BROOKE

In my dreams, there was no mountain. No alpha. No luna. No goddess to make demands. In my dreams, Huck and I were on an island a thousand miles from everything and everyone. Seagulls cried as waves lapped at the shore. His scent mingled with the sea. I was sunning my back, belly down on the hot, white sand, with my cheek resting on my folded arms.

Huck lay on his side next to me, our faces mere inches apart. "Do you want to know my favorite thing about the beach?"

I smiled. "What?"

"Bikinis." He tugged the string of mine, undoing it easily.

"Huck!" I gasped in mock indignation.

He grinned. "Oops."

"Tie it back."

"Come closer."

"Why should I?"

"Because I need you."

I closed my eyes, smiling softly as I hummed. "How badly do you need me?"

"I can't do this without you."

The desperation in his tone made me pause, and I cracked my eye open. Nothing about his expression had changed: laughing eyes, a gorgeous smile, golden skin soaking up every ounce of sunlight. He was perfect. Everything was perfect...but it wasn't.

"Huck?"

"I need you to be okay."

"I am okay."

"Please be okay. Please, please, please be okay." He continued on, desperate words spilling from serenity.

"Hey—" I scooted closer. "I'm right here."

Huck pulled me into a crushing embrace, and I closed my eyes, focusing on the feel of his body against mine. But the more I focused, the less it existed, and the more the atmosphere changed. Hot sand became cool, hard dirt. Fresh, salt air grew stagnant. Huck's body disappeared, but his presence filled me, and his hold tightened.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He chanted the words within my soul, matching the rhythm of my heart. Like pieces of an ugly puzzle, my circumstances clicked into place, painting a picture of loss. He was here, but he was a million miles away.

And I was in the dungeon.

I cracked my eyes open, finding Mother asleep beside me. No bed. No blanket. The dream felt more plausible than seeing her like this: knees drawn up to her chest, feet tucked beneath a soiled dress. Mother never stumbled, never wavered, couldn't fall. Yet, there she was at the bottom, and I'd been the one to push her.

It was over.

My throat dried, becoming raw as I fought to hold back a stream of endless sobs. I'd failed. I'd failed, and now Huck was gone forever. We would never undo what'd been done. The valley would crumble, the low wolves would suffer, and our children would never exist. All the things I'd pictured for our lives disintegrated into ash, leaving behind nothing more than this darkness.

Huck's presence expanded, spreading like a balm over my despair. I closed my eyes and pretended he was here, escaping the only way I knew how. But the sun rose like it always did, and the streaks of light spilled through the barred, rectangular windows high above our heads. Mother woke and droned on for hours, becoming increasingly tense as no breakfast arrived. Then no lunch. No dinner.

The sun was setting when the door above creaked and slammed, and boot steps echoed down the stairs.

My mouth watered, and I jumped to my feet just as two sentinels appeared. My gaze immediately searched their hands like a dog seeking scraps. One only had a gun, which he aimed at me, prompting me away from the bars. The other carried a bucket. He opened the door, set it inside, locked us back in, and left to complete whatever was next on their to-do list.

Mother hurried over, pausing as she bent down beside it.

"What is it?" I asked, my voice sounding oddly dusty. It was the first thing I'd said all day, and I was parched beyond belief. So much so, when I walked over and discovered water inside the bucket, I nearly cried in relief. I cupped my hands and dipped them repeatedly, drinking as if there was a fire in my belly I needed to put out.

Mother stopped me after the fifth. "Slow down. We don't know when they'll bring us more."

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and reluctantly stepped away. The rest of the night went much like the first, me clinging to Huck and my imagination, pretending I was elsewhere. The sun rose. The sun set. No new bucket came. For three days, I wasted, until all I could do was lay on my back, tired despite having slept all day. My lips were so chapped they split and bled, and I was past the point of hunger.

"We're going to die here," Mother rasped. "Our blood will end here."

She lay on the ground a few feet away, barely recognizable to the woman I knew. Her features were drawn. Her hair was matted. Her once rose-colored dress was completely coated in filth. I should feel guilty for doing this to her, but I didn't blame myself. No. It wasn't me who started this. "Our blood deserves to end for what we did."

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Perhaps."

I blinked. Had Mother just agreed with me? Was she admitting she'd done something wrong? We really were about to die. "So...you don't blame me for this?"

"Of course I blame you!" she snapped. Then her lips pursed, and an eternal quiet settled and stretched. She shook her head. "But I also blame myself. And your grandfather. He's the one who took us down this path. Not me."

"Grandfather helped kill—"

"Please, Brooke. Our family didn't have those kinds of connections until after the deed was done. That's what happens with a coup d'état. Not even half of the mountain actually approved of what Bardulf did, but once he was in power, people had a choice: end up in the valley or ascend. If he hadn't chosen the way he had, I never would have mated your father, and you wouldn't have been born—let alone with the entire world handed to you."

"You mean a broken world."

Her eyes narrowed, but before she could say anything more, the door above opened, and boot steps echoed down the stairs. We both got up and sank deeper into the cell. I licked my dry lips in eager anticipation. But then Titan appeared, and he had nothing in his hands apart from a set of keys.

"Come," he said, already unlocking the door.

"W-where are we going?" I hated the way my voice trembled. I'd had plenty of time since meeting Huck to imagine what it would be like to burn, but now that the moment had possibly arrived, I couldn't face it. I wasn't brave. I wasn't ready.

"You're going to shower, get dressed, and play your part until our guests have left."

"Guests?"

His jaw twitched, and the way he looked at me sent an icy chill over my skin. "For the funeral."

* * *

Titan delivered me to a haunted room and told me to dress for death. It was hard to be back there. No matter how impossible I knew it was, I kept waiting for Huck to knock at the door and whisk me down the hall, into a tunnel, away. But there would be no escaping this time.

I was to put on my greatest performance tonight. If I failed to convince society, Mother would suffer. Titan didn't offer specifics, and I didn't point out just how badly Mother was suffering already.

It took three showers to be clean, and my black dress fit looser than it should have. I went through the motions, operating on muscle memory as my mind stayed fixed within. Huck's presence never faltered. He held me as if he thought I would disappear, and it comforted me more than it should have. I needed to find a way to block him. Having him like this wouldn't change my trajectory, and horrible things were coming. I couldn't bear the thought of him experiencing them with me. When I burned, I would burn alone.

But not today. Today, I needed him more than I ever had before.

Titan entered without knocking, finding me perched on the vanity chair, applying the final touches to my makeup. Huck's mark was covered, along with the dark circles beneath my eyes, but no amount of makeup could undo my sunken appearance.

"Good enough," Titan said. "Our guests are waiting." He pulled a silver flask from his jacket pocket, unscrewed the cap, and took a long drink. Amber liquid drizzled down his chin, and he wiped it away with the grace of a caveman.

I stood and crossed the distance between us.

Titan caught my arm as I reached him. "I meant what I said, Brooke. Don't force me to have to do something...unpleasant."

I nodded, and he pulled me into the hall, his fingers digging into my flesh as he all but dragged me downstairs. It wasn't until we reached the ballroom entrance that he loosened his hold.

"Your Grace." The servant bowed his head and opened the doors.

I swallowed. Every wolf from here to mid-town filled the room. Large round tables tastefully decorated with black silk linens created a sense of elegant grief. Flowers filled the center of each, and I recognized all of them from the garden. Had Titan picked them himself?

I glanced at his profile, and despite our positions, I mourned for him. Across the room, Blaze lay still and peaceful in a gold-trimmed onyx casket, looking as immaculate as he had in life. I imagined what it would feel like if it was Huck lying there. This wasn't what I wanted to happen. No matter if Blaze had been trying to kill me or not, this had never been my plan. "I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Say that again, and I'll have your Mother beaten unrecognizable." He released me and crossed the room, moving to stand beside Blaze, leaving me to do what I was tasked.

I squared my shoulders and took a deep, fortifying breath through my nose, and the smell of food was too powerful to ignore. A buffet sat beneath the windows overlooking the courtyard. I chewed my lip. It would be rude to eat before mingling. As future luna, I should greet as many people as possible. But I hadn't taken a bite in over three days, and my willpower couldn't prevent my feet from propelling me toward the bounty.

A servant curtsied when I reached the plates, then she lifted one and began to serve me. I listed off item after item: some of this, a little of that, more. My wolf was in control, and by the time she handed it over, it was overflowing with protein. I picked up a slice of ham and shoved it into my mouth, ravenous in a way I'd never been before. Muted laughter drew my eyes upward.

Acacia Faelan and a group of her cronies stood not ten feet away, laughing amongst themselves as they watched me make a pig of myself. Of course it had to be her. She's been a snide thorn in my side for most of my life. If it wasn't for the arrangement my paternal grandfather had made, she would be the natural choice for luna. Or, at least, I thought so before learning the truth.

I reluctantly lowered the plate and stepped over to them. "Acacia," I greeted. "Daphne, Ava. You ladies look lovely as usual."

"Brooke," Acacia said, as if she had only just noticed me. "I am so sorry to hear about Beta Blaze. How on earth could this have happened, in the castle of all places? I pray you weren't in any danger."

I was sure she'd prayed for the opposite many times. Little did she know how often the goddess had answered her. "Fortunately, not."

"Thank the goddess. Is your mother well? I haven't seen her."

"Quite. I'm sure she's around here somewhere."

"Lovely to hear. Well, if you'll excuse us, Your Grace. I believe I see someone, and I'd hate to draw you away from your...meat."

My face flushed, but I kept my composure and nodded my goodbye. Of all the problems I had, Acacia was at the bottom of the list. I snatched up my ham slice and took another huge bite, hardly caring who saw. I was starving, I was thirsty, I was tired, and I was thoroughly and wholeheartedly in over my head.

I finished my food and engaged in conversation with several more people, carrying out the duties I had been trained to perform. It must have been hours before Titan's voice boomed, "Attention, please!"

Conversations muted, as all eyes shifted to him. He stood beside Blaze's casket, holding a microphone in one hand, a rock glass of what appeared to be whiskey in the other. He downed its contents, then slammed it onto the nearest surface. "We have our lovely luna to thank for arranging this." His tone was low, and anyone listening would probably assume I'd picked out the linens and ordered the catering, rather than what he truly meant. A lengthy pause stretched as Titan stared at Blaze, seeming to forget anyone else existed. "I owe you all an apology." He motioned to a servant, and they rushed forward to refill his glass.

Titan rattled the ice, then downed it like he had the first—or the tenth. I wasn't sure how many he'd had, but it was clearly too much. So much for keeping up appearances.

"Things like this didn't happen when my father was alive." He held out the glass, and the same servant filled it again. "I must admit, I always admired my mother's way of thinking." He had the decency to sip this one. "My intended luna has the same softness. You all will be impressed to hear how she's already cared for our pack. Visiting the low town. Wanting to improve the quality of life for all our people. I agreed with her. I allowed it. I was going to let her proceed, perhaps even extend it to the valley."

Murmurs rolled through the room, and Titan nodded his head. "Yes, yes, I know. You see, I always faulted my father for his harsh attitude. I thought him unnecessarily cruel, but now I know how wrong I'd been." His tone darkened toward the end, and he finished yet another drink, threw the glass, shattering it against the marble-tiled floor.

Gasps erupted, and then silence fell, so complete it rivaled that of the corpse. I held my breath. Was this the moment? Did he plan to call me out, condemn me? Was he too drunk not to?

"If I'd been the man my father tried to raise me to be, none of this would have happened. Blaze would be alive." His teeth clenched and bared. "I will no longer pander to their destructive behavior. No wolf will cross the line into mid town. No supplies will be sent, and nothing will be stolen. Let them leave or let them starve. Either way, let us finally be done with them once and for all."