My Twin Stole My Scent, But She Couldn't Fool My Alpha

My twin sister murdered me, stole my scent, and took my place in my husband's bed. Father sealed the silver mine himself. Mother pressed a cup of wolfsbane-laced wine to my lips. Vera crouched nearby, changing into my clothes and rubbing her entire body with an herbal oil that suppressed her natural scent. We were twins. Our faces, voices, and natural scents had always been similar. If she masked her own scent and wore my clothes, few people could tell us apart. Now she sat at the edge of my bed in my nightgown, waiting for my husband to return from war. When Kane opened the door, frost from the Northern Reach still clung to his armor. In the two months since I had last seen him, he had gained a fresh scar over one brow, and the coppery reek of battle still hung beneath his black cloak. Vera rose and deliberately softened her voice. "Welcome home, my Alpha." She had practiced well. I was always afraid of angering people, so my voice tended to fade at the end of every sentence. Vera used to despise that timidity. Now she imitated it perfectly. Kane did not embrace her. He stood two paces away and studied her for a long moment. "You changed your scent?" Vera's fingers curled into her skirt, but she quickly smiled. "I spent a few days in Moonridge. Perhaps the scent of pine followed me home." "That isn't pine." Kane leaned toward her neck. In the candlelight, his golden wolf eyes narrowed to slits. "It's too sweet." I floated between them, almost forgetting I no longer breathed. The herbal oil could conceal a scent, but it could not hide the bitterness in my blood. It came from the medicine I had taken every month since I was twelve to suppress my wolf. Kane had never asked where that bitterness came from. I had always assumed he did not care. Vera tipped up her face in my usual obedient manner. "If you don't like it, I'll change it back tomorrow." Kane lifted her chin. His thumb moved slowly across the corner of her mouth. Vera blushed, convinced she had fooled him, and rose onto her toes to kiss him. He released her before she could get close. "Bathe first." Disappointment flashed through her eyes, but she obediently helped him out of his cloak. She did not know that whenever Kane returned from battle, I placed my hand in his and waited for his wolf to confirm my warmth. He claimed it was merely a lord inspecting what belonged to him, yet without that ritual, he could not sleep through the night. Three years ago, Kane wiped out five packs that had taken part in his parents' murder. Begging for mercy, Father offered him Vera, who had originally been promised to him. Terrified that Kane would tear her apart, Vera refused. So my parents dragged me from the hunting lodge where they had hidden me, scrubbed me clean, and taught me to marry him under my sister's name. Moonridge believed twin daughters brought disaster upon a clan. I had been too quiet when I was born, so Father declared me the cursed one. If Mara, an elderly maid, had not risked her life to protect me, I would have been drowned beneath the frozen lake. Before I married Kane, I had no surname and no place in the family records. Mara secretly named me Lyla when moonlight spilled into the hunting lodge. Then Vera discovered that I had not only survived, but was about to be recognized as Luna by all seven clans. She decided everything I had should have been hers. Kane headed for the bathing room, but he faltered beside the bed. His gaze fell to Vera's right hand, hanging at her side, and his eyes darkened. A silver burn scar crossed my right palm. During the second year of our marriage, an assassin thrust a silver blade at Kane's back. I caught it in my bare hand, and the wound had never healed. Vera had copied my face, my voice, and my scent. She had forgotten only one thing: the scar on my palm. I chased after Kane and shouted at his back again and again. "Turn around and look at her. Kane, she isn't me!" But a spirit severed from its body had no voice. Every cry dissolved into the steam. Just before the bathing-room door closed, I heard him issue a quiet order to the guard. "Send for Theo. Don't alert anyone."