Chapter 1

My soul hovered above the stage, staring down at the black metal illusion box that still held my body.

Only my head and one hand were visible. My face looked unusually pale beneath the stage lights, and a faint sheen of sweat clung to my temple. My half-open eyes stared past the front row, but from a distance, the stillness could easily be mistaken for commitment to the act.

Selena glanced at me and faltered for half a second. Her fingers tightened around the microphone, but the hesitation vanished beneath the sweet, guileless smile she wore for everyone else.

She bent over the box and lifted the small panel near my face. "Elena, that's your cue. Take a bow."

My corpse didn't move.

Her smile stiffened. Then she straightened and gave the audience an apologetic shrug. "Looks like our Omega Luna is still mad at me. Let's take ten while I go backstage and talk her down."

A ripple of indulgent laughter passed through the ballroom. These were wolves who had trusted me to treat their children at the clinic and bless their newborns as Luna. Yet the moment Selena framed my silence as jealousy, they accepted her explanation without question.

Adrian rose from his seat, already frowning, and took Noah by the hand. The two stagehands wheeled the box behind the curtain. Blood dripped beneath its casters, leaving dark streaks across the floor, but the backstage area was littered with ruptured blood packs from the performance. No one gave the trail a second look.

Adrian followed the box into the wings. He stopped in front of it and rapped his knuckles against the metal twice. "Elena. Come out."

Silence.

Noah shifted uneasily beside him. "Is Mommy still mad?"

Adrian looked back at the box.

For one precious second, doubt crossed his face. "I can't feel her through the mate bond. That's strange."

At the sound of his voice, I lunged toward him. "Adrian, please. Look at me." I reached for him, but my hand passed straight through his shoulder.

Adrian's jaw tightened. He lifted a hand toward the latch.

All he had to do was reach for the latch. One movement. One glance inside. He would see the blood, the silver, the wounds that weren't healing.

Before his fingers touched the metal, Selena stepped in beside him, tears already shining in her eyes. "She must be blocking you on purpose. She wants you to open the box and coax her out in front of everyone so you'll prove she matters more than I do. This is my fault. I should've known she never wanted to help."

Adrian let his hand fall with a weary exhale. "Then opening it would only reward the behavior. I can't keep indulging every tantrum."

I froze.

I stared at him, unable to believe what I was hearing.

Selena curled her fingers around his sleeve. "It's your birthday. Please don't let whatever is happening between Elena and me ruin the rest of the night."

The doubt left his eyes.

He knocked on the box again, harder this time. "Your wolf hates tight spaces. Five minutes in there and you'll come crawling out on your own."

He turned away. "Come on, Noah."

Noah didn't follow immediately. He stared at the dark liquid pooling beneath the box, his small face pinched with uncertainty. "Dad, is Mommy really okay?"

"That's stage blood." Adrian rested a hand on the back of his neck. "Your mother is throwing another fit. Don't encourage her."

Noah nodded because children believed their fathers, especially when their fathers were Alphas and everyone else believed them too.

I trailed after Adrian as far as the backstage door. "Just open the box. Adrian, please. You only have to look once."

He never turned around.