Vivian's POV
I destroyed my room in under two minutes.
Every trophy I'd won. Every picture of me and Ryder. Every carefully curated piece of my perfect life—I threw them all against the wall and watched them shatter.
It felt good. It felt like I was finally allowed to feel something real instead of just perfect.
"Miss Vivian?" My mother knocked softly. "Are you alright?"
"Go away!" I screamed, and she did, because that's what everyone did for me. They obeyed. They admired. They praised perfect Vivian Ashford, future Luna, the golden girl who had everything.
Except I didn't have everything. I didn't have him.
Ryder was supposed to be mine. We'd been engaged since I was sixteen—five years of planning our future, of being the pack's power couple, of building my entire identity around becoming his Luna.
And Ember—pathetic, invisible, worthless Ember—was his fated mate?
I laughed, but it sounded like breaking glass. The Moon Goddess had to be playing a cruel joke. What kind of divine plan gave the future Alpha his fated mate in the form of the girl he'd spent years tormenting?
My phone buzzed. Message from my best friend Cara: Is it true? Did Ryder really reject you for Ember?
I threw my phone across the room.
Everyone knew. The whole pack was probably talking about it right now. Poor Vivian, dumped for her loser sister. Poor Vivian, not good enough for her own fiancé. Poor Vivian, upstaged by a girl who couldn't even shift until three days ago.
No. No, I wasn't going to be "poor Vivian."
I was going to fix this.
I cleaned myself up, fixed my hair, put on the mask I'd worn my whole life—calm, perfect, in control. Then I headed to the Ashford house, where my parents and Ember's parents were having an emergency meeting.
"Vivian!" My mother rushed over. "Sweetheart, we heard. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." I smiled, and it felt like cracking ice. "Is Morgan here?"
Ember's father sat at the table looking uncomfortable. He'd barely acknowledged his younger daughter's existence for eighteen years, and now she'd caused this whole mess by being Ryder's mate.
"Morgan," I said sweetly, sitting across from him. "Where's Ember?"
"I don't know." He wouldn't meet my eyes. "She left pack territory. Didn't tell anyone where she was going."
"You didn't try to find her?"
"Why would I?" His voice was bitter. "She's rejected the future Alpha. She's brought shame to this family. If she wants to run away like a coward, let her."
Something dark and satisfying curled in my chest. Even her own father didn't want her. Even her own blood thought she was worthless.
So why did Ryder look at her like she was the moon itself?
"The bond will fade," my mother said gently. "Rejected bonds always do. Ryder will come to his senses, and you two can—"
"No." I cut her off. "Ancient bloodline bonds don't fade. They either complete or they kill."
Everyone stared at me.
"I've been researching," I continued, pulling out the old pack law book I'd found in the library. "Ember isn't just any late bloomer. She's from the original lunar bloodlines—that's why her wolf emerged so late and so powerful. And bonds with ancient bloodlines are different. Stronger. More primal."
"What are you saying?" Morgan asked.
"I'm saying Ryder is going to die unless he completes the bond with Ember. The rejection is already poisoning him." I let that sink in. "And according to these old laws, Ember's rejection of an Alpha heir's bond counts as treason against the pack."
My mother gasped. "Vivian, those laws are from—"
"1847. Still on the books. Still enforceable." I met her eyes. "I've already filed the complaint with the Pack Council. The hearing is tomorrow morning."
"You can't be serious," my father said. "The punishment for that charge is—"
"Death." I said it calmly. "Unless she returns and publicly accepts the bond, saving Ryder's life and restoring pack stability."
Morgan stood up abruptly. "You're going to have my daughter executed?"
"I'm going to give her a choice." My voice didn't shake. "Come back and fix what she broke, or face the consequences of treason. It's very simple."
"This is insane!" My mother looked horrified. "Vivian, you can't actually want Ember dead. She's your sister!"
"Half-sister," I corrected. "And I don't want her dead. I want my life back. I want the future I've worked for since I was sixteen. I want Ryder to stop looking at her like she's the only thing that matters."
The room went silent.
"What if she doesn't come back?" Morgan asked quietly.
"Then the Council sends hunters, and nature takes its course." I stood up, smoothing my dress. "But she will come back. Because for all her newfound power and courage, Ember has one fatal weakness."
"What's that?"
"She's too good." I smiled. "She won't let Ryder die, even if she hates him. She won't let innocent people suffer because of her choices. That's what makes her weak—she actually cares about people who never cared about her."
I headed for the door, then paused. "Oh, and Morgan? When she does come back, I expect you to support the Council's decision. After all, you've made it very clear how you feel about your younger daughter."
I left them sitting in shocked silence.
Back in my car, I finally let the perfect mask crack. Tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them away.
I wasn't crying. Perfect girls didn't cry over losing something that was never really theirs.
My phone rang. Unknown number.
"Hello?"
"Miss Ashford?" A male voice. Professional. Cold. "This is Hunter Marcus from the Pack Council. Your complaint has been approved. We're assembling a team to retrieve Ember Ashford from Lunar City."
My heart raced. "When?"
"We leave at dawn. If she resists, we're authorized to use lethal force."
I should have felt victorious. I should have felt satisfied that my plan was working.
Instead, I felt sick.
"What if—" I stopped myself. "What if she agrees to come back peacefully?"
"Then we bring her to the Council hearing, and she either accepts her mate bond or faces execution for treason." He paused. "Are you having second thoughts about the complaint?"
Was I? I'd spent five years building a life with Ryder. Five years being the perfect future Luna. Five years of everyone telling me how lucky I was, how perfect we were together.
And then Ember's wolf emerged, and I became invisible.
I knew what that felt like now. Being invisible. Being second choice. Being not enough.
Maybe Ember and I had more in common than I wanted to admit.
"No," I said firmly. "No second thoughts. Bring her back."
I hung up and stared at my reflection in the rearview mirror.
Perfect Vivian. Golden girl. Future Luna.
Monster.
My phone buzzed again. Text from Ryder: Please withdraw the complaint. I'll do anything. I'll complete the bond with you if that's what you want. Just don't hurt her.
My finger hovered over the reply button.
This was what I wanted, wasn't it? Ryder choosing me. Our engagement restored. Everything back to normal.
Except it would never be normal again. Because I would know—every day for the rest of our lives—that he only chose me to save her.
I would always be second place to a girl he'd tormented for years.
I deleted his message and blocked his number.
Then I called the one person who might understand what I was going through.
"Hello?" Ember's mother answered, sounding tired.
"Mrs. Ashford, it's Vivian. I need to know something, and I need you to be honest." I took a breath. "Did you ever love Ember? Even a little?"
Silence.
"No," she finally admitted. "I tried. But every time I looked at her, I saw everything wrong with my life. My failed first marriage. My weakness. My mistakes." Her voice cracked. "She deserved better than me as a mother."
"Yeah," I whispered. "She did."
I hung up and drove to the pack border, where I could see the forest Ember had disappeared into three days ago.
The hunters would find her tomorrow. They would drag her back. And I would stand before the Council and watch her choose between accepting a bond with her bully or dying for rejecting it.
This was justice. This was fair. This was what she deserved for ruining my perfect life.
So why did I feel like the villain in someone else's love story?
My phone lit up with one final message, this time from a number I didn't recognize:
The girl you're hunting isn't in Lunar City anymore. She ran. And if your hunters find her, they won't bring her back alive. Sleep well, Future Luna.
The message deleted itself before I could screenshot it.
And I realized with cold, creeping horror that I might have just signed my sister's death warrant.