THE BREAKUP ALLIANCE

The first scream came at eleven minutes before midnight.

Mara Ellison heard it through three walls, a crowded ballroom and the music of a twelve-piece orchestra.

She still knew the voice.

Elin.

Mara dropped her champagne glass.

It struck the marble floor and shattered beneath the silver heels of Lucian Mercer’s guests.

No one else moved.

The Blood Moon Gala continued around her in a blur of black gowns, diamonds and smiling predators. Wolves danced beneath crystal chandeliers. Alpha heirs made business promises near the bar. Rich women watched one another over the rims of golden glasses.

Then Elin screamed again.

This time, the music stopped.

Mara ran.

She did not wait for Sable or Talia. She pushed through the ballroom doors and entered the northern corridor, where the mansion became silent and cold.

At the far end, Elin stood before the glass observatory.

Her hands were pressed against the locked door.

Blood covered one palm.

“Open it!” Elin shouted. “Lucian!”

Mara reached her.

“What happened?”

Elin turned.

Her face was white. Tears streaked the makeup beneath her eyes.

“He won’t answer.”

The observatory occupied the highest wing of Mercer House. Its walls and ceiling were made from enchanted glass, allowing Lucian to study the moon from every direction.

Now the Blood Moon burned above it.

Its red light filled the room.

Lucian Mercer sat inside.

He was alone in a black chair beneath the centre of the glass dome.

His head rested against the back.

His eyes were open.

Even from outside, Mara knew he was dead.

“No,” she whispered.

Elin struck the glass again.

“Lucian!”

He did not move.

A thin stream of black blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

Four silver coins had been placed around his chair.

One before each direction.

North.

South.

East.

West.

Mara recognised them immediately.

Breakup coins.

Sable arrived without making a sound.

Her dark hair had come loose from its pins. She still held her phone, but its screen showed lines of red error messages.

“The security system is dead,” she said. “Every camera in this wing shut down nine minutes ago.”

Talia came behind her, lifting the front of her crimson gown as she ran.

She stopped when she saw Lucian.

For once, she had nothing clever to say.

Her lips parted.

“No.”

Elin looked at them.

“I left him alive.”

Nobody answered.

The words remained between them.

I left him alive.

Mara gripped Elin’s shoulders.

“What were you doing here?”

Elin looked toward the dead man.

“He asked to meet me.”

“When?”

“After I ended things with him.”

Sable’s expression hardened.

“You came back?”

“He sent me a message.”

“So did I,” Talia said.

All three women looked at her.

Talia reached into her small black purse and removed her phone.

A message waited on the screen.

Come to the observatory before midnight. Come alone. We need to finish what you started.

Mara’s stomach tightened.

She took out her own phone.

The same message waited there.

Only the final sentence was different.

Bring the knife.

She had brought it.

The ceremonial silver blade was no longer strapped beneath her dress.

Mara touched the empty sheath against her thigh.

Her breath stopped.

Sable noticed.

“What is it?”

“My knife is gone.”

Talia stared at her.

“You brought a knife to meet him?”

“He told me to.”

“And now he’s dead?”

“I didn’t kill him.”

“I didn’t say you did.”

“You were thinking it.”

“Everyone will be thinking it in five minutes.”

Sable stepped between them.

“Stop.”

Her voice remained calm, but Mara saw fear behind her eyes.

Sable rarely showed fear.

It frightened Mara more than Lucian’s body.

“Can you open the door?” Mara asked.

Sable approached the glass panel beside the entrance.

She pressed her thumb against it.

Nothing happened.

She entered a six-digit code.

The panel flashed red.

“Lucian changed the access.”

“Break it,” Talia said.

“This is moon glass. A bomb would damage the building before it opened the door.”

Elin looked through the glass again.

Her bloody hand left a red print on its surface.

“He might still be alive.”

“He isn’t,” Mara said quietly.

Elin spun toward her.

“You don’t know that.”

Mara knew.

Lucian’s eyes were fixed on the dome above him.

No breath clouded the cold air before his mouth.

Something else was wrong.

There was no wolf inside him.

Even dead wolves left an echo. A faint pressure. A last trace of the animal that had shared their skin.

Lucian’s body felt empty.

Not silent.

Hollow.

Sable’s phone vibrated.

One message appeared.

SYSTEM RESTORED.

The observatory doors clicked.

Elin grabbed the handle.

“Wait,” Sable warned.

Elin pulled it open.

Cold air escaped the room.

It smelled of silver, winter roses and burned blood.

Mara entered first.

The others followed closely.

Their heels sounded too loud against the dark floor.

No furniture stood inside the observatory except Lucian’s chair, a small table and an antique telescope pointing toward the Blood Moon.

Lucian wore the black formal suit he had chosen for the gala.

His white shirt had been opened at the throat.

There was no visible wound.

Mara moved around him.

“Don’t touch anything,” Sable said.

Elin ignored her.

She knelt before Lucian and pressed two fingers beneath his jaw.

Her entire body became still.

Talia covered her mouth.

“Is he—”

“Dead,” Elin whispered.

A tear fell onto Lucian’s hand.

Something beneath his skin flashed black.

Elin pulled away.

“What was that?” Mara asked.

Elin tore open his shirt.

Black lines spread across Lucian’s chest like cracks beneath ice.

They all joined above his heart.

There, beneath the skin, something hard and dark reflected the moonlight.

His heart had become crystal.

Talia stumbled backwards.

“No ordinary weapon did that.”

“No,” Elin said.

Her voice broke.

“A bond did.”

The door slammed shut behind them.

All four women turned.

The glass panel flashed red.

LOCKDOWN ACTIVATED.

Sable rushed to the controls.

“I didn’t do that.”

A shadow moved beyond the observatory.

Mara reached for the knife that was no longer there.

Someone approached through the corridor.

Large.

Male.

His footsteps were slow and uneven.

A familiar Alpha presence rolled through the glass.

Mara’s wolf—silent for almost her entire life—lifted its head inside her.

The man stepped into the red moonlight.

Adrian Vale.

The first billionaire they had ruined.

The first Alpha they had broken.

The man Mara had spent seven years trying not to remember.

He wore a dark suit without a tie. His black hair was disordered, and blood stained the cuff of his white shirt.

More blood covered his left hand.

Lucian’s blood.

Adrian stopped outside the sealed door.

His eyes moved first to Lucian.

Then to the four women surrounding the body.

Finally, he looked at Mara.

Something old and wounded passed between them.

Talia whispered, “Why is he here?”

Adrian placed his bloody palm against the glass.

“Open the door.”

Sable stared at the red handprint.

“Where did the blood come from?”

His gaze did not leave Mara.

“Lucian.”

Elin rose.

“You touched him?”

“I found him before you did.”

“That’s impossible,” Sable said. “The room was empty.”

Adrian looked at the black security panel.

“The room wanted you to believe it was empty.”

A sharp howl rose from the grounds outside.

Then another answered.

Mercer guards filled the corridor, followed by men and women in the grey uniforms of the Moon Investigation Division.

Their leader was a tall man with tired eyes and a long scar across his jaw.

Investigator Rowan Black.

He examined Adrian’s bloody sleeve.

Then he looked through the observatory glass at Lucian and the four women.

“Step away from the body.”

The door unlocked under his authority.

Armed officers entered.

One guard moved toward Elin.

She growled.

It was not a human sound.

“Touch me,” she warned, “and you will lose that hand.”

“Elin,” Mara said softly.

Elin lowered her eyes and stepped away from Lucian.

Rowan entered last.

He wore black gloves and carried no visible weapon. His scent suggested an older wolf—experienced, controlled and impossible to intimidate.

He examined Lucian’s body without touching it.

Then the coins.

Then Elin’s blood on the glass.

Sable’s phone.

Talia’s torn dress.

Mara’s empty knife sheath.

Finally, Adrian’s sleeve.

“You were all invited here?” Rowan asked.

No one answered.

His eyes moved between them.

“Lucian Mercer transferred four billion dollars out of his private accounts tonight.”

Mara felt Sable become rigid beside her.

Rowan continued.

“The money was divided equally between four women.”

Talia lifted her chin.

“That is not proof of murder.”

“No. But it is motive.”

“It was a legal settlement.”

“For what?”

Silence.

Rowan looked toward Lucian’s black crystal heart.

His face revealed nothing, but his wolf reacted beneath his skin.

“Someone used a severed bond to kill him.”

Elin closed her eyes.

Rowan noticed.

He stepped closer to her.

“You know what happened to his heart.”

“I’m a healer.”

“You were also his mate.”

The room changed.

Talia stared at Elin.

Sable’s calm expression broke.

Mara felt the truth strike through her.

“Elin?”

Elin said nothing.

Rowan turned away from her.

He looked at Talia.

“Your final message to Lucian said you would stop his heart.”

Talia’s face lost its colour.

He faced Mara next.

“Your silver knife was found beneath his chair.”

Mara looked down.

The knife lay partly hidden in Lucian’s shadow.

Its blade was covered in black blood.

She had not seen it before.

“That wasn’t there,” she whispered.

Rowan turned to Sable.

“You disabled every camera in this building.”

“To protect our privacy.”

“Or to hide a murder.”

“I didn’t kill him.”

Finally, the investigator faced Adrian.

“You were found with the victim’s blood on your clothes. Witnesses heard you threaten him earlier tonight.”

Adrian’s face remained cold.

“He was my friend.”

“Friends kill each other every day.”

“You sound experienced.”

Two officers moved closer, but Rowan raised a hand.

Then he looked at all five of them.

“Five people entered this wing tonight.”

“Only four of us were inside,” Sable said.

“According to a system you controlled.”

A low sound came from Adrian’s chest.

“Choose your next words carefully.”

Rowan did not react to the Alpha warning.

Instead, he reached into Lucian’s jacket and removed a folded piece of paper.

He opened it.

Four names had been written across the page.

Mara.

Sable.

Talia.

Elin.

Beneath them were four identical words.

SHE LEFT ME.

Rowan studied the women.

Then he asked the question that would destroy all their lives.

“Which one of you broke up with Lucian Mercer tonight?”

Mara slowly raised her hand.

Beside her, Sable did the same.

Talia’s hand rose next.

Elin looked at Lucian’s empty eyes.

Her fingers trembled as she lifted them.

All four hands remained in the air.

Rowan stared at them.

Behind him, the observatory glass reflected the entire room.

Five suspects.

One dead Alpha.

And, for less than a second, a sixth figure standing behind Lucian’s chair.

A woman wearing a silver mask.

Mara turned.

There was no one there.

When she looked back at the glass, the reflection was smiling.