Queen’s Strike Back

The Forgotten Luna

The mirror showed me a ghost.

I stared at the woman staring back hollow eyes, sunken cheeks, a silver band on her finger that had once meant forever. She was thin, almost frail, her dark hair limp and lifeless. The Luna of the Shadowfang Pack, reduced to a shadow in her own home.

"Mommy!"

My son's voice came from the hallway. Five-year-old Eli raced toward me, his arms outstretched, a grin spreading across his face. I knelt to catch him, my heart aching with love and pain.

But he didn't run to me.

He ran past me.

"Mommy!" Eli shouted again, throwing his arms around Lyra Vance. The woman in the doorway smiled sweetly, her blonde hair perfect, her dress designer-made. She knelt and hugged him like he was her own.

My son. Calling another woman Mommy.

My hands clenched into fists. My wolf, Seraphina, snarled deep inside me. She wanted to shift, to tear the mistress apart, to remind this pack who I really was.

Not yet, I told her. Not yet.

Lyra looked up at me, her smile never wavering. "Oh, Sera. You're still here. I thought you'd be in your room by now."

"I live here," I said flatly.

"Do you?" She laughed, a tinkling sound that grated on my nerves. "It's so easy to forget."

Eli tugged on her sleeve. "Mommy, can we have cookies?"

"Of course, darling," Lyra cooed. "Anything for my sweet boy."

My sweet boy. The words cut deeper than any blade.

I watched them walk away, hand in hand, and I felt something inside me die. The mask I wore the weak, broken Luna was beginning to crack.

Later that night, I stood outside Alpha Kael's study.

Voices drifted through the door, his voice, low and commanding, and Lyra's, soft and seductive.

"When will you get rid of her?" Lyra asked. "I'm tired of pretending."

"Patience," Kael said. "She's useful. The pack still respects her. I need her to sign the land transfer before I can..." He paused.

"Before you can what?"

"Before I can have her killed."

My blood turned to ice. The mask I had worn for five years, the docile Luna, the devoted mate vanished. In its place, something ancient and terrible stirred.

I had been a fool. I loved him. I had given him five years of my life, a son, my heart. And he had been planning to kill me all along.

No more.

I turned and walked away, my footsteps silent on the marble floor. My wolf was no longer snarling. She was smiling.

In the privacy of my chambers, I pulled off my wedding ring and tossed it on the dresser. The silver glinted in the candlelight, a constant reminder of everything I had lost.

But I was no longer mourning.

I opened the chest at the foot of my bed, the one I kept locked, the one Kael had never bothered to inspect. Inside lay a black leather armor, worn but well-maintained. A pair of twin daggers gleamed in the candlelight. And a memory.

I had been Seraphina Blackwood once. Not this ghost. Not this broken Luna.

I had been a warrior. The scourge of the Northern Wastes. The Wolf of a Thousand Battles.

I had killed a hundred men before I turned twenty.

And then I fell in love. I had given up everything for Kael: my title, my glory, my fire. I had become soft, trusting, blind.

Never again.

I ran my hand over the leather armor. The symbol of the Shadowfang Pack was faded but still visible. I had earned that symbol in blood.

And now... I would stain it more.

The next morning, I was summoned to the Great Hall.

I walked in with my head down, my shoulders hunched. The mask was back in place. I was the weak Luna again, the one everyone pitied.

Kael stood on the dais, his hand on his mate marking the one we shared. Lyra sat beside him, her eyes smug.

"Sera," Kael said, his voice dripping with false concern. "We need to talk."

"About what?" I asked, my voice soft and trembling.

"About your future," Lyra cut in. "You're obviously struggling. We think it's time you stepped down as Luna."

"My future?"

"Don't play dumb," Lyra said sharply. "You're useless. A broken Luna who can't even do her duties. The pack deserves better."

Kael nodded. "I've arranged for you to stay in the pack's southern territory. Isolated. Peaceful. You'll be able to recover there and sign over your rights."

I looked between them. At the mate who had sworn to protect me. At the mistress who had taken everything.

And I smiled.

"You want me to disappear," I said softly. "To sign away my rights. To die quietly."

Kael's eyes narrowed. "Sera"

"Five years," I said, my voice rising. "Five years I have loved you. Five years I have been your devoted Luna. I gave you a son. I gave you everything."

"The pack is changing," Lyra snapped. "No one wants you here."

I looked at her. "You are nothing," I said. "A cheap imitation of a Luna. A placeholder."

Lyra's face flushed with rage. "How dare you"

"You're right," I said, cutting her off. "How dare I? How dare I be so weak. So stupid. So trusting."

I reached up and unpinned my hair. It fell around my shoulders, longer and darker than the flat, lifeless strands I had worn for years. I straightened my spine, rolling my shoulders back.

Kael froze.

"Sera," he said slowly. "Your eyes."

Lyra gasped.

My eyes were no longer the dull grey they had been for years. They were burning gold in the eyes of a warrior.

"I am Seraphina Blackwood," I said, my voice clear and strong. "Firstborn of the Northern Wastes. The Wolf of a Thousand Battles. You forgot who I was, Kael. You forgot what I am."

I stepped forward, and Kael stepped back.

"You chose a mistress over me," I said. "You made my son call her mother. You planned to have me killed."

"Sera, I"

"You made a mistake," I said. "And you will pay for it."

The doors of the Great Hall burst open. General Aldric walked in, his armor gleaming, a dozen warriors behind him.

"My Lady," Aldric said, his voice filled with respect. "We are ready."

I nodded.

"You," I said, turning back to Kael and Lyra. "You are nothing. And I will destroy everything you love."

I walked out of the Great Hall without looking back.

The game was just beginning.