Chapter 10: What She Is

I sat up in Soren's bed with the sheet clutched to my chest and held out my arm to him.

"What is this?"

He woke at once.

He looked at the silver lines branching from my wrist to my elbow, and every trace of sleep left his face.

"I'd hoped to tell you slowly," he said.

"Then tell me quickly."

He sat up and pulled on his trousers and did not meet my eyes.

"Your mother was Lycan."

I stared at him.

"She was my father's younger sister," Soren said. "She ran from this court before you were born, and she took the royal moon-blood with her."

"She told me she came from a farm north of the river."

"She told you what kept you safe."

My mouth was dry. "My mother is dead."

"I know. I'm sorry."

I looked down at the lines on my arm, glowing steadily now.

"What does moon-blood do?"

"It makes a wolf stronger, and it heals, and it lets the one who carries it give strength to someone else."

"Five years of full moons," I said slowly. "The Luna's rite. I sat up with him every month, and I put my hands on him."

"Yes."

"I thought that was just a blessing."

"It was you," Soren said. "Every time, you were giving him your strength. It made him the Alpha everyone feared."

"And when I ended the marriage, it stopped."

"The moment the bond broke."

I thought of Cade in the dirt at the stone ring, half-shifted and gasping.

I thought of the supply wagons that had gone north every week, and the boys eating bark.

I had made him strong, and he had used it to starve them.

"The young rider on the bridge," I said. "What did he really say?"

Soren's jaw tightened. "Ellara means moon-given. It's what we call the one who carries the old blood."

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