te Coo

l family is hosting the annual Royal Moon Banquet at the Citadel. Noble daughters from every pack territory across the real

ed into place. Indeed, this gala had b

highborn ladies. Worse, when I overheard several noblewomen sneering that my late mother was merely a disgraced court performer kept in the shadow

the high court. By clan protocol, those seats belonged exclusively to the three trueborn daughters of the Cooley lines. Failing to present our f

ane and nightshade capable of paralyzing an inner wolf's natural vitality to induce violent, false soul-tremors and fever. She had coaxed me into f

nen kerchief, twisting the silver-

le sister," I murmured, lowering my lashes

elvet swayed, and my other senior handmaiden, Sadie, st

lk dress cut far too fine for a servant, with a filigree gold butterfly hair

ter tray on the side table, lifted a warm stoneware el

tructed that this feverish ache is a natural reaction to the herbs. Once you swallow this se

stench mixed with the bitterness of crushed weeds. In my pas

ough her now? Right before my ruinous marriage in my past life, Kiya had asked for Sadie to be transferred to her quarters; clearl

said flatly. "I do n

ore the Royal Moon Banquet! If you do not drink it, you will be forced to present yoursel

to pierce straight through hers, "but I hate swa

lvet sleeve swept forward and struck t

to pieces as the foul black brew splattered across the expensive importe

go down to the private scullery and bring me a bowl of warm bone broth infused with elderbe

d her instinct to clean, gave a deep cu

om green to sickly white before she forced herself to drop to her knees and

on the golden butterfly comb gleaming in her hair. Dressing herself in my gifts while feeding m

bling as she held the stained fragments in her palms, a thin line of blood welling

muck is nauseating. A wolf's nose forgets nothing, Sadie. Fetch a basin of fresh rosewater and scrub th

scullery maids from t

curving into a soft, chilling smile. "In my quarters, I on

he had never once encountered in her timid mistress, she shrank into herself, bowed h

r, walked slowly to the tall, leaded window, and pushed it open against the damp evening chill. The fresh, rain-washed

ld not yield a single inch of what was rightfully mine. Three days until the Royal Moon Banquet. I would attend, adorned in the finest silk