Chapter 1
The mock hunt finally wrapped.
Sienna's cheeks were flushed pink,aroused, reverent. She gazed at Ryan with worship written all over her face.
"Ryan, your wolf is so strong. Hunting under the moon with you,it makes me tremble."
Ryan sat on the stone bench beside the altar, the picture of composure. But I could feel it under his skin: the tight, electric thrum of his wolf, riled up and ready.
In the six months they'd been streaming together on WolfStream, I'd seen that look more times than I could stand.
The live chat was scrolling like a slot machine.
[Y'all sure this is a sacred ritual? Cuz it kinda looks like you're rehearsing for a Mating Ceremony lol]
[hahaha we got the useless wife Beta, the cool collected Warrior, and the future Luna flexing in real time]
[wtf is that loser Freya just standing there for? get out of the shot already!! Ryan and Sienna's wolf-souls are practically braided together!!]
[the stupid b***h was quiet for a few days and now she's trying to scare Ryan with a FAKE Council scroll? girl, go beg the Elders for a real seal then we'll talk]
Sienna looked over at me. For half a second, the victor's smirk slipped through.
"Freya, sis,they're just joking. Don't take it to heart."
She tilted her head, all earnest sweetness. "Ryan and I stream the rituals together for the pack's glory. And the revenue. You know that."
Ryan's brow knitted into a small, pious frown. He spoke to Sienna in the gentle, condescending voice a Warrior uses on a wounded pup.
"You don't owe Freya any explanation. Our wolf-souls are clean. She's the one with the small, ugly heart,jealous of her own sister. Stupid and mean-spirited, both."
I almost laughed in his face.
Clean.
Once upon a time, I'd been Ryan's number-one fan.
Back then he was nobody. A low-ranked Gamma at the training camp, slipping through drills unnoticed. I fell for him anyway,hopelessly, stupidly. The first time I saw him shift, the way his fur came in soft and ash-gray under the moon, I was done.
I didn't just accept him. I funded his rise. I dipped into the inheritance my parents left me to bankroll his climb.
And when the Moon Goddess herself bore witness, we sealed the Mate Bond.
I knew Ryan craved glory, so I went into the human world and took a corporate job. I carried every bill,rent, gear, dues,so he could throw himself into training without worrying about money.
And he worked. He earned it. He climbed all the way to Beta Warrior, with the pack's respect at his heels.
He'd been tender with me too, in those early years. He'd warm the bed for me on the coldest winter nights. When he came back from patrol bloody and torn, he'd let me lick his wounds, and he'd lick mine.
Then Sienna moved into our territory.
At first, it was just sparring footage. A few showcase reels for the pack's image, nothing more.
But the streams blew up. The numbers climbed past anything Ryan had ever pulled solo.
The reason was obvious. On camera, Sienna kept calling him brother-in-law—every other sentence, soft and lingering,and she had a habit of tilting her head just so, baring the long pale line of her throat. The single werewolves in the audience filled in the rest of the story for her.
Ryan needed those numbers. He was angling for the next Head Warrior slot, and views were currency. Sienna didn't object.
So I let it go. I told myself it was sparring footage. Just sparring footage.
Until they started in with the Tandem Hunt games.
"Brother-in-law, bite me,not so hard, my wolf gets scared…"
"Quick, quick,come save me, the prey's about to catch me!"
Every line Sienna delivered sat right on the edge of obscene. Like a she-wolf in heat begging to be courted.
Ryan would just smile. Indulgent. Murmuring, "Sienna, watch your words. Don't profane the Moon Goddess."
She never changed her words. He never made her.
I sat through stream after stream, watching the chat get filthier, the implications cruder, until the wolf inside me snarled. She wouldn't take the humiliation a second longer.
I told Sienna to get off Ryan's channel. Permanently.
Two years bonded,and that was the first time Ryan lost his temper in front of me. He smashed our moonstone, the one we'd anchored our Mate Bond with, against the wall.
"Freya, don't make a scene. Sienna and I are bringing in revenue for the pack. The numbers are sky-high right now. You want her gone? You want to torch my career?"
Sienna watched me, smiling.
"Sis, are you reading too much into this, like the viewers? That's just how I talk,my wolf is sensitive, it comes out in my voice. I swear on my soul, I don't feel anything for Ryan that even resembles a Mate's pull."
They were so righteous. So convinced. For a while, I almost believed I was the paranoid one.
Until the afternoon I came home from work early.
The water was running. They were in the bathroom together, grooming each other's fur in their half-shifted forms,and the things coming out of Sienna's mouth were the exact same lines she used on stream. Word for word. Same little catches in her breath.
And that was the time I caught them by accident.
There was no telling how many times they'd done it behind my back.
So I quietly filed the petition with the Council of Elders to dissolve the Mate Bond. I retained an attorney to walk through the asset split.
And I started building a file. Evidence,enough of it to get him banned from every pack network on the continent.
"Sis,what are you still standing there for? The viewers are getting annoyed with you. Ryan and I are hungry. Why don't you go fix us some raw cuts and Wolfheart Cake?"
Sienna chirped at me again.
I didn't bother answering. I crossed the floor, yanked the crystal cable out of the holographic feed, and looked at the two of them,at this matched pair of liars, traitors to the Moon herself,and I said, very evenly:
"This is my Den. Get the hell out."
