THE BLOOD-STAINED
The scent of silver and jasmine filled the air—the sickening, sweet scent of my own death.
I lay paralyzed on the cold marble floor of the Luna’s private chambers, watching my life’s blood seep into the cream-colored Persian rug. Every breath felt like a jagged blade shredding my lungs. My wolf, Selene, was eerily silent; her spirit was crushed under the suffocating weight of the silver-laced poison coursing through our shared veins.
"Is she dead yet?"
The voice was cold, melodic, and belonged to the woman I had called my best friend for over a decade. Liliana.
She stepped into my blurring line of vision, her white silk dress untouched by the c*****e around us. She looked like a celestial being, but I could finally see the demon hiding behind those sapphire eyes. She crouched beside me, mocking me with a sympathetic pout that didn't reach her eyes.
"Oh, Seraphina," she whispered, her fingers stroking my matted, blood-soaked hair with terrifying tenderness. "You were always too soft for this world. Too weak to be an Alpha’s mate. For three years, you’ve held the title of Luna, and what did you give the Silvermoon Pack? Nothing. Not even a single pup."
The mention of a pup stung more than the poison. For three long years, I had endured the cruel whispers of the pack members, the icy glares of the elders, and the agonizing, humiliating fertility treatments—all because I wanted to give Damon, my mate and my world, an heir.
"D-Damon..." I choked out, a bubble of crimson foam bursting at my lips.
Liliana laughed—a sharp, glass-shattering sound that echoed in the cavernous, silent room. "Damon? You truly think he’s coming to save you? He’s the one who handed me the vial, Seraphina. He’s the one who signed your execution order before he went to pour the celebratory champagne."
My heart, already struggling to beat, shattered into a thousand jagged pieces. *Not Damon. Not my mate.* The bond between us had been my only anchor in a world of political shadows. He had promised to love me until the moon fell from the sky and the stars burned to ash.
"You're... lying," I wheezed, clinging to the ghost of his touch.
"Am I?" Liliana stood up, smoothing her dress over her perfectly flat stomach. "He’s waiting for me in the Alpha’s study right now. We’re announcing our mating ceremony tomorrow morning. And as for your 'fertility issues'... they were never yours, Seraphina. I’ve been slipping wolfsbane into your herbal tea every single morning for three years. I made sure your womb stayed a graveyard so I could be the one to carry the future of this pack."
She leaned down one last time, her voice a poisonous hiss against my ear. "And guess what? It worked. I’m pregnant, Seraphina. With the future Alpha of Silvermoon. You’re just a loose end that needs to be cut."
**[FLASHBACK: THE LIES OF LUNA'S PAST]**
My mind drifted, retreating from the pain into a memory from only two months ago. Damon had taken me to the cliffs overlooking the territory. The wind had been biting, but he had wrapped his heavy fur cloak around me, pulling me into the heat of his chest.
"Do not listen to the elders, Seraphina," he had murmured into my hair, his voice vibrating with a sincerity that I now realized was a masterpiece of deception. "If the Moon Goddess grants us a pup, I will be grateful. But if it is only you and I forever, I am the luckiest Alpha in history."
He had kissed me then—a deep, possessive kiss that tasted of pine and devotion. I had felt so safe. I had felt so loved. I didn't know that even then, he was planning how to dispose of the "charity case" orphan he had married to secure his borders.
**[BACK TO THE PRESENT: THE AWAKENING]**
Liliana turned and walked away, her heels clicking rhythmically like a ticking clock on the marble floor. "Guards! Clean this mess up. Throw her in the ravine and make it look like a rogue attack."
As the darkness threatened to pull me under, I felt a strange, electric flicker in the pit of my stomach. It wasn't the agonizing burn of the poison. It was a spark—a tiny, golden heartbeat that I hadn't felt before.
*I wasn't barren.*
The miracle I had prayed for was finally happening, but it was happening while I was being murdered. The realization hit me like a physical blow. Damon hadn't just killed me; he had ordered the death of his own innocent child because he was too impatient to wait for the wolfsbane to clear my system.
"Selene..." I called out into the pitch-black void of my mind.
My wolf didn't answer with a whimper this time. She answered with a primal growl that shook the very foundations of my soul. A surge of ancient, molten energy flooded my paralyzed limbs. This wasn't the power of a regular Silvermoon wolf. This was something buried deep in my forgotten lineage—the forbidden blood of the Lycan Kings.
**ENOUGH.**
The word thundered through my spirit. I felt my bones snapping and reforming—not into my usual slender grey wolf, but into something monstrous, beautiful, and terrifying. I grew larger, my fur turning the color of a midnight eclipse. The silver poison sizzled against my skin as my blood literally boiled it away.
I pushed myself off the floor with a strength that cracked the marble. The two guards who had entered the room froze, their spears clattering to the floor. They weren't looking at a dying, discarded Luna anymore. They were looking at a prehistoric predator that shouldn't exist.
"Where is he?" I growled. It wasn't a human voice, and it wasn't a wolf's howl. It was the sound of a Queen claiming her throne.
The guards didn't answer; they couldn't find their breath. I didn't wait for them. I leaped through the stained-glass window, the shards falling around me like a rain of diamonds.
I didn't head for the pack gates where the warriors waited. I headed for the Nightshade Forest—a place so dark and dangerous that even Alphas feared to tread there.
I needed to survive. Not for the title of Luna, and certainly not for a mate who was a monster. I had to survive for the tiny, golden life flickering inside me. Damon wanted a war? He would get one. But I wouldn't be the victim this time. I would be the storm that leveled his entire kingdom and left nothing but ash in my wake.
"Damon," I whispered into the howling wind as I vanished into the shadows. "The next time you see me, you will realize that you didn't kill a wolf. You woke up a Goddess. And I am coming for everything you love."
