.
Maybe they had the right idea.
At the far end, on a dais carved from black stone, stood my intended mate.
Jasper Drevyn looked every inch the Alpha he was. Tall and broad-shouldered, with storm-gray eyes and a face that could have been carved from marble. His ceremonial armor gleamed like polished steel, fitted perfectly to his powerful frame. Dark hair fell in waves past his collar, and when he shifted, every wolf in the room felt the wave of dominance that rolled off him.
Every wolf but me.
I felt nothing. No pull, no spark of recognition, no flutter that should have sung through my blood at the sight of my mate. Just emptiness where my wolf should have been.
Wolf-less. The word they whispered behind fans and wine glasses, the flaw that made me unworthy. The reason Jasper's jaw was tight as I climbed the steps toward him.
Our eyes met, and I saw the truth there. Cold calculation behind that storm-dark gaze. This wasn't a mating ceremony. It was a business transaction dressed up in ritual and pretty words.
But maybe if I proved myself as his Luna, the emptiness would ease. Maybe respect could grow where love had failed to take root.
Elder Thorne raised his gnarled hands for silence. His voice carried across the hall, ancient and commanding. "Pack of Drevyn, children of the Heartlands, we gather beneath Selene's eye to witness the binding of Alpha and Luna."
The crowd fell quiet, that breathless hush that comes before either celebration or catastrophe.
"Araya Varrow," Elder Thorne continued, his pale eyes finding mine. "Daughter of Eldric Varrow, step forward to claim your place at the Alpha's side."
Daughter of Eldric Varrow. Not daughter of my mother, whose name they'd buried with her body. Just Eldric's daughter, claimed by blood alone.
I moved to stand beside Jasper, close enough to breathe in his scent of pine and steel and something wild that spoke of midnight hunts. Close enough to feel the heat from his skin, though his expression remained carved from ice.
"Jasper Drevyn," Elder Thorne intoned, "Alpha of Alphas, leader of the Drevyn Pack, step forward to claim your Luna."
Jasper's boots rang against stone as he moved, precise and controlled. When he stopped beside me, I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. Even on the raised platform, he towered over me.
The Elder lifted the ceremonial chalice, its silver surface etched with runes that seemed to shift in the moonlight. Blood-wine filled it to the brim, dark as spilled life.
"Speak now the vows that bind mate to mate, soul to soul, until the moon falls from the sky."
My throat went tight. These words would chain me to him forever, make me his in every way that mattered. But they would also give me purpose. Position. Power. A place where I belonged.
I drew a breath and spoke the ancient words. "I, Araya Varrow, swear by Selene's light and shadow, I take you, Jasper Drevyn, as my mate and Alpha. I vow to stand at your side through storm and calm, to bear your heirs and honor your bloodline, to serve this pack with every breath until death takes me."
The words cut my throat raw, but I forced them out steady and clear. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing me break.
Every eye in the hall fixed on Jasper, waiting. Seconds stretched like hours as he stared down at me, his face unreadable.
Finally, he spoke. "I, Jasper Drevyn, Alpha of the Drevyn Pack, take you, Araya Varrow, as Luna." His voice reached every corner of the hall. "I vow to protect what is mine, to lead with strength, to honor the bonds Selene has decreed."
What is mine. Not who I love or my cherished mate. What is mine, like I was property to be claimed and catalogued.
Elder Thorne lifted the chalice higher, moonlight catching its rim. "Let the bond be sealed, threads woven by starlight, blessed by She who watches over all wolves."
Jasper leaned close, his breath warm against my ear. To the watching crowd, it probably looked like a tender moment, a new husband whispering sweet words to his bride.
His words sliced through me like a frozen blade.
"This bond means nothing."
The chalice nearly slipped from my suddenly numb fingers. The blood-wine sloshed against the silver rim, dark as the pain flooding my chest. Around us, the crowd erupted in celebration, howls of approval echoing off the stone ceiling.
But all I could hear was his whisper, colder than winter itself, telling me this beautiful ceremony was exactly what I'd feared: an elaborate lie.
I forced my face into a mask of calm, even as something vital cracked inside my chest. The crowd saw their new Luna, radiant in silver silk, raising the ceremonial chalice to seal her fate.
They didn't see the girl who had just learned that some prisons are built from moonlight and pretty words, but they hold you captive all the same.