The MOONSINGER'S Vengeance

Untitled Episode

CHAPTER ONE: THE NIGHT EVERYTHING SHATTERED

Sylvia's POV

I stand in front of the broken mirror in my bedroom and barely recognize myself. The white dress hangs loose on my frame because I have not eaten properly in weeks, trying to make myself smaller and less threatening. My hands shake as I braid my dark hair, weaving in silver ribbons that match my cursed eyes.

Tonight Solomon will announce his Luna choice, and despite everything, hope flutters stupidly in my chest like a trapped bird.

I press my palm against my stomach where the hunger cramps twist. The suppression binding I created digs into my ribs under the dress, a makeshift cage of spelled cord meant to choke my powers into silence. It hurts with every breath, but it has to work. Solomon's mother Cassandra made it clear last week that my abilities frighten the pack, that Luna should support her Alpha, not overshadow him.

So I have spent two months strangling the gifts that were supposed to make me special.

My door opens without knocking, and Benjamin, Solomon's Beta, fills the doorway. His expression is troubled as he takes in my appearance.

"Sylvia, you look ill," he says quietly, and concern colors his voice but I can also hear the pity.

"I am fine," I lie, forcing a smile that probably looks as brittle as I feel. "Just nervous."

Benjamin steps closer and drops his voice to a whisper. "You should not have to diminish yourself for anyone. If Solomon cannot see your worth, then he does not deserve you."

The words are kind but they terrify me because they suggest Benjamin knows something I do not want to believe. Before I can respond, my father Franklin appears behind Benjamin, and his weathered face is carefully blank.

"It is time," my father says, and he will not meet my eyes.

The walk to the ceremonial grounds feels like marching to an execution. Pack members line the path, and their stares range from curious to hostile. I hear whispered comments about my unnatural silver eyes, about the incident last month when my powers flared and accidentally knocked Matthew unconscious during training.

The grounds are packed with hundreds of Silvercrest wolves, all gathered under the full moon. Torches create flickering shadows, and at the center of the stone platform stands Solomon, tall and commanding in his ceremonial Alpha robes.

He is beautiful in the way dangerous things are beautiful, all sharp edges and controlled power. For a moment our eyes meet across the crowd, and I swear I see something like regret flash in those dark depths before his expression goes cold.

Cassandra stands to his right, her silver hair perfect, her smile sharp, and when she sees me, triumph gleams in her gaze.

I should run. Every instinct screams at me to turn and flee into the forest, but my feet carry me forward until I stand at the base of the platform with the entire pack watching.

Solomon raises his hand and silence falls like a blade.

"Tonight I claim my Luna," he begins, and his voice carries across the grounds with Alpha command. "Silvercrest requires strength and stability. Our Luna must understand tradition, must know her place beside her Alpha, and must never threaten the natural order of our pack."

Each word lands like a blow, and the suppression binding around my ribs tightens until I cannot breathe properly.

"Therefore," Solomon continues, and now he is looking directly at me, "I, Alpha Solomon of Silvercrest Pack, reject you, Sylvia, daughter of Franklin, as my mate and as Luna of this pack."

The rejection bond hits like lightning striking my chest. I actually feel something inside me shatter, a tearing sensation so violent that I cry out and collapse to my knees. The suppression binding breaks under the force of the severed bond, and three months of strangled power explodes outward in a wave of silver light.

Wolves stumble backward, some falling unconscious, others shielding their eyes from the brightness. I hear screaming but cannot tell if it is coming from me or from the pack. The moonlight pouring from my skin is so bright it turns night into day.

When the light finally fades, I am lying on the ground gasping. My dress is torn, my carefully braided hair has come loose, and blood trickles from my nose. Through blurred vision I see Solomon still standing on the platform, unmoved, while Cassandra smiles beside him.

"You see?" Matthew shouts from somewhere in the crowd. "She is dangerous! Unnatural! The Alpha was right to reject her!"

Hands grab my arms and haul me upright. Benjamin's face swims into focus, and there are tears on his cheeks, but he is not the one holding me. Matthew and two other enforcers drag me toward Solomon, who looks down at me with something that might be guilt, but he buries it quickly.

"You will leave Silvercrest territory by dawn," Solomon says, and his voice is flat and final. "Take nothing but what you wear. If you return, you will be treated as a hostile rogue."

"Solomon, please," I manage to whisper, hating myself for begging but unable to stop. "I can control it. I will be better. I will be whatever you need."

For just a second his mask slips and raw pain crosses his face, but then Cassandra leans close and whispers something in his ear, and his expression hardens again.

"Dawn," he repeats. "Benjamin, Matthew, escorted her to the border. Make sure she crosses."

My father finally pushes through the crowd, and his face is ravaged with conflict. "Alpha, she is my daughter. Let me at least give her supplies, money for travel."

"No," Cassandra answers before Solomon can speak. "She takes nothing of Silvercrest with her. She is no longer one of us."

The enforcers drag me away while the pack watches in silence. Some faces show satisfaction, others show discomfort, but no one speaks up for me. Not even my father, though I see him mouth 'I am sorry' as I am pulled past him.

They take me to the border, to the place where Silvercrest territory ends and the wild lands begin. Matthew throws me forward so I stumble and fall in the dirt.

"If I see you near our lands again, I will kill you myself," he says, and there is too much pleasure in his voice.

Benjamin kneels beside me and presses something into my palm, a small bag of coins. "Run far," he whispers. "Survive. That is the best revenge."

Then they are gone, and I am alone in the dark forest with nothing but a torn white dress, a handful of coins, and the smoldering ruins of my life.

I try to stand but my legs will not support me. The severed mate bond feels like a gaping wound in my chest, and without the pack bond I have carried all my life, I feel untethered from reality itself.

I should curl up here and die. It would be easier than whatever comes next.

But then something inside me, something that survived Solomon's rejection and Cassandra's cruelty and the pack's betrayal, whispers that they do not get to destroy me this easily.

I force myself to my feet and stumble deeper into the forest, and as I walk, the moon emerges from behind clouds and bathes me in silver light. The pain in my chest lessens slightly, replaced by something else, something that feels almost like power being offered instead of suppressed.

The air around me begins to shimmer, and I hear a voice, ancient and feminine, speaking directly into my mind.

"Welcome, daughter of the moon. They thought rejection would break you, but they have only freed you to become what you were always meant to be."

My skin erupts in silver light again, but this time it does not feel like an explosion. It feels like coming home.

I am Moonsinger, and my story has only just begun.