Rise of the Betrayed Luna

2

CELESTE

There was no light or form in the underworld. I could only hear the faint and stubborn sound of my own heartbeat, somewhere in the distance. It pulsed against the blackness, each beat weaker than the last. I floated in the nothingness and had made my peace with it.

After all, what was left to live for when your mate, your love, and your best friend had destroyed you in one night?

But then I heard the slow, steady beeping of a machine.

Wait. Was I hallucinating?

Yet the sharp and steady beep came again and again and again. The noise was so calm and regular that part of me thought it belonged to another world entirely.

I was so sure I was floating somewhere between pain and nothingness, and was afraid that if I opened my eyes, I’d find myself back in the woods with blood on my hands and the taste of betrayal in my mouth.

But then the antiseptic smell reached me, alongside the sterile chill of a hospital room.

I wasn’t dead?

I wanted to laugh, or cry, or scream, or do anything to prove that I was still in the land of the living. The last thing I remembered was the sound of my own heartbeat fading away. I had been so sure it was the end.

When I tried to move my fingers, they barely obeyed. My body felt heavy, strange, as though I were buried beneath water. Yet it was enough to convince me that I had truly survived. The relief that flooded me was wild. I was alive. I was alive.

Just then, a whisper reached me, and I tried to listen.

“She’s still alive?” a male voice said.

“…shouldn’t even be possible. The toxicology report is off the charts. That much wolfsbane? By the Goddess, this amount should have killed a dozen werewolves. I don’t even know how she’s breathing!”

“...enough to kill twelve werewolves?” the other asked.

“I’ve never seen a system fight like that. She’s either blessed or cursed!”

I almost smiled. If they only knew. I tried to move my head a fraction. The effort sent a sharp pain through my neck. Every bone in my body felt fractured, every muscle sore. Something pricked my arm…

One of the speakers laughed unbelievingly. “You think the Alpha brought her in himself?”

“Does it matter? Whoever did saved her life.”

The Alpha?

The sound of another Alpha capturing me pulled me upward through the fog, dragging me toward full consciousness. My fingers twitched. Pain shot through me, and I gasped.

The voices stopped. Someone moved quickly.

“She’s waking up!”

A rush of air filled my lungs. I coughed, the motion tearing through my ribs. My throat burned, my chest ached, and when I finally pried my eyes open, the world swam into view.

I blinked hard, the brightness stabbing at my eyes, until shapes sharpened. Two nurses stood near the foot of the bed, both staring at me like they’d just seen a ghost. My head throbbed. My memories came in jagged, painful flashes.

I wheezed, then remembered that they were only memories. I had survived. I was safe, wasn't I?

Just then, heavy footsteps entered the room. Why was the sound of it so unsettlingly familiar? Why was the scent of whoever that was coming causing my nerves to light up and my belly to flutter?

“You always did have a flair for the dramatic, Price.”

My heart stuttered violently. Of all the ways the Moon Goddess could mock me, this was the cruelest. The nurses who had been staring at me scurried away for safety. I wished I could follow them.

With great effort, I turned my head, and there stood the last person I ever wanted to see again.

He leaned against the doorway, arms folded, wearing that same dark smirk I remembered from a lifetime ago. Time hadn’t softened him. His eyes were still that piercing shade of charcoal gray; they were cold, sharp, and unbearably aware. His jaw was hard, his dark hair a little longer, a little messier, but the arrogance was exactly the same.

He was my worst nightmare.

“Celeste Price,” he said, his lips curling in a cruel smile. “Didn’t expect to see me again, did you? Well, I didn’t think I’d find you half-dead in my woods either.”

My breath hitched. Ten years. Ten years since I’d last heard that voice, and still it slithered under my skin like poison.

The room spun. Was this some sort of joke?

Knox Morrison was the arrogant bastard who had made my teenage years hell. He was my rival, my nemesis, and forever a reminder that I would never be good enough.

Wasn’t it better that Robb had severed me to pieces with a silver blade? Anything was better than waking up to Knox Morrison’s face.

I glared weakly up at him. “Go to hell.”

He smirked, stepping closer, each movement slow and infuriatingly controlled. “Already been there, sweetheart. Didn’t like the company.”

The nickname, sweetheart, annoyed me. It was the same old taunting word he’d always used to get under my skin. I tried to turn away, but pain shot through my chest, dragging a hiss from my lips.

His shadow loomed over me, and he crouched beside the bed, eyes glinting with amusement and something darker.

“Who did this to you?” he asked, his tone suddenly sharp.

“None of your damn business,” I rasped.

“After all the time that has passed and everything that has happened, you still think you’re immortal,” he murmured, a hint of mockery in his tone. “You’ve got a real talent for bleeding in inconvenient places, Price.”

“Get away from me,” I spat, or tried to.

He tilted his head, studying me like he was examining a wounded animal he couldn’t decide whether to save or finish off. “You disappear for more than a decade only to appear nearly half dead. It doesn't make sense, sweetheart.”

I wanted to snarl, to curse him, but my lips barely moved. “Go… to hell,” I whispered again.

He gave a low, humorless chuckle, then tutted softly. “You must be really close to giving up the ghost if you’re repeating old jokes. But if you’re going there, sweetheart, you’re not going alone.”

My eyelids fluttered, exhaustion dragging at me again. His voice blurred with the rhythm of the machines. My eyelids were too heavy. The edges of the room began to fade again.

“Celeste,” he growled, the first crack in his voice. His hand hovered above me before he pressed it gently to my shoulder, checking for a pulse. His touch burned, steady and alive. “Damn it, Celeste, what the hell—Who did this to you? Who the f**k hurt you?”

His anger should’ve pleased me. It didn’t. It terrified me.

“Leave me be,” I whimpered. “Let me die in peace. Go away.”

He smiled: it was slow, feral, and maddeningly beautiful. “Not tonight, sweetheart. Not if I have a say.”

The room tilted, my heartbeat slowing again, and as the world began to fade, his voice was the last thing I heard.

“You’ll live, Celeste. And when you do, you’ll owe me.”

Darkness claimed me once more. How could things get even worse than they did when my ex-husband and ex-best friend betrayed and poisoned me?

~

When I woke up again, I felt a lot better. A huge part of me wished and prayed fervently that everything I remembered would be part of a lucid dream, especially Knox Morrison.

Unfortunately, he was standing beside my hospital bed.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I growled, happy to have some energy back.

He arched a brow. “Saving your stubborn ass, apparently.”

I flinched at the sound of his voice. It wasn’t the taunting teenage drawl I remembered; it was lower, rougher, threaded with command.

“I didn’t ask you to,” I bit out.

“No,” he said simply, crossing his arms over his chest. “You were a little busy bleeding to death to ask for anything.”

The words stung, more because they were true. My fingers twitched against the blanket. I hated how small, weak, and exposed I felt under his gaze.

He looked down at me like I was both a problem and a puzzle. His jaw flexed. “You should rest. You’re not exactly in fighting shape, Price.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Still touchy, I see,” he smirked.

He turned toward the door as if to leave, and something inside me snapped. I didn’t like how the sound of his voice stirred something deep in me, something buried and dangerous. It was like a faint hum under my skin. Like a delicious pull. Faint, but real.

No. No, no, no. The Moon Goddess couldn’t be that cruel.

I shoved the thought away, clinging to the one emotion I could control: hate. I hated him. I had always hated him. He was the boy who humiliated me in training, who mocked my victories, who said my father spoiled me.

The boy who once told me I’d never be Luna or Alpha material and yet, my heart had the nerve to stutter when his eyes met mine again.

“Get out,” I whispered.

He turned around and stepped closer instead. His scent filled the air and overwhelmed my senses. All my thoughts disappeared, and for a heartbeat, I forgot how to hate him properly.

“You always did have a habit of telling people what to do,” he said softly. “Still bossy, even half-dead.”

“Still an asshole,” I shot back.

That earned a quiet laugh from him. “You’re awake for five minutes and already starting fights. You haven’t changed a bit.”

“Unfortunately,” I muttered, glaring.

His smirk faded. “You should be grateful, Celeste. I dragged you out of that forest myself.”

His eyes fell on my lips and remained there. I swallowed and found it hard to summon words.

“So what now?” I asked. “Are you planning to gloat? Collect a favor?”

His eyes darkened, then the amber in them that signified his wolf’s presence gleamed dangerously. “Something like that.”

I hated the way my pulse jumped.

Before I could speak, he reached for something. It was a folded piece of paper on the bedside table. A discharge form.

“You’re coming with me,” he said.

“What? I don’t need your protection.” I snapped.

“Good thing I didn’t offer it,” he said dryly. “I’m not leaving you here.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going anywhere with you,” I argued.

He gave me that lazy, infuriating smile that said he always got his way. “You can argue later, sweetheart. Right now, you’re in no position to do much of anything.”

He turned his back to me to sign the papers, and I wanted to throw something at him. Anything but my body betrayed me.

When he finished, he looked at me again, his expression unreadable. “You’ll thank me later.”

“Don’t count on it, Morrison.” I hissed.

Knox’s lips twitched. “You’re still the most ungrateful woman alive.”

“Then go away. Leave me alone.”

He leaned closer, his breath brushing my ear. “I told you before not tonight, sweetheart.”

My heart stumbled. I hated that it did. After everything I’d been through with Robb, I didn’t want another man anywhere near me. Especially not him.

He told the nurse something I couldn’t hear, then turned back to me with that look of command that made my stomach twist.

“There’s somewhere I need to take you as soon as you’re better,” he said. “After that, you’re free to hate me all you want.”

My pulse quickened. “Where?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

I stared at him, my chest tightening with dread.

I wasn’t sure if it was the poison still in my veins or the man standing before me, but one thing was certain. I was in damn trouble.