Amber's POV "All tributes report to the east wing at seven sharp." The heavy bass voice echoed into my room, and I shivered where I stood. My eyes shot to the wall clock and I released a gasp. It was exactly 6:53pm. With shaking hands, I scrolled through my contacts to Kieran Ashford's number and pressed call, raising the phone to my ear like it was the last hope I had left in this world. "The number you've dialed is unavailable," came a flat voicemail voice instead. "Please leave a message." My teary eyes widened at the screen, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my own ears. "Kieran," I muttered, hot tears spilling down my cheeks. "I've got five minutes before they take me! You said we'd run! Where the hell are you?" I hurled the phone to the floor in fury, watching it skid under the bed. The Alpha Prince had been in a coma for months now, and the Luna Queen - desperate, ruthless, unwilling to let the throne sit empty, had demanded that every pack across the five clans surrender one virgin daughter as tribute for a poisoner and an heir. None of the girls sent before me had survived the ritual. Not one. And now the wheel had turned to me, Amber, daughter of Elder Walter Holloway of the Korvathen Pack, wolfless, unwanted, and terrified out of my mind. Outside the door to my room, were two guards positioned to keep watch on me. My only hope now for escape, was Kieran – son of the lead Elder-in-Council of the Korvathen Pack, my fated mate. Both of us had been together for the past three years, and when the news of this tribute to the Drakharis reached us, Kieran had promised to protect me. I turned to the window, chest heaving, and pressed my palms together like a child saying bedtime prayers. "Moon Goddess, please." My voice cracked on the whisper. "Send Kieran. Get me out of here. I can't be the Alpha Prince's tribute." The moment the words left my lips, something happened that made me stumble backward in fright. The window flew open on both sides, and a gust of wind rushed in as though the moon goddess herself had heard me and answered. I swallowed hard, still panting, staring at the open window like it held an omen. "Fine," I said at last, holding my chest to steady my own heartbeat. "I'll run myself, then." I walked slowly toward the window, climbed onto the ledge, and looked down. The height alone was enough to make a sane person turn back. I closed my eyes, released one long breath, and jumped without giving myself the chance to think twice. I landed hard on the ground below, wounded but whole; no bone broken, no scream escaping my throat. It was nothing short of a miracle, and I barely had time to register it before something else stole my attention. A few steps away, tucked inside the garden and hidden by a wall of luxurious blooming flowers, a sound drifted toward me that made my blood run cold. "Yes, Kieran!" a female voice cried out. "Oh my god - yes - yes - give it to me!" My whole body went rigid. I turned toward the voice with my heart hammering somewhere near my throat. The sound continued, unmistakable, unbearable. "That's... Serena?" I whispered, brows knotting together. I knew that voice too well. It belonged to Serena - my younger stepsister. My stomach turned, praying silently that my ears were playing tricks on me, that this wasn't what it sounded like. I crept forward and gently parted the flowers, and what I saw stopped my heart cold. There, in the middle of the garden, was my fated mate, Alpha Kieran Ashford - the very man who had sworn to me, again and again, that he would make me his Luna. And there in front of him, on her knees, was Serena. Her back turned to him, her buttocks clung deep into his cock as he knelt down. The sight was nothing short of two dogs in copulation. "Did I tell you how much I love hearing you scream?" Kieran said, low and satisfied. "Not like your sister. She'd just lies there like a cold fish." He gave her a hard swat that made her gasp, then laugh, glancing back at him with a wicked little smile. "Poor Amber's probably upstairs," she said, "counting the seconds till you rescue her." She turned slightly to him. "And our plan." She said with seriousness, keeping her voice low like a whisper. "Whatever happened, remember you promised we must see its end. We've waited so long for this opportunity." "Of course, baby." Kieran said casually. "Isn't that why we're giving her away as that fucking tribute?" I stood frozen behind the flowers, every word landing on me like a blow. My lips curled into something sharp, something furious. My heart wasn't just pounding now; it was breaking, loud enough that I was sure they'd hear it. "My fated mate," I whispered, my eyes burning red. "With my stepsister." "You think a man like me ties himself to a wolfless girl?" Kieran went on, arrogant, unbothered. "She's a joke. I'll pass her around to entertain my men." Three years. Three solid years I had given him my nights, my hope, my whole foolish heart, believing every promise he'd whispered into my ear about making me his Luna one day. All that time, he'd been in another woman's bed. My own stepsister's bed. Less than six months after my mom's funeral, my father married and took in his mistress as wife. Then, I was just seven. Ever since, Serena had always wanted everything that I had as mine. And when she found out about Kieran, she seduced him and painted me worthless. Kierian wasn't surprised. Because he knew one day he was going to replace me because I was wofless. However, my secret became his drive. "Three years I've been with you," Serena said, breathless, smug. "And she still has no idea. Stupid little fool." Something inside me snapped clean in half. My fists curled so tight my nails bit into my palms, and before I could stop myself, I was marching forward, straight through the flowers, straight into the garden. The sound of my feet hitting the ground caught Kieran's attention and he saw me first. He froze, then scrambled up in a panic, yanking at his clothes. Serena screamed and grabbed for something to cover herself with, her face draining of color. "Amber... what are you doing here?" Kieran stammered, fumbling with his shirt buttons, his hands shaking worse than mine had been minutes ago. I closed the distance between us in three strides, my right hand raised instantly and connected with Kieran's cheek in a desperate slap. His head snapped sideways with the force of it. "How could you be fucking my sister?!" My voice tore through the garden, raw and furious. "I'm your fated mate!"

Amber's POV Kieran yanked his tie straight with an angry tug, eyes red-rimmed, his chest still heaving from what he'd been caught doing. His fingers rose to the cut on his cheek, and it was already beading a thin line of blood. He studied it on his fingertip for a long moment, then let out a low chuckle and turned back to me. "So now you know." He nodded, almost thoughtful, like I'd merely stumbled onto something he'd been planning to show me all along. "Good. Because all of this is your fault." My whole body shook with the effort of holding still. Behind Kieran, Serena rose off the ground, a small satisfied smile already curling at her mouth, and crossed toward him. She caught his hand, lifted the bloodied finger to her lips, and licked it clean without breaking eye contact with him. She smiled up at him. He smiled back, wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her into his side. She tipped her head against his chest, and the two of them turned to me together, both smiling like I was the one who owed an apology. My breath came ragged, too fast to steady. "See?" Kieran tilted his head my way. "Your sister knows how to please a man. Make him feel wanted. You never did." I had insisted to abstain from premarital sex until after our marriage. But Kieran wanted more. Serena rolled her eyes at me, bored, unbothered, like she was watching something beneath her notice. My mother had died the day I was born - a death my father, Sir Walter Holloway, elder-in-council to the pack, had treated ever since as a curse rather than a tragedy. But that wasn't all about that story. This was just what many, almost everyone knew about it. My mother - Marilyn Guthman, was not an ordinary woman. She was the last Keeper of the First Wolf-an ancient supernatural lineage predating the five werewolf packs. The First Wolf wasn't simply an exceptionally powerful wolf. It was the source from which Alpha bloodlines originally received their authority. Years ago, the royal family discovered that the First Wolf had chosen my unborn soul as its next vessel. The royal council panicked. If I ever awakened, the current royal bloodline could lose its claim to the throne. So my mother made a bargain. She used an ancient ritual to seal my wolf before birth. The ritual killed her. And afterward, I was born apparently wolfless. My father was told that his wife died because my birth was cursed. But it was a lie. My mother died protecting me. And someone in the royal family knew the truth. Somehow, Serena managed to access that knowledge. And now trying all she could to use to her advantage just as she'd always did. In the pack, any woman who died during childbirth, the child was seen as a bad omen. They called it 'The Devil's Child.' Every eye that had looked at me twice since then had looked at me the same way: bad luck walking, a child the Moon Goddess had turned her back on. Eighteen came and went with no wolf. Twenty came and went the same way, while every she-wolf my age had shifted years before me. Wolfless. Completely, irreversibly wolfless. Proving to the Pack and those who discarded me, right that I was bad luck. My lips twisted. My eyes flashed red. My fists clenched hard enough to ache. "I, Amber Holloway, reject you, Kieran-" Kieran started laughing, the sound cutting through the garden like a blade before I could finish. "Hilarious," he said, still laughing. "You're wolfless. You can't reject your fated mate." In the Korvathen Pack - a rugged mountain clan whose warriors were feared across the continent - a female wolf without a wolf of her own held no right to reject her own fated mate. Tradition stripped her straight down to Omega rank, blood or council seat be damned. Royal descent meant nothing against a wolfless body. And that was exactly my case. "Cut the bond." My voice cracked. "Cut the bond! Cut it!" I swung my right hand at his face to land him a hot slap. He caught my wrist mid-air, held it there, staring into my eyes for three long seconds. Then, he flung it away hard enough that I lost my footing and hit the ground with a gasp. I looked up at him from the grass, my chest heaving. Kieran and Serena took few steps closer towards me, still smiling, and he crouched down to my level. "Why bother?" His voice had gone almost gentle - mocking in exactly that gentleness. "In an hour, the Alpha Prince's wolf of Drakharis Pack is going to rip you apart. He'll sever the bond for me himself." The Drakharis Pack was known across the entire North America and the continent at large, for its fearless warriors and for producing legendary Alphas who ruled the entire werewolf kingdom generation after generation. Ten years ago, the human race went into war to completely eliminate the werewolves and vampires from the surface of the earth. It was the late Alpha King of the Drakharis Pack, Alpha Darkwood, who mobilized the unbeatable wolf warriors that restored order and peace among the two worlds. Five packs made up its territory, Kieran's own Korvathen among them, bound by blood and oath to the throne at its center. My whole body trembled now, not just my hands. Serena burst out laughing beside him. Kieran only shook his head, straightened, slid his hands into his pockets. "You know," he said, looking down at me like something small and pitiful, "if you weren't such a stuck-up bitch, I might've let your sister stay as tribute. The job was hers to begin with." Serena stepped in close, wound an arm around his waist, rested her head on his chest again. "She-" My voice broke apart before the words even cleared my throat. "She was the original tribute? You've been lying to me this whole time?" The tribute required each family in the Kingdom to produce their first virgin daughters. Serena happened to be the marked tribute, but Kieran used his influence to convince Elder Walter to change the earlier arrangement. With me useless to him, he agreed. What a thing to learn on the night my life was supposed to end. "Farewell, Amber." Kieran gave me a small, mocking wave. Serena spun toward the house. "Guards! The runaway tribute is in here!" Two guards burst into the garden within seconds. "Take her away!" Serena pointed a finger straight at my chest, and the guards seized my arms, hauling me upright and dragging me across the grass. "No-" The word tore out of me as they lifted me off my feet. "She's the chosen one, not me! Let me go!" But the guards kept dragging, deaf to me, until the garden and everyone in it dropped away behind me. **************** The chamber door burst open as a guard's hand shoved me through it, and I hit the floor with a gasp, my breath coming in short, terrified bursts. My white gown streaked with blood along one side. I pushed myself up on shaking legs and turned slowly around the unfamiliar room, until my eyes landed on the man lying still on the bed, a blanket drawn to his chest. Alpha Ronan Darkwood. I stepped closer, careful, one foot at a time, and bent over him. "Okay," I whispered to myself, staring down at his face. "He's gorgeous. That's... something." I leaned in, bringing my mouth closer to his ear, my whole body shaking. "Could your wolf not kill me tonight?" I pleaded. I knew the consequence of my presence if not accepted. I had heard about the first and second set of virgins who were brought in here for same purpose but didn't make it out alive. And now, it was my turn. A single tear slipped from my eye and landed on his cheek. His eyelids twitched, though they didn't open. Something inside the room shifted. Something like a strange vibration that shook the room. I shivered, closing my eyes, scared to my bones that I may had aroused the beast inside him. The moment I noticed his eyes had cracked open, watching me, I gasped and jumped back in fright.

Amber's POV I closed my eyes and wiped both of them with the heels of my palms, then slowly opened them again, staring in disbelief at the sleeping Alpha on the bed. My whole body shaking with fear. "I must've imagined it," I muttered to myself, my breathing still coming in short, uneven gasps. The door opened before I could steady myself, and the Queen Mother, Naomi Darkwood, entered the room. She carried her royal staff in one hand, a golden crown resting on her head. Every step she took, announced exactly who she was. On either side of her walked two other virgins, both dressed in white like me. They were led forward until they stood flanking her. I instinctively drew back a step, my head bowed slightly out of old habit, the habit of a girl who'd learned long ago to make herself small in rooms full of people who despised her. The two new girls moved into position beside me, all three of us now facing the sleeping Alpha together. The newcomers turned toward me and smiled, victorious, as though they'd already won something I hadn't even entered the race for. "Pay attention," Naomi's voice rang out, cold and commanding. "The one Ronan's wolf accepts today becomes his Luna Princess." Unlike me, whose face wore nothing but naked fear, the two new virgins looked entirely different - more courageous, their chins lifted, as if each of them had seen some private vision promising they were the ones destined to be chosen. Before today, three other virgins who'd tried and failed had all been torn apart by the Alpha's wolf. And now, hearing the sheer weight of what had already happened in this room, I could only pray silently that I'd walk out of it alive. "Luna Princess," the girl on my right repeated, staring at the Queen Mother with open excitement dancing in her eyes. "Status. Wealth. Everything a girl could ever want." The one on my left exhaled slowly, smiling with the same hungry confidence. "A future worth killing for," she said. My breathing turned fierce and shallow beside them, fear pooling through every inch of my body until I could barely hold myself upright. "Begin the trial," Naomi ordered. She lifted her staff and brought it down hard against the floor, the sound cracking through the chamber like a verdict already passed. The three of us stepped forward together, drawing closer to the sleeping Alpha. Almost instantly, something like dark smoke began pouring out from beneath the bed, curling and thickening into the shape of a massive beast beside him. The smoke solidified into a great, dark creature with eyes like burning red coals, fire flickering somewhere deep inside them. It let out a roar that shook the walls and leapt down from the bed, prowling toward the three of us. All of us flinched backward as one. My breath caught so hard in my throat I nearly choked on it. "You first," Naomi said, pointing her staff at the girl standing on my right. The girl released a shaking breath, her whole body trembling, then stepped forward on legs that clearly didn't want to carry her. Slowly, she raised her right hand toward the beast. But before her fingers could even brush its fur, the creature let out a wild, deafening roar and lunged, slamming into her with a force that sent her flying backward through the air. She hit the far wall with a sickening crack and slid down it, landing on the floor with blood already gushing from her mouth, her body still. The second girl, the one who'd been standing on my left, began gasping for air the moment she saw what had happened, her whole frame shaking violently until her knees simply gave out beneath her. She collapsed where she stood, unconscious before she even hit the ground, falling backward with a heavy, hollow thud that echoed through the silent room. The Queen Mother released a breath, shaking her head disappointedly. "Now you," Naomi said, turning her cold gaze on me, standing there trembling, my breath coming in fast, ragged gasps I couldn't seem to control no matter how hard I tried. I turned my head slowly, my frightened eyes settling on the fierce beast now stalking closer, its jaws parting just enough to reveal long, gleaming teeth, poised and ready to tear into me the same way it had torn into the girl before me. "I'm so dead," I whispered inside myself, my whole body shaking, my hands gripping the fabric of my gown so tightly. The beast's eyes locked onto mine, and for a moment, the entire room seemed to hold its breath along with me. Naomi stood watching from the side with the same cold patience she'd shown for every girl who'd come before. Her staff rested steadily in her hand, as though this were nothing more than routine to her, another Tuesday in a long line of Tuesdays spent watching young women fall. My mind raced through everything that had brought me to this moment - the window that had flown open on its own, the jump I shouldn't have survived, my fated mate fucking my sister in the garden, Serena's smug little smile. All of it had led here, to this room, to this beast now closing the last few feet of distance between us with slow, deliberate steps, as if it wanted me to feel every second of what was coming. I thought of my father's cold eyes, the way he'd never once looked at me with anything but disappointment since the day my mother died bringing me into the world. I thought of the years spent being called bad luck under my own breath by people who claimed to be my family. Perhaps this was simply how my story had always been meant to end - wolfless, unwanted, devoured in a stranger's bedroom while a queen watched without blinking. The beast drew closer still, its massive head lowering slightly, red eyes burning brighter as though sensing my fear had reached its peak. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the pain I was certain would come, my whole body braced for teeth I couldn't see but could already feel closing in around me. Somewhere behind me, I heard Naomi shift her weight, the faint clink of the staff against the floor as the Queen Mother leaned forward slightly, curious, almost eager to see how quickly this one would fall compared to the others. I could feel the weight of that gaze pressing into my back, cold and clinical, the way a butcher might study a piece of meat before deciding where to make the first cut. There was no pity in it. There never had been, not from Naomi, not from my father, not from anyone who'd ever looked at me and seen only the wolfless daughter of a cursed birth. I thought, absurdly, of my mother - a woman I'd never known, never even seen a photograph of, because my father had burned every single one the week after the funeral. I wondered if my mother would have been proud of me for jumping out that window instead of waiting quietly to be taken, or if she would have begged me, the way everyone else in my life always seemed to, to simply stay small and survive by disappearing. The beast's breath rolled hot across my skin now, close enough that I could feel it stirring the loose strands of hair at my temple. My fingers dug deeper into the fabric of my gown, my whole frame rigid, every muscle was locked in place. And still, it did not strike. A full second passed. Then another. My eyes remained shut, my breath held so tightly in my chest it began to burn, but no claw came, no teeth sank into me, no wall rushed up to meet my spine the way it had met the first girl's. Somewhere at the edge of my hearing, I thought I heard Naomi's staff go still against the floor, the Queen Mother's confident posture faltering by some fraction too small for anyone else in the room to notice yet. I didn't dare open my eyes. Not yet. Slowly, I began to open my eyes, praying inside me to remain alive when I finally took in what was before me.