The Tyrant Moonborn Luna

Framed In Blood

Lyra Point Of View

"Tie her to the post and fetch the iron."

Alpha Kael's voice cut through the freezing night air like a sharp blade.

I was dragged across the snow-covered courtyard of the Blackthorn packhouse, my knees scraping violently against sharp, cut ice. Heavy iron chains bit into my wrists, leaving dark trails of red on the white snow. Around us, the entire pack had gathered in a circle of hatred. Wolves who had smiled in my face yesterday, warriors I had healed in the infirmary, and elders who had blessed my engagement were screaming for my blood tonight.

"Thief!" a warrior yelled, stepping out from the crowd to spit directly on my torn tunic.

"Traitor!" a woman shrieked from the back. "She tried to ruin our sacred pack! Burn the Omega!"

I lifted my head with immense effort, my breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps that turned to white mist in the brutal winter temperature. My chest burned from the silver-coated iron chafing my skin, but the agonizing betrayal in my heart was infinitely worse.

Standing on the high marble balcony above the courtyard was Alpha Kael... My supposed fated mate. The man the Moon Goddess had chosen for me. The man whose half-formed mating mark still throbbed on my collarbone like a fresh wound.

Beside him stood Lady Sylvan, her golden eyes gleaming with triumphant malice. She leaned delicately against Kael's arm, her pale hands clutching an empty, shattered velvet case.

"She stole the Moonstone," Kael declared, his booming Alpha tone echoing across the courtyard, instantly crushing the breath from my lungs with sheer aura. "The sacred relic of our ancestors. The foundation of Blackthorn's power and prosperity."

"I didn't steal it!" I screamed, my voice raw, cracking against the icy wind. "Kael, look at me! Look into my eyes! You know I would never betray you!"

"Silence, Omega!" Kael growled, his command slamming into my mind like a physical blow.

He jumped over the balcony railing, landing heavily in the snow before me with a dull thud. His golden eyes, once filled with soft promises of a lifetime together, were now dead, cold, and void of a single drop of warmth.

"We found the residual magic in your quarters, Lyra," Kael said softly, bending down so only I could hear his icy whisper. "You are wolfless. Broken. A useless stray. You knew I would never make a weak Omega my true Luna, so you tried to take the Moonstone to absorb its power for yourself."

"It's a lie!" I sobbed, shaking my head as hot tears froze almost instantly on my cheeks. "Sylvan framed me! She came to my room, she placed the case under my bed..."

SLAP!

The sheer force of his open hand sent my head snapping to the side, the bitter, metallic taste of blood bursting across my tongue. My vision went black for a terrifying second.

"Do not speak her name with your filthy mouth," Kael spat, standing tall and turning his back on me to face the cheering pack. "By the authority of the Blackthorn Pack, I sever the bond!"

An excruciating tear ripped through the very fabric of my soul as Kael forcibly shattered our mate bond. A blinding, searing pain tore through my chest, as if a piece of my beating heart had been ripped out with bare claws. I collapsed forward into the freezing dirt, gasping for air that wouldn't come.

"She is stripped of her title, branded a traitor, and sentenced to immediate execution," Kael commanded, pulling his heavy silver hunting blade from his belt. "Executioners, take her to the border tree."

Two massive Enforcers stepped forward, their eyes gleaming with sadistic bloodlust as they reached for my hair.

Run, a tiny, ancient voice whispered from deep within my spirit, a dormant spark of something long forgotten suddenly waking in my soul. RUN!

Adrenaline surged through my blood like lightning, momentarily drowning out the agonizing empty ache in my chest.

As the first Enforcer reached down to grab me, I didn't pull away, instead I lunged forward like a stray animal. I drove my teeth deep into his wrist with every ounce of desperate force I had left. The Enforcer roared in pain, involuntarily loosening his grip and dropping the heavy keys to my shackles into the snow.

Before anyone could comprehend what was happening, I snatched the key, unlocked the left manacle, and threw the heavy iron chain directly into the second guard's face. Bone broke loudly as his nose shattered, sending him stumbling back into the snow.

"She's escaping!" Sylvan screamed from the high balcony, her calm facade threatening to peeling off. "Kill her! Don't let her leave!"

"Fetch the Dogs!" Kael shouted, his voice filled with absolute, blindingly rage. "I want her head on a pike by sunrise!"

I didn't look back. I threw my weight over the stone wall, rolling down the rocky slope and falling directly into the pitch-black, freezing grounds of the Whispering Woods.

Blackwood's Dogs echoed in the distance behind me, their vicious howls cutting through the silent forest. Silver arrows moved through the dark canopy, tearing through my clothes and grazing my shoulders, leaving burning marks and smell in their wake. Blood poured down my legs, soaking my boots, but I kept running. My lungs burned like fire, and my legs felt like lead, but fear pushed me faster than I had ever moved in my life.

I had only one direction to go.

Ahead lay the northern ravine..the lawless, deadly boundary line where Blackthorn territory ended and Nightvale began.

Crossing that line meant entering the hunting grounds of Alpha Darius, the deadliest tyrant in the northern empire, a merciless monster who slaughtered trespassers without a second thought.

Behind me was a executioner's blade. Ahead was a legendary beast.

I chose the beast.

My boots hit the frozen edge of the boundary ravine, and with the very last breath in my dying body, I threw myself across the snow, crossing the line into Nightvale....