PROLOGUE

​ELENA'S POV

​The silver moonlight shone through the windows of the sacred pack hall. It felt heavy, but it was nothing compared to the pain in my chest.

​I was on my knees, staring up at the stage. My cheap dress was torn at the shoulder. Up there stood Kaelen. He looked magnificent and terrifying in his ceremonial furs. He was every bit the Alpha King he had just been crowned. Right beside him stood Lady Tanya, the daughter of the wealthiest Alpha in the north. Her hand was tucked tightly into his arm.

​"Kaelen, please," I whispered. My voice cracked.

​The mating bond between us was thick, golden, and humming with energy. I could feel his heartbeat. I knew the Moon Goddess had made us for each other.

​But Kaelen did not look at me with love. His eyes were as cold as ice. He looked at me like I was dirt on his boots. I was just an omega orphan. A liability.

​"Silence, omega," Kaelen commanded.

​His Alpha aura flared, pressing me flat against the marble floor. I gasped for air. Inside my mind, my wolf whimpered in submission.

​Kaelen took a deep breath and addressed the high council. His voice boomed through the hall, shattering my world.

​"I, Kaelen Vance, Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack and King of the Western Territories, reject the arrangement of the heavens," he announced. He looked me dead in the eye. "You are weak, Elena. You bring nothing to my throne but vulnerability. I reject you as my mate, and I banish you from my sight."

​A scream of pure agony ripped from my throat.

​The golden bond snapped. It felt like my heart was being hacked out of my chest with a dull blade. My wolf howled in mourning, curling into a ball of dying ash inside my mind.

​Blood welled in my mouth, dripping onto the white marble floor. Through my tears, I watched Kaelen turn his back on me. He placed a golden crown on Tanya’s head. The crowd cheered. Nobody looked at the dying girl on the floor.

​Guards dragged my bleeding body out into the freezing rain toward the forbidden Dead Woods. As the cold hit me, my sorrow began to harden. The pain faded, replaced by a cold, dark emptiness.

​He thinks I am weak, my wolf whispered. Her voice was new—dark and dangerous. Let him rule his little kingdom. When we return, we will burn it to the ground.

​CHAPTER 1: THE ASH IN THE RAIN

​ELENA'S POV

​The mud of the Dead Woods tasted like copper and dead leaves.

​I lay against the roots of an ancient tree, but I barely felt the physical pain. Inside me, my wolf was making an agonizing sound. Her soul had been violently severed in half.

​Kaelen.

​Even though the golden mating bond was broken, my mind still reached for him. Every time it did, a fresh wave of agony shot through my body.

​"I reject you as my mate, and I banish you from my sight."

​His words played on a cruel loop in my head. I had spent nineteen years as an orphan in the Bloodmoon Pack. I cleaned their floors and endured their insults. I always told myself the Moon Goddess had a big purpose for me. I thought Kaelen was that purpose. I was a fool. In the royal world, a poor omega is not a mate—she is a political mistake.

​"Get up, rat," a harsh voice boomed from above.

​A heavy boot kicked my ribs, rolling me onto my back. The cold rain blinded me. Two pack guards stood over me. They were men I had served breakfast to just yesterday. Today, they looked at me like I was a diseased animal.

​"Alpha King Kaelen ordered us to leave you past the boundary line," the guard said, spitting next to my head. "If you cross back over, we have permission to kill you. Move deeper into the woods, Elena. Die where we don't have to smell you."

​They turned around and walked away. Their flashlights vanished into the fog.

​I was entirely alone. The darkness closed in around me. The cold numbed my limbs. My inner wolf was curled into a shivering ball of gray ash. She was dying. When a weak omega is rejected by an Alpha King, the force of his aura can kill her wolf permanently.

​Just let go, a dark whisper echoed in my thoughts. It’s easier to sleep. The pain stops if you just stop breathing.

​I closed my eyes. The thought of a quiet void felt like a warm blanket. My heartbeat slowed down. I was ready to give up.

​But as I started to lose consciousness, my hand brushed against something hard in the mud. It wasn't a rock. It felt like metal.

​A sudden jolt of electricity shot up my arm, forcing my eyes open. I pulled the object from the earth.

​Through the darkness, I stared at what I was holding. It was a heavy silver signet ring. The rain washed it clean, revealing an engraving: a crescent moon trapped inside the jaws of a roaring shadow wolf.

​My breath caught. My heart slammed against my ribs.

​I knew this symbol. It belonged to the Eclipse Lineage—the ancient, mythical royal bloodline of the Shadow Lands. Everyone believed they were wiped out a century ago during the Great Purge. It was the exact same symbol engraved inside the leather locket my mother gave me before she died.

​My mother had always told me we were refugees from the east. She warned me never to show the locket to the Bloodmoon Alpha. I used to think she was just paranoid.

​But as I held the ring, a strange heat exploded in my chest. It wasn't the warm light of the Moon Goddess. This heat was dark, heavy, and filled with ancient magic.

​The ash inside my mind began to stir. My dying wolf didn't whimper this time. She let out a low, vibrant growl. The dark energy from the ring poured into my veins, wrapping around my broken bond and healing the wounds with black fire.

​The pain didn't vanish—it transformed into pure fury.

​They lied to us, my wolf whispered. Her voice was strong now. They didn't keep us out of charity, Elena. They kept us because they were terrified of what we are.

​A shocking truth became clear through my rage. Kaelen's father hadn't taken me in out of pity when my mother died. He had suppressed my wolf. He had kept me weak, hidden, and starving. He did it to ensure I would never discover the royal blood in my veins.

​I wasn't a broken omega orphan. I was the last surviving royal of the bloodline they butchered to build their thrones.

​I forced my trembling legs to straighten, using a tree for support. The rain soaked my skin, but I no longer felt the cold. I gripped the silver signet ring tightly in my fist.

​I looked back over my shoulder toward the distant lights of the Bloodmoon Pack castle. Kaelen was celebrating his coronation, completely confident that he had thrown away a piece of trash.

​"Enjoy your crown, Kaelen," I whispered into the wind.

​I turned my back on the light and walked into the deep shadows of the Dead Woods. I wasn't running to hide anymore. I was walking to claim my empire.