Sylvia's POV

"Get out of the way! Don't interrupt our Alpha's ceremony!" I was shoved to the ground by a snarling she-wolf, her eyes alight with pride not earned but borrowed.

The scent hit me first—a cloying floral note tangled with Zane Thorne's overpowering Alpha musk. When I saw him guide her into the Great Hall for his birth moon celebration, the wolf inside my chest let out a whimper of pure defeat. I knew. With the crushing weight of a bond rejected, I had lost.

I retreated to the shadows, the raucous howls and guttural laughter of the Pack grating like sandpaper on raw nerves. The glow of my phone screen was harsh. Mother's messages were brutal in their simplicity:

"Daughter. He parades his mate before the Pack. The wager is lost."

"Three years. Zane Thorne's wolf refused yours. Return now. Your duty as Frostfang Pack heir cannot wait."

Duty. Heir. The words felt like iron shackles snapping shut. My gaze cut through the crowd to where Zane stood, his arm locked possessively around a slender figure. Chloe Vale. The whispered legend of his True Mate, the Luna lost and mourned, the ghost whose shadow I'd worn for three years.

This was my first glimpse of the woman who had unknowingly held my future hostage. Chloe looked… breakable. Ethereal. Her submission was a tangible force, a quiet power that made the surrounding wolfs seem brash.

So this is what he craved. My tongue traced my teeth, tasting the bitter ash of failure.

Four years ago, at a gathering of young Alphas and high-ranking females, a brash she-wolf from the Stoneclaw Pack had stalked up to Zane. She'd offered herself as a mate, a political alliance wrapped in fire.

Alpha Zane, leaning against the obsidian hearth, had taken a slow drag from his cigarette, his usually warm amber eyes turning cold. That lazy, cruel smirk touched his lips. "Sorry, princess," he'd drawled, smoke coiling. "My wolf prefers ‘em… softer. Simpler. Less like a rival Alpha, more like…omega."

Hidden in the shadows, I'd felt my own wolf stir with treacherous hope. I'd loved him silently for two years, drawn to his raw power, the magnetism of his bloodline. But Mother, Astra Frost, the indomitable Alpha of Frostfang, had forbidden it. The enmity between our Packs ran deep, and she viewed the concept of True Mates with icy contempt, a fatal weakness.

Hearing his preference, I'd seen a sliver of light. I'd made the wager: If I could make Zane Thorne's wolf choose me, bind him as my mate, she would bless the union. She'd agreed, doubtless certain I'd fail.

To win, I'd buried Sylvia Frost. Overnight, the Frostfang pack's heir vanished. In her place stood a meek, ostensibly low-born omega, seemingly adrift, unconnected. I smothered my Alpha-born aura, masked my strength, played the vulnerable, gentle creature Zane claimed to want. I wove myself into the fabric of his territory, a silent, unthreatening shadow.

He noticed eventually. One night, after a wild hunt under the gibbous moon, Zane found me waiting. His gaze, blurred with drink, swept over my carefully constructed docility, a spark of lazy interest kindling in his wolf-gold eyes. "Always lurking, little wolf?" His voice was a low rumble that vibrated in my bones. "Got a taste for the real thing?"

I'd nodded, keeping my eyes downcast, my posture submissive.

A dark chuckle. "Wanna see where that hunger leads? Stick close. Be my…girlfriend." He didn't offer the mate bond. Not then. Not ever truly. But it was a foothold.

Three years. Three years of pouring my soul into this charade. I learned human cooking to tend to him, nursed him through wounds ripped open in border skirmishes, endured whispers that I was a love-struck fool.

He'd joked, rough affection colouring his tone, "Gotta look after my little shadow, yeah?" He'd talked of providing, a clear sign an Alpha was claiming responsibility.

The lie festered inside me. The wager felt like a betrayal of the sacred trust a true mate bond should be. After months of wrestling with guilt, my wolf howling for honesty and the claiming bite it craved, I'd resolved to tell him everything on his birth.

Then Chloe Vale walked back into his life.