KESLEY'S POV
“If you go, Silvermoon survives.”
“Father, please,” I choked out, pressing my palms against the cold marble. Tears blurred my vision as I looked up at him. “I am your blood. Your daughter. You cannot do this to me.”
Alpha Aaron didn’t even glance down.
To him, I wasn't a daughter. I was the wolfless mistake that had embarrassed his lineage since the day I was born.
“A daughter brings honor to her family and Pack,” he said, swirling the wine in his glass. “You bring nothing, Kesley. You are a disgrace.”
A soft laugh came from behind him. “Go easy on her, father.”
Alyssa stepped into my line of sight, her silk dress brushing against the floor. Jewels glittered around her neck and wrists. She looked exactly like the princess everyone loved.
I looked like what I had always been in this castle.
A servant wearing borrowed dignity.
“Oh, stop crying, sister.” She nudged my bruised shoulder with the tip of her shoe. “A wolfless trash like you should be grateful to finally be useful.”
I ignored the fresh blood trickling from my temple, where my stepmother had struck me that morning.
“The Blackmoon Pack are monsters,” I said. “Their heir is called the God of War. If I go there as a breeder....”
“If you go, Silvermoon survives.” My father repeated, as he slammed his glass onto the table. It shattered. Red wine spread across the white marble.
Three days ago, my father's arrogance had driven him to attack Blackmoon, convinced he could take their territory.
He had been wrong.
In less than forty-eight hours, Theodore, the God of War, had destroyed our front-line warriors, broken through our defenses, and brought Silvermoon to its knees.
My father had no choice but to surrender.
Now Blackmoon wanted compensation.
Royal daughters.
Breeders.
Trophies of war.
“They asked for the youngest princess,” I whispered. “They asked for Alyssa. Not me.”
“And do you really think I would send my precious, pure-blooded Alyssa to them?” My father scoffed. He stepped down from the dais and stopped in front of me.
“Alyssa is the future of this Pack. You are nothing. You'll wear her clothes, take her name, and go to Blackmoon as Princess Alyssa.”
My stomach dropped. “No. You can't do this.” I shook my head. “I won't do it. Kill me if you want, but I'm not taking her place.”
“You don't have a choice.” My stepmother's voice cut through the room. She stepped forward, arms folded across her chest.
“Unless you'd rather we send someone to the Black Prison tonight to finish off that wretched witch mother of yours.”
I froze.
My mother.
Seraphina.
For ten years, she had been chained beneath this castle because she had given birth to a wolfless child.
She was the only reason I had survived this place.
“What did you say?”
My father crouched and grabbed my chin, forcing my face up.
“It's simple, Kesley. You go to Blackmoon and take my daughter's place. The moment the carriage crosses our border, I'll sign the order releasing your mother.”
Take my daughter's place.
Like I wasn't his daughter too.
I searched his face for any sign that he meant it.
There was nothing.
“You promise?” My voice broke. “You swear on your Alpha oath that she'll be freed?”
“I swear it.” He released me roughly. “Refuse, and she dies before sunrise.”
For a moment, I couldn't move.
My mother was still beneath this castle.
Chained in the dark.
Waiting.
For ten years, I had endured every insult, every beating, and every humiliation because I was afraid of making things worse for her. I had begged for her release. I had obeyed every instruction. I had kept my head down.
And where had it gotten us?
My mother was still in prison.
I was still on my knees. Nothing would change if I continued being the frightened girl they expected me to be.
I thought of my mother finally walking out of that prison. Free. Safe. Able to live a life that wasn't spent behind chains.
That was what mattered.
Not my fear.
Not what waited for me at Blackmoon.
Her.
I slowly pushed myself to my feet.
My legs still trembled, but this time, I didn't feel the urge to beg.
“Fine,” I said.
My father glanced back at me.
“I'll go. I'll take Alyssa's place.”
Alyssa’s lips curled into a smile.
But I wasn't finished.
“I'll do it because my mother deserves a life outside these walls.” I looked directly at my father. “And once she's free, you'll never use her against me again.”
For the first time, Alyssa's smile slipped.
My father only stared at me.
“Get her dressed,” he ordered the guards. “Make her look like royalty. The escort will be here soon.”
The guards stepped toward me.
I looked at my father one last time.
“I'll go as your sacrifice,” I said. “But don't mistake this for surrender.”
My eyes moved to Alyssa, then my stepmother.
“You've spent years making my mother and me suffer. I'll remember every part of it.”
My father looked at me as though my words meant nothing.
Maybe they didn't.
Not yet.
“Good luck, sister,” Alyssa called with a mocking laugh as the guards dragged me away.
Less than an hour later, I was dressed in one of Alyssa's velvet gowns and covered in heavy jewels. The fabric hid the scars on my back and bruises on my arms.
I looked like a princess.
But I knew exactly who I was.
The unwanted wolfless daughter they had dressed up and sent away to save the one they truly loved.
No one spoke as they pushed me into the iron-reinforced carriage.
The castle gates opened.
I looked back at Silvermoon once. The place where I had been born. The place that had never felt like home.
Then the carriage rolled into the forest, carrying me toward Blackmoon.
I didn't know what waited for me there.
A monster.
A prison.
Or death.
But as Silvermoon disappeared behind me, I held on to one thought.
I wasn't going to Blackmoon just to survive.
I was going to free my mother.
And someday, neither of us would ever have to kneel before Silvermoon again.