RYKER

I don’t believe in the moon goddess.

I’m not saying she doesn’t exist. I’m just saying I don’t believe in her, the way some people don’t believe in luck even while they’re knocking on wood. But I had prayed to her twice in my life.

The first time I was a boy and I woke up from a dead sleep to the sound of my mother gasping, and I opened my eyes to her dying in my father’s arms with a knife buried in her stomach. She had run to me. That was the part that never left me. She had run through the whole house in the dark to get to me, to get away from the monster she was mated to, and I had been asleep like a useless child, and by the time my eyes were open there was nothing left to do but watch the light go out of her. I prayed then. Fast and silent and desperate, every word I knew, to a goddess I wasn’t even sure I believed in. It changed nothing. She died with her hand reaching for me and I have never forgiven myself for being asleep when it mattered.

The second time was today. I prayed that something, anything, would happen so Amaris would not be mated to my father.

And here is the thing.

The blood oath didn’t work. The bowl stayed red when it should have gone white. Darius stood up in front of the entire pack and announced she wasn’t a virgin and Amaris agreed to it, out loud, in front of three hundred wolves, for reasons I still could not work out no matter how many times I turned them over. Every single sign pointed to that mating falling apart on its own.

And about an hour ago the two of them walked out of his study, both frowning, and got mated by law anyway.

So tell me why the fuck I would ever believe in the moon goddess.

"What do you think he wants from us?"

Rowan’s voice pulled me back into the room. I looked around the boardroom. It was three in the morning and none of us had slept and we had all been hauled out of whatever we were doing and summoned here. By all I mean me, Rowan, Beta Marco, a handful of essential sentinels, the key council figures, the elders. Close to thirty people sat around that long table rubbing their eyes and pretending they weren’t half asleep, the atmosphere rigged with irritation that came from being woken in the dead of night with no explanation.

"I don’t know." I leaned back in my chair until it creaked. "But at least he kept you from fucking Lila tonight."

Rowan shot me a look. "She isn’t sleeping in my room. She’s in the guest room."

"Why." I raised an eyebrow. "Trouble in paradise?"

"We had an argument." He kept his eyes on the table in front of him, his thumb working a slow circle against the wood. "I told her I wasn’t sure I wanted to go ahead with the marriage."

I laughed under my breath. "You really are a dumb head. So because Father said he can’t trust your loyalty, you went and called it off. Brilliant timing, brother."

"If you must know." His jaw tightened. "I decided that before he said any of it."

"Bullshit." I turned to face him properly. "The thought crawled in the second you found out he’s trying to breed himself a perfect heir and you’d never sit on that seat. That’s what did it. Admit it."

"And what’s wrong with wanting to be Alpha?" His voice dropped low and went sharp at the edges. "I was born to an Alpha. I have the genes for it. Why shouldn’t I want what I was made for?"

"Let’s not pretend." I tipped my head at him. "You spent your whole life polishing Father’s boots for that role. Following two steps behind him. Don’t dress it up as destiny now that he’s handed it to a child that doesn’t exist yet."

"I know you’re barely sober." Rowan turned back to the table and folded his hands flat. "So I’ll let that slide. You’re not thinking straight, and with Amaris getting mated to Dad, you’re livid. Anyone can see it."

I didn’t answer that, because there wasn’t a clean way to that didn’t prove him right, and Rowan knew it, which was why he let it sit there between us and went quiet.

The door opened and a cluster of nobles filed in, men I half recognised from neighbouring packs, dressed too well for three in the morning, taking the chairs along the far wall and murmuring to each other in low voices.

Rowan frowned. "Why do we need all these people?"

"Probably wants to show off his new Luna." I picked at a splinter on the edge of the table.

"At three in the morning?" He shook his head slowly. "No. Something’s wrong. He doesn’t pull the council out of bed to make introductions." His eyes moved across the room and came back. "Have you seen Cole? I’ve been looking for him since the ceremony ended."

I scanned the table out of habit, counting faces. No Cole. "No. Haven’t seen him."

"He’s been strange lately." Rowan leaned in, dropping his voice so the elders nearest us couldn’t catch it. "Disappearing at odd hours. Gone for whole stretches of the day with no explanation. And Nia’s still missing."

"I thought you lot said she went on one of her trips." I rubbed both hands down my face, trying to push some of the whiskey out of my skull before whatever was coming arrived.

"That’s what I assumed." Rowan glanced sideways at me. "Until I went into her room this evening. Everything was still there. Her clothes, her things, all of it sitting exactly where she keeps them. She didn’t pack for any trip."

I sat with that for a second longer than I wanted to. A cold glaze moved through the haze in my head. "She isn’t on a trip. I’m going to look for her first thing in the morning."

"I’ll come with you." Rowan straightened in his chair. "But we need to find Cole before anything else. There’s a competition coming up for the Commander role and he’s the best fit we have. I’m backing him for it."

"Up against who."

"A sentinel. Baron."

"Baron." I snorted. "He’s all shoulders and no head. Cole would take him apart before the man finished his stance."

"Then help me find Cole and we won’t have to find out."

I opened my mouth to say something else about Baron when the door opened again, and Amaris walked in.

The whole room went silent.