I thought I was broken. I never knew I was blooming.
My name is Lily, and I've been invisible my whole life.
Growing up in Silver Ridge pack meant surviving my father's drunken rages and protecting my little brother Silver from the monster our dad became after becoming addicted to Shadow Brew—a deadly alcohol made from blood bat flowers. When Mom couldn't take it anymore and chose pills over pain, I became Silver's only shield against a world that had forgotten how to be kind.
At fifteen, my wolf awakened early during a violent storm as I fled my father's latest beating. I found shelter in an abandoned Moon Temple, where I've returned for three years whenever the world became too much to bear. When Old Martha took us in after we had nowhere else to go, she helped me get a job at Green Thumb florist so I could finally contribute something to our small family.
Then came the delivery that changed everything.
When I brought blood bat flowers to Dark Moon Tavern, my wolf went wild with recognition. The performer behind the bar—the man they called Shadow King—was Blake Stone, Alpha of Silver Ridge. The same man whose poisonous creation had destroyed my family.
He was also my fated mate.
The moment our eyes met, I felt the sacred bond snap into place. But Blake already had a chosen mate—the beautiful, vicious Katelyn. When he realized what I was to him, he didn't claim me. Instead, he poured his signature drink over my head and let his mate slap me in front of his entire pack.
"As if I would ever betray you for someone like her," he told Katelyn, his rejection searing through my soul like silver.
Now my wolf is broken, dying from the mate bond Blake severed with his cruelty. I can't shift. I can barely breathe. In desperation, I returned to that abandoned temple to pray for healing.
That's when the Moon Goddess answered.
Glowing soul flowers bloomed from the temple stones—flowers that could heal impossible wounds and grant unimaginable power. Because sometimes the person who breaks you isn't your ending.
Sometimes they're just clearing the path to your true beginning.
