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True Luna's Second Chance - Full - Full EP
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00:00I was born with a scent that drove Alpha's feral, true Luna bloodline, rarest in three centuries.
00:07At my naming ceremony, I crawled past sacred objects and grabbed the crown prince between his legs.
00:14The Alpha King howled with laughter.
00:16She'll be a clingy little mate someday.
00:18They were wrong.
00:20Caleb and I became sworn enemies.
00:22For 17 moons, I watched his golden eyes learn to flinch from my scent.
00:27On my 18th moon, the king summoned me.
00:30Tell me who you want, little wolf.
00:32Any Alpha in this kingdom, I will grant it.
00:35Before I could speak, Caleb's voice cracked like a whip.
00:39I'd rather be torn apart by rogues than take her as my Luna.
00:42Something in me snapped.
00:44Fine, I'd mate him out of spite.
00:46Then I choose him.
00:47Then go die a lot.
00:49I thought he was joking.
00:50The mating ceremony was beautiful, but Caleb didn't look at me once.
00:55That night...
00:56Sleep on the floor.
00:58Your scent makes me want to vomit.
01:00Moons passed.
01:02My womb stayed empty.
01:03The pack stopped bowing.
01:05She-wolf spit in my food.
01:07Tore my dresses.
01:09Whispered, barren.
01:10Caleb watched and smiled.
01:12Then I overheard him.
01:14She forced this bond.
01:16She deserves everything she gets.
01:19You feel nothing?
01:22A moon later, Caleb threw me to the rogues.
01:26A harlot belongs in the Pleasure Dems.
01:28I died there.
01:30Beaten.
01:31Discarded like meat.
01:32My last thought was his face.
01:34Never looking back.
01:36Then, light.
01:37I gasped awake on cold marble.
01:40Tell me who you want, little wolf.
01:42I will grant it.
01:44The throne room.
01:44The gala.
01:45The scent of moon blossoms.
01:48I was 17 again.
01:49I would not waste it on Caleb Ironforge.
01:52Everyone knows Alara is obsessed with Prince Caleb.
01:56She's practically in heat for him.
01:59Every eye pinned me.
02:00I inhaled.
02:02Your Majesty.
02:03The Crown Prince and I grew up together.
02:05I respect him only as a brother.
02:07I've never desired him.
02:09Caleb's head snapped toward me.
02:11His scent roared.
02:14My heart has always belonged to Alpha Silas.
02:17If I may mate with the blood moon Alpha,
02:20I will die content.
02:21The throne room exploded.
02:24I chose the king's own brother.
02:26The legendary blood moon Alpha.
02:28The wolf who had crushed the rogue uprising
02:31and put his brother on the throne.
02:34Alpha Silas was struck down one year ago
02:37on the northern front by an unseen blade.
02:40Comatose ever since.
02:42The healers said he'd never wake,
02:44but I knew better.
02:45Last life, Silas woke in my third year of misery.
02:48When the Ironforge she-wolves cornered me in the kitchen,
02:51the broken, half-crippled Alpha dragged himself out of his wheeled chair
02:56to stand between us.
02:57Little one, this would waste you.
03:00Let me choose another Alpha.
03:03One who can stand beside you.
03:05Speak back to you.
03:06I didn't lift my head from the stone.
03:08Your majesty.
03:10I swore before the moon goddess herself.
03:13It is Alpha Silas, or no one.
03:15I slammed my forehead into the marble.
03:17A wet crack of bone on stone.
03:20If the Ashfield girl is truly set on our brother-in-law,
03:24let her have him.
03:25The moon goddess guides us in strange ways.
03:27The king looked at his mate, looked at me.
03:30So be it.
03:31Your house is gone.
03:34Silas cannot speak for himself.
03:36The mating will be arranged by the queen herself.
03:39I pressed my forehead to the stone a third time.
03:42I am grateful beyond words.
03:44I rose on shaking legs.
03:46I did not look at Caleb.
03:48I could feel him, though.
03:50Sent violent.
03:51Let him burn.
03:52I would not make Caleb again.
03:54I would not die in the rogue territories again.
03:58Silas was my answer.
03:59Last life, he spent his days in a wheeled chair.
04:03And still he gave me kindness.
04:06This life, we would walk out of hell together.
04:09I slept for three days after the gala.
04:13Deep.
04:14Dreamless.
04:15The sleep of the freed.
04:16Then came the knock at the Ashford gates.
04:18The queen requests your presence at the royal den.
04:23Tonight.
04:24I went cold.
04:25Madam Vos led me through the royal halls at dusk.
04:28Moon blossoms perfumed the stone corridors.
04:31My heart beat slow and careful.
04:33Then Madam Vos froze and bowed.
04:35Your highness, the crown prince.
04:37I lifted my head.
04:39Caleb.
04:40His face dropped into my vision like a blade.
04:44Sharp.
04:44Cold.
04:45Beautiful in that cool ironforge way.
04:48His scent hit me before his eyes did.
04:51Iron and jealousy spiking hot.
04:53He stared.
04:54Golden eyes raking me from crown to feet.
04:58Crown prince.
04:59May the moon favor you.
05:01He knew my old pattern.
05:03Last life, I tracked his schedule.
05:06Baked him honey cakes.
05:07Engineered accidental meetings just to press them into his hands.
05:11He used to throw them to the hounds.
05:14Alara, stop this pathetic chase.
05:17You're mating my uncle.
05:18Have some dignity.
05:20You make me sick.
05:22Your highness, I'm not chasing anything.
05:24At the gala, I told your father the truth.
05:27I have no feelings for you.
05:29Then you wandered into the royal wing by coincidence?
05:33The queen summoned me.
05:35Ask Madame Vos.
05:38It's true, your highness.
05:41Caleb's scent turned volcanic.
05:43So she really wasn't here for him?
05:45My uncle is a corpse that breathes Alara.
05:48You'll be a widow before the moon sets on your bonding night.
05:51Then I'll be the happiest widow in the kingdom.
05:53His pupils blue black.
05:54I've loved Alpha Silas for years.
05:57Awake or sleeping, I want only to be at his side.
06:00Caleb's face went black.
06:02The queen is waiting.
06:03I walked away and felt his stare burning into my back.
06:07The queen greeted me in her chamber with a smile that never reached her eyes.
06:11Elora, darling, come sit.
06:13Your grace, may the moon bless you eternally.
06:17So formal.
06:19And you came alone?
06:21Your grace, there's no one left.
06:24In the Ashford den to walk me anywhere.
06:26Good.
06:27Two dates were inked on silk before her.
06:30The third of the sixth moon.
06:31The nineteenth of the tenth moon.
06:33My blood iced.
06:35The nineteenth of the tenth moon was my mating date with Caleb.
06:39Last life.
06:40Auspicious, the packs had called it,
06:42until the sky split open and drowned the ceremony in rain.
06:46The bonding procession arrived, soaked to the bone.
06:49The pack whispered for years.
06:51Cursed, ill-omened.
06:53A wolf who would bring ruin to the royal line.
06:56I think the nineteenth is perfect, the queen said gently.
07:00It's very kind, your grace.
07:02But I prefer the third of the sixth moon.
07:05That's only two months away.
07:07Too rushed, surely.
07:08I can't wait to be at Alphacelus's side.
07:11Behind me, the chamber door opened.
07:13Caleb had followed.
07:14He heard every word.
07:17His teeth ground loud enough that I caught the sound.
07:20Caleb, come help me reason on her.
07:22The queen trilled.
07:24Caleb's eyes raked me, cold as the northern wastes.
07:28If she's so desperate to mate my uncle, why stop her?
07:31Drug it to autumn and she'll have the whole court howling rumors.
07:35The crown prince speaks wisdom.
07:37The third of the sixth moon, then.
07:39You must attend the ceremony, your highness.
07:43I have matters to attend.
07:45Excuse me.
07:50Oh, Ilara.
07:52Silas can't perform the escort himself.
07:54Tradition requires an unbonded royal alpha to fetch the bride from her den.
07:57I thought Caleb would be perfect.
07:58The crown prince is far too important.
08:00Lord Torrin, the Riverstone heir is unbonded.
08:02Nineteen, perfectly suited.
08:04As you wish.
08:05The trap was so obvious, I almost admired it.
08:08If Caleb escorted me, he'd have every excuse in the kingdom to humiliate me on my mating day.
08:15Spill the sacred bonding wine.
08:18Arrive late.
08:19Dress in mourning colors.
08:21Last life, I'd have walked into it eyes shining.
08:25This life?
08:26Never.
08:27The carriage rattled home through twilight streets.
08:31Old memories surfaced like bodies in a river.
08:34My grandfather had been the royal claw, Caleb's mentor.
08:38He'd dragged me into the royal den from the time I could walk.
08:42Caleb and I had been inseparable once.
08:45Sneaking past guards.
08:47Running wild through the human city below the mountain.
08:51One day, a runaway cart came thundering down the cobblestones.
08:55I shoved Caleb out of its path.
08:58The wheel caught my left wing.
09:00Bone met stone, with a sound I still hear in nightmares.
09:05Caleb's face was wet, with tears and sweat.
09:08He gripped my hand so hard my fingers went numb.
09:12I'll take care of you forever, Alara.
09:14I swear it on the moon.
09:16When had that boy died?
09:18I didn't know the answer.
09:20I'd never find out either.
09:21And this life?
09:22I'd stopped caring.
09:24The moons flew.
09:25The royal den, Blood Moon Manor, and the Ashford estate prepared feverishly.
09:30Crimson banners, silver lanterns, moonblossom petals raining from every beam.
09:36Caleb sat in his chambers, surrounded by his uncle's bonding colors.
09:40His cousin Torrin arrived with news.
09:42The queen had chosen him, not Caleb, to escort me from the Ashford gates.
09:48She had refused him.
09:50Maybe she thinks you're overworked.
09:51But, I've got nothing to do.
09:54Easier for me.
09:55About what happened back then, Alara was innocent.
09:58You know it was never her fault.
10:00Hating her for that was never fair.
10:01Torrin, didn't you have somewhere to be?
10:03Torrin fled.
10:05Caleb burned.
10:06That night, Caleb fell ill.
10:09He dreamed he was the groom.
10:11He dreamed rain lashed his procession.
10:13That his cloak and boots were drenched through.
10:16He dreamed of walking into the bonding chamber and finding me sitting on the bed.
10:21Dark hair coiled high.
10:23Silver coronet woven with moonblossoms.
10:26Crimson mating gowns stitched with silver phoenixes.
10:30Dream me smiled at him.
10:32Caleb couldn't look away.
10:33Only the hammer of his own heart.
10:35He woke.
10:36Drenched in sweat.
10:37Fever raging.
10:39What day is it?
10:40The third of the sixth moon, my prince.
10:42Alpha Silas mates the Asheville girl tonight.
10:44Something carved a hole in his chest.
10:47The queen swept into Caleb's sick room.
10:49She sat beside his bed.
10:51Cool hand on his forehead.
10:53Thank the moon.
10:54That mess is off my hands.
10:56Now we can focus on your mate choosing, my darling.
10:59That Asheville pup was trouble from the day she was born.
11:03Always dragging you into danger.
11:05I never liked her.
11:07After her house fell, she clung to you like a leech.
11:10If the Asheville name hadn't still held weight, I'd have driven her out years ago.
11:14Now her whole pack is dead.
11:16She's nothing.
11:17Mating Silas was her smartest move.
11:19Blood Moon Manor is a nest of vipers.
11:21Silas' cousins circle his Komoko's body like carrion.
11:24Without me smoothing this mating through, she'd never have survived the approval.
11:27She'll suffer enough there.
11:28Trust me.
11:29Rest my love.
11:31I'll choose properly this time.
11:33With me as Lunar Queen, no one takes your crown.
11:37She swept out.
11:40Caleb stared at the ceiling.
11:42Somewhere across the capital, at that exact moment, I was being carried out of the Ashford
11:48gates on Torrin's back.
11:50Drums.
11:51Silver horns.
11:52A procession vast enough to make the Crown Prince's own mating last life look like a funeral.
11:59As if Blood Moon Manor had waited years for this day.
12:02Luna and Lara.
12:05Luna and Lara.
12:05Caleb is sick.
12:06They're hiding it from the Pax.
12:08He's been fevered for a week straight.
12:11Torrin.
12:13I don't care about the Crown Prince anymore.
12:15The past is past.
12:17I'm looking forward now.
12:19And next time, call me Aunt Lara.
12:24Inside Blood Moon Manor.
12:27Luna.
12:28I am Commander Zane, Silas's second.
12:30The Alpha has slept eight moons.
12:33He's thinner, but otherwise whole.
12:36A separate chamber is prepared for you across the hall.
12:40No.
12:41He is my mate.
12:43Where would our bond rest?
12:44Sleeping in separate rooms?
12:47Starting tonight, I share his bed.
12:50Across the manor, on the mating bed, Silas's fingers twitched.
12:55Neither of us saw.
13:00I walked into the bonding chamber, where the candles burned low and gold.
13:05He lay where they had placed him.
13:06Sharp-boned.
13:08Fierce, even in sleep.
13:09A sheathed blade of a man.
13:12Too pale.
13:13Too thin.
13:14His scent filled my lungs.
13:17Cedar, blade oil.
13:18A storm over the mountains.
13:20A warrior's scent.
13:22Hot-blooded.
13:23His pulse running high, the way my fathers and brothers always had.
13:28I'm sorry I mated you while you slept.
13:30But I swear on the moon goddess.
13:33I'll take care of you.
13:34I'll be a Luna worth waking up to.
13:38And across the kingdom, Caleb dreamed of me again.
13:42Caleb, go on.
13:44Climb higher.
13:46Not in the mating chamber this time.
13:48But in a garden.
13:50Laughing, he woke sobbing.
13:52And didn't know why.
13:55Luna, you didn't sleep?
14:00I'm not used to the bed.
14:03And there's a very large alpha next to me.
14:06Luna, Madam Thorn sends for you.
14:09New Luna tradition.
14:11Present yourself to the alpha's aunt on your first morning.
14:14I went still.
14:16Blood Moon Manor was a nest of vipers.
14:18And I had just slid into the middle of them.
14:22The matron at my door reeked of jasmine and condescension.
14:26I knew Blood Moon Manor's politics well.
14:29Silas and the king were full-blooded brothers.
14:32Born of the great Luna Seraphine.
14:34Her younger brother had died fighting beside Silas in the north.
14:37Out of guilt, Silas had moved his uncle's widow and children into his manor.
14:42Aunt Thorn, the dead warrior's mate, had seized the household keys.
14:48She had tried to mate her youngest daughter to Silas.
14:52Silas had refused.
14:54Now I had arrived in her place.
14:56She hated me before she met me.
14:58The Luna just woke.
14:59Why such urgency?
15:01Of course.
15:03A general's daughter, the king's own pick, wouldn't stoop to greet a humble widow.
15:08I never said that.
15:09If you can't keep your mouth straight, shut it.
15:12Well, Luna?
15:13So, Madam Thorn wanted first blood on day one.
15:21Of course, I should pay respects to Madam Thorn.
15:25Luna misunderstands.
15:26Not respects.
15:28Just a visit.
15:30Her husband died, saving my mate.
15:32His widow deserves deep honor.
15:35My visit to her is a sacred duty.
15:37So, please go to the royal den and inform the king.
15:46The... the royal den?
15:48Yes.
15:49Tell his majesty that I must pay respects to a fallen warrior's widow before I present myself at court.
15:55She apparently outranks the king in my morning's duties.
16:02Luna jokes.
16:03Of course the king and queen come first.
16:10Then tell Madam Thorn I'll visit when my schedule permits.
16:15Luna, are we really going?
16:19Of course.
16:20She's an elder.
16:22But I choose when, not her.
16:25I ordered the carriage.
16:27As I stepped into the courtyard...
16:33Not drunk?
16:34Old Damien could do three more barrels.
16:42Do you know who I am?
16:45Silas is my cousin.
16:47The great Luna raised me.
16:49I've looked the king in his face.
16:53That's Simas' cousin?
16:55Yes, Luna.
16:57Damien Thorn.
16:59Known in every brothel in the capital.
17:01Pleasure Dems, Moonshine, Gambling Pits.
17:05Your mating ceremony was last night.
17:07As the royal relative, he didn't show up and slept in some she-wolf's bed.
17:12Silas.
17:13What kind of kin did you take into your manor?
17:16I climbed into my carriage without acknowledging him.
17:20Who is that?
17:22Why haven't I seen her before?
17:23That's the new Luna, my lord.
17:25Right.
17:26Cousin Silas had mated yesterday.
17:29Cousin's still asleep.
17:30She'll be sleeping empty sheets for years.
17:34I didn't see any of it.
17:35I went to the royal den to pay my respects to the king and queen.
17:39I timed it perfectly.
17:40The concubines would have finished their morning bow.
17:43The dawn council would nearly be over.
17:45I'd sip tea with the queen until the king appeared.
17:48I missed one calculation.
17:50At the royal gates, I walked straight into Caleb.
17:57Torn had said Caleb was ill.
17:59That's why he wasn't at council.
18:01None of my concern.
18:03Crown Prince.
18:06A bonded Luna in crimson silks.
18:09Last night's dream.
18:12Alara, does it feel good?
18:14Mating my uncle?
18:18No.
18:19You should address me as Aunt Alara.
18:22Caleb stared.
18:23The delay before his brain caught up was almost funny.
18:27Calling me by my given name is a breach of protocol.
18:30Show some manners.
18:32You are happy, aren't you?
18:35This mating is what I asked for.
18:37Of course I'm pleased.
18:39Why do you ask what you already know?
18:42The crown princess is still ill.
18:45Rest.
18:46Medicaid.
18:47I have the king and queen to greet.
18:49That morning in the royal den, I sipped tea with the queen.
18:53The king arrived from council in shockingly high spirits.
18:57The first time in years, the civil wolves and warrior wolves had agreed on something at council.
19:02They had praised my mating.
19:05In the courtyard, I saw Zane leading two servants into Silas' chamber.
19:10What are you doing?
19:11What are you doing?
19:12Luna.
19:13It's time to dose the alpha.
19:15A clay medicine jar steamed on her tray.
19:17Luna, please wait outside.
19:19It takes time.
19:20The alpha is hard to dose.
19:22I'll come too.
19:24Luna, with us?
19:25Yes.
19:26I'm his mate.
19:26Caring for him is my duty.
19:28Show me today.
19:28From tomorrow, I do it.
19:31Luna.
19:32The alpha cannot swallow willingly.
19:34He forced the drape down.
19:36He vomits half of it.
19:38It's not pleasant.
19:54Zane, you're wasting most of it.
19:57Let me.
19:58Give me the bowl.
19:59All of you, step back.
20:01Luna, we'll wait outside.
20:02Why?
20:03Luna, surely you'll want to feed the alpha mouth to mouth.
20:08Don't be absurd.
20:09There's no such custom.
20:10I took the bowl.
20:12Felt the warm clay ground me.
20:14I remembered a technique my sister-in-law had taught me.
20:16In deep unconsciousness, pressing the philtrum can trigger a brief reflex opening of the mouth.
20:22I slipped the spoon between his lips.
20:24Tilted his chin with my free hand.
20:27Stroked his throat until the reflex carried the draught down.
20:30It worked.
20:31A little still escaped.
20:33But most of it stayed inside.
20:34By the time I emptied half the bowl, my hairline was damp with sweat.
20:39I set the bowl down.
20:41Silas's throat worked.
20:42His brow creased.
20:44My heart lurched.
20:45I leaned in close.
20:47His lashes trembled.
20:49He didn't open his eyes.
20:50But something had moved.
20:52Luna, that was incredible.
20:55I didn't answer.
20:56My own stomach was still fluttering.
20:58Last life, Silas woke fragile.
21:01Years of botched dosing had hollowed him.
21:04He'd never fully recovered his strength.
21:07This life, if I was his mate, he wouldn't suffer that again.
21:11Every day I fed him the draught myself.
21:14I bathed him.
21:16Massaged his wasted calves.
21:18His sword-calloused hands.
21:19The manor whispered.
21:21A general's daughter doing servants' work.
21:25She shamed the Ashfield name.
21:27Let them whisper.
21:29One afternoon, Aunt Thorne came herself.
21:31Found me kneading the cords of Silas's thighs.
21:35Alara, darling, let the servants do this.
21:38You're the Luna.
21:39What will the Pax say if you grind yourself down like a maid?
21:44Aunt, forgive me.
21:46Caring for my mate is my honor.
21:48Alpha Silas fought all his life on those legs.
21:51They're his foundation.
21:53Only I can be trusted to tend them.
21:58But, Aunt, you must be exhausted, managing the whole mansion on top of visiting me.
22:04Let's go over the household ledgers together soon.
22:07I noticed a few entries lift.
22:09Tangled.
22:10Her scent curdled.
22:12She had run those ledgers for years.
22:15I knew she had skimmed.
22:17She knew I knew.
22:18She made an excuse and fled.
22:21No need to trouble the Luna.
22:23I'll have them cleaned up.
22:25She never sent another matron.
22:27But Damien Thorne?
22:28He was another problem.
22:30Damien began haunting the manor.
22:33Visiting his cousin, he said.
22:35His eyes lived on me.
22:37Oily.
22:38Lingering.
22:39Appraising.
22:40One afternoon, he caught me alone in the garden.
22:43Moon wine thick on his breath.
22:45Aunt Alara.
22:47Cousin's been asleep forever.
22:48You must be so lonely.
22:52Lord Damien.
22:53Mind yourself.
22:54The Luna is your elder by rank.
22:57Speak with respect.
22:59Elder?
23:00Cousin might never wake.
23:03Shall Aunt Alara waste her whole life as a breathing widow?
23:05My business is not yours.
23:08If you have nothing to do, leave.
23:10You're cluttering the view.
23:11His face flushed purple.
23:13He slunk off.
23:14I marked him.
23:15Damien was a viper.
23:17I would need to watch him.
23:18That night, I set guards on every corridor that touched my chambers.
23:22Every day, draft, bath, massage, reading aloud.
23:26I read Silas, his own annotated war treatises.
23:30Poetry.
23:31The old histories of the Blood Moon pack.
23:33I talked to him like he could hear me.
23:36Some nights, I thought he could.
23:37Caleb recovered from his fever and began asking, quietly, constantly, about Blood Moon Manor.
23:44About me.
23:44He heard I fed Silas by my own hand.
23:47That I ran the household.
23:49That I'd broken Aunt Thorne to heal in under a month.
23:52The news poisoned him in ways he couldn't name.
23:55A royal feast came.
23:57As Luna of the Blood Moon, I had to attend.
24:00I wore the deep crimson of a bonded Luna.
24:02Hair up.
24:03No blush.
24:04No trembling hands.
24:06A different woman entirely from the girl who'd chased him with honey cakes.
24:10Caleb crossed the hall to me.
24:11His voice was rough.
24:13Alara, be honest.
24:15Is life in that manner truly good?
24:17By the Crown Prince's grace.
24:19And very well.
24:20Well?
24:22Nursing a corpse.
24:23Doing servant work.
24:24You call that well?
24:25Your Highness misunderstands.
24:27I chose Alpha Silas willingly.
24:29He is asleep, but he is a good man.
24:31He deserves my care.
24:32Unlike some who wear fine silks and carry cold blood in their veins.
24:36I let a pause land between us like a blade.
24:40Unlike some who wear fine silks and carry cold blood in their veins.
24:47His face went bloodless.
24:48He knew exactly who I meant.
24:50Enough, enough.
24:51Family feast.
24:52No grim faces.
24:53Allara, I've heard you tend my brother with your own hands.
24:58It moves me.
25:00Your Majesty is too kind.
25:03It is only my duty.
25:04The King patted my shoulder and moved on.
25:08Caleb stared after me like he'd been struck.
25:10I didn't look back.
25:12Moons rolled on.
25:14The autumn deepened.
25:15That afternoon, I sat by Silas' bed, reading from his own annotated war treatise.
25:20The handwriting in the margins?
25:22Fierce and sloping.
25:24Something brushed my palm.
25:26I jerked my head up.
25:27Silas' fingers had curled.
25:30His eyelids trembled.
25:31Alpha?
25:32My voice shook.
25:34I reached for his pulse.
25:36His eyes opened.
25:37Those eyes.
25:38The eyes I had imagined in every quiet hour.
25:42Alara.
25:44Doctor!
25:45I've heard everything.
25:49My blood froze.
25:52Heard?
25:52Silas had been conscious inside his body this entire time.
25:56He had heard Zane tend him.
25:58Heard Aunt Thorne's scheme.
26:01At the gala.
26:02You said you wanted me as your mate.
26:04I froze.
26:05What?
26:06I never knew.
26:08Silas spoke slowly.
26:09The words I prayed for.
26:13I heard them while I couldn't move.
26:15Seven years ago, at a royal garden feast, a ten-year-old Ashford girl had slipped on the
26:21mossy stones and fallen into the lotus pond.
26:24A wounded warrior on leave, him, had fished me out.
26:29Ashford she-wolves aren't afraid of water.
26:31I had stood, soaking wet, chin up, snarled.
26:35That stubborn, electric little creature had burned herself into him.
26:39He'd shipped out to the northern front soon after, but he'd sent wolves to watch over
26:44me every year since.
26:46He knew I liked riding, archery, sword work.
26:50He knew I'd stitched a mating gown dreaming of Caleb.
26:55He knew what the Ironforge pack did to me in the life before this one, because when he
27:00finally woke that life, he'd searched the whole kingdom for me, and found my body in
27:05a rogue territory pleasure den.
27:07I stopped breathing.
27:09I asked for the northern front to prove myself worthy before your 18th moon.
27:13I meant to return and ask the king for you, but I was struck down the night before victory.
27:18Not in battle.
27:20Betrayed.
27:22Betrayed?
27:23By who?
27:24Kale's inner circle.
27:26He feared I'd eclipse him at court.
27:28Feared worse that I'd return and take you.
27:32Alara.
27:33Your father's death.
27:35Your brother's deaths.
27:36That was not simply a lost battle.
27:39Someone leaked the Silver Vanguard's march route to the rogue warbands.
27:43That someone to the Queen Blood Kin.
27:47The world tilted.
27:49Caleb believed, wrongly, that your father's death was my doing.
27:52Some poisoned whisper in his ear in the ear of the morning.
27:54He turned that hatred on you.
27:57And he hated me more for loving you.
27:59Last life's venom rushed back.
28:02You make me sick.
28:03You harlot.
28:05You cursed thing.
28:07All of it rooted in a lie.
28:09A lie soaked in conspiracy.
28:11A lie his own mother had fed him.
28:14Last life, when I finally woke.
28:16Two years after your mating, I searched for you.
28:18I found your body in the rogue territories.
28:20I dragged myself to the throne and laid every truth before the king.
28:23The Queen's kin were hunted down to the last place.
28:26Kalen was stripped of the throne.
28:27Caged in the royal den until he rotted.
28:29But I couldn't save you.
28:30His voice broke.
28:32This life, Alara.
28:33This life, I will never fail you again.
28:36Two lifetimes of pain broke open inside me.
28:39Tears fell silently, soundless.
28:42The healers.
28:43Let me hold you first.
28:44He pulled me down against his chest.
28:46His heart beat slow and strong beneath my ear.
28:50Alive.
28:51Alive.
28:52Alive.
28:52For the first time in two lifetimes, I let myself cry.
28:57The healers flooded the chamber within the hour.
28:59The blood moon alpha had woken.
29:01And the blood moon alpha had talked.
29:04He told the king everything.
29:06The betrayal on the northern front.
29:08The blade that had come from his own side.
29:11The leaked march route that had slaughtered the entire silver vanguard.
29:14The old case was reopened.
29:16Every court wolf who had ever touched the queen's bloodline was dragged before the royal tribunal.
29:21Ledgers pulled.
29:23Messengers tortured.
29:24War pigeons traced back through three years of smuggled correspondence.
29:28The evidence was overwhelming.
29:30The queen's uncle, the war minister, had sold the march route to a rogue warlord for a chest of northern
29:37gold
29:37and a promise to weaken Silas' influence.
29:41My father.
29:42My three brothers.
29:44Eight hundred silver vanguard wolves.
29:47Sold.
29:47The queen's bloodline was condemned.
29:50Exposed.
29:51Dried.
29:53Executed to the last pup within seven days.
29:56The queen herself was stripped of her crown and locked in the high tower to await trial.
30:01And Caleb?
30:02Caleb learned that his hatred of me,
30:04his disgust at my scent,
30:06his cruelty across two lifetimes,
30:09had been built on his mother's lies.
30:12That I had never betrayed him.
30:14That I had never had anything to do with the northern front disaster.
30:18That the girl who'd shoved him away from a runaway cart at eight years old
30:22and broken her own knee doing it
30:25had been the one wolf in the whole kingdom
30:27who'd ever loved him with nothing asked in return.
30:30And he had thrown her to rogues.
30:33In one life, anyway.
30:35In this one,
30:37he had only destroyed her with words.
30:39But words,
30:41in the end,
30:42had destroyed him too.
30:43He shattered.
30:45He ran for Blood Moon Manor.
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