1. Freya

My mud-drenched cloak dragged down my shoulders. Catching on branches and weighing a ton, I stumble forward in the dark.

“Come on!” hissed my guide. “Get moving before you get me killed ”

“I'm trying! I wasn't followed you know!” 

"I couldn't give a shit what you think."

My shorter height prevents me clearing the mud and branches as easily as the miserable brute in front. Struggling for footing in the dark forest, rain pours down unchecked, his face set like granite. Alpha Cillian had commanded him to take me away from here. This mission is not his choice.

“Why the hell are you even doing this anyway?” His voice is a miserable grumble as he lifts a low, heavy branch for me to pass under. 

“It’s none of your fucking business,” I snapped back, fully aware I had signed my own death sentence tonight.

"You're damn right it's not, but here I am. Babysitting."

"I'm sorry, have I not just risked everything to bring you the biggest weapon in this fight?"

Thirty minutes of hostile silence followed. Finally we reached a washed out road. 

“This is a war. You’re technically still the enemy in my eyes,” he snarled, heaving a huge log ten metres down the road in anger. 

Refusing to back down, I stand tall and look down my nose at him, ignoring the rain. "Your Alpha gave you an order."

His long brown hair was tied in a top-knot, the ruddy olive colouring of his skin blending in with the muddy rain. Beta Zeke of the Shadowlands. I mentally add him to the growing list of people who despise me. 

As he fussed in the dark by the side of the road I placed my hand on my heart. Not for pain, but for the amulet I had tucked inside my royal blue gown. 

Gold and platinum interwoven strands forming a complicated knotted pattern. Beautiful but laced with unseen power. A potentially war-winning object that means Beta Zeke now has to do whatever the hell he is told.

There is heartache pulsing away in my ribcage, alongside the tainted jewellery but right now all I can feel is anger. Pure, white-hot fury towards the man I stole this from. 

I hope he’s raging. I hope I’m finally all he can think about.  I want him pacing up and down that cold grey castle wondering how he missed me blindsiding him.

My darling, treacherous mate.

Alpha Phillipe of Rising Star. My blessing and curse rolled into a suave, suit-wearing, white-haired lynx of a man. Sleek and smart, he dazzled me every day. Well, the days I saw him anyway. 

Only a few months ago we held our Commitment Ceremony. Installing me as Luna of Rising Star Pack, destined for a life of prestigious joy and dignity. Exactly what I was born to do. Goddess I was happy. So stupidly happy as I whirled around that dance floor dressed in green and white silks.

My innocent joy ended there. The night of our Ceremony a vile, sneaking massacre took his parents and over a dozen different Beta warriors across three packs. Throats slit whilst they slept, the lowest, cowardliest act imaginable.

Matters have escalated even further. Three weeks ago, war was officially declared. Not by letter, flags changing over or trumpeted pronouncements. No, it started via my mother ripping an eyeball from Phillipe’s second in command, Beta Patrick. 

All during a family gathering where I discover I am nothing but a fool. 

A Luna of nothing.

Stood in the dark miserable woods I struggle to remind myself of my true form. I am not usually a drenched, sopping wretch of a girl, eyes red from weeping. I’m meant to be a goddamn twenty-five year old princess. My father is Alpha Alexander of White Forest. A living legend of brooding darkness.

I am not some village girl who got a lucky mate bond upwards into a new life as  Luna. Or one of those naive simpletons who flutter their eyelashes and have no idea what they’re getting into. I am trained for this exact life, yet somehow I’m covered in mud and running away. 

Normally my features are dwarfed by my huge, tumbling brown curls. Figure-hugging gowns and gold jewellery complete my look, inevitably reminding everyone of my mother. 

Not tonight. This evening I resemble a feeble brown rat as I stole away from the towering castle of Rising Star. I vanished into the forest, tearing towards the fighting front until I smashed my stolen motorcycle into their guard post. 

The fierce red hair and blue eyes of Alpha Cillian stilled my heart with both fear and hope. He is a towering presence, the gold of his wolf flickering at the sight of his enemies mate. Yet I didn’t not fear he would hurt me. His Beta though, well so far he looks unstable, and pissed.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t thinking clearly when I decided to run towards the enemy. 

All I know is I want to hurt Phillipe. 

Beta Zeke is correct; technically I am the enemy. Not that I’m giving this mud-splattered misery the satisfaction of further conversation. He whirls around, scowling at me with those dark eyes narrowed. Swearing under his breath he starts wheeling a motorcycle towards me, chest puffing with exertion.

“I thought Cillian said to get to Cragstone for a vehicle?” worry creeping into my tone. Surely there would be nowhere else to place me than another Alpha’s Packhouse, safe and secure. The lofty wooden grandeur of Cragstone would be a step down from the castles I had been brought up in but it was survivable.

“No, I knew I had a bike stashed here so we’re skipping that bit. Safer”

“But-” 

“Get on the back, now” he shouted over the roar of the engine, purposely revving it to cut off my words. “And ditch the cloak!”

“But-”

“Listen Luna, you’ve stood around while I dug this fucker out of the weeds, now do as I say before we’re traced!” and my gaze caught the gleaming hilt of a dagger as his own thick black cloak slumped to the floor. 

Unclipping the heavy blue material I rolled it into a ball before throwing it into a deep ditch. Swinging my leg over and gripping his soaked torso, a flash of lightning made me yelp with fright.

“Hold on. Don’t talk to me, we’ve got two days driving to complete” he declared, clearly in full asshole-mode.  With a roar of the shining black engine we sped away, skidding along muddy tracks deeper into Shadowlands territory. 

With no conversation on offer and nothing but the dizzying parade of black tree trunks to look at, my mind tortured me for endless hours. 

This had been such a reckless decision. Pure venomous frustration had driven me to storm into his dressing room whilst he bathed. 

I gripped Zeke’s soaked body closer, shutting my eyes while my mind replayed my downfall in brutally clear detail as a dull soggy dawn rose to greet me.

Before ripping Beta Patrick’s eye out my family had explained how Phillipe was behind everything. The murder of his own parents, all those killings at our Ceremony. 

Something in me, driven by my terrified wolf, urged me not to believe them. To trust our blue-eyed soulmate. His kind actions and gentle kisses could never be behind such plotting. The man who whispered "Freya, my princess, my darling," and made me melt in his strong, wiry arms could never hurt someone.

My wolf, Livi begged and whined for me to dismiss these rumours and head back home to safety. 

Except my serious, solemn family had a few more truths to unload. Apparently mass murder wasn't enough of a teatime bombshell to drop. 

My brother Nikolai reappeared from the fucking dead for a start. He and his mate Genevieve had been in hiding for weeks. I'd wept at his funeral! The secrets, the lies, the way my parents constantly treated me as a simpleton was maddening.

Even that wasn't enough. Like a boxer on his last legs, I struggled to remain standing as they suckerpunched me with devastating knowledge, over and over. Plots, lies and murder all rolling towards me like an avalanche threatening to send me under. 

Finally they broke my heart. My handsome, clever Phillipe has two wolves within him. 

I always knew that part about him. 

His blue-eyed wolf, Asgard, is tethered to my soul and perfect in every way. When he looks at me with those sky blue eyes shining the whole world drops away. So adoring, so considerate.

When my mother shakily told me that he had another woman my vision went blurry with pain. Phillipe’s other wolf, the one colouring his iris in the brightest purple, is tied to some other woman. Not even a sordid, sidepiece affair. A second mate. 

An earthquake perceptible only to myself rocked my body. I had to get out of that dining room, I couldn’t breathe, move or think as the world I thought I knew shattered like glass. All those eyes on me, pitying me, worrying how I would cope.

Shards of bitter knowledge piercing my heart. Slowly, painfully I realise that this whole war is for her. 

His time is split between the two of us, but seeing as he leaves me for weeks at a time I now know how his heart is divided.

Some witch named Ruth. I am second place to a fucking villager from over the mountains. Zeke flinches as I realise my lupine claws have emerged and dug into him. I try to relax, but the embarrassment leaves me shaking. 

All this time I thought I was his world. We have been mated for years and this is how I am treated!

If he was burning the world down for me, changing the face of our nation for my love I would probably still be at home and trying to get my head around the body count. 

But he’s doing it for her. This witch of his.