The Exiled Luna's Return

Five

12 Years Ago

Serenya's POV

Morning sunlight slipped into my dorm room when I opened the door. I stepped out, ready for another day of classes.

Then I froze.

A note was on the floor, folded neatly, held down by a ring.

I crouched and picked it up. The ring was silver, cool against my skin. Inside the band were words engraved: To My Luna.

Why is this here?

My chest tightened. Slowly, I unfolded the note and read: Your somg is the most beautiful thing in this world. Don’t ever stop playing.

The words were simple but they went straight through me. For the first time in years, I smiled.

The silence I always carried eased just a little. I slid the ring onto my finger. It fit snug, like it belonged there. I looked down the hall, half-expecting to see someone waiting. But it was empty.

There was no one.

I stood there for a long moment, wondering who had left it. A stranger? Someone I knew? My mind spun, but the silence gave no answers.

Still, the warmth stayed with me.

The final bell rang, and I hurried home. I kept touching it without thinking, grounding myself in the quiet comfort it gave me.

When I reached the house, I pushed the front door open.

And stopped.

Something was wrong.

Just like how everything felt wrong that day they attacked two years ago.

My books slipped from my arm and hit the floor with a thud.

My father lay in the living room. His body was sprawled across the rug, blood spreading out beneath him. His chest wasn’t moving. His eyes stared past me.

My wolf howled inside me, clawing, wild with grief. I opened my mouth, desperate to scream, to cry, to call for him.

But still, nothing came out.

It still had no sound. I still had no voice.

The silence that had followed me since our pack was destroyed now strangled me. My throat worked, but the words were broken before they left my lips.

I stumbled forward and dropped to my knees beside him. My hands shook as I pressed against his chest, his shoulder, trying to wake him, trying to deny what my eyes already knew.

Tears blurred my sight. My breaths came too fast.

I clutched my fist tight. The ring bit into my palm, a cruel reminder of a moment of happiness that had already slipped away.

I bent over my father, shaking, my silent sobs wracking through me. The house stayed quiet, as if the walls themselves knew it was over.

And I was powerless to call for help.

Then, the front door burst open.

My aunt stumbled in, breathless, her face pale with fear.

“Oh, my sweet child!” She rushed to me, her hands gripping my shoulders. “Are you hurt? Did they touch you?” Her eyes darted to the blood on the floor, then back to me.

I shook my head, trembling.

She pulled me into her arms for only a second before jerking me away from my father’s body. “Come, quickly! We don’t have time. Do you hear me? They’ll come for you, too.”

I fought her, digging my heels into the floor, reaching back toward him. I couldn’t leave him, not like this.

No— I tried to say, but the word never came.

My aunt's grip tightened. “I warned him this day would come,” she said. “I told your father after what happened to your mother that they will come back, but he wouldn’t listen. And now—” Her jaw clenched. “Now he’s gone, and if you want to live, you have to move.”

She dragged me toward the back door. My legs stumbled beneath me. My vision swam. None of it made sense—my father’s still chest, my aunt’s sharp words, the way the world had just collapsed in a single moment.

My hand caught on the banister, and the ring slipped from my finger.

It hit the floor with a soft, sharp sound that cut through everything.

I froze. My chest ached as I dropped to reach for it. My only promise. My only light.

“Leave it!” my aunt hissed, yanking me harder. “Do you want to die here too?”

I strained against her, but the ring was already out of reach.

The door slammed behind us, sealing the silence, sealing the loss.

I stumbled into the night, broken, empty, my father’s blood and the ring both left behind.

~ o 0 o ~

Present Day

The flyer crinkles in my hand. A charity gala hosted by the Dravenhart pack—the most powerful clan in the city.

My eyes fix on the name, but my mind drags me backward. The attacks on our family. The blood on the floor. My parents' lifeless bodies. My aunt’s grip dragging me into the night. The ring slipping from my hand.

And now that same ring sits on the finger of Kaelen’s fiancée.

I never knew who left it on my door. I never knew why it was meant for me. But it ended up with her. That can’t be chance.

Somehow, she’s tied to this. Maybe even to my parents' deaths.

The thought burns hotter the longer I stare at the flyer.

If she stole my ring, what else did she steal? My life. My place. Maybe even my future.

I can’t let it go.

So I make myself a promise. I’ll uncover who she really is. I’ll find out how she got that ring. And when the truth comes out, Kaelen will see her for what she is.

This gala will be the first step.

I’ll walk into their world, not as the broken girl I was, but as someone they won’t see coming. A beauty wrapped in innocence, hiding claws sharp enough to cut.

And when I sit at that piano, I’ll play the same piece I played the night the ring first appeared. The same notes that bound me to a secret I never understood.

This is where it begins.