Aria POV
The bucket of ice water hit me like a slap.
I gasped awake, choking and shivering on the concrete floor of my storage room. Luna Victoria stood over me, her perfectly painted lips twisted in disgust.
"Get up, you lazy mutt," she snarled, kicking my ribs with her designer heel. "The Mating Ceremony is tonight, and this packhouse looks like a pigsty."
I bit my tongue to keep from crying out. Pain was nothing new. I'd been Luna Victoria's personal slave since I was five years old—fourteen years of scrubbing, cooking, and taking whatever punishment she felt like giving.
"Yes, Luna," I whispered, climbing to my feet even though my wet nightgown stuck to my skin and my body ached from yesterday's beating.
"The ballroom needs to sparkle. The kitchens need to be spotless. Every bathroom, every hallway, every window." Victoria grabbed my chin hard enough to bruise. "If I find one speck of dirt, I'll make sure you regret it. Understood?"
"Yes, Luna."
She shoved me backward into the wall and left, slamming the door so hard the hinges rattled.
I stood there dripping, my heart pounding. Today was supposed to be special. Today was the Mating Ceremony—the night when wolves found their forever partners under the full moon. Today was the day Damien was finally going to claim me.
At least, that's what I kept telling myself.
I changed into my work dress—a gray thing with more holes than fabric—and tied my silver-blonde hair into a messy braid. My reflection in the cracked mirror showed bruises on my arms, dark circles under my gray eyes, and a girl who looked more ghost than person.
But Damien loved me anyway. He'd told me so a hundred times.
I grabbed my cleaning bucket and started on the ballroom first. My hands moved automatically—scrubbing, wiping, polishing. I'd done this so many times I could do it in my sleep.
Through the huge windows, I could see pack members gathering outside, laughing and excited. Everyone was talking about the Mating Ceremony. It was the biggest event of the year.
My stomach fluttered with nervous hope. Tonight, Damien would stand up in front of everyone and choose me. It didn't matter that I was wolfless—he'd promised he didn't care. He'd kissed me behind the docks last month and sworn I was his forever.
"Damien loves me," I whispered to myself, scrubbing harder. "He's going to choose me."
"Keep dreaming, orphan."
I spun around. Scarlett Blackwood leaned against the doorway, looking perfect in her expensive clothes. She was Luna Victoria's daughter—my stepsister, though she'd never called me that. To her, I was just the family's free maid.
"The ballroom looks decent," Scarlett said, examining her nails. "Mother will only beat you a little today."
I said nothing. Speaking to Scarlett only made things worse.
She walked closer, her smile turning mean. "I'm so excited for tonight. The Mating Ceremony is going to be absolutely magical."
Something in her voice made my chest tighten.
"Damien's going to look so handsome in his Beta cords," she continued, watching my face carefully. "Don't you think?"
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked quietly.
"Because I want you to know something." Scarlett leaned in close, her eyes glittering with cruelty. "Damien's going to be mine tonight. Not yours. Mine."
My heart stopped. "You're lying."
"Am I?" She laughed. "Think about it, Aria. Damien just made Beta rank. He's got a real future now. Why would he choose a wolfless nobody when he could have me? I'm ranked. I'm beautiful. I'm actually worth something."
"Damien wouldn't—"
"Wouldn't what? Wouldn't choose power over you?" Scarlett's smile was poison. "Mother already talked to him. He knows what's good for his career."
No. No, she was just trying to hurt me. Damien loved me. He'd promised.
"You're pathetic," Scarlett said, turning to leave. "Watching you hope for something you'll never have is almost sad. Almost."
She walked out, leaving me alone with my scrub brush and my breaking heart.
I worked faster after that, trying not to think. But my hands shook, and my eyes kept blurring with tears I refused to let fall.
By noon, I'd finished the ballroom and moved to the kitchens. The pack's cooking staff ignored me like always, stepping around me like I was invisible.
Through the window, I saw him.
Damien Cross stood in the garden, tall and handsome in the afternoon sun. My heart jumped the way it always did when I saw him. He was laughing at something, his head thrown back, looking so happy and perfect and—
Scarlett appeared beside him.
She touched his arm. Said something that made him smile. Leaned closer.
And Damien didn't pull away.
My stomach dropped like a stone. The dish I was holding slipped from my numb fingers and shattered on the floor.
"Clean that up, you clumsy girl!" the head cook shouted.
I barely heard her. I couldn't stop watching through the window as Damien and Scarlett walked together, their heads bent close like they were sharing secrets.
No. It didn't mean anything. Damien was just being polite. He had to be nice to the Luna's daughter. That's all it was.
I cleaned up the broken dish and went back to work, but the sick feeling in my stomach wouldn't go away.
The rest of the day blurred together. More rooms. More scrubbing. More pack members walking past me without seeing me.
By the time the sun started setting, every muscle in my body screamed with exhaustion. But the packhouse was finally clean, and I had just enough time to get ready for the ceremony.
I ran to my storage room and pulled out my only good dress—a simple blue thing I'd sewn myself from scraps. It had patches and the hem was uneven, but it was clean.
I washed my face and tried to do something with my hair, but my hands were shaking too badly. What if Scarlett was telling the truth? What if Damien really was going to reject me?
No. I couldn't think like that. Damien loved me. He'd told me so many times. Tonight would prove that love was stronger than status or rank or power.
I stepped outside just as the full moon rose over the trees.
The entire pack was gathering in the ceremonial clearing—hundreds of wolves dressed in their finest clothes, excited and chattering. Torches lit up the night, and the air smelled like pine and magic.
I stayed at the edge of the crowd in my patched dress, trying to be invisible. No one looked at me anyway. To them, I was just the packhouse slave. The orphan. The wolfless freak.
Alpha Cedric Blackwood—Scarlett's father—stood on the raised platform at the center of the clearing. His voice boomed over the crowd.
"Tonight, we celebrate the sacred Mating Ceremony! Wolves will find their partners under the moon's blessing. Let the ceremony begin!"
Wolves started pairing off, one by one. Each couple stepped forward to declare their choice in front of everyone.
My heart pounded so hard I thought it might explode.
Then I saw Damien walking toward the platform.
He looked so handsome in his new Beta cords, his dark hair perfectly styled. This was it. This was the moment I'd been dreaming about.
I started to move forward, but someone grabbed my arm.
"Where do you think you're going?" Luna Victoria hissed. She'd appeared out of nowhere, her grip like iron. "You stay right here where you belong."
"But Damien—"
"Is about to make a very smart choice."
Dread flooded through me. "What did you do?"
Victoria's smile was terrifying. "I simply helped him understand his options. Now watch."
She shoved me forward into the clearing, right where everyone could see me. I stumbled in my patched dress, suddenly the center of attention. Wolves turned to stare, their expressions ranging from pity to disgust.
Damien stood on the platform, his eyes finding mine across the crowd.
For one second—one tiny second—I saw guilt flash across his face.
Then his expression went cold and hard, like a door slamming shut.
"I, Damien Cross, have made my choice," he announced, his voice carrying across the silent clearing.
This was it. My forever moment.
"I reject—"
My world started to crumble.
"—Aria Blackwood as my mate."
The words hit me like a physical blow. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't think.
"She is wolfless, worthless, and beneath my station," Damien continued, not even looking at me anymore. "I choose instead—"
Scarlett stepped onto the platform in a beautiful white dress, her smile triumphant.
"—Scarlett Blackwood. My true mate."
The crowd erupted in applause and congratulations. Scarlett threw her arms around Damien and kissed him like I didn't exist. Like I'd never existed.
I stood frozen, my heart shattering into a million pieces while five hundred wolves stared at me with pity or amusement or nothing at all.
This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real.
But then Damien's eyes met mine over Scarlett's shoulder, and I saw the truth. He'd never loved me. I'd been a stupid girl believing pretty lies from a boy who wanted someone to make him feel important.
Laughter rippled through the crowd. Someone shouted, "Did she really think a Beta would choose her?"
Luna Victoria appeared at my side, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "Poor dear. You actually believed he cared about you. How embarrassing."
Something inside me broke—not just my heart, but something deeper. Something that had been barely holding me together for nineteen years.
I wanted to scream. To cry. To disappear into the ground and never come back.
Instead, I just stood there, humiliated and destroyed in front of my entire pack.
Then the temperature dropped.
It happened so fast that wolves stopped mid-laugh, their breath turning to fog in the suddenly freezing air. The torches flickered and went out, plunging the clearing into darkness.
A voice like thunder cracked across the clearing:
"ENOUGH."
Three massive shapes materialized from shadows that shouldn't exist, and the crushing weight of their Alpha power brought every wolf to their knees.
Everyone except me.
I stared up at three of the most powerful, most dangerous, most devastatingly beautiful males I'd ever seen.
The Moonshadow Triplets had arrived.
And they were looking directly at me.