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On the eve of my Mate Ceremony, my Alpha walked into my room with his female Gamma. Like a rooster flaunting victory, she showed me the hickeys all over her body and bragged about their wild night. “It wasn’t Tessa’s fault,” he said. “My rut hit early. The ceremony is postponed.” I smiled, said nothing, and called another Alpha. The night before the Mate Ceremony, I was shaved bald. My hair, which I had grown for twelve years and which once cascaded down to my waist, was all gone, leaving my scalp completely bare. Tessa, her hair in a high ponytail, held the clipper and grinned lazily at Ezra beside her. "Alpha, your fiancée's awareness is pathetic. No wonder she's Silvercrest Pack's coddled thing—too oblivious to notice someone sneaking into her dorm. How could she ever deserve the Luna title?" The Blackthorn Pack elites, Betas, and Gamma captains seated around us burst into laughter. "c(u)t Tessa some slack, she didn't stand a chance. Those sleep-inducing herbs were hung by Alpha Ezra Calloway himself—who suspects their own fiancé?" Tessa scoffed, twirling the clipper in her hand. "Tomorrow's the Mate Ceremony. The whole pack will be so confused, they'll think you dragged some bald suspect straight from the holding cells to the altar. Ha!" Amid the room's laughter, Ezra turned to me, his face wearing a perfunctory apology. "They're my brothers who fought alongside me on the border—just a joke. Don't take it personally." "Just wear a thick veil and a wig tomorrow. No one will be able to tell. You'll still be the Luna I marry at the altar." I tried to move my limp, weak limbs, my gaze nailed to that bundle of herbs. Ezra had visited my room last night, hanging it there himself. "Brought back from the Arctic glaciers—best for calming nerves and aiding sleep. You'll have a long day tomorrow; rest well tonight." Ezra and I grew up together. It never once crossed my mind that those herbs could be laced with a powerful sedative strong enough to knock me out cold. Seeing
