Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN WEARING MY WEDDING GOWN
Scarlett Vale’s hand missed my face by less than an inch.
Her gold bracelets struck together as she stumbled forward, the enormous moon-white wedding gown twisting around her legs.
She had expected me to remain still.
Women like Scarlett usually did.
They attacked only after deciding the other person had already accepted humiliation as her role.
I stepped aside.
Scarlett’s heel caught the raised platform beneath the bridal mirror. She fell onto both hands, ripping one layer of the gown’s silver embroidery.
The room gasped.
Crimson City’s most exclusive bridal atelier had been silent from the moment I entered and found another woman wearing the gown created for my treaty wedding.
Now twenty wealthy wolves stared at me as though avoiding a slap were an act of rebellion.
Scarlett pushed herself upright.
“Bitch! How dare you!”
She lunged again.
This time I caught her wrist.
“Take off my dress.”
Her face twisted.
“Your dress?”
The gown had taken seven Silvercrest seamstresses four months to complete. Its fabric was woven with moon-silk, ceremonial silver, and the old treaty colors of House Sterling.
I knew every stitch.
My mother had sent drawings while I was stationed at the northern sanctuary. I had pretended not to care because an arranged engagement did not deserve romantic excitement.
Still, I recognized the tiny constellation embroidered beneath the left sleeve.
My birth pattern.
Scarlett had no right to wear it.
She tore her wrist from my grip and reached for a decorative metal stand.
I moved before she lifted it.
My boot struck the platform beside her ankle—not her body—and shattered the weak wooden edge beneath the gown.
Scarlett lost her balance and landed against a padded fitting bench.
She screamed as if I had broken every bone in her body.
Several guests backed away.
A man near the entrance whispered, “The Alpha will tear her apart.”
Another answered, “Scarlett is his fated mate.”
I looked at them.
“Nobody in this city frightens me.”
The statement produced nervous laughter.
Crimson wolves had lived under the Blackthorn family for more than a century. They believed fear was another form of citizenship.
The boutique manager hurried toward Scarlett.
“Lady Vale, are you injured?”
“She attacked me!”
“You attempted to strike me twice,” I said.
Scarlett pointed toward the damaged gown.
“She destroyed the Alpha’s wedding dress.”
“My wedding dress.”
The manager stared.
I removed the leather invitation from my coat.
The silver crest on the seal showed two wolves beneath a crescent moon.
HOUSE STERLING.
The manager’s face changed.
Before she could read the name, engines roared outside.
A black armored SUV stopped in front of the boutique.
Two more vehicles followed.
Crimson guards entered first.
Then Kane Blackthorn crossed the threshold.
He was taller than the formal portraits my mother had shown me. Dark hair. Gray eyes. Black suit cut close enough to display the strength beneath it.
Alpha pressure entered the room before his voice did.
Several wolves lowered their heads.
I did not.
Scarlett began crying immediately.
“Kane.”
She ran toward him in the half-fastened wedding gown and wrapped both arms around his chest.
“She stole my dress and attacked me.”
Kane looked across her shoulder.
His gaze reached my face, then traveled downward.
No visible wolf mark.
No scent he could identify.
No sign of submission.
He saw exactly what the veil spell allowed him to see.
An ordinary woman wearing travel clothes inside a room of elite wolves.
“You touched what belongs to me,” he said.
I glanced at Scarlett.
“She belongs to you?”
Scarlett lifted her left hand.
A fresh crimson mark glowed beneath her engagement ring.
The symbol resembled Kane’s Alpha crest.
Almost.
The outer curve faced the wrong direction.
A forged mark.
Interesting.
Kane released Scarlett and approached.
“You have ten seconds to explain why you entered private territory and assaulted my mate.”
The manager tried to hand him my invitation.
Scarlett knocked it from her fingers.
The silver seal landed face down.
I smiled.
“My name is Ivy Sterling.”
A few older wolves inhaled sharply.
Kane did not react.
“Should that mean something?”
“I am the woman your father promised you would marry.”
The room erupted.
Scarlett laughed first.
Kane followed with something colder.
“My arranged fiancée was raised in Silvercrest.”
“I was.”
“She would carry one of the strongest scents in the northern territories.”
“I suppose that is what you were told.”
He stepped closer and inhaled.
The veil held.
His expression filled with contempt.
“Look at her,” he told the crowd. “Unmarked. Scent like nothing.”
Scarlett smiled behind him.
“You cannot seriously expect us to believe an Alpha family sent someone this weak.”
I looked at the man I had traveled three hundred miles to meet.
He had not examined the invitation.
He had not questioned Scarlett’s inconsistent mark.
He had not asked who attacked first.
He saw no power and decided that meant no value.
I removed the glove from my right hand.
A pale silver symbol rested beneath my skin.
Kane stared.
I let one thread of power move through it.
The wolf crest ignited.
Mirrors shook.
Every light inside the boutique dimmed.
The wealthy wolves lowered their eyes without understanding why their bodies suddenly demanded submission.
Kane took one step backward.
“No one has questioned my bloodline,” I said. “Not from the moment I was born.”
The silver light vanished.
Silence followed.
I bent, collected the invitation, and tore it through the center.
“Kane, tell your father the engagement is over.”
His eyes hardened.
“You cannot cancel a treaty.”
“I can cancel a marriage.”
Scarlett clung to his arm.
I looked at both of them.
“You are not good enough for me.”
Then I turned toward the door.
May you like
Kane’s command stopped every guard in the room.
“Detain her.”
