Eliana The first time my mate Mark burned, I was standing in front of the entire pack. Not in a bedroom. Not in some private claiming moment like the stories. In the ceremonial hall-under torchlight and banners-while the elders watched like judges and the warriors watched like they'd already placed bets. Riggs stood beside me on the dais, dressed in black, jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscle jump. He didn't touch me. Not even by accident. The elder's voice echoed off the stone. "Step forward, Alpha Riggs. Step forward with your chosen mate." My stomach twisted. Chosen. That word didn't fit. Not after the last three days. Not after he started avoiding me like I was something dangerous to be near. I took a slow breath and stepped forward anyway. If I faltered, they'd smell it. Riggs moved a beat later-just enough delay to make it noticeable. The hall went very, very quiet. I felt it like hands on my skin. The elder smiled like this was normal. "Tonight, Silver Fang witnesses the bond that will strengthen our pack." My wrist prickled where the mark should have been. Everyone said I was Riggs' mate. Everyone said it like it was a fact that couldn't be questioned. But my skin was still bare. No symbol. No dark imprint. Nothing. Only that faint, strange heat under the surface that came and went whenever Riggs got too close. The elder lifted a carved ceremonial blade-dull, symbolic, harmless. "By tradition, the Alpha speaks first. Alpha Riggs, do you accept this bond and claim Eliana-" Riggs stepped back. Not far. Just one clean step. But in a room like this, it was a rejection shouted without a sound. My breath caught. My hand twitched at my side like my body still expected his fingers to find mine. It didn't happen. A few people in the crowd shifted. I caught whispers like sparks: No... He can't... Is she-? The elder's smile faltered for the first time. "Alpha Riggs?" Riggs lifted his chin. His face was controlled, calm, Alpha-perfect. His eyes didn't meet mine. "This bond," he said, voice steady enough to fool anyone who didn't know him, "was a mistake." For a second, I didn't understand what he'd said. It didn't have a meaning. It landed as noise. Then the words sank in, heavy and sharp, and my body reacted like it had been struck. A small sound escaped me-half breath, half disbelief. Riggs finally looked at me. Just once. And what I saw there wasn't hatred. It was something worse. Resolve. Like he'd already decided how much of me he could sacrifice. My throat tightened until it hurt. "Riggs..." He didn't flinch at my voice. He didn't soften. "It ends here," he said. The elder recovered quickly, too quickly-like he'd practiced this part. "Then by Silver Fang law, the Alpha rejects the bond." Rejected. The word rang in my skull. The hall didn't erupt into outrage. It didn't explode into chaos. It exhaled. Satisfied. Like they'd been holding their breath waiting for him to say it. My stomach turned cold. Imani-standing off to the side near the pillars-went rigid. Her eyes were wide, furious, disbelieving. I wanted to look at her longer. I couldn't. I couldn't look away from Riggs, not when my entire life was tipping off a cliff and he was the one pushing. The elder gestured toward me like I was an item on a table. "Eliana of Silver Fang, you are stripped of your place at the Alpha's side." A murmur rolled through the crowd. No pity. Not sympathy. Curiosity. Relief. Hunger. I forced my shoulders back. Forced my chin up. I would not cry here. I would not beg. A second elder stepped forward with a silver-and-moonstone token-the one they'd pressed into my hands days ago with smiles and congratulations. Future Luna, they'd called me. He held it out, then pulled it back. "Return it." My fingers were stiff. My skin felt too tight. I unclasped the token from my wrist with slow, careful movements. If I moved too fast, I'd look panicked. If I moved too slow, I'd look weak. I placed it on the table. The small clink of metal on wood sounded loud enough to split the room. Riggs didn't move. Didn't speak. Didn't stop any of it. The elder raised his voice. "The ruling stands. She is no longer under Alpha protection." Under Alpha protection. So that was the point. Not just rejection. Removal. The pack needed to see me fall. I needed it officially. I needed it cleaned. Riggs' voice cut through again, low and final. "She leaves." Two guards stepped forward immediately. Not grabbing me yet. Just close enough to make it clear they could. Imani made a sharp sound. "You can't-" A warrior shifted into her path, blocking her with the casual ease of someone following orders. My chest tightened so hard I almost couldn't breathe. So this was planned. Not by Riggs alone. By the room. By the elders. By everyone who stayed quiet. I took one step back from the dais on my own. Then another. I would not be dragged. The crowd parted as I passed, not out of respect-out of avoidance. Like humiliation was contagious. I kept my eyes forward. I kept my face blank. I made it three steps before pain ripped through my wrist. I gasped and clutched my arm. Heat flared under my skin-sharp, vicious, sudden-as if someone had pressed a brand to the inside of my bones. My vision blurred. My wolf surged up in panic- And then the heat snapped off. Gone. Replaced by cold. Not normal cold. Wrong cold. The kind that makes your blood feel like it's slowing down. My wolf went silent. Not still. Silent, like she'd been forced down. I stared at my wrist. Still no visible mark. But under the skin, something had changed. Something had been touched. I lifted my gaze, searching without meaning to. Riggs was still on the dais. His face was unreadable. But his eyes-just for a heartbeat-flicked to my wrist. And in that tiny crack of control, I saw it. Fear. Then the mask slammed back into place. The guards stepped closer. "Move," one of them said quietly. I swallowed hard, forced my legs to work, and walked toward the hall doors without looking back. But the cold in my wrist pulsed once more as I crossed the threshold. Like a warning. Like a countdown. And deep in my chest, a single thought formed-clear and terrifying: Riggs didn't reject me because he stopped wanting me. He rejected me because someone made him.

Eliana POV I don't make it ten steps out of the hall before my legs start shaking. Not from fear. From holding myself together. The corridor is colder than the ceremony room, but my face still burns like I'm standing under a spotlight. Behind me, the doors shut with a heavy thud, sealing in the murmurs and the satisfaction and the sound of my life being rewritten without me. Two guards follow. They keep a polite distance, like that makes this less humiliating. "Stop following me," I say without turning. One of them answers, calm and rehearsed. "Orders." Of course. I swallow hard and keep walking. The cold in my wrist pulses again-sharp, wrong, like it's warning me not to slow down. I turn the corner toward my room. And find two more guards already there. They're posted at the corridor entrance like a gate. My stomach drops. I stop. "Move." The guard on the left doesn't even pretend to consider it. "You're not permitted past this point." For a second, I can't speak. My room is down that hall. My clothes. My things. The little pieces of life I built while everyone smiled at me and called me "future Luna." I force my voice to stay steady. "That's my room." The guard's eyes flick away, uncomfortable for half a heartbeat. Then he hardens again. "You can request your belongings later." Request. Like I'm a stranger. Like I didn't grow up in these walls. Anger rises hot in my throat, but the corridor is full of watching eyes-half-open doors, people pretending they aren't listening. If I explode, they'll call it proof that Riggs was right to reject me. So I nod once, slow and controlled. "Fine," I say. Then I turn away before my face betrays me. I walk with nowhere to go. That's the part that hits hardest-how quickly a pack can make you homeless without ever saying the word. The courtyard opens ahead, lit by torches that flicker in the wind. Wolves move in small clusters, whispering. When they see me, the whispers sharpen. A pack woman I used to eat lowers her gaze like she doesn't know me. A young warrior steps aside too late, like he wanted to block me but remembered he isn't allowed to touch me unless told. I keep my chin up and walk anyway. My wrist throbs with that unnatural cold. I rub it through my sleeve, trying to wake my wolf. Nothing. She's there-somewhere deep-but it feels like she's behind a locked door. I stop near the training ring and breathe through my nose. Think. If they blocked my room, it means they don't want me alone with my own things. With my own choices. They want me to be visible. Contained. A shadow shifts across the path. Imani appears from behind a pillar, moving fast, eyes bright with fury. "Eliana." Just hearing my name from someone who still means it makes my throat tighten. I take a step toward her. She grabs my wrist before I can speak, fingers closing around it. I flinch. Not because it hurts-because it's cold. Her eyes widened. "What did they do to you?" "I don't know," I whisper. "Riggs rejected me and-" "And then they blocked your rooms," she snaps, like she already knows. "I tried to get to you. They posted guards everywhere." I swallow. "So it's official. I'm not a person anymore. I'm a problem." Imani's jaw clenches. "This was planned." The word lands like a stone in my stomach. I look past her toward the hall, toward the elders' wing, toward the place where Riggs is probably standing like nothing happened. "I don't understand," I say, voice rough. "Why would he do that? Why would he-" Imani's grip tightens. "Because he was told to." I stare at her. "You don't know that." She leans closer, voice low. "I heard the elders arguing before the ceremony. Not all of it. But enough to know they were forcing something. And Riggs-" Her mouth twists. "Riggs looked like a man with a knife at his throat." My chest aches. It would be easier if Riggs hated me. Easier if he'd rejected me because he wanted someone else. But guilt? Fear? That doesn't fit the words he said. This bond was a mistake. My wrist pulses again. Cold, sharp-like the bond is reacting to his name. Imani follows my glance. "It's getting worse." "I can't feel my wolf," I admit, and the confession tastes like weakness. "It's like she's been... pushed down." Imani's eyes flick toward the hall doors. "Then we don't stay out here. Come with me." "Where?" "Storage steps. Old corridor. Fewer eyes." She pauses. "And Eliana-don't go near the elders. Not alone." I almost laugh, bitter. "I'm not allowed to be alone anywhere." We start walking, keeping our pace steady, normal. Not running. Running invites attention. Halfway across the courtyard, I feel it. A familiar scent. Winter smoke and cedar. My body reacts before my mind does-heart stuttering, skin tightening, wolf pressing weakly against the locked door. Riggs. He steps out of the hall into the torchlight, dressed in black, expression controlled. Two elders trail behind him, speaking in low voices. Riggs' gaze sweeps the courtyard. Find me. For a fraction of a second, his eyes soften. Then he sees Imani's hand on my wrist. And something hard snaps into place on his face. He walks toward us. Every wolf in the courtyard seems to notice and go quiet, like the territory itself is holding its breath. Imani's shoulders square. "Here we go." Riggs stops a few feet away. Not close enough to touch me. Never close enough. "Eliana," he says. My name on his tongue still does something to me, and I hate it. I lift my chin. "Alpha." His jaw tightens at the title. His eyes flick to my wrist again-quick, controlled-then away. "Leave the territory tonight," he says quietly. Imani stiffens. "You can't just-" Riggs doesn't look at her. "This isn't for you." My stomach drops. "Leave... where?" Riggs' gaze finally locks on mine. His voice stays calm, but I hear strain underneath it now, like he's forcing each word through his teeth. "Anywhere," he says. "Just not here." I take a step forward before I can stop myself. "Tell me why." His eyes flash. For a heartbeat, I see it again-fear. Not for himself. For me. Then the mask slams back down. "I can't," he says. My throat tightens. "You can reject me in public, strip me of everything, and you can't even tell me why?" Riggs' hands curl at his sides. He looks like he wants to grab me and shake sense into me-or drag me away from the courtyard and hide me. Instead he says, low enough that only I can hear, "They're watching." I still go. Imani's breath catches. Riggs steps back like he's afraid of being too close. Then he turns and walks away. Just like that. The cold in my wrist pulses hard, almost painful. And I realize something that makes my blood turn icy: Riggs didn't come out here to hurt me again. He came out here to warn me-without letting them see he was warning me.

Eliana Riggs leaves me standing in the courtyard like he didn't just split my world open for the second time tonight. I stare after him, my pulse hammering, my wrist cold under my skin. They're watching. That's what he said. No, I'm sorry. Now I had no choice. Not even trust me. Just a warning dropped at my feet like that makes anything better. Imani grabs my arm the second he's far enough away. "We're moving." I let her pull me into the shadows beside the storage wall. My legs work, but barely. My mind is still back in the courtyard, stuck on Riggs' face. He looked afraid. That should not make this worse. It does. Imani turns on me the second we're out of the torchlight. "Tell me exactly what he said." I fold my arms over myself, more to hold myself together than for warmth. "He told me to leave the territory tonight." Her expression hardens instantly. "Then it's worse than I thought." A chill slides through me that has nothing to do with the night air. "You keep saying things like that without actually explaining them." Imani glances toward the courtyard before answering. "Because I don't know all of it. I just know the elders were planning something before the ceremony, and now Riggs is telling you to run." My laugh comes out thin. "After rejecting me in front of the whole pack." "Yes," she snaps. "Which means whatever they forced him to do didn't end in that hall." That lands hard. I look down at my wrist. Still bare. Still wrong. The cold pulses once under the skin, sharp and deep, like it agrees. Imani sees it. "Is it still freezing?" I nod. She takes my hand before I can stop her and pushes back my sleeve. My skin looks normal. That's the worst part. Nothing visible. Nothing I can point to and say, there, that's what they broke. But the moment her fingers brush the inside of my wrist, she goes still. "It's cold," she whispers. I swallow. "I told you." "No." Her eyes lift to mine. "I mean unnaturally cold." My throat tightens. For one stupid second, relief hits me. Not because this is good. Because I'm not imagining it. "I can barely feel my wolf," I admit quietly. Imani drops my wrist like it burned her. "Then we really do not stay here." I blink at her. "You think I haven't figured that out?" "I think you're still hoping Riggs is going to come back and explain himself." The words hit too close. I look away. That silence is answer enough. Imani exhales hard through her nose. "Eliana." "What do you want me to say?" I whisper, anger rising because if I let the hurt in, I'll fall apart. "That I'm over it? That I don't care? He stood in front of everyone and called our bond a mistake, and then five minutes later he told me to run like that erases it." "It doesn't," she says, quieter now. "But if he risked warning you, then something is coming." The courtyard beyond the wall is louder now. More footsteps. More voices. Not normal night traffic. Organized movement. I hear it too. So does Imani. She steps closer to the edge of the wall and peeks around it. Her whole body tightens. "Eliana." The way she says my name makes my stomach drop. "What?" "They're posting more guards." I move beside her before she can stop me and look. She's right. Two more warriors are taking positions near the hall doors. Another pair crosses toward the inner paths. One of the elders is speaking to a cluster of guards, pointing toward the residential wing. My rooms. I got cold all over. "They're locking down the territory," I say. Imani doesn't answer. She doesn't need to. A memory flashes through my mind-Riggs in the courtyard, face set, voice low. Anywhere. Just not here. This wasn't panic. This was urgent. I step back from the wall. "I need to get my things." Imani looks at me like I've lost my mind. "No." "I'm not running into the forest in a ceremonial dress with nothing." "You're not getting into your room anyway. They blocked it already." "Then I'll find another way in." "Eliana-" "No." I yank my arm free when she reaches for me again. "I am done being moved around like I'm helpless." Her jaw sets. "This isn't pride anymore. This is survival." I know she's right. I hate that she's right. I press the heels of my hands against my eyes for one second, forcing myself to think. If the elders want me contained, if Riggs wants me gone, if guards are spreading through the territory- Then I have maybe minutes before this turns into something worse. I drop my hands. "Fine. Back route to the outer trail." Imani nods once, quick. "Good." We move fast, keeping close to the wall, cutting behind the storage sheds and old supply rooms where the torchlight doesn't fully reach. Gravel crunches under my shoes. My dress catches once on a broken crate and I nearly rip the hem getting free. I don't care. The farther we get from the main courtyard, the quieter it should feel. Instead it feels tighter. Like the whole pack is awake and listening. At the end of the narrow path, Imani stops so suddenly I nearly walk into her. "What now?" I whisper. She lifts one hand. Voices. Male. Close. We duck behind a stack of old training mats just before two guards round the corner. I hold my breath. "Elders said check the side paths too," one mutters. "She won't get far," the other says. "Not dressed like that." A pulse of humiliation hits so hard it almost makes me dizzy. I bite it down. The first guard snorts. "Doesn't matter. We find her, we bring her in." "Alive, obviously." A pause. Then the second one laughs under his breath. "That wasn't the part I was worried about." My blood runs cold. Beside me, Imani goes absolutely still. The guards keep walking. Their footsteps fade. Neither of us moves for three long seconds. Then Imani turns to me, face pale with fury. "We're not going to the outer trail." I stare at her. "What?" "They'll expect that. And if they catch you before you hit the border, no one will see what they do." The cold in my wrist pulses again, harder this time. I hate how much that sounds possible now. I hate that I no longer know where safety is. "Then where?" I ask. Imani hesitates. That alone terrifies me. "There's an old storage route behind the west wall," she says finally. "It leads close to the boundary markers." "Close?" "It's the best I've got." Another shout cuts through the night, louder this time. "Search the lower paths!" Boots answer from somewhere beyond the sheds. They're spreading fast. Imani grabs my hand and starts pulling me again. We break into a run-not full speed, but fast enough that my lungs start burning and the cold air cuts my throat raw. The hem of my dress slaps against my ankles. Branches scrape my bare arms as we cut behind the west sheds and into a narrow strip of shadow between the outer wall and the tree line. For one wild second, I think we might actually make it. Then torchlight flashes ahead. Imani curses and jerks me backward just as two warriors step into the path. We flatten ourselves against the wall, hidden by darkness and an old rain barrel, while the warriors scan the trail. "One of the elders said the Alpha warned her," one says. My heart stops. The other scoffs. "Then the Alpha should've finished it in the hall." Finished it. The words hit like a blade. Imani's nails dig into my hand so hard it hurts. The warriors move on. I can't breathe right. I can't think past the roaring in my ears. Riggs warned me because even he knew this wasn't over. Whatever happened in that hall was only the beginning. A horn sounds from the main courtyard. Low. Urgent. Not a ceremony call. A hunt signal. Imani looks at me, and this time there's no room left for denial in either of us. "They're coming for you," she says. And somewhere beyond the west wall, deep in the dark pines outside Silver Fang territory, a new howl answers back.