Chapter 3

Instantly, his expression softened.

Evelyn stopped before me, carrying two goblets of spiced wine. "I know I have wronged Selene," she said, her voice trembling. "I truly do." She lifted one goblet and drained it in a single swallow before setting the second before me. "I never wished for things to end this way."

A tear slid down her cheek.

"I only ever wanted the pack to be whole again." She bit her lip. "I have carried this guilt for eight years. Please..." Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "Can you find it in you to forgive me?"

The entire hall watched, waiting, staring at me as though I were the villain of this tale. As though I were the cruel one. As though I were meant to comfort the very wolf whose lies had unmade my life.

Slowly, I lowered my gaze to the goblet.

Before I could speak, voices rose around me at once.

"What is wrong with her? Marga has apologized so sincerely, all but begged for forgiveness. What more does Selene want from her?"

Another voice scoffed. "We didn't gather tonight to watch Marga be tormented."

"Just so. Marga stood beside Lucien for three long years and never once minded what the pack whispered about her. And this is the thanks she receives?"

Their voices swelled louder with each word, painting me as the unreasonable one, the wolf who refused to honor Evelyn's generosity. I lowered my eyes and held my tongue.

Across from me, Evelyn bit her lip and looked ready to weep. Lucien glanced her way before turning back to me, his jaw tightening.

At last he reached over and took the goblet from Evelyn's hand. Without a word, he held it before me.

"Selene," he said, his voice low, calm, and unmistakably dangerous, "behave. Don't make more of a spectacle than there already is."

I nearly laughed. A spectacle? Who exactly was making a spectacle here? Me, or the she-wolf who had ruined my life and now performed innocence before an audience?

When I still did not take the goblet, Lucien leaned closer, his breath brushing my ear.

"You haven't seen your grandfather in years."

My body froze at once. Lucien noticed, and a flicker of satisfaction crossed his eyes.

"Drink it," he said, his tone gentling slightly. "Be good for me, Liv."

Then came the threat, hidden beneath the softness.

"Drink this, and I will personally take you to see him after."

My throat tightened. Grandfather was the only kin I had left in this world, the only soul who still mattered to me. For a long moment I stared at the dark wine swaying inside the goblet, a metallic taste rising in my throat, but I did not hesitate further. I took the goblet from his hand and drank it to the last drop.

The tension in the hall eased at once. Conversation resumed. Laughter returned. Everyone looked pleased, as though I had finally learned obedience well enough to satisfy them.

At that moment, Lucien shelled a river-crab for Evelyn and set it upon her plate. Evelyn smiled sweetly, then lifted the plate and carried it toward me herself. Without a word, she held a piece of the shelled crab before my face.

"Selene," she said warmly, "since we are friends again, take a bite. This was brought all the way from the coastal packs. It cost a small fortune."

I stared at the crab meat. For a moment I truly believed I was imagining things.

Lucien knew. He knew that shellfish had always been poison to my blood. Years ago, when we were newly courting, I had nearly died after unknowingly eating crab at a gathering of the border packs. He had sat beside my sickbed for three days and nights without sleep. He knew every dish that could harm me. He used to strip such things from every plate before it ever reached my hands.

Yet now he sat watching Evelyn offer it to me himself.

I nearly laughed. Had he forgotten? Or had he simply ceased to care?

When I did not move, his expression darkened. "If you will not eat it, I will put it in your mouth myself," he said coldly.

The hall fell silent at once.

Evelyn stepped forward, murmuring, "Lucien, don't be angry. Selene, I only want us to be friends again. That is all I have ever wanted." Before I could react, she pressed the crab meat closer.

My whole body went rigid as a memory surfaced unbidden. In the shadow cells, other prisoners had once laughed while one of them ground shellfish into my food, knowing full well what it would do to me. I remembered the suffocating pain that followed, the healer's frantic hands, the six days I lay confined to a sickbed, blood pooling beneath my skin until they nearly cut me open to save me.

Lucien knew all of this. He had received word of it himself. He knew exactly what such food would do to my body.

And still, neither he nor Evelyn relented.

The crab touched my lips. I tried, instinctively, to turn away.

"Try to spit it out," Lucien said quietly, his eyes fixed on mine, "and your grandfather will spend the rest of the year alone. Don't test my patience, Selene."

My body went rigid. Evelyn offered a sorrowful smile, as though she were the wronged party. "Selene, please. I am trying so hard to mend what is broken between us."

I looked at the crab meat, then at Lucien, then at Evelyn. Slowly, I opened my mouth.

Evelyn pushed it inside at once.

The hall relaxed visibly. Several guests even smiled, as though they had witnessed a tender reconciliation rather than a humiliation. I chewed, swallowed, and sat in silence.

"There," Evelyn said happily. "See? We are friends once more. I knew you would forgive me in time."

Laughter rippled through the hall. Evelyn went on filling my plate with crab while Lucien shelled more of it for her, never once stopping her. Instead he calmly cracked shell after shell and set each piece before me.

"Eat," Lucien commanded. "Marga prepared this feast for you herself. Don't let her labor go to waste."

So I ate. One piece after another vanished from my plate, each bite like swallowing shards of glass. No one noticed. Or perhaps no one cared. Least of all Lucien, whose attention remained fixed entirely on Evelyn.

"Eat more," he told her gently, laying another piece upon her plate. "You've barely touched your food all day. You'll fall ill if you keep neglecting yourself."

Evelyn smiled shyly. "Thank you, Lucien. You always take such care of me."

The tenderness in his voice had once belonged to me. Now it belonged to another.

My stomach began to twist violently. The pain was familiar, sharp, burning, dangerous. Sweat dampened my back as the hall slowly began to spin around me.

Across the table, Evelyn was still smiling. "Selene, let us eat together," she said, lifting another piece toward me. "After tonight, we leave all of this behind us."

I looked at the food and felt my stomach lurch. Something surged up my throat. My breath caught, and a sharp pain tore through my chest.

I coughed.

Blood burst from my mouth, splattering bright red across the white linen.

The entire hall froze. Someone screamed. Benches scraped violently against stone. Evelyn's face drained of all color.

Lucien moved instantly, without hesitation, stepping in front of Evelyn so that the blood struck his tunic instead of her gown.

His first instinct had always been to shield her.

Not me.

Never me.

That was my last thought before the darkness took everything.

My body collapsed backward, and the final sound I heard before the dark closed over me was someone crying out my name.

"Selene!"