"Besides, a daughter of pureblood lineage will have to present herself at the Citadel sooner or later. If not me, it will be Briar."
Father let out a long sigh. His scent shifted, the old parchment and dried lavender growing heavier with worry.
The Alpha Supreme Heir was cold by nature. Nothing like Fenris, who knew how to charm. In my previous life, only Ravenna had set her sights on the Heir's inner circle. She had been singularly obsessed with becoming Luna Designate.
The Alpha Supreme was wary of the Heir forming alliances with powerful pack commanders. Fenris had to surrender his command of the Crimson Fang before Ravenna could be admitted to the Heir's court. To prove his loyalty and pave the way for her, Fenris had also handed over every last coin of the Vargr household's war-treasury, including my mating dowry.
The day we left Aurelia, Ravenna came to see us off in tears. She leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Rest easy in the borderlands, sister. I'll put your dowry to good use." That sour sweetness of overripe berries clung to her breath, and beneath it, something hollow.
My heart sank like a stone. So my dowry had never been surrendered to the Fang Throne. It had gone straight to Ravenna.
That was the first time I discovered Fenris had lied to me.
……
Father sent for the finest portrait painter in Aurelia to capture my likeness for the Luna Selection scroll. I had barely settled into my pose when Fenris came storming through the territory gates.
He spotted me, faltered mid-stride, and took a moment to compose himself before closing the distance. I caught his scent before he reached me: woodsmoke and hot iron and crushed juniper, and beneath it all that new acrid thread of decay he could not wash away, the rot that had crept in since I severed our bond. My wolf went still inside me, watchful and cold.
His expression was ice. "You don't think you owe me an explanation for this broken bond?"
I lifted my gaze to meet his. "I wanted it broken, so I broke it. What is there to explain?"
"Or does the great Alpha Commander intend to force a mating?"
In the past, I had been nothing but gentle and considerate in front of him. Never willful. Never a harsh word. Fenris's brow creased. "What's gotten into you?"
"Are you upset that I didn't write these past few moon cycles?"