Chapter 2

I didn't sleep that night.

Every time I closed my eyes, a face I never wanted to see forced its way into my mind.

Cassian's face.

There were moments I couldn't tell if I was lying in the cabin in Moonshade territory or still trapped in that tower room in Darksilver Castle.

I already escaped.

I told myself over and over.

It didn't help.

Cassian had locked me in that tower for three full years.

Why?

He'd said: "You're a wolf I intend to tame."

About six months in, I'd finally asked: "When are you going to let me go?"

"Go?" He repeated the word, staring at me. "Go where?"

"Back to the Moonshade Clan."

"What for?"

I frowned, as though the answer were obvious. "It's my home. It's been six months and you still haven't managed to tame me. Why won't you just let me go?"

He walked toward me and raised his hand. His fingertip pressed lightly against the scar on the back of my neck.

The skin there reacted instantly—cold spreading from his touch, seeping inward, inch by inch.

I clenched my teeth, fighting to keep my breathing steady.

"You feel it," he said. "The bond between us."

"You forced it on me," I said coldly. "I never chose this."

"Yes." He admitted it without flinching, pressing down a fraction harder. "I marked you."

"So you belong to me now." His voice dropped lower. "You're not going anywhere."

I enunciated every word: "I have never been anyone's property."

"A wolf cannot be tamed," I said, glaring at him.

He smiled faintly, gazing out the window. "Sleep. The moon won't set for another three hours."

What I hated most was that he was always like this.

Calm. Composed. Unhurried. The only one left undone, from start to finish, was me.

…

Morning light seeped through the gaps in the shutters.

The door opened.

My father came in carrying a bowl of hot broth.

"Drink."

I propped myself up and took the bowl. He sat beside me in silence.

When the bowl was empty, he spoke.

"Greyson, he…" He paused. "He had his reasons."

I set the bowl down on the stool. "What reasons?"

"After I was taken—you all just did nothing?"

He was quiet for a long time. So long I thought he wasn't going to answer.

"The old Alpha wouldn't authorize an attack." His voice came out scraped raw. "The elders wouldn't agree either."

"Why not?"

"Because it was the Darksilver family. Dragging the entire clan into a war with the blood clans over one woman—it wasn't worth it."

I stared. "What?"

"It wasn't worth it." He said it again.

The feud between the Moonshade Clan and the blood clans was something I'd known about since I was small. Disputes over hunting grounds, borders, the ore veins of the Greyridge Mountains—more people had died than anyone could count. But those had always been skirmishes along the frontier. No clan had ever gone to war with the entire Nightlands over a single wolf.

"I begged," he said, head bowed, staring at his faintly trembling hands. "I got on my knees before the old Alpha. I told him she's my daughter. I told him he'd promised to protect every member of this clan. I told him Greyson was your fated mate—he should have gone to save you."

"What did he say?"

"He said—" My father's voice dropped even lower. "—fated mates can be replaced."

Can be replaced.

So Greyson had replaced me with Cecilia.

So Cecilia was carrying his pup.

"And then?" I heard myself ask.

"Then the old Alpha died," my father said. "Greyson took over. He led a party into the Greyridge Mountains to look for you once."

"Once?"

"Once." He lifted his head and met my eyes. "By then, more than a year had already passed. The Darksilver family had long since moved their base. They found nothing. After he came back, Cecilia was there for him. And then…"

And then they were together.

I closed my eyes.

A bitter laugh escaped me. So in three years, the man who was supposed to be my fated mate had searched for me exactly once.

The day they took me, I'd waited in the rain for a long time.

I'd kept thinking—once Greyson arrives, once Father brings people, once the Moonshade wolves show up, I'll be able to go home.

They never came.

Because I wasn't worth it.

"He wasn't Alpha yet," my father offered. An excuse.

Because he wasn't Alpha yet, he couldn't overrule his father, couldn't overrule the elders, couldn't overrule the clan's customs and interests.

Because he was still young, he was allowed to grieve, to rage, to want to save me.

But in the end, he stayed exactly where he was.

"Your mother and I went to the border—many times. We sent people to gather intelligence on Darksilver Castle, but…"

He hesitated, then continued: "But it was like you'd vanished from the face of the earth."

"When I was in that tower and couldn't hold on anymore, I really did keep believing—maybe one day you'd come." I smiled, mocking myself.

The color drained from my father's face, slowly, completely.

"Do you hate me?" he asked suddenly.

I looked at him.

"I couldn't bring you back." His voice cracked. "Three years. Every time I think about what you went through over there, I—"

He couldn't finish.

"I don't hate you," I said.

He looked up.

"I hate myself," I said. "I hate that I went to the Greyridge border alone that day."

He reached out and gripped my hand.

"It wasn't your fault," he said. "It was never your fault, Leila."

I didn't answer.

Footsteps sounded outside the window. Someone was shouting something.

My father let go and stood.

"Rest a while longer," he said. "Don't rush to go out. The people out there…"

He trailed off.

At the door, he stopped again.

"Leila."

"Mm?"

He didn't turn around. His back was to me.

"No matter what anyone says—" His voice was barely above a whisper. "You are my daughter. Always."