SYNOPSIS:I spent my whole life being told my wolf was weak and was always mocked for it. I believed it, right up until the moment a prince's hand brushed mine and the whole court realized what I was to him. And he still chose to humiliate me for it. They called it mercy when he offered to take me in, I called it an insult. So I refused in front of everyone, and raised my hand on a man no one dared touch. They banished me for it, they said I was disrespectful, a disgrace to my rank. I had to leave my Father and best friend for their safety. Two years alone, moving from territories to territories taught me things I never got to learn on my own in Ashenfall. Like how to survive with almost nothing, how to make poison – it was my means of survival since my wolf could barely do anything. I never expected a second mate bond while wandering as a rogue, talking more of the Supreme Alpha ofNightfall Sanctuary to look at me like I was worth keeping. I refused him too at first, but becoming his Luna made me learn the truth my whole life was built on — that my wolf was never weak, but it was stolen from me, by people who feared what I could become and that my mother's murder wasn't the accident everyone claimed. CHARACTERIZATIONRHYANNE ELRIC - Female Lead, 20She is sharp-tongued and bold even when it costs her. Years of being underestimated is what taught her to talk back instead of shrink. She is physically unremarkable by pack standards. Growing up serving in Cassian's court after her mother's death, she was raised mostly by her father and Fenna. She trained in poison-craft out of necessity during her two years surviving alone after being banished from Ashenfall. She believed her wolf was simply weak her whole life, but the truth – that it was suppressed at birth– rattled the one thing she thought she understood about herself. Arc: from someone who survives by being underestimated to someone who has to decide to reclaim power she never knew was stolen.DRAVEN KAELVOR - Supreme Alpha/Male lead, 23He's terse, possessive without being performative about it. Took Rhyanne in on instinct despite her initial refusal, he earned her trust slowly by never pushing. Arc: he goes from guarded and closed-off to someone who has to actively fight for her, publicly, against his own court.KAELEN ELRIC - Rhyanne’s fatherHe is a quiet and protective man, the one constant softness in Rhyanne's early life. He knew more than he ever told her about her mother's death.MAREN ELRIC - MotherDied fighting off an attempt to seize infant Rhyanne, whose power was seen as a threat to royal dominance, her death is the emotional root of the whole mystery.FENNA - Rhyanne's best friendThe only person who was ever kind to Rhyanne there after her father. Keeps in contact by letter for two years before it suddenly stopped.