ELIRA POV
The bedroom is cold.
Hours pass and Kade doesn't come. I sit on the edge of the bed in the white nightgown that's supposed to make me beautiful and wait. I wait like a good wife. Like a girl who's been trained her whole life to wait quietly while men make decisions.
By midnight, I stop waiting.
The compound is silent when I slip out of the bedroom. The halls are lined with torches that cast long shadows that seem to move on their own. My bare feet are quiet against the stone floor. Everyone here is trained to notice things, but they don't notice me. The new Luna wandering around in the middle of the night is just a confused girl looking for her husband. Not a threat. Not someone worth watching.
I find myself moving toward the one part of the compound I know has light under the door.
Kade's study.
I hear voices before I see the light. Two voices. Kade's voice is cold. Sharp. Like steel. Viktor's voice is underneath it, hungry and eager like he's been waiting for this moment his entire life.
I know I should turn back.
Every instinct I have says to go back to the bedroom and pretend I was never here. To act like I didn't hear. To be the soft, obedient girl everyone expects me to be.
But something stronger than instinct pushes me forward.
I press my ear against the study door and listen.
"The treaty is signed," Kade says. His voice is so different from the way it sounded when he spoke to me. Harder. Emptier. Like a man without a conscience. "Once their borders weaken, we move."
My heart stops.
"The girl is just collateral," Viktor says, and he laughs. Actually laughs. Like the thought of me being expendable is funny to him. "When the time is right, we eliminate her quietly. Make it look like an accident. Some young wife couldn't handle the transition to pack life. Happens all the time."
I can't breathe.
The walls of the hallway seem to squeeze inward. The torches blur. Everything becomes distant and strange like I'm watching this happen to someone else.
This is why he married me. Not for alliance. Not for peace. For infiltration. For weakening my father's pack from inside. For using me as a bridge into Riverside so he can destroy it.
And when he's done with me, when I'm no longer useful, I'll disappear.
"How long?" Viktor asks.
"Six months. Maybe a year. We need to be patient. We need to make sure Riverside's borders are truly weakened before we move."
Six months. I have six months before Kade decides I'm no longer necessary.
I should run. I should find a horse and ride back to Riverside and tell my father everything. I should get out of this cold territory and never come back.
Instead I stand frozen against the door while my heart hammers so hard I'm sure they can hear it from inside the study.
"She felt good during the bonding," Viktor says. "I could feel the connection forming. You felt it too, didn't you? Felt her essence."
There's a long silence.
"Yes," Kade finally says. His voice sounds different now. Strained. Like saying that single word costs him something.
"That's a problem," Viktor says quietly. "Don't get attached. The girl is a tool. Nothing more."
More silence.
"I know what she is," Kade says. But the words don't sound like he believes them anymore.
I push away from the door before I hear anything else. Before they realize someone's been listening. Before I do something stupid like burst into tears.
I run back to the bedroom with my bare feet slapping against stone and my breath coming in sharp gasps.
The moment the door closes behind me, I sink onto the bed and my body shakes.
Everything I suspected. Everything I feared. It's all true. Kade married me to destroy my father's pack. I'm not a bride. I'm a weapon. I'm not a Luna. I'm a sacrifice waiting to happen.
The thought should paralyze me.
It does for maybe five minutes. I sit in the darkness and let the fear consume me. I let myself understand what it means to be marked for death by the man who shares my bed. I let myself feel the weight of my father's terrible choice.
Then something shifts inside me.
It's small at first. Just a change in how I'm breathing. Just a slight straightening of my spine. But it grows until it fills every space inside me where the fear used to be.
I stop being a victim.
I become someone else entirely. Someone harder. Someone colder. Someone willing to do whatever it takes to survive.
I think about everything I've been taught my entire life. Everything my father drilled into me about being graceful and kind and soft. Everything my mother wanted me to be. Everything that's supposed to make me a good wife.
None of that will keep me alive.
If Kade wants me dead, then I need to become someone he can't afford to kill. I need to make myself valuable. Essential. Irreplaceable.
I need to learn how this pack works. I need to understand its weaknesses and its strengths. I need to know the people who matter and the people who don't. I need to become such an integral part of Northwood that killing me would be more costly than keeping me alive.
I lie in bed and I don't sleep, but this time it's different. This time I'm not counting hours until my death. This time I'm planning.
When dawn comes, I watch Kade move through the compound on his way to council meetings. He doesn't look at me. He doesn't acknowledge me. He moves like a man carrying a weight that's crushing him.
Part of me wants to believe that weight is me. That hearing about my planned death somehow matters to him.
But I can't afford to believe that.
I can't afford to believe anything except that I have six months, maybe a year, to save my own life.
The moment he leaves the compound, I start moving.
I spend the morning watching the servants. Learning their routines. Understanding which ones are loyal to Kade and which ones are just following orders. I learn that the older woman who brought me tea is named Marta and she's been with Kade for ten years. I learn that the youngest servant, a girl barely older than me, is terrified of everything and might be easier to talk to.
By afternoon, I'm in the library.
I run my fingers along the spines of books and look for anything that might help me understand this territory. Maps. History. Information about the pack's structure and weaknesses. I find more than I expected. There are journals. Old records. Maps that show border placements and patrol routes.
I start reading everything.
By evening, my brain is overflowing with information about Northwood's defenses. I understand where the weak points are. I understand how vulnerable my father's pack actually is. I understand exactly what Kade and Viktor are planning.
I hate myself for understanding it so clearly.
The next morning, I wake before Kade leaves and I catch him in the hallway.
"Good morning," I say softly. I lower my eyes the way I'm supposed to. The way a good Luna would. The way someone who doesn't know her husband is planning to kill her would act.
He stops. For a moment, he just looks at me like he's seeing me for the first time.
"Good morning," he finally says.
His voice is rough like he hasn't slept. His eyes are dark and tortured like he's been wrestling with something all night.
I wonder if he's wrestling with the fact that he has to kill me.
"I hope you slept well," I say. I smile even though the word 'well' tastes like poison. I touch his arm gently even though I want to scream. I play the part of the obedient bride even though I now understand that being obedient will get me murdered.
He looks at my hand on his arm like it's burning him.
"I'll see you tonight," he says finally, and he leaves.
That's when I know for certain. He's running from me. He's avoiding me because facing me means facing what he's supposed to do to me.
For one second, I let myself wonder if he actually cares. If the bonding ceremony meant something to him. If there's a part of him that doesn't want me dead.
But I can't afford that thought.
I can't afford to hope that he's anything other than what he's shown me. I can't afford to believe that love or connection or the magic of the bonding ceremony will save my life.
I have to save myself.
That afternoon, I ask Marta to show me more of the compound.
She's hesitant at first. Servants aren't supposed to take the Luna places without the Alpha's permission. But I smile and ask softly and tell her I just want to understand my new home better.
She agrees.
Over the next hours, I learn more about Northwood than I learned in books. I learn which warriors are loyal to Kade and which ones are loyal to Viktor. I learn which council members have doubts about the revenge mission. I learn that there's a warrior named Sienna who's Kade's second and who watches everyone with the eyes of someone who knows how to kill.
I learn that the compound has seventeen entrances and exits. That the medical storage is in the east wing. That Kade's personal chambers have a back entrance that leads to the gardens.
I learn everything a person would need to know to either escape or to survive.
The next morning, I'm in the weapons storage when I should be resting.
I'm looking at swords and knives and trying to understand how they work. Trying to imagine myself holding one. Trying to figure out if I could ever actually hurt someone.
I don't know yet.
But I will.
I have to.
That's when I hear footsteps and I turn, expecting to see a guard who'll report me for being somewhere I'm not supposed to be.
Instead I see a warrior woman with copper skin and braids pulled back for a fight. She's watching me with sharp eyes that miss nothing.
This is Sienna. The Alpha's second.
"What are you doing in here?" she asks.
I should lie. I should say I'm lost. I should play the confused bride and hope she feels sorry for me.
Instead I meet her eyes and I tell her the truth.
"I'm trying to learn how to survive."
Sienna studies me for a long moment. Then something shifts in her expression. Like she just saw something in me that she didn't expect to see.
"Follow me," she says finally. "It's time someone taught you how to actually fight."
And that's when I know I might have just found my first ally.
That's when I know that maybe I don't have to do this completely alone.
That's when I understand that my survival might be possible after all.
But first I need to find proof.
First I need to see Kade's journal with my own eyes.
First I need to know exactly when and how he plans to kill me.
Because that's the only way to stop him.
That's the only way to ensure that six months from now, I'm still alive.