The day my prenatal test results came back, Cassiano Moretti scheduled a procedure for me. I thought he had booked an appointment with an obstetric specialist.   He corrected me. "It's an abortion. I scheduled it for Wednesday morning."   I looked at him, waiting for an explanation. None came.   "Elena is pregnant. She's four months along. She doesn't want anything from me. She doesn't expect me to make our relationship official, and she doesn't want a house in town. She's been so understanding that I promised her child would be my only heir."   I touched the wedding band on my ring finger. After seven years, it had left a faint ring mark on my skin.   "So my baby has to die?"   He adjusted the collar of my coat with the same tenderness he had shown every time he saw me out. "You can adopt Elena's baby. Nothing about your position will change. You'll raise the child, and no one outside the family will have anything to gossip about. That's fair."   Fair, he called it. With that one word, he decided my unborn child should die.   I lowered my eyes to the ring mark, unable to believe any of this was real. He took my silence for agreement.   What he didn't know was that the family attorney had come to me in secret the week before. Dominic Moretti's will stated that only a child of my blood could inherit everything that came with the Moretti name.   I slipped off my wedding band with barely a movement. Cassiano didn't even turn around.

Everyone whispered I was Alpha Arthur's dirtiest little secret, a shadowed plaything he would never dare flaunt. I had no inner wolf, could not catch a whiff of a mate scent, and could not even shift. A defective, worthless piece of trash. What they did not know was that I used to be the one and only Alpha Queen this continent had ever known. Bored senseless by the dreary work of keeping the peace, I decided to disguise myself as a weak, useless scrap of nothing, mooching meals and lazing around Arthur's territory without a care in the world. Even if he treated me like a piece of furniture, I was more than happy to play along. Until the day seven Rogue pack leaders surrounded the territory. The enemy Alpha had shattered Arthur's legs, forcing him onto his knees in the dirt. He pressed the point of a silver dagger right against Arthur's throat. "Hand over your Alpha Mark," he snarled, "or die." Then the enemy Alpha's gaze slid over me, and a savage grin split his face. "This little piece of trash does not look half bad. Once you are dead, I will have my fun with her." I looked at Arthur, soaked in blood from head to toe, and let out a sigh. Damn it. I had finally found an Alpha who never asked prying questions, who just fed me and put a roof over my head. In the split second before that dagger slashed down, I unclasped the collar around my neck. The Alpha Queen's aura, suppressed and sealed away for a hundred years, exploded across the entire continent in a single, violent wave. All seven leaders were slammed to their knees at once, bodies quaking with terror. I snapped open the long-dormant Mind Link. "All Alphas of the nearby packs, hear the Alpha Queen's command. You have thirty minutes. Get to Silver Moon territory right now, and pass judgment on these seven Rogues."

Three days out from the Red Moon Sacrifice, Lucas Halemoor, the Silver Moon Wolf King and my supposed fated mate, dropped a total bombshell: he was calling off our engagement. When he left my communication wolf token on read for the 99th straight time, my snobby stepsister Bella Fairveil blew up my inbox with sneering, catty messages. Bella: Three hundred whole pounds? Lucas would hurl the second he so much as glances at you! Bella: Rumor has it he's found a forbidden ritual to break the fated mate bond. Bella: Hey, how about I hook you up with that maniac Victor Grimfang from the Blood Wolf Clan?  I'd dealt with a brutal bloodline depletion disorder since I was a kid, and I had to take Moonrest pills just to stay alive. The drug made my weight balloon steadily over the years, but I'd always been comfortable in my own skin and never let their judgment make me feel small. But in my past life, those monsters didn't just mock me nonstop. They tortured me until I drew my last breath. But this time? I got a do-over. I'd successfully awakened the pure blood Luna lineage after my rebirth, and my bloodline depletion disorder had been cured for good the second the power woke up in me. I didn't need to take Moonrest pills anymore, and my body slowly reshaped itself into the stunning form my pure bloodline was always meant to have. The me standing here now was nothing like the Nora Fairveil they remembered. I stared down at the pure blood contract in my hand, the very document that symbolized the Wolf King's throne. I fired back a reply to Bella without skipping a beat. Nora: Sounds perfect. I'll marry Victor Grimfang instead.

With our Luna Ceremony only 3 days away, Lucian Foster told me there was trouble in the Northern Territory and that he had to handle it himself.   The scout I had planted at his side told me every detail of his fake-death scheme.   He bowed his head. "We discovered that Octavia Pierce is terminally ill and only has a year left, so..."   My eyes burned. "So he wants to spend his former lover's final year with her."   The scout nodded. "He believes that because he marked you, no other wolf will ever be able to mark you. That's why he thinks he can get away with this."   I gave a cold laugh, raised the silver blade, and cut the mark from the back of my neck.   When Lucian saw me again, he almost didn't recognize me.   "Where are your pheromones? Why can't I smell them anymore?!"   Before I could answer, my Alpha husband appeared behind me. Tall and powerful, he placed a warm, protective hand at my waist.   "Why are you so interested in my mate's scent?"