Rise of the Betrayed Luna

3

KNOX

Celeste Price had a wild tendency to her. A wild tendency that used to drive me insane then, and was still having the same effect on me.

To make things worse, two words kept ringing in my head: Mate and Mine.

But the woman beside me remained silent, her body stiff against the car door, like she’d rather fling herself into the storm than share this space with me. If she weren’t half-dead, I might have let her try.

The silence was thick enough to choke on. Every second stretched too long and too loud. Her soft, sweet floral scent lingered in the air but was still faintly laced with medication and poison. I gripped the steering wheel harder, my claws threatening to pierce through.

I couldn’t stop replaying what I’d seen hours ago.

The forest had been quiet that night. I’d gone for a run to clear my head, to get away from the endless reports, the rogues, the politics, the noise. I wanted solitude. What I found instead was a half-dead Celeste Price.

Of all the damned people the Moon Goddess could tie me to, it had to be her.

She was the girl who used to drive me insane in high school, the one who challenged every word I said, who rolled her eyes at me in training, and looked at me like I was something beneath her boots.

The perfect heiress of Dark Vine Pack. The girl who vanished ten years ago left the entire region whispering, and now she was my mate.

When I found her in that forest, her dress torn, her body covered in bruises, blood pooling around her, something inside me cracked open. I told myself it was pity, shock, or rage at whoever did this. I tried to convince myself that it was anything but what it really was.

Yet, the bond had snapped awake the second I touched her. It had roared through me like wildfire.

Mine. The word echoed in my skull even now.

She stirred slightly beside me, her breathing shallow. I glanced at her. She was too pale and fragile, unlike the girl I remembered.

Damn it.

I gritted my teeth and focused on the road. “You’re quiet,” I said finally, my voice a low rumble.

“I have nothing to say to you,” she muttered, still staring out the window.

Typical Celeste. Even dying, she managed to sound defiant.

“Well, that saves me the headache.” I sneered.

Her head turned sharply. “Then why are we here? Why didn’t you just leave me there to die?”

Because I couldn’t. Because the thought of her heartbeat stopping had felt like someone drove a blade through my chest.

Instead, I said, “Didn’t feel like explaining to the Alpha Council why the Dark Vine heiress was found rotting in my territory.”

She scoffed softly. “Still lying as beautifully as you always did, Morrison.”

I bit back a curse. The sound of her voice saying my name again after all these years did things to me I didn’t want to name. I would give anything to have her address me as Knox. Anything.

“You’re welcome for saving your ungrateful ass, by the way.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“Yeah, like I said, you were too busy dying for that.”

She went quiet again. I caught her reflection in the window. There was a faint tremble in her jaw and a wet shimmer in her eyes. Guilt twisted somewhere in my chest.

“I don’t need your help,” she whispered finally.

“You’ll get it anyway,” I said. “You were never going to walk out of that hospital with half your blood missing and poison in your veins. You’ll stay until you’re healed.”

Her head whipped toward me, eyes burning. “You think you can order me around like everyone else? I’m not one of your packs, Morrison.”

“Then thank the Goddess for small mercies,” I muttered. “Because if you were, I’d have locked you up already for being this damn reckless.”

She glared daggers at me, and something like life flashed across her face. That was the Celeste I remembered.

“Damn, you’re insufferable,” she said through clenched teeth.

“And you’re still a pain in the ass.”

For a moment, we just stared at each other, the air between us humming with tension.

Her scent filled the car again, and my grip on the wheel tightened until it creaked. She turned away first, folding her arms, her chin lifting like the proud brat she’d always been.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked after a while, voice small but sharp.

“Home,” I said.

She blinked. “Home?”

“My home.”

Her head snapped toward me, eyes wide. “Are you insane? I’m not—”

“You are,” I interrupted flatly. “You’re not going anywhere until you’re better.”

She let out a harsh laugh, the sound cracking at the edges. “So I’m your prisoner now?”

“If that’s what it takes to keep you alive.”

Her jaw dropped, disbelief twisting her features. “You haven’t changed at all, have you? Still the control freak who thinks the world revolves around him.”

“Funny,” I said darkly. “The world seems to keep proving me right.”

She made a strangled sound, half growl, half sob, and turned away again.

The road stretched ahead. Every few seconds, I caught the faint thud of her heartbeat, and every time I heard it, the monster in me exhaled in relief.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing bringing her home. But I knew one thing for sure: whoever hurt her was going to pay for it in blood.

~

For a week, I’d been walking a tightrope between rage and madness. I hadn’t slept properly since the night I found her.

For the first few days, she was barely conscious. As soon as she settled in after coming from the hospital, she fell into a deep sleep.

It was scary because, every time I closed my eyes, I saw her body on the forest floor, her pulse flickering like a candle in the wind. Every time I looked at her now, my chest tightened with something that wasn’t supposed to exist inside me.

I’d convinced myself that I brought her here out of responsibility and that no Alpha worth his name would abandon a wounded she-wolf in his territory. But the truth was darker. I couldn’t stay away from her, and she made sure I regretted it.

She refused my help, refused to eat unless I threatened her, and refused to look at me for longer than a heartbeat. When she finally did, the glare she gave me could’ve sliced through steel.

“Stop hovering,” she’d mutter every damn morning, her voice hoarse but defiant.

“You stop trying to die,” I’d growl back.

Then she’d roll her eyes and turn her face away, and I’d have to walk out before I said something I couldn’t take back.

She was recovering slowly. The colour had returned to her cheeks. Her hair was now brushed and gleaming again. But she was still too thin, her eyes too hollow. The light she once carried was gone.

I’d always thought of Celeste as untouchable: too proud, too clever, too damn beautiful to ever break. But someone had broken her.

I wanted to tear them apart with my bare hands. I’d tried to track whoever had done this. My trackers found nothing. No scent trail, no witnesses, no hint of where she’d been. Whoever had hurt her was either very skilled or very protected. Both options pissed me off.

“Why am I still here?” she asked once.

“You’re not strong enough to leave yet,” I said flatly.

“I’m not your prisoner, Morrison.”

“You could’ve fooled me,” I muttered.

Her eyes flashed.

“If I were treating you like a prisoner,” I cut in. “You'd be chained in the basement, sweetheart. You’re free to walk out any time you can make it past the front gate without collapsing.”

Her jaw tightened. “Asshole.”

I smirked despite myself. “There she is.”

She scowled harder, but her shoulders trembled. She was still weak, and we both knew it. I stood up and crossed to her before she could back away.

“Sit,” I ordered, steering her toward the couch.

“I can stand.”

“You can barely glare properly. Sit down before I make you.”

That earned me another glare, but she sank anyway, breathing hard. I crouched in front of her and pressed the back of my hand to her forehead.

She jerked away from my touch like it burned her. “Don’t.”

“Relax,” I said quietly. “You’ve been poisoned, Price. You shouldn’t even be alive right now. That’s not something you walk off in a few days.” I found myself saying.

The next few days were torture. I told myself I was frustrated because she was stubborn, ungrateful, and impossible. But deep down, I knew what it really was. I was losing control.

I’d spent years building my reputation as the Alpha with no soul. I’d made a career out of control. People feared me because I never lost it. But around her, I couldn’t even breathe straight.

One sniff of her scent and my wolf would go feral. She was mine. The thought was as intoxicating as it was terrifying. Because I couldn’t claim her.

By the seventh day, she could stand without my help, and I knew it was time to let her go.

Her father had been a powerful Alpha once. I’d hated the man almost as much as she’d hated me, but I respected him. He’d searched for her for years after she vanished. He deserved to know she was alive.

But she wasn’t going to like it. Not one damn bit.

“It’s time,” I said when I found her staring out the window again.

She looked up, startled. “What?”

“We’re leaving.”

Her brows furrowed. “Where?”

“You’ll see.”

“Morrison—”

“I told you I’d let you go once you were strong enough,” I cut in. “You’re strong enough now.”

She stood slowly, her eyes narrowing. “So that’s it? You’re done playing nurse?”

I clenched my jaw. “Get in the car, Price.”

Her lip curled. “Anywhere away from you is fine.”

That stung more than it should have.

I turned and walked away before she could see the flicker of pain in my expression. The guards loaded her bag into the SUV, and I slid into the driver’s seat. She hesitated before climbing in beside me, arms crossed tightly over her chest.

I exhaled slowly. When she realized where we were heading, she’d hate me even more, and for the first time in my life, the thought of someone’s hatred felt like punishment.

To make matters worse, the moment she stepped out of this car, I’d lose her all over again.