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Chapter 1 LYRA POINT OF VIEW The white dress didn't fit right. Nothing fit right anymore. I stood in the prep room while the ceremony helper twisted pins into my hair. Each one jabbed my scalp. I welcomed the small sharp pain. It gave me something to focus on besides the hollow feeling in my chest. "Stop moving," the helper muttered. I pressed my nails into my palms instead, drawing crescents into my skin. Through the window, pack members arrived in their finest clothes. They laughed and greeted each other like today was worth celebrating. Like my sister wasn't lying in a hospital bed three buildings away, unconscious and fighting to survive. Mona had been awake for exactly two days since the fall. That was all the doctors promised us. They wouldn't say if she would wake up again. They wouldn't say if she would still be herself if she did. Nobody had asked why Mona and I argued minutes before she fell. Nobody but me knew that we had. My father filled the doorway, his Beta frame blocking the light. He looked at me the way he looked at broken tools that might still be useful. "You're ready," he said. Not a question. "Father." My voice came out thin. "Please. We could wait. For Mona. She could still—" The words stopped there. I didn't know how to finish them. His face didn't move. "The alliance doesn't wait. Roman's family expects a bride today. We don't break agreements over an accident." He stepped closer until his shadow covered my face. "Mona is gone. You are here. The pack needs this union." Gone. Not dead. The word still cut like a blade, because he wasn't wrong. Mona was gone in every way that mattered. Trapped in a body that wouldn't answer her. "What about Roman?" I asked. "What about what he wants?" "Roman will do his duty." He grabbed my chin, his fingers digging into my jaw. "So will you. No tears. No complaints. You will stand at that altar grateful for the chance to save this family." My hands shook so hard the pins kept slipping. The helper sighed and st
