Chapter 1: After Four Years in the Prison
(Celeste’s POV)
My hands were like blocks of ice, stiff and cracked from the biting cold as I scrubbed a coarse tunic against the jagged washboard. The frigid water seeped through the thin fabric of my prison uniform, chilling me to the bone.
I’d long stopped feeling the sting of pain whenever my knuckles split or the skin on my fingertips peeled. Pain was a constant companion here, alongside humiliation and despair.
The wolf that usually oversaw our work was standing nearby, his sharp gaze burning into us like a predator marking prey.
But today, something felt…off. His behavior was unusual. Instead of barking orders or berating the slowest workers, he seemed almost nervous.
“Celeste,” he called out, louder than necessary, as though trying to disguise his unease.
I froze mid-motion, the tunic slipping from my frozen fingers back into the bucket. He never addressed me by my name. It was always “You” or “Prisoner No. 12.”
My heart skipped a beat, not from hope—no, I’d learned not to hope—but from the unsettling feeling that something had changed.
“The Alpha has sent someone to pick you up. Come here,” he added, his tone almost obsequious.
I blinked, trying to comprehend his words. For a moment, I stood motionless, unsure of how to react. Was this another cruel joke? Another punishment disguised as mercy?
My fingers clenched the edge of the bucket as I searched his face for any hint of the truth.
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” he snapped, though his voice lacked its usual venom.
I set the tunic aside and rose to my feet, the icy mud beneath my shoes sucking at them with each step. My legs trembled—not just from the cold, but from exhaustion. Who could possibly want me after all this time?
As I followed him toward the prison gates, memories surged to the forefront of my mind, as vivid as if they’d happened yesterday.
I was fourteen again, the cherished daughter of the powerful Winters Pack. My parents—no, Alpha James and Luna Catherine—looked at me with adoration, pride.
I’d learned to walk beneath their watchful eyes, performed my first moon ceremony by their side. For years, I was their treasure, their daughter in every sense that mattered.
Until one day, everything shattered.
The truth came out, carried on the lips of a dying maid who confessed to switching Alpha Catherine’s true daughter, Scarlett, with me at birth. My so-called sister.
My parents wept with joy, genuine joy, when Scarlett was returned to them. And me? I was reassured with hollow words.
“You’re still our daughter,” Alpha James had promised. I’d believed him. I’d clung to those words like a drowning wolf clings to driftwood.
But when Scarlett broke the Alpha King’s daughter’s sacred moon crystal and blamed me, their actions spoke louder than any words.
It was me who wore the chains. Me who felt the Alpha King’s wrath. Me who was dragged to Moon Shadow Prison, discarded like I was nothing.
I swallowed the bitterness that rose in my throat as I stepped past the gates. Four years of torment, suffering, and survival, only to be told I was “lucky” to be summoned now. Luck was a cruel joke.
There, waiting just beyond the gates, was Lucas.
My lungs seized. Lucas Winters—my brother in everything but blood.
The boy who once chased me around the estate, ruffling my hair and teaching me how to defend myself from bullies.
The same boy who later took a whip to my back in the freezing snow, his face cold and unyielding as he punished me at Scarlett’s behest.
“Celeste.” His tone was calm, but his emerald eyes carried something...familiar. Regret?
No. Regret had no place between us now.
“Grandmother misses you,” he said softly, as though the words might heal the gaping wound he’d left in my heart years ago. “The Alpha King pardoned you because of your age. Come home.”
Home? Wasn’t that a place where you were loved? At least once, I might have believed his words, but now they were as empty as the sky without a moon.
I curtsied, keeping my face blank. “Thank you, Alpha, for the pardon.” My voice was icy, distant.
Shock flickered across his face, quickly replaced by irritation. “You should call them Father and Mother. You’re still their child. You shouldn’t—”
A sharp laugh escaped me, unbidden and bitter. “Their child?” The words burned as I said them.
“Do you think I’ve forgotten how four years of their silence feels? How many times I begged for a word or a visit, only to be met with nothing?”
His jaw tightened. “Don’t speak to me like that.”
I dipped into another shallow bow, the mockery in the gesture unmistakable. “Yes, Alpha.”
The tension crackled between us like a live wire. He visibly wrestled with his next words before turning toward the car.
“Fine. Don’t keep Grandmother waiting too long.” His voice was clipped, but beneath it, I thought I heard...worry? Or was I imagining it?
Lucas’s long strides quickly carried him to the sleek car parked a short distance away.
I followed hesitantly, my weak and malnourished body barely able to keep up. Each step was agony, but I refused to ask for help. Not from him. Not from anyone.
By the time I reached the vehicle, my legs felt like lead. I instinctively moved to the back seat, the distant echoes of Scarlett’s voice mocking me.
“You’re not worthy of sitting next to Lucas,” she’d hissed as children years ago, a whip in her hand. The memory tightened like a noose around my lungs.
“Sit in the passenger seat,” Lucas ordered, his tone sharp.
“No,” I said firmly. My voice wavered, but I forced myself to stand tall. “I’ll sit in the back.”
His patience snapped. “Why? Are you unwilling to come back? What are you aggrieved about?” His hand tightened on the car door as his temper flared.
I flinched, but his anger only grew.
“Scarlett suffered for fourteen years because of you,” he spat, his voice shaking with fury. “You’ve only suffered four years for her sake. What gives you the right to feel wronged?”
The words hit me like a whip across the chest. My heart sank, the numbness I’d cultivated for four years cracking under the weight of his accusations.
His hand clenched, and without another word, he slammed the car door shut and climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Walk if you’re so unwilling,” he bit out before driving away, the tires kicking up icy slush that splattered onto my already worn clothes.
I stood there, trembling—not with anger, not even with sadness, but with something far colder and deeper: resignation.
When the taillights of Lucas’s car disappeared from view, I forced my legs to move. The journey to the Alpha’s house loomed ahead, the thought of facing them—all of them—filling me with dread.
My body ached with every step, small gasps of pain escaping my lips as I stumbled through the snow.
My prison shoes offered no protection, and by the time my feet sank into another snowdrift, I could barely feel my toes.
Then, a car pulled up in front of me, cutting through the swirling snow like a shadow come to life.
The passenger window rolled down, and a familiar voice called out. “Celeste?”
I felt my knees weaken as I looked up, my breath catching in my throat. There he was, larger than life, his sharp ice-blue eyes piercing me even from the distance: Alexander.
My one-time fiancé. My first and only love.
The voice I had longed to hear whispered my name again. "Celeste…”
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