THE WORTHLESS LUNA THEY BURIED

Two

I woke to a throbbing headache that pulsed in time with my heartbeat. The world was dark, and smelled of damp earth and pine. The sky was a deep, starless velvet above me.

“Hello.”

Chad’s face appeared, blocking the patch of sky. He was smiling. Beside him, Louisa peered down, her expression one of gleeful curiosity.

“How do you like your new place, sister?” she cooed.

I tried to sit up, but my body screamed in protest. My limbs were heavy, numb. That’s when I felt the walls around me. Smooth, polished wood. Close. Too close. I managed to lift my head.

I was in a coffin.

A scream lodged in my throat, coming out as a strangled gasp. I was lying in a simple wooden box, six feet beneath the earth. The walls of the freshly dug grave rose around us.

“What is the meaning of this?” I scowled, pushing against the satin lining, but my arms were like lead.

Chad held up a piece of paper. Even in the dim light, I could see my own name at the top. “Divorce papers. Already signed with your thumbprint. If you hadn’t been so pig-headed, I wouldn’t have had to resort to this.”

“Resort to what?” I whispered, the horror dawning, cold and final.

“Ending you for good,” he said, his voice casual, as if discussing the weather.

“You… you want to bury me alive.”

Louisa sighed, as if I were being deliberately slow. “He sent you to prison hoping you’d die there so I can re-enter his life smoothly, you stupid girl. A weak, wolfless thing like you? The hard labour, the fights… he was sure you wouldn’t last a year. But you’re surprisingly stubborn. So since you didn’t have the decency to die there, he’ll finish the job himself now.”

I looked at Chad, the man I’d given everything to. “How can you do this? I’ve never hurt you. I only ever loved you.”

“And I guess that was your biggest mistake,” he smirked, glancing at Louisa with adoration. “A weak, wolfless, love-sick beggar of a Luna. Did you really think I’d keep you forever? You’re worthless. You can’t even give me strong pups.” He gestured to Louisa. “But look at her. She’s everything. Beautiful. Smart. A true she-wolf. She’s not a pathetic, wolfless b***h like you.”

The words were the final shovel of dirt on my heart. I looked at them, at their intertwined hands, and all I felt was a scorching, pure scorn. I tried to heave myself up, one last, futile act of defiance.

Louisa’s foot shot out. Her shoe, elegant and sharp, connected with my shoulder, shoving me back down into the coffin. “Nice try.”

“Goodbye, Angeline,” Chad said, not a flicker of remorse in his eyes. He leaned down and grabbed the heavy lid.

“No! Chad, please! DON’T!” I screamed, my hands flying up to stop him.

He slammed the lid shut. The world was snuffed out into absolute, suffocating blackness. The sound of the latch clicking into place was the loudest thing I’d ever heard.

Then, a worse sound. The first heavy, wet thud of dirt hitting the wood above my face.

I screamed until my throat was raw, pounding my fists against the lid, scratching at the satin. “LET ME OUT! MOON GODDESS, PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!”

Their laughter, faint and muffled, filtered through the earth and wood for a moment. Then, nothing. Just the relentless, steady thud of the dirt, burying me, burying their secret.

The air grew thick and stale. Each breath was labor. The darkness was absolute, a weight pressing down on my chest. I was still struggling, my movements growing weaker, my pleas turning to whimpers directed at the cold, uncaring earth.

“Please… please… I don’t want to die…”

My lungs burned, screaming for air that was turning thick and sour. The darkness wasn’t just around me; it was inside me, seeping into my bones. This is it. This is how I die. Forgotten. Betrayed.

My arms fell to my sides, heavy as stone. I was so tired.

Then, a memory flashed. Chad’s laugh. Louisa’s smirk. “Pathetic, wolfless bitch.”

My eyes flew open in the blackness.

No.

A spark ignited in my chest. Not hope. Something older. Hotter. A raw, tearing rage that boiled up from a place I never knew existed. It burned through the numbness, through the despair.

I pushed against the coffin lid. The wood groaned.

A strange warmth flooded my veins, like liquid fire. It crackled under my skin, singing a song of ancient power. My bones… they itched. They began to snap and reshape with agonizing, glorious force. Fur erupted along my arms. My jaw stretched, my senses exploding.

A guttural snarl ripped from a throat that was no longer entirely human.

With a final, deafening c***k of splintering wood, I burst upwards. Dirt showered around me as I exploded from the grave, landing on all fours on the raw earth. I was a wolf. Sleek, powerful, my coat the colour of shadows. I threw my head back and a howl tore from my jaws, a sound of grief, fury, and rebirth.

The shift back to human form was swift, leaving me gasping on my hands and knees in the torn remains of my dress. The joy of the shift, the miracle of it, was drowned by the acid of betrayal. My breath fogged in the cold air. I uncurled one fist, my fingers digging deep into the cold, damp soil of my own grave.

I looked toward the cemetery gate, toward the packhouse lights glimmering in the distance.

My voice was a raw scrape, a vow to the uncaring moon. “I will destroy you, Chad. I will destroy you both.” The words settled in the silent graveyard, a deadly promise. “I won’t be that innocent Angeline anymore. I will be the Lucifer who makes your lives a living hell.”

I tried to push myself up, but my new strength was gone, spent in the burst of my awakening. My legs buckled. I fell back onto the grave dirt, my vision swimming.

A shadow blotted out the moon. A tall, broad-shouldered figure stood at the edge of the grave, looking down at me. I couldn’t make out his face, only the imposing silhouette.

“Wh… who…?” I slurred.

The world tilted, then went dark. The last thing I felt was the sensation of strong arms sliding beneath me, lifting me from the earth.