By the time I arrived, the Alpha’s castle pulsed with noise, murmurs, whispers, restless feet shifting across stone. My chest throbbed, that damn pull inside me dragging harder than ever, clawing at my insides like it wanted to rip me open.

My mate. He was here.

I pressed myself deeper into the shadows, though every nerve begged me to move forward.

“What went wrong?” a man muttered ahead.

“The lights—did you see that?” a woman whispered.

“What happened?” another voice echoed.

They didn’t know. But I did. It was me. The moment I crossed the castle’s boundary, lanterns cracked and died, plunging the entire place into darkness. A violent gust cut across the grounds, snapping banners from their posts. Only the moonlight remained, silvery and merciless, painting the world in its glow.

“Apologies for the disruption,” Beta Reece’s calm voice carried from the podium. His tone had the weight of command, soothing the crowd. “It’s a minor issue. All is well.”

The whispers ebbed, some nodding in trust. But my body wouldn’t calm. My skin burned. My bones vibrated with something dangerous, something hungry.

The lanterns flickered back to life.

And then I saw Sasha draped in lace and silver, her outfit different than when they left the house, the veil shrouding her face like a ghost bride.

I swallowed hard, slightly wetting my lips when the air shifted. A silence dropped so heavy, it smothered every sound. And then a man stepped forward.

It was him, Alpha Zade.

From a distance, I watched him ascend the dais. His presence was a storm contained in flesh, pulling everything into orbit. My lungs constricted. My heart slammed painfully against my ribs.

The mate bond slammed into me like a spear.

“No,” I whispered, clutching my stomach. “No… not him. Not Alpha Zade.”

The words didn’t change the truth. My hands shook. My legs turned to stone. This couldn’t be real. He was my mate?

The wind howled through the trees, rattling leaves like dry bones. The air itself bent under his presence, charged and alive.

Beta Reece raised his arms. “Tonight, we bear witness. Tonight, Alpha Zade claims his Luna.”

The crowd murmured in reverence, making my ears ring, almost to the point of bleeding.

“Stop,” I begged under my breath, nails digging into my palms. “Don’t do this. Please.”

Alpha Zade’s blade flashed, piercing his fingertip. Blood welled, it was so dark and solemn.

“You can stop them.”

A whisper ripped through my mind, and I couldn't pin point where it came from. Neither was it my voice, nor did it sound familiar.

Panic bolted through me. My heart battered against my chest as he lowered his bleeding hand toward Sasha’s bowed head.

And then the world fractured, making everything still completely. Birds hung frozen mid-flight, their wings suspended. The leaves halted mid-sway. Even the air held its breath.

“Wha…what’s happening?” My body jerked forward without consent.

“No…stop! I don’t want this!” My lips screamed the words, but my legs betrayed me, moving toward the dais.

Sasha’s eyes widened beneath the veil. “What are you—”

I seized her arms. She struggled, but my strength wasn’t mine. Everyone else remained fixed in place, almost as if they had froze in time and my body moved like a puppet under strings.

“No….don’t touch me…” she shrieked, but her voice vanished in the silence.

Her veil slipped away as my hands stripped the gown from her trembling form, then sliding it over my shoulders with mercilessness. My chest heaved in horror, I had never felt like this in my entire existence.

“No! Please, stop!” I screamed, but my mouth didn’t move. My body betrayed me, covering myself in her place.

Then I walked back to the altar, with steady steps, and the veil lowered.

Time snapped forward yet again. The birds screamed into flight. The wind howled again. The crowd blinked as if nothing had happened. In fact, they didn't know anything had happened at all.

What had I done?

“By decree,” Beta Reece intoned, “Alpha Zade claims his mate and Luna, as written in the Packbook, page forty-one, verse twenty-two.”

Alpha Zade’s bloodied hand touched my hairline. I felt every colliding reaction, from cold, to warm, to being utterly terrified.

Then, he lifted the veil.

For one breathless moment, silence reigned, when suddenly, it was followed by chaos. Gasps tore through the air.

“An abomination!” someone shouted at the top of their voice.

“She’s not Sasha!”

“What is that?”

“Witchcraft!”

Fear spread like wildfire through my entire bloodstream. My body shook violently, every gaze stabbing into me like knives.

“She’s a witch!”

“Burn her!”

“Alpha…step back!”

“No…listen to me…please!” My voice cracked, coming out raw and broken. “I didn’t—I couldn’t—”

My throat was dry, parched as stone. How could I explain the unexplainable?

“Who the fuck are you?” His voice silenced them all, including me. My eyes snapped to him.

Alpha Zade.

His presence filled every inch of space, his gaze locking on mine like chains. Dirty-blonde hair tousled from the wind. Jawline sharp as steel. And those eyes—those green, impossible eyes.

The same eyes I’d seen on my seventeenth birthday. The night everything had changed.

My knees nearly buckled. “It’s you.”

His eyes flickered just slightly, I couldn't place then it was replaced with fury. It was so subtle that if I wasn't paying attention, I'd have said it was my imagination.

“Guards,” he growled, his voice cutting like a blade, “seize this filth and drag her to the dungeon.”

The crowd erupted in agreement, their roars drowning my pleas. Hands lunged from every side, rough, merciless.

“No—wait!” My scream broke through the air in desperation.

And for one shattering instant, before the guards reached me, his eyes lingered on mine, not just fury there, but something else. Something dangerous. Something that pulled me closer. Then rough hands closed around my arms, dragging me away as I screamed and thrashed.