“Move it!”

The guard barked at me, shoving me forward so hard I almost lost my balance. The chains cut into my wrists as they dragged me into the Great Hall.

I could barely stand. Three years in that cell—three years of starvation and darkness and pain—had hollowed me out until I was nothing but bones and scars. My legs buckled twice before we even reached the doors.

The guards didn't show pity. They just hauled me forward like I was already dead.

Maybe I was. I couldn’t tell anymore.

The Hall exploded with noise the moment we entered. Hundreds of wolves, all screaming for my blood. Their faces blurred together, as I recognized people who'd known me since I was a child. Now they wanted me dead.

"Murderer!"

"Monster!"

Something wet hit my face. Spit.

"Alessia Silvaris!" Alpha Marcus's voice boomed over the chaos. My uncle. He sat on the throne that was once my father’s, looking down at me like I was something he'd scraped off his boot. "You stand accused of murdering Alpha Daemon and Luna Elena Silvaris. Your own parents."

The words punched through my chest. My parents. Their faces flashed through my mind as fractured memories I couldn't piece together. Haunting images flipped through my mind. Blood on the walls. My mother's scream was cut short. The smell of death.

Chills crept down my skin as grief overwhelmed me.

"How do you plead?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it. What could I say? I didn't do it? I couldn't even remember what happened that night. Three years of asking myself over and over, trying to force the memories to come, and all I had were pieces. There was nothing solid enough to defend myself with.

"I—" My voice cracked. "I don't remember."

The Hall erupted in fury.

"Liar!"

"She's playing games!"

"Kill her now!"

Marcus raised his hand for silence. "The evidence is clear. You were found standing over their bodies, covered in their blood. You were the only one in the room."

"That doesn't mean—" I tried to retort, but he cut me off.

"You murdered them for power. For the Alpha title that was never yours to claim."

"No." The word came out desperate. "I would never—I loved them—"

"Then why can't you remember?" Marcus leaned forward, his eyes cold. "Convenient, isn't it? That your memory fails you only about the one night that matters."

I had no answer. Because he was right, but I wasn't lying. I loved my parents more than life itself. Tears burned through my eyes. If only I could remember. But the memories were just... gone. Locked away behind a wall of trauma I couldn't break through.

"Enough," a new voice said, cutting through the noise like a blade.

My heart sank when I realized who.

Kael stepped onto the platform, and the crowd fell silent. He was beautiful in the way predators are beautiful, with sharp edges and cold eyes. He looked nothing like the boy I'd been fated to.

My hand moved instinctively to my stomach, a protective gesture I couldn't suppress. Six weeks. That's how long I'd been carrying his child, and he wasn’t aware. Six weeks since that night when he came to my cell and raped me.

"Kael." His name escaped before I could stop it. "Please. You know I didn't—"

He didn't even look at me.

"Alpha Marcus, members of the pack," he said, his voice echoing across the Hall. "I stand before you to fulfill my duty to Silverpine. Three years ago, I believed Alessia Silvaris deserved mercy. I thought, perhaps, she could be redeemed." His blue eyes finally found mine, and they were empty. "I was wrong."

The floor tilted beneath me. I felt sick to my stomach.

"Therefore, I, Kael Ashford, future Alpha of Silverpine Pack—" He paused, and something flickered across his face. Regret? Guilt? It was gone too fast to tell. "—hereby reject you, Alessia Silvaris, as my mate."

Pain exploded through my chest.

It felt like dying. Like something vital inside me had been ripped to shreds. The mate bond I'd barely sensed, which had been muffled by my dormant wolf, by three years of trauma, suddenly flared bright and hot before shattering completely.

I hit the floor, grasping my chest as I struggled to breathe. I couldn't think past the agony splitting me apart from the inside out.

"Pathetic," a female voice cooed above me.

Through the haze of pain, I saw Sienna glide onto the platform. My cousin. She looked radiant in pale blue silk, a contrast to me, who was clad in dirt and blood-covered rags. Her hand was resting on her stomach and my breath caught in my throat when I realized.

She was pregnant too. With Kael's child.

"You can finally be rid of her," Sienna said, pressing against Kael's side. "She's been nothing but a burden ."

Kael's expression softened as he looked at her. He touched her face with a tenderness that made me want to scream. "Now, we can finally live as a family."

His eyes were trained on mine as he announced. "I, Kael Ashford, claim Sienna Silvaris as my chosen mate and future Luna of Silverpine Pack."

The crowd cheered. Celebrated. As if they hadn't just watched him destroy me.

"The verdict is clear," Marcus announced. "Alessia Silvaris, you are stripped of your pack bonds and banished from Silverpine territory. You have until sunset to cross our borders. Return, and you will be executed. That’s the only mercy you’ll be granted."

Mercy? A bitter laugh was lodged in my throat. I was weak, wolfless, and pregnant, and I was being thrown away to walk through rogue territory.

I'd be dead by morning.

The guards yanked me up. My legs wouldn't hold me, so they dragged me through the hall, past the crowd of people who'd once been my pack.

"Use your damn legs, mutt!" One guard shoved me hard enough that I stumbled and fell. My palms hit gravel, breaking through skin as my blood smeared across the floor.

The crowd laughed.

I forced myself back up. Took another step, then another. Because what else could I do? Lay down and die?

Maybe that would have been easier.

But the baby—Kael's baby, whether he wanted it or not—deserved a chance. Deserved better than dying in my womb before it even had a chance to live.

The pack gates loomed ahead. Beyond them, the forest stretched dark and endless.

As we approached, Sienna appeared beside me. She'd followed us, her face arranged in false sympathy.

She fell at my side and grabbed my arm, her claws digging painfully into my skin. "You should have died with them," she whispered, her breath hot against my ear. "Don't worry—I'll make sure Kael forgets you ever existed. I'll give him strong sons and beautiful daughters. Everything you never could."

She let go of me, and the guards threw me through the gates. I hit the ground hard, gravel biting into my skin. Behind me, the gates slammed shut with a finality that echoed through my bones.

For a moment, I just lay there. Face pressed into the dirt, my body screaming in pain, and my mind blank with fatigue. I was about to shut my eyes and let myself rest when I heard it.

Get up, something inside me whispered. Get up or you’ll die here.

I got up, barely. My legs shook so badly I could hardly walk. But I took one step forward, then another until I was making my way into the forest. If I were going to die, I’d rather die elsewhere than at the gates where I’d been dejected.

Each step left me breathless, my chest heaving as every bone in my body rattled. I held onto branches and leaned against tree barks when I needed to catch my breath.

I can do this, I told myself all over again.

Just as I leaned against the bark, the familiar sounds of snarls and growls reached my ears and every blood in my body froze to ice.

No, no, no.

But the five pairs of eyes inching closer to me was all the confirmation I needed.

Rogues.

They'd caught my scent.