Chapter 2.
1022 Words
Naomi’s POV
I woke up to the cold floor of a servant room, my body stiff and arching. For a moment, I thought it was another nightmare, one of those cruel dreams that ended with me waking up alone in my Luna chambers, clutching my chest as the bond burned quietly inside me.
But the rough mat under my palm did not disappear. This was real. My Luna chamber was gone. My things were gone. My place was gone.
My title had been stripped from me as easily as if I had been given. I remembered the guards the night before, how they avoided my eyes as they escorted me through familiar corridors, treating me like I was a criminal instead of the woman who had once ruled beside their Alpha.
I pushed myself upright slowly, my joints protesting. The room smelled of damp stone and old linen. No windows, candles. Just silence thick enough to choke on.
As soon as I stepped outside, the whispers started
“Broken Luna”
“Cursed womb”
“She killed her own pups.”
Some didn't even bother lowering their voices. A woman carrying a basket of herbs paused just long enough to look over me with disgust before clicking her tongue and walking away.
I kept my head down. That was how I survived. That was how I had always survived.
Every step through the pack grounds felt wrong, like the land itself had rejected me. Wolves I had once healed, children I had once blessed under the moon, they all looked at me as though I carried a sickness that might spread if they stood too close.
By dawn, I gathered what little courage I had left and walked toward the Beta quarters. My guardian’s home. The place that had once meant safety.
I stood outside for a long time before knocking, my hand hovering inches from the door. A strange tightness settled in my chest, sharp and uneasy, like my body was warning me away.
Still, I knocked, no answer.
I knocked again, harder this time.
The door finally opened just a c***k. One of the guards looked at me, his expression stiff.
“He’s not seeing anyone,” he said flatly.
“I just need a moment,” I whispered. “Please. Tell him Naomi is here.”
The guard hesitated, then disappeared inside.
Hope, foolish, fragile hope, flickered in my chest.
It died seconds later.
“He said he’s busy,” the guard said, closing the door in my face.
Busy?
I stared at the wooden door long after the guard left, my reflection staring back at me on the polished surface. Pale. Hollow-eyed. Smaller than I remembered.
I had buried my parents. I had buried my pups. I had buried my pain so deep I thought it would never crawl back out.
But this…this hurt differently.
As I turned away, memories surfaced unbidden.
Him standing over me after my first miscarriage, pressing a cup into my trembling hands.
“Drink this,” he had said gently. “Healing herbs. They’ll help your womb recover.”
I remembered the bitterness on my tongue. How my stomach twisted violently afterward. How my wolf had whimpered and gone silent for days.
Another memory followed.
My third miscarriage. My blood soaking into the sheets. Me crying, begging, shaking.
“It’s fate, Naomi,” he had told me calmly, patting my hair. “The Moon Goddess gives and takes. You must accept what she wills.”
I had believed him. Because I trusted him.
My chest tightened painfully as I walked away, bile rising in my throat. For the first time, I wondered, no, I feared, that nothing in my life had been an accident.
A sudden sharp pain sliced through my side, stealing the breath from my lungs.
I gasped, doubling over as someone passed me.
Lila.
She didn’t even touch me.
She simply walked by, her presence brushing against mine like a blade, and the pain surged again, unnatural, deep, wrong. My vision blurred, white flashing at the edges.
Lila slowed, turning just enough to glance at me over her shoulder.
She smiled, not wide or openly..just enough.
My wolf stirred beneath my skin then, not in fear or grief but anger. Hot. Coiled. Awake in a way she had never been before.
I pressed my palm against my chest, breathing hard.
Why did my body always fail me?
Why did my wolf never answer when I called?
The questions circled my mind relentlessly, refusing to leave. I had begged the Moon Goddess for years, kneeling in blood and prayer, offering obedience and silence in exchange for mercy.
What if mercy had never been the problem?
That night, sleep came unwillingly.
When it did, it dragged me into darkness.
I stood under a vast silver moon, the ground slick with blood beneath my bare feet. The air vibrated with power so heavy it pressed down on my lungs.
In the center of the clearing, I saw chains.
They were massive, glowing faintly with ancient symbols, wrapped tightly around something enormous.
A wolf.
Bigger than any I had ever seen. Its fur was matted with blood, its eyes glowing faintly through pain and rage. Every breath it took rattled, each movement causing the chains to bite deeper into its flesh.
My heart shattered.
I ran toward it, screaming its name, though I didn’t know what that name was.
The wolf lifted its head slowly, eyes locking onto mine.
Not weak, broken but furious.
A voice echoed through the clearing, low and ancient, not spoken aloud but carved into my bones.
“You were sealed.”
The chains began to glow brighter.
I screamed and I woke up.
My body jolted upright, breath tearing from my lungs as I stared down at my hands. They were smeared with blood.
Fresh and warm.
My scream tore through the servant room, echoing off stone walls as I staggered backward, heart hammering violently in my chest.
This time, I knew.
Whatever had been taken from me…
Whatever had been locked away..
Was beginning to fight back.
- Writer
