WHEN THE MOON REMEMBERS

CHAPTER 1

LIRA'S POV

The water in the bucket had gone cold over an hour ago, but I kept scrubbing.

My knees ached against the rough stone. My hands hurt too, red, cracked, two knuckles split open from lye soap I hadn’t used before. If any maid happened to glance my way, she’d probably just see a new girl tired out by chores she didn’t know, clumsy with a stiff brush. Nobody would guess I was counting my breaths so I wouldn’t scream.

Three years. For three good years I trained in secret, learning how to fight, how to lie, and how to bury the girl I used to be so deeply that on some mornings I actually forgot her name. I ate stale bread in cold rooms while a woman I paid in silver and silence showed me how to break a man’s wrist before he grabbed his blade. All so I could end up here, kneeling in Alpha Darius Stormfang’s stronghold. The one place I swore I’d only come back to once— the night I made him pay.

Inside, the hall smelled like smoke and old stone, and underneath that, I could just catch a hint of the oil they used on the iron gates to keep them from rusting in the mist from the eastern hills. Guards walked by me like I was nothing at all. That was the plan. A servant girl like Wren, blending in, slipping into empty corners and coming out with secrets nobody meant to share.

I dipped the brush again, kept my eyes down. Boots echoed on stone.

Not just any boots. I knew that walk, even now. Steady. Heavy. Calm, like the man had never once needed to run from anything. Even in my nightmares, I remembered those steps.

Don't look up, I told myself. Keep your head down. But I looked.

He was taller than I remembered, broader too, like time had carved him into something more solid, more fierce and made for bearing weight. His dark hair was a little too long like he didn't care enough to fix it. There was a scar over his brow that hadn't been there before. I caught myself wondering how he got it, then shoved the thought aside. I told myself it didn't matter.

His eyes landed on me, just a glance, the sort anyone gives a servant, nothing special.

But he stopped walking.

My heart pounded so hard I thought the guards might hear it. He stopped just a few feet away, the air full of pine, leather, and something else I knew before I could name it. My wolf recognized him before my mind did, pressing up against my ribs, desperate to get out. If he really looked for more than a second, or if my disguise slipped just once, it would be over.

“You,” he said.

I dropped my gaze. “My lord.”

“New?”

“Yes, my lord.” My voice sounded steady, somehow. Inside I was eleven again, hiding under the steel-bright glare of the moon, watching his hand lift before the pack.

“What is your name?” he asked.

I forced myself to look up, because a servant afraid to meet her Alpha’s eyes would seem off, and anything strange got noticed around here.

“Wren, my lord.”

His face changed, but I couldn’t read it. Confused maybe, or maybe chasing a memory he couldn’t quite catch. His eyes narrowed, and for an awful second, I thought his wolf recognized something his mind had forgotten.

I froze.

Then a guard called to him, shouted something about a shipment that was overdue at the east gate, and the moment passed. Darius Stormfang turned away. I didn’t breathe again until he was arguing with his guard halfway down the hall.

My hands shook. I didn’t even feel like they belonged to me, but to the girl I used to be.

I’d imagined this moment a hundred times, in the years since my father died.. I pictured hating Darius so fully I’d feel nothing but relief when I saw him, imagining the cold certainty of sliding a blade into him and watching life leave his eyes in disbelief, just like with my father.

But this wasn’t like that at all. Instead, I felt sick and hollow. There was something else underneath my anger, a small, traitorous warmth that flickered under my ribs before I crushed it flat.

“Careful,” someone said behind me.

I turned. Water dripped from the brush in my hand. An older woman stood there, gray hair pulled so tight it looked painful, arms loaded with folded linens. Her eyes were too kind—dangerous, really. The kind of women that make you trust them, and I couldn’t afford trust.

“Careful with what?” I asked.

“With looking at him like that.” She put the linens down, knelt beside me, and started folding a rag she didn’t need to fold. “New girls always look at him that way, like he’s some puzzle. They want to see if they can solve him.” She smiled, but it was tired, shadowed by secrets. “Don’t fall for the Alpha, sweetheart. He’s haunted enough for a dozen ghosts.”

I made myself laugh. “I’m not falling for anyone.”

“Mm.” Clearly she didn’t believe me, she was a smart woman. “I’m Marta. I’ve been here longer than most of these stones. You need a friend here. Places like this eat lonely girls whole, and nobody ever has questions after.”

I watched her for a trap, but didn’t find one. I offered my hand. “Wren.”

“I know. I heard.” Marta’s gaze moved to the spot where Darius disappeared, his voice fading as he fought with the guard. “He doesn’t usually stop for new girls. Honestly, he barely stops for anyone. Walks through these halls like the walls owe him money.”

My stomach knotted.

“He was just curious,” I said, trying to sound light.

“Maybe.” Marta stood and brushed her skirts, studied me long enough to make my skin itch. “Or maybe you just remind him of something. He gets that look sometimes. Like he’s chasing a ghost that always slips away.”

I shrugged and forced a smile, as if nothing had changed, though my whole plan was nearly revealed before it even started.

That night I lay awake on my narrow cot, listening to someone else breathe steadily in the dark, hand pressed to the scar at my collarbone. I shook. I couldn’t help it.

He didn’t recognize me. Not yet.

But he’d felt something. Deep down, his wolf had known me, even through dirty water, a false name, three years of erasing myself.

And lying there in the dark with my heart hammering, I realized something terrifying, I wasn’t sure anymore whose survival I wanted.