Elowen POV
I'm staring at my reflection, trying to remember how to smile like I mean it.
The bathroom mirror shows a stranger. Silver gown that cost more than most wolves earn in a year. Hair pinned up with diamonds that feel like they're digging into my scalp. And there, on my neck—the mating mark that was supposed to change everything.
It burns cold. Always cold.
I press two fingers against the crescent-shaped scar and close my eyes. Eighteen months ago, I stood in the Great Hall wearing white, believing in fairy tales. Thaddeus Ironhart, High Alpha of the Northern Reach, chose me. Me. The wolfless Omega nobody wanted.
"I'll protect you, Elowen," he'd whispered during the ceremony. "Always."
His teeth had sunk into my neck, and the bond snapped into place like lightning. I felt it. The connection. The promise.
Then came our wedding night.
He'd marked me in front of everyone, his hand gentle on my waist. The crowd cheered. My heart soared. Finally, someone wanted me for me, not just the Miravel lands I inherited when my parents died.
We walked to our chambers together. He opened the door. Smiled that political smile I've learned to recognize.
"This was a good alliance, Elowen. Your lands, my protection. We both got what we needed."
I'd reached for his hand. "Thaddeus, I—"
"I have business to attend to. Sleep well."
He'd left me standing there in my wedding dress, his mark burning on my neck, and gone to Lyria's chambers three doors down.
I heard them. The whole palace heard them.
That was eighteen months ago.
Now I practice smiling in the mirror because tonight is the annual Lunar Gala, and everyone will be watching the "perfect Luna" stand beside her Alpha.
My reflection smiles back. It doesn't reach my eyes.
Good enough.
I smooth my dress and walk out, heels clicking against marble floors. The grand staircase stretches below me, and I can already hear the party—music, laughter, the sound of people who belong somewhere.
Breathe. Smile. Descend.
Every eye turns as I walk down. I feel their stares like spider webs on my skin.
"There's the Omega," someone whispers.
"Still no wolf. Can you imagine?"
"Thaddeus only married her for the land. Everyone knows."
"Poor girl. Trapped him with inheritance rights."
I keep smiling. Keep walking. Keep pretending their words don't cut.
The ballroom is enormous—crystal chandeliers, ice sculptures, tables loaded with food I won't eat. Hundreds of wolves in their finest clothes, all of them more powerful than me. All of them knowing I don't belong.
Thaddeus stands near the center, platinum hair catching the light. He's beautiful in his formal suit, every inch the powerful Alpha. And beside him, wearing emerald green that matches her eyes, stands Lyria.
His true love.
She laughs at something he says, touching his arm. He leans closer, whispers in her ear. She blushes.
My mating mark burns colder.
They start dancing, and I watch because I'm supposed to. Because a good Luna supports her Alpha. Because if I look away, everyone will know it still destroys me.
His hand fits perfectly in the small of her back. Their bodies move together like they've done this a thousand times. They have.
"The wolfless Omega thinks she can keep an Alpha like that," a woman behind me says.
"Thaddeus is just too kind to reject her publicly. The land merger was worth it."
"I heard she cries herself to sleep every night."
I don't. I stopped crying three months ago when I realized tears changed nothing.
But tonight? Tonight the ballroom feels too small, too hot, too full of wolves who can smell weakness.
I slip away while Thaddeus spins Lyria across the floor. Nobody notices. They never do.
The library is dark and blessedly quiet. I close the door and lean against it, finally letting my fake smile drop.
This is my life now. Playing Luna to an Alpha who sees me as a land contract. Watching him love someone else. Pretending it doesn't kill me slowly.
I walk to the window, pressing my forehead against the cool glass. The full moon hangs heavy outside, and I wonder—not for the first time—what the Moon Goddess was thinking when she mated me to Thaddeus.
Some bonds are blessed. Ours feels like punishment.
"Crying alone at your own party?"
I spin around. A man leans in the doorway, half-hidden in shadows. But I'd recognize that voice anywhere—same as Thaddeus's but warmer somehow.
Cassian Ironhart. The twin brother. The spare heir.
"My brother truly is an idiot," Cassian continues, stepping into the moonlight.
He looks exactly like Thaddeus—same platinum hair, same ice-blue eyes, same sharp features. But where Thaddeus is cold marble, Cassian is warm flesh. Where Thaddeus calculates, Cassian feels.
Or at least, that's what everyone says.
"I'm not crying," I say, wiping my cheeks. Traitor tears.
"Right. And I'm not watching you fall apart for eighteen months while my brother parades his mistress around like you don't exist." Cassian moves closer, each step deliberate. "You deserve better, Elowen."
Something in his voice makes my skin tingle. Dangerous.
"I should go back—"
"Why? So more people can whisper about the wolfless Omega who trapped the High Alpha? So you can watch Thaddeus dance with Lyria while your mating mark burns cold?"
I freeze. "How did you—"
"I notice things." He's close now, close enough that I can smell him—winter pine and something wild. "Like how you touch your mark when it hurts. How you practice smiling before public events. How you disappear to this library every gala because it's the only place you can breathe."
My heart hammers. "You've been watching me?"
"Someone should." His eyes hold mine, and for the first time in eighteen months, someone sees me. Really sees me.
"Cassian, this isn't—I'm mated to your brother."
"A bond is only sacred if both people honor it." He reaches out slowly, giving me time to pull away. His finger brushes my mating mark, and instead of burning cold, it suddenly burns hot.
My breath catches.
"Let me get you a drink," he says softly. "Let me make you smile for real, just once. What's the harm?"
Everything. This is everything dangerous.
But when I open my mouth to say no, what comes out is: "Okay."
Cassian smiles—bright and genuine and nothing like his brother's political masks.
And somewhere deep inside, in the hollow place where my wolf should be, something stirs.
Something that feels like it's waking up.
Something that will destroy everything.