Chapter 1

At the Alpha’s birthday gala, my mate kicked me so hard I lost our pup.

My own brother stood aside, eyes like winter stone, and hissed, “You deserved it.”

They framed me after that and sent me to a cell.

Three years—my child gone, my womb taken, even my last kidney beaten until it failed.

When I finally walked free, they knelt and begged me to come home.

But I have no home now—only a dying body and a heart colder than the High North.

This time, they’ll be the ones with nowhere to run.

…

…

Crystal chandeliers scattered light across Blackwood Hall, but all I saw was Camilla Vale’s perfectly manicured hand pressed to her cheek.

“She struck me!” Camilla’s voice cracked with perfect fragility. “Elena hit me!”

My seven-month belly felt like lead as every gaze in the ballroom—wolves of the Silvercrest Pack and their human guests—snapped to me.

“I didn’t—” I began, but Liam Blackwood, my mate and Alpha, was already moving.

“Don’t lie,” he growled. The low rumble of his Alpha aura hit like a whip, making my knees weaken. “Everyone saw you.”

“Liam, please, the baby—”

His boot met my stomach before I could finish.

Pain exploded—not only from the kick, but from the searing burn of silver dust coating his shoe. The poison crawled through my veins, choking my wolf’s healing before it could start.

I collapsed, arms around my belly. “The baby! Liam, please—our baby!”

Another kick landed on my side. The silver burned deeper.

“You made Camilla lose her pup!” he shouted. “You don’t deserve yours!”

Warm liquid flooded beneath me—blood, heavy with the scent of iron and silver.

“Help me,” I whispered to the frozen faces around us. “Please…”

Liam turned away, his hand gripping Camilla’s. “Let’s go. She’s faking it.”

“Wait!” I screamed. “Don’t leave me!”

The ballroom doors slammed shut.

Snow drifted in through the terrace doors, each flake sizzling when it touched my blood. The silver contamination was spreading fast. My wolf whimpered inside me, too weak to heal.

The light above dimmed—or maybe I did.

The pup. Please, Moon, save my pup.

My nails scraped marble, leaving streaks of red. The music had stopped, but I could still hear Camilla’s laugh, echoing like glass.

The cold crept in. So cold.

The chandeliers blurred into distant stars.

A scream reached my ears, faint and far away. Was that me?

“Call the healers!” someone yelled.

But Liam was gone.

I tried to crawl, but my limbs refused. The dress he loved—silver satin—was soaked crimson.

Our son. We were going to call him Aiden.

We had painted the nursery pale blue, his hands covering mine as he’d said, “Our boy. Our perfect little family.”

When had everything gone wrong?

When had my Alpha’s love turned to hate?

A face appeared above me—a young omega waiter, terrified.

“Stay with me, Luna. Help is coming.”

But the world was slipping away.

The pain faded into numbness.

Maybe that was worse.

I thought of my parents—rogue attack victims twenty years ago—and wondered if I’d finally see them again.

Would they forgive me for loving the wolf who killed me?

“Liam…” I whispered, though he was already gone.

The world faded to black.

And in that last flicker of consciousness, I realized the cruelest truth of all—

I still loved him.

Even now.

Even as the silver burned through my veins.

Even as my mate killed me.