The last bloodline

The first thing I noticed was the chandelier, hanging above me like a frozen galaxy, hundreds of crystal pieces scattering the gold light across walls that had stood here since before anyone in this room was born. I stood underneath it longer than I meant to, just looking. The hall itself was ancient, stone pillars carved with wolves and moons and kings who'd been dead for centuries, but tonight someone had dressed it up into something closer to a billionaire's idea of a palace. Crystal chandeliers, black-and-gold tables buried under flowers and silver, waiters weaving champagne trays between guests while music drifted somewhere underneath all the noise. And the guests. God, there were so many of them: Alphas, Betas, pack leaders, council members, the kind of people whose faces showed up in the business section and on the evening news, people who owned skyscrapers and private islands and hotel chains, all of them dressed like they'd stepped straight out of a magazine spread. I looked down at my dress. Simple, next to most of what was in the room, a long silver gown that hugged close before falling loose to the floor, but I'd picked it carefully. My hair was pinned back, a few strands loose around my face on purpose. Tonight was supposed to be the best night of my life. Tonight I was supposed to become Ryan's Luna, and just thinking his name did something warm and stupid to my chest. I looked for him across the hall and didn't find him. Backstage, probably, with his family, getting ready for the announcement. The clock above the entrance said we had less than ten minutes. I took a breath and told myself not to be nervous, that everything was fine, that it had to be. I'd spent years imagining this night, and not because I liked the idea of an expensive dress in front of important people. I'd imagined it because it meant finally being proven wrong. I'd been the girl people whispered about since I was a kid. The girl without a wolf. Every werewolf was born with one, it was supposed to be part of you, your instincts, your strength, who you were, and it came in sometime during adolescence, earlier for the strong bloodlines. Mine never came. Not after the healers, not after the rituals, not after all the nights I closed my eyes and tried to call something out of myself that apparently wasn't there. Just silence. A werewolf with no wolf. A defect, people called it, when they were being polite. Tonight, for the first time, none of that had felt like it mattered. Because Ryan had chosen me anyway. Or I'd thought he had. "Kate." Mia's heels clicked fast across the marble before she reached me, breathless, gorgeous in dark emerald with her hair over one shoulder. "You disappeared." "I've been standing right here." "I know. Staring at that chandelier for five straight minutes." "Maybe I like chandeliers." "Or maybe you're terrified." "Is it that obvious?" "To me? Yes." She looped her arm through mine. "Relax. Tonight's going to be perfect." Perfect. The word sat strangely in my head as I looked around again, the stone walls, the money everywhere I turned, the powerful families, all those eyes. It did look perfect. Almost too perfect, in the way a held breath is too still. I waited for my wolf to stir, out of habit more than hope. Nothing happened, obviously. What had I expected, some sudden awakening, a voice in my head, a miracle on cue? I shook it off. I didn't need a wolf tonight. I needed Ryan. The lights dropped. Conversation died across the room, and every face turned toward the platform. My heart started slamming against my ribs. Mia squeezed my arm. "Here we go." The doors behind the platform opened and Ryan walked in, devastating in a black suit that had clearly been made for him and nothing else, hair swept back, shoulders straight, face giving away nothing. My fiancé. My future husband. The man I'd loved for years, and I was already smiling before I noticed the woman walking in beside him. The smile didn't survive. She was stunning, tall, composed, blonde hair falling in waves, a crimson dress that looked engineered to pull every eye in the room toward her. But that wasn't what turned my blood cold. It was how Ryan was looking at her. Not like a stranger. Not like an acquaintance he happened to be Alpha of. Like she was the only person in the building. "Kate," Mia started, and I couldn't answer her. They kept walking toward the platform together, and the whispers started low and kept climbing. I stared at Ryan, waiting for him to find me in the crowd. He didn't. Not once. He stopped at the center of the platform, the woman beside him, and something in my chest understood before the rest of me caught up: this wasn't my engagement party. Maybe it never had been. Then he looked at me. Across the whole hall, our eyes met, and there was nothing in his, no warmth, no love, not even regret. Just something cold and decided. "Ryan?" My voice came out smaller than I meant it to. He picked up the microphone. The room went silent. "Everyone, thank you for coming tonight." I waited for him to smile, to cross the room, to say my name the way he was supposed to. Instead he turned to the woman and took her hand. "I know there have been expectations surrounding my engagement to Kate." A murmur went through the crowd. I couldn't get a breath in. His fingers tightened around her hand. "Those expectations end tonight." The floor felt like it tilted under me. He looked right at me. "I cannot marry Kate." Someone gasped somewhere to my left. "I've chosen someone else." She stepped closer to him, and when she smiled at me, I understood she'd been waiting for exactly this, for the whole room to watch me fall apart. I stood under that ridiculous chandelier, surrounded by every powerful werewolf family in the North, and felt every bit of hope I'd walked in with come apart at once. My engagement had turned into my public humiliation. And the worst part was, I still loved him.