The Luna They Branded a Traitor

The entire pack was chanting my name. Not my former name. Neriah Ashvale is no longer the quiet girl who used to trip over her own feet in training. They chanted the name I would wear tonight. Luna Neriah, mother of the Crescent Moon Pack, is coming. I stood in the middle of the courtyard, beneath a sky so full of stars it looked as if someone had spilled light across it, and I couldn’t stop shaking from happiness so big it scared me. Ryker stood in front of me, tall and warm, looking at me like I was the only person left in the world. His amber eyes were soft, in a way they were never with the pack. His hand, slow and steady, moved up and reached for mine. "Three years," he said, quiet enough that it felt like just ours, even with a hundred pairs of eyes watching. "Three years I have waited for this moment." 'I would have waited longer,' I whispered. His fingers were within an inch of mine. I could feel the heat from his palm already, like you feel a fire before you touch it. My whole body leaned into him, drawn by something older than both of us, something I’d been told about since I was a child and never really understood until now. Then his hand bridged the last inch between us. But our skins never met. At the far end of the courtyard, the big double doors burst open with such violence that one of them cracked against the stone wall. Somebody yelled. I turned, and my brain could not process what I was seeing. Beta Cassian Frost stumbled through the door, with a body in his arms. A fighter. His head was thrown back, throat open, blood spilling down the front of Cassian's shirt and splashing stones. More bodies dragged more warriors after him. The chant stopped. The music ceased. And somewhere behind me a child began to cry. “Ambush,” Cassian shouted, his voice cracking. “The eastern frontier. They knew just where we would be. They knew how many of us there were.” Ryker was moving, shouting orders, every inch the Alpha instead of the man who had just been reaching for my hand. I froze and looked at the dead warrior in Cassian's arms. I knew his face. Every winter he brought firewood to my mother. “Who knew our paths?” “Only the inner circle knew the paths,” Another voice said. “Only Alpha Ryker’s family. His mate.” The word 'mate' hung in the air like a slap. I knew not why, but I felt eyes turn to me. My skin went cold all over at once. "No," I said, and the sound of my voice was smaller than I wanted it to be. “I don't know a thing about patrol routes. I haven't even seen a map of the border.” Cassian lowered the dead warrior to the stones, and when he stood up again, his eyes met mine, and there was nothing gentle in them at all. “Then explain the situation,” he said. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment, darkened at one corner. He slammed it down at my feet. I stared at it like it was going to bite me. "Pick it up," Ryker said. His voice had changed. That wasn’t the voice from a minute ago. It was the voice of an Alpha commanding a stranger. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely unfold it. But when I did, my stomach dropped to the ground. It was in my hand. My handwriting traced the same border routes that Cassian had just described, with times and dates circled in red ink. That I had not written before. I swear it on my life. But my eyes could not disagree with what they saw. "I didn't write these words," I said. "I swear, by the Moon Goddess, I've never seen this paper in my life." “There’s your name at the bottom,” Cassian said. "In your own handwriting." There were whispers in the crowd, like wind through dry grass. I looked for a familiar face, someone who would step forward and say that was impossible. They knew me, I would never betray my own pack. Beside my father was my mother. They did not move. I didn't see either of them. I found Lyanna near the edge of the throng. My best friend since we were kids. Her hand was over her mouth, her eyes wide and wet, but her feet stayed planted exactly where they were. “Lyanna,” I said, my voice breaking. “Tell them. Tell them I would never do such a thing. She opened her mouth. For one heartbeat, hope surged so fast in my chest that I nearly toppled over. But nothing occurred. She looked away. "Ryker," I said, because he was the only one left who could stop this, the only person whose word still meant something to me. “You know me. "You've known me since we were kids. You know I could never do this.” His jaw was set tight. His eyes flickered from my face to the parchment in my hands and back again, and I saw something break behind them; I saw him choose the evidence over the years he’d spent loving me. “I want to believe you,” he said, so quietly only I could hear him. He repeated it again loudly, so the entire pack could hear it too. “But an Alpha can’t let love blind him to justice. Not even his own fuc*ing mate. “Ryker, please," I pleaded. “Warriors are gone,” he said. 'Someone told them where they would be standing.' Cassian moved forward again, and this time when he lifted his arm, he didn't point at the parchment. He pointed straight at me. "There is the traitor. There lies the reason our brothers lie dead on these stones tonight," he said, and his voice rang across the whole silent yard. Every eye in the courtyard followed his finger, and I stood there in my ceremony dress, parchment shaking in my hands, Ryker’s arm still frozen in the space between us, close enough to touch me, but far enough that he never would again.