5
1487 Words
“Seize the Luna!”
Lucien’s command hit the air like a blade.
For one second, everything went still. Even the wind paused, as if the world itself held its breath.
Then the guards rushed toward me.
I stepped back on instinct, but my legs were weak. My body was still tired from months of poison, and my wolf,my closest friend,was already fading inside me.
“Lucien… wait,”
I could not finish.
Rough hands grabbed my arms. Another guard pushed my shoulder so hard I stumbled forward. Someone kicked the back of my knee, and my legs folded beneath me. I cried out as my knees hit the cold ground.
Gasps rose from the pack.
Around me, more than a hundred wolves gathered in a circle. Faces I had known for years now stared at me with confusion. Some looked shocked, some looked uncomfortable, and some looked like they were waiting to understand why their Luna was on her knees like a criminal.
The silver chains were cold when they locked around my wrists. My skin burned where they touched. My wolf whimpered, weak and scared.
I looked up at Lucien.
My husband.
My mate.
The man the moon goddess tied me to.
He stood on the raised platform, looking down at me like a stranger. Cecily stayed behind him, holding his arm with a sad face, pretending to be hurt for him.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to fight.
But I was tired.
And everyone was watching.
Lucien lifted his chin and faced the pack.
“Your Luna has committed a great offense!” he shouted. His voice carried across the grounds, strong and dramatic. “She has failed me. She has failed her pack. And she has failed the moon goddess.”
A wave of murmurs spread through the crowd. Shock. Confusion. Anger.
But not at him,yet.
At me.
My heart shook inside my chest.
Lucien covered his face with his hands. When he dropped them, fake tears shone in his eyes. He let his voice crack as he spoke again.
“I loved her,” he said. “I trusted her. And she repaid me by sleeping with one of my own guards… and getting pregnant with another man’s pup.”
The world moved slowly.
I stared at him.
My mate was lying.
He knew he was lying.
But he said those words like they were truth.
“Lucien… no. No!” I cried out, pulling on the chains. “You know the truth! You poisoned me. You hurt me. This child is yours!”
My voice broke.
Gasps rose again.
Cecily stepped forward at that moment.
And like a trained actress, she began to cry.
“Please,” she said, shaking her head. “Please stop lying, Sora. I saw you with the guard. I tried to protect you. I stayed silent because I didn’t want to shame you.”
My vision blurred with rage.
“Cecily, you liar! You were the one sleeping with my mate!”
I tried to stand, but a guard shoved me back down.
Pain shot up my leg. My body trembled.
I wanted to throw myself at her and rip the fake tears off her face. My wolf tried to rise inside me, but she was too tired… too sick.
Lucien looked around at the pack, his expression full of heartbreak he did not feel.
“Tell me,” he said loudly, “why would I lie against my own mate?”
I almost laughed at the audacity of it.
A broken laugh, sad and hysterical.
“Because you want me gone,” I whispered. “Because the moon goddess gave you another mate after your first died, and you never wanted me. You wanted her.”
Lucien’s smile twitched.
The pack murmured again,this time confused.
He raised his hand.
“Guard,” he called out. “Step forward.”
One of the warriors,the youngest, barely a man,walked up with fear in his eyes.
Lucien asked, “Did you sleep with the Luna? Tell the truth.”
The guard swallowed hard… then nodded.
“Yes, Alpha. I did.”
My breath left my body.
“No,” I said. “No, please. You do not have to lie for them. Please,”
Lucien didn’t let me finish.
He grabbed the guard by the throat,swift, sudden,and snapped his neck with one twist.
The pack screamed. Wolves shifted. Some covered their children’s eyes.
The guard’s body dropped to the ground.
Cecily gasped dramatically and held Lucien’s arm. “Oh Lucien, you didn’t have to,”
“He disgraced me,” Lucien said coldly. “He disgraced the pack. And he disgraced the mate bond.”
More whispers. More eyes on me.
My body felt numb.
My heartbeat pounded like it wanted to burst.
“This is a lie,” I shouted. “You poisoned me. You made me sick. Ask the pack doctor! He checked me every month!”
“Very well,” Lucien said. “Bring the pack doctor.”
The doctor stepped forward slowly. Too slowly. His head stayed down. His hands shook.
He had looked after me since I arrived in this pack.
He had seen my fever, my pain, my weakness, my miscarriages.
I looked into his eyes, begging him to tell the truth.
He would not even look at me.
“Doctor,” Lucien said, “did Sora show signs of being with another man?”
The doctor cleared his throat.
“I… I do not know what the Luna is talking about.”
His words felt like a punch to my stomach.
My chest tightened. My vision dimmed.
I felt more alone in that moment than when I lost my parents.
“You know what he did to me,” I whispered. “You know the truth. How can you stand there and lie?”
The doctor lowered his head.
Lucien stepped down from the platform, walking toward me with slow, heavy steps.
I looked up at him. My tears fell without stopping.
“How could you do this to your mate?” I whispered. “Did the moon goddess make a mistake when she tied us together?”
He leaned forward, and before I realized what was happening, he slapped me hard across the face.
My head snapped to the side. Pain spread through my cheek.
And then,quick and hidden from the pack,he pushed something small and bitter into my mouth.
I choked in surprise. The taste burned my tongue.
Instantly, my wolf screamed inside me,then went silent.
My heart dropped.
I tried to reach for her again.
Nothing.
Lucien stepped back and raised his voice.
“The Luna is not carrying my pup. Smell her! Her pup has no scent. The only time a pup has no scent is when the mother uses an herb to hide the scent.”
The pack gasped again.
I froze.
The herb he shoved into my mouth,that was it.
It killed the pup scent.
He did it to frame me.
“You monster,” I whispered, my voice shaking.
The crowd turned against me fast.
Some wolves shouted.
Some pointed.
Some spit at me.
One woman cried, “How could you betray us?”
Another man yelled, “Luna, why?”
I shook my head again and again.
“It is not true. Please… listen to me… please…”
Lucien lifted his hands.
“Calm down,” he said, pretending to be noble. “Even though she is my mate, I will not forgive anyone who breaks the laws of the pack.”
He turned back to me.
I felt the world tilt.
He inhaled deeply and spoke in a strong, steady voice.
“I, Alpha Lucien Draven Blackthorn, reject Sora Amaris Vale as my mate and Luna.”
My heart stopped.
The mate bond snapped inside me like a rope pulled apart.
Pain exploded in my chest,sharp, deep, crushing.
Normally a wolf would shield her human from the pain.
But my wolf was gone.
The rejection pain crashed into me without mercy.
I screamed and fell forward. It felt like my ribs were breaking. Like someone was grinding my heart between two stones. I clawed at the ground, gasping for air.
My vision blurred. My hearing faded.
But I forced myself to speak, even through the agony.
“I… Sora Amaris Vale… accept your rejection…”
My voice broke.
“…even if it kills me.”
The moment I said the words, the pain doubled. Then spread.
My breath left me in a trembling gasp.
I collapsed on the cold dirt as Lucien turned away from me like I was nothing.
The pack whispered. Cecily smiled. The moon hid behind a cloud.
And for the first time in my life, I wondered if the goddess really hated me.
I lay there, shaking, weak, alone, and broken.
There was no hope for me.
- Writer
