I’m a hundred and twenty years old.I look twenty. I’ll always look twenty.And I just watched my own son get beaten in the dirt by the woman my mates are about to marry. I’m a vampire. Pureblood. From the Nightshade line. The females of my bloodline live three times longer than any shifter. Our faces stop at twenty. They never change. So every few decades, we fake our deaths. New name. New territory. New life. It’s the only way to stay hidden in a world full of beasts who’d tear us open for a single drop of our blood. Ten years ago, I’d had enough. The Sacred Alpha of the wolves wanted me. The Blood Dragon Lord wanted me. Between the two of them? I couldn’t breathe. So I drank the slumber draught. I left my only pup behind. And I made them swear one thing before I vanished. Take care of him. After I “died,” I turned into their tragic obsession. The Luna whose name nobody in Crimson Hollow was allowed to say out loud. Ten years went by. I missed my pup too much. I came back in secret. I never expected this. The very first day I’m home, I see a bruised teenage boy at my stall. He’s clutching twenty gold coins in a shaking fist. He asks me in the smallest voice I’ve ever heard. “Miss. It’s my birthday today. I only have twenty coins. Can I please buy a honey-cake?” My heart shattered. I gave him the biggest one on the tray. He held it for three seconds. Three. Then a female slammed her boot into the back of his knees. A fluffy red tail flicked behind her. Fox ears twitched on top of her head. Sharp amber eyes. Same hair as mine. Same face. Almost. A fox shifter. She ground her heel into his hand and laughed. “Silas Thornwood. Stealing now? Guess somebody’s gotta beat the manners into you. Pity your dead bitch of a mother isn’t here to do it.” “Once I’m your daddies’ new Luna, nobody’s gonna ask why your body’s cold. They’ll just kiss the hand that did it.” Her amber eyes snapped to me. “And you. You sold food to this little half-breed mongrel? Are you stupid? Or just begging to die?” I stared at her. My pulse roared in my ears. Silas Thornwood. That was the name I gave him. She swung her bag and cracked it across his face. The bruise on his cheek split open. Fresh blood ran down to meet the old. But his eyes. Gods, his eyes still burned. He glared up at her. “You’re lying. My dad would never touch a snake like you. Shut your mouth about my mom.” He swung at her. Two wolf warriors grabbed his head and ground his face into the dirt. She laughed again. “Sweetie. Everyone in Crimson Hollow knows. Your two daddies belong to me now.” “I told you. Ten coins a month. Ten. And you blew twenty on a cake?” “No mama to raise you right. Guess I’ll have to.” Cold spread through me. His stubborn little face was the same face from ten years ago. The same face that had clung to my “corpse,” sobbing, begging me not to go. I’d asked them one thing. Protect him. I’d left behind enough gold to buy half the territory. And my pup couldn’t even afford a birthday cake. “Enough.” My voice came out quiet. Both warriors flinched. “The cake was a gift. From me. You got a problem? Take it up with me.” I shoved the warriors back. They stumbled. I pulled Silas behind me. A hundred and twenty years on this earth. One spoiled fox shifter was not going to be a problem. Silas hadn’t cried when they hit him. But the second I stepped in front of him, his eyes went red. “Miss. Please. Don’t. You can’t fight them. I’m used to it.” Used to it. He said it like it was nothing. That tore me open worse than the blood on his face. He was the first pup I’d carried in a hundred years. A boy. Not a girl. In my bloodline, only daughters inherit the long life. Sons age like anyone else. He was always going to grow old. He was always going to die before me. I couldn’t drag him on the run with me forever. Hiding. Never settling. Never safe. So I left him with Aldric and Cassian. They were strong. They had a Pack and a Dominion. They could give him a real life. For this? “You and I share a name, sweetheart.” I brushed the hair off his bloody forehead. “Today, I’m handling it.” The fox shifter folded her arms across her chest. War-paint streaked across her cheekbones. That smug little smile. Wearing my features like she’d skinned them off me. It made my skin crawl. “Aww. Look at the little stray rushing in to save her sweetheart.” She giggled. “Silas. Sneaking around with trader girls already? At fifteen?” Her amber eyes flicked to the cloth wrap covering half my face. “And you. Take that rag off. If you’re too ugly to show your face, then shut your mouth and crawl out of my sight before I drag you out by the hair.” Little stray. I almost laughed out loud. I’d forgotten about the wrap. I’d kept it on so no one would catch my scent. So no one would catch my face. Looking twenty forever comes with complications. Two more guards lunged at me. I kicked one across the dirt. Dropped the other with one strike to the throat. The fox shifter’s mouth fell open. I planted my hands on my hips. “Go on. Tear the tent down. Half the trading grounds are watching. I’m sure your Alpha mates will love hearing how their precious little fox beat a starving pup in front of the whole territory.” Her face went white. Then red. Blotchy. Ugly. Red. “You filthy little bitch.” “It’s just a healer’s tent. I’ve got gold to burn. I’ll buy this dump and torch it in front of you!” She ripped a message stone from the cord at her throat and snarled into it. “Aldric. My Alpha. There’s a little tent I want. Burn it down for me.” A pause. Then his voice came through the stone. A voice I hadn’t heard in ten years. Low. Cold. “Where.”
Seraphina cut the mindlink and tossed her red hair like she’d just won the whole damn war. “You wait right there, Silas. Once I’m done with your little sweetheart here, I’m gonna make sure your daddies hear every dirty thing you did today. You hear me, pup?” Silas’s small fingers were shaking against the back of my cloak. His voice came out so quiet I almost missed it. “Miss. When they get here, I’ll stall them. You run. Please. Don’t worry about me.” I turned and looked at his bruised little face. I smoothed his messy hair down. “I’m right here, pup. Nobody’s laying a hand on you. Not while I’m breathing.” It didn’t take half an hour. A male strode through the trading grounds, six wolf warriors flanking him in a tight V formation. They moved like one body. No words. No paint. Just that cold, clean weight of warriors who answered to the Sacred Alpha himself. I knew the male at the front. When I’d first met Darius, he was a scrappy pup barely promoted out of warrior ranks. Sharp eyes. Sharper mouth. I’d liked him back then. I’d been the one who pushed Aldric to take him on as Beta. Ten years later, all that kindness had burned right out of him. Now he had the polished edge of a male who’d done a lot of dirty work for the Thornwood Pack. Seraphina spotted him. Her smile dropped like a stone. “What the hell. Where’s my Alpha?” Darius didn’t even blink. “The Sacred Alpha is preparing for the Luna’s death rites. He has to kneel at the Moon Altar a hundred nights and chant the old prayers before the anniversary.” “He sent me instead. Wrap this up. I have a Pack to run.” His words hit me like cold rain. The anniversary. Right. My “death day” was only a few sunrises out. I remembered it. The night I drank the slumber draught. The way Aldric had wrapped himself around my cooling body and refused to let go. The way Cassian’s dragon had screamed inside him until his throat tore open. And now? Now they had a fox shifter wearing my face. They couldn’t even keep my pup fed. The Sacred Alpha. The Blood Dragon Lord. Two of the most powerful males alive. What a load of bullshit. Seraphina’s amber eyes glittered with jealousy. “It’s just a dead female. Why’s he wasting prayers on ash? She’s been dust for ten years.” Darius shot a glance at me and Silas. He didn’t bother hiding the disgust on his face. He shoved a rolled-up scroll at me. “How much for the tent. Five hundred gold. Don’t get greedy.” Then he turned to Silas. His voice dropped colder. “Young master. The Sacred Alpha is disappointed in you. Why can’t you be more like your mother?” I almost laughed out loud. Greedy. Five hundred gold wouldn’t even buy the back post of my tent. I picked up the scroll. Read it once. Tore it in half. Then in half again. I threw the pieces up and let them rain down like ash. “Not for sale. Not for ten thousand. Not for a hundred thousand. Not for a million.” Darius’s lip curled like he’d smelled something rotten. He’d dealt with my type before. The grasping kind. The ones who held out for a fatter pile of coin. To him, I was just another beggar with her hand out. “One thousand gold.” “Think hard, female. If you don’t sell, the Thornwood Pack has a hundred ways to make sure you don’t last another moon on these grounds.” “Trust me. You don’t want to find out which one we pick first.” I looked at the new scroll in his hand. Didn’t move. “Fine. You want my tent? Then you buy the whole stretch of land it sits on.” Because the tent was the cheap part. Every plot of land on this row of the trading grounds was mine. I’d quietly bought it generations ago. Under another name. A back door. A safety net. In case I ever wanted to come home. Nobody could touch it. Not without the blood-signature of one specific heir. Silas. Darius’s jaw locked. His eyes glazed the way a Beta’s do when he’s reaching out through pack mindlink. “Find out who owns this land. I want it bought in three minutes.” Ten heartbeats passed. Then his face went pale. A shaky voice came back through the link. Loud enough that even I caught the echo. “Beta Darius. The land can’t be touched. It’s tied to the Lyra Nightshade estate. Sealed under blood-claim. Only the named heir — Silas Thornwood — can release it.” Darius froze. He hadn’t heard that name spoken out loud in a long, long time. Slowly, he turned to look at Silas. His voice dropped to something almost gentle. Almost. “Young master. Just sign the land over. Call it a peace offering to Lady Seraphina. Don’t make this hard on me.” He held out the scroll. Pushed it toward Silas’s chest. Silas didn’t even hesitate. He grabbed it. Shoved it in his mouth. Chewed once. Spat the wet, mangled paper right into Darius’s face. “Anything,” he snarled, “anything my mother gave me. Nobody. Touches.” Darius’s fangs flashed. He took one step forward. That’s when we all heard it. The thunder of paws beyond the trading grounds. A whole hunting party, riding hard. Riding furious. Seraphina shoved Darius out of her way and ran for the gates, all smiles again. “Useless. Can’t even handle one little tent. My Alpha is here. Get out of my sight!” She spun on her heel. Pointed a clawed finger at me. At Silas. At the watching crowd. “Oh, sweetheart. You picked the wrong day to play hero.” “Nobody’s walking out of here. Not until you’re on the ground crying. And trust me. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”
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