THE SEALED LUNA

CHAPTER FIVE : THE CEREMONY

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*CHAPTER FIVE: THE CEREMONY*

Sunrise.

Hours since the woods.

Hours since my bones broke and something in me answered.

I hadn't slept.

Not really.

A few minutes under the tree. That was it.

Even wolves needed sleep.

Even wolves broke.

And I had gone beyond that.

My legs felt like paper.

My eyes burned.

I was shaking.

Not from fear.

But from tiredness.

From holding the mark down with my sleeve.

Faint. Black.

Like dried ink beneath my skin.

I put my back to a tree hours ago and tried to make myself small.

Invisible.

Like I did in the woods.

The trees didn't care that I was trembling hours ago.

Now, the whole crimson pack would.

I walked through the village gates.

Wolves stopped talking.

Children stared.

Elders whispered shamelessly.

One guard sniffed the air.

He frowned.

"S.. she scents different."

My stomach dropped.

The woods. Just hours ago. It changed me.

I tugged at my sleeve, pulling harder.

Head up.

No more.

The ceremonial ground was full.

Bigger than I remembered from my past life.

The moonstone altar shone.

The sacred fire burned too high.

Elders in grey robes.

The Alpha's platform.

My father.

Stone face.

Next to him, the Beta.

And the Luna.

Not Bella.

Bella stood beside the Luna.

She wasn't wearing ceremonial white.

She looked like she wanted no part of this.

My jaw locked.

Not this time.

And there.

In the crowd.

Cyrus.

Alpha of moon claw pack.

His father's illness had imposed the title on him faster than anyone expected.

Our eyes met.

For a heartbeat, everything else vanished.

The ceremony.

The whispers.

The crowd.

I remembered the humiliation.

The disbelief.

The way my world shattered beneath a single decision.

I wouldn't let history repeat itself.

"Selena."

My father's voice cut through my thoughts.

Cold.

Official.

"Do you come of your own will.

To accept the ceremony and your fate?"

I stepped forward.

Right into the circle.

Right into the trap.

On legs that wouldn't stop shaking.

"Yes."

The elder called me forward.

I placed my hand on the sacred stone.

Moonstone. Cold.

Nothing happened.

Not again...

Then-

Heat.

Inside my chest.

Something surged.

Just enough.

Only twice. In the woods. And now.

Golden eyes.

Claws.

A low growl.

That double growling.

Silence.

Several wolves frowned as I passed.

Their noses twitched.

"She has a wolf..."

"Impossible. She's had nothing for years."

Hope.

God, I let myself feel it.

Maybe.. this changes everything.

Maybe the Luna wouldn't have to --

Maybe Bella wouldn't have to be trapped like this.

For a few minutes, I believed it too.

Then -

An elder grabbed my arm.

"Sit down."

My sleeve slipped.

The mark was exposed.

Instant silence.

The head elder's face drained of color.

"Impossible..."

His voice was barely a breath.

"Elder?"

He didn't answer.

He just stared at my wrist.

Like he'd seen a ghost.

Gasps.

"What is it?" "Cursed." "Dangerous."

Nobody explained.

Nobody knew.

"The ceremony is suspended."

His hands shook.

No one argued.

The elders who always had something to say.

The Beta who always corrected my father.

Even the Luna.

Silent.

Staring at my wrist like it might bite them.

That frightened me more than the woods themselves.

The words hit harder than the rejection.

Something happened to me in the woods.

Why wasn't that enough?

My father stood.

"Until we know what that is.

You are not safe to be here."

His voice broke on the last word.

For half a second, he looked like my dad again.

Not the Alpha.

Then it was gone.

Guards escorted me away.

The crowd whispered.

Some afraid.

Some wary.

I wasn't rejected because I was weak.

I was rejected because someone did this to me.

I couldn't prove it.

Not yet.

But as the guards led me away...

I couldn't shake the feeling that someone in the hall already knew exactly what had been done to me.

The guards weren't watching me to keep me safe.

They were watching me to keep me in.

And somewhere in that hall, someone was smiling.