Chapter 1
Before Alpha Dorian died, he laid down a rule: on every full moon, I alone could enter the Moon Temple.
I measured out the Moonbinding incense ash–the blessed ash left after the ritual burn that keeps a mate alive–and slipped it into the
small reliquary box.
It was the only thing still keeping Atticus alive.
I hadn’t finished when shouting erupted at the temple doors.
Anya Wetherell burst in, one hand pressed to her belly.
Tears glazed her eyes as she dropped to her knees at my feet. “Luna, please, spare me and my pup. Even if you and the Alpha split, you can still find another mate, but if my child is born without a father, the pack will brand the pup an outcast.”
I closed my eyes, murmured a prayer, and refused to indulge her.
Every time she put on this helpless act, Atticus took her side without fail.
Sure enough, a roar thundered from the rear hall.
“Seraphina! Anya was right. You’re hiding behind the Luna title and making her grovel. Who gave you the right to lord it over everyone in here?”
Atticus’s gaze was glacial, the set of his face cut like ice.
I looked past him at the warriors hunched in the doorway, heads ducked. “Why didn’t you stop her?” I snapped. “Are you just drawing a paycheck for nothing?”
“My
Nightfall Pack warriors don’t take orders from you,” Atticus shot back, fury roughening his voice.
He strode forward and helped Anya to her feet. “Anya, you
do
have to be afraid of her.”
His fingertips brushed away her tears as if he were handling a priceless relic.
I clenched my jaw and looked away. To hide the twist of pain under my ribs, I steadied my hands and kept working with the ash in the
box.
The moment I closed the lid, a hand slapped the box from my grip.
It crashed to the floor, and ash scattered everywhere, the grit stinging my eyes.
“All you ever handle is this stuff–ash, incense–everything stinks of the grave,” he said.
Then Atticus’s gaze snagged on the memorial plaque with his name on it. In that instant, his eyes turned sharp as a blade.
He seized my throat and growled, low and cold, “Seraphina, how badly do you want me dead–that you would set up a memorial to me in the Moon Temple?”
I let out a bitter breath. So he had found it at last.
Eight years ago, a car wreck left Atticus shattered, his wolf down to a faint thread of breath.
My mother was witchblood; she had once created Moonbinding incense that could keep a life going that should have gone out.
The Elders of Nightfall Pack begged me to save him.
I agreed. In the Moon Temple I set a memorial plaque with his name on the remembrance wall, to draw the moon’s light and feed what
remained of his soul.
From then on, every full moon I had to swap in a fresh measure of Moonbinding incense ash to keep his last spark going.
By day, I stayed at his side and used Moonbinding incense to keep his tailing body going.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The rule was simple: during the keeping period, the one being kept alive must never know.
So when he demanded answers, I kept my silence.
Anya’s eyes flickered as if a thought had landed.
In a timid voice, she said, “I heard the witchblood have a forbidden rite that curses someone by doing exactly this.”
