Ten minutes before the bonding ceremony began, my own brother Rowan personally crossed out my name and offered me to Kael—the madman everyone in the royal court feared. Kael was the eldest son of the Alpha King; three years ago, after the border war, his wolf soul was damaged, and since then he had been plagued by illness and a violent temper. No she-wolf in the entire Northern Territory was willing to marry him.But I was supposed to marry Damon, the heir to the throne, and become the future Luna Queen. Yet because Mira—the adopted one—cried all night, Rowan, my parents, and Damon all quietly agreed to give my place to her, and they even wanted me to serve as a lowly maid at her side, watching her take the position that should have been mine with my own eyes.They thought that marrying me off to Kael would destroy me. But they didn't know that I wasn't being forced into a dead end—I was finally given the chance to escape this family that had gone mad with favoritism.At Mira's coronation ceremony, I publicly exposed the forged renunciation of inheritance rights, and I saw through the scheme where she and Damon had drugged Kael to provoke him into losing control. As the truth was peeled back layer by layer, Damon was stripped of his crown prince status, Mira fell from future Luna Queen to a servant washing bloody rags in the backyard, Rowan was expelled from the line of succession, my parents lost their Alpha positions, and even the Queen was imprisoned in a high tower for poisoning Kael.And Kael—the one they called a madman—after being freed from three years of poisoning torture, stood back at the center of the royal court. He took my hand and placed the crown of the future Luna Queen before me. Those who once wanted to see me kneel ultimately had to kneel below the stage, watching me walk toward the throne.
