REALM OF THE LUNA

The door to my bedroom slammed open as soldiers of the pack barged in, glaring at me. “What are you doing—” “Grab her,” one of them commanded, and two of the soldiers hurried toward me and dragged me out of the bed roughly. “What do you think you’re doing?!” I yelled as I tried to pull myself out of their strong grips. “You know me! I’m your Luna! Why are you doing this?!” They didn’t respond. They only kept walking down the stairs, pulling me along as I figured out that the only person who had the power to order the soldiers to capture the Luna was the Alpha. I knew my mate was not in love with me, but what reason did he have to have me ambushed like this? My question was quickly answered when the doors to the throne room opened and I found myself in the middle of the room with the council of elders sitting on both sides of me and my mate, Alpha Devon, sitting in front of him. “Get on your knees,” he ordered as soon as the soldiers let me go and walked out of the room. “What?” I whispered as I looked around the room. When I saw how hateful everyone’s eyes was, my heart responded by beating fast. “Did you not hear me the first time?” Alpha Devon asked as he leaned forward and glared at me. “Get on your knees, Anaya!” His voice echoed in the room, and I was immediately on my knees as tears blurred my vision and I stared at the floor as I wondered what I had done to deserve this. The silence in the room was broken when one of the elders cleared his throat and spoke. “Anaya, I’m sure you know why you’re here in this position today. Things that people do in the past come to catch up with them eventually, and I’m sure you understand.” “I didn’t do anything.” I shook my head. “There’s nothing I possibly did that warrants me kneeling in front of all of you like this.” “How dare you?” My mate asked. “You know how much I’ve been trying to find the people who did it. You saw me working hard each and every day to find the people who killed my parents.” My heart dropped as I finally looked up at him, but I remained confused because I didn’t know what he was getting at. “I know that, Alpha Devon. What does that—” “Then why didn’t you tell me that you were the one who killed them?” Time stopped for a moment, and I looked around the room to see if anyone really believed that. They glared at me as if they did. “I didn’t kill your parents, Alpha Devon. This has to be some sort of mistake.” I shook my head in denial. “Your parents died four years ago. I was eighteen years old when the attack happened. How could I have possibly done it?” “Is that your excuse?” He asked me as he finally stood up, and I felt my stomach churn as he slowly approached me. “That you were eighteen and you didn’t know what you were doing? That’s what you’re going with?” “I didn’t kill them. I didn’t even—” “I got in contact with a seer today. That seer told me that the person who was behind the murder of my parents was right under my roof, and it was none other than the person I call my mate.” That was impossible. How could a seer say something that wasn’t true? “Please.” I got on my feet as he got closer to me, taking steps back so he wouldn’t be close enough to touch me. He looked as if he was going to hurt me, and that was the last thing I wanted. “Anaya, all you have to do is confess about your involvement. By denying it, you’re making Alpha Devon even angrier,” one of the elders said. “I didn’t do anything!” I yelled, causing them to jump as if I was going to hurt them. “This is ridiculous. What reason do I have to hurt the former Alpha and Luna of the pack?! What would I gain from it?” Devon sped toward me and grabbed me by the arm, his grip so strong that it hurt and caused me to yelp as he pushed me out of the throne room and threw me in the arms of one of the soldiers. “Anaya, you do not want me to do what I want to do to you. If you tell us what you did to my parents, how you did it, and why you did it, maybe I’ll consider having a little mercy on you because you’re my mate. But the more you deny—” “There’s nothing to deny if I didn’t do anything. You have to believe me, please! For the sake of the mate bond that we share, you have to consider the fact that—” “We don’t share a mate bond!” He yelled, and I gasped at how loud he was. “No mate of mine would kill my parents and keep lying to my face about it. I will ask you only two three more times right now, and you have to tell me the truth just once. Anaya, did you have anything to do with the death of my parents?” For a moment, I considered telling him that I did. Maybe if I lied and threw myself in danger, he wouldn’t treat me like this. Maybe if I admitted that I killed him even if I didn’t, he wouldn’t hate me. But I couldn’t do it. I shook my head. Why did I have to tell him that I killed his parents when I didn’t? I couldn’t lie about something like that when the people who did it were roaming free. I refused to take the blame. “I didn’t do anything to your parents. I didn’t even know them that well. I’m being framed for something I have no idea about,” I answered. In frustration, Devon paced back and forth with his head in his hands as he muttered that he was fighting the urge to kill me right then and there. He asked me the same question two more times, and I told the truth twice. Why wouldn’t be believe me? Who was the seer that had told him that I had killed his parents? Why would a seer lie? “Soldiers,” Alpha Devon said as he looked at his soldiers. “Take her to one of the cells in the dungeon, and get her to confess to what she’s done.” “Alpha Devon, please. You can’t do this. I didn’t do anything to them. There’s been some sort of mistake. You have to consult the seer again—” “Torture her if you have to. Don’t kill her just yet, but you have my permission to break her until she tells the truth.”