They dragged me.
Not escorted.
Not summoned.
Dragged like a piece of unwanted meat through the very halls I once ruled.
My bare feet scraped against the jagged stone floor, leaving a trail of smeary crimson behind me.
The iron chains biting into my wrists were cold—so cold they felt like they were burning.
Every jerk of the guard’s hand sent a lightning bolt of agony up my shoulders, making my breath hitch in a jagged sob I refused to let out.
I would not give them the satisfaction.
Not today.
Not ever.
The Great Pack Hall was suffocating.
The air was thick with the clashing scents of five hundred wolves—sour sweat, sharp fear, and the metallic tang of bloodlust.
As I was hauled past, I saw them.
The members of the Silver Hollow Pack.
My people.
Some looked away, their necks bared in shame.
Others stared with eyes full of a dark, jagged hunger for my fall.
I lifted my chin, my long hair matted with grime, and stared straight ahead.
Because despite the chains, despite the blood, I was still their Luna.
“On your knees, traitor!” a warrior snarled, his voice a gravelly explosion near my ear.
I didn’t move.
I stood like a statue of ice.
A brutal yank on the chains forced me down.
My knees slammed into the stone with a sickening crack.
Pain flared, white and blinding, but I kept my spine straight.
A trickle of warm blood ran down my shin.
I welcomed it.
Physical pain was a distraction from the black hole of betrayal opening in my chest.
At the far end of the hall, bathed in the glow of flickering torches, sat the Alpha’s throne.
And there he was.
Kael Draven.
My mate.
My husband.
My executioner.
He watched me in a silence that felt heavier than the mountain above us.
His posture was rigid, his large, scarred hands gripping the armrests so hard the ancient wood groaned.
His crimson eyes—eyes that used to soften when they looked at me in the dark—were now two chips of frozen glass.
No anger.
No mercy.
Just a terrifying, hollow distance.
That distance hurt more than the silver chains.
Look at me, I screamed in my head, reaching out through our mental link.
Kael, look at me!
Say something!
Tell them they’re wrong!
The link was a wall of cold stone.
He had shut me out.
“The council will now hear the charges,” the Beta’s voice boomed.
Beta Silas.
He stood to Kael’s right, looking smug enough to choke.
I could smell the oily satisfaction dripping off him.
He was enjoying this—the systematic destruction of the woman who had always seen through his lies.
“Seraphina Vale, Luna of the Silver Hollow Pack,” Silas began, his voice projecting to the furthest corners of the rafters.
“You stand accused of high treason. Specifically, the poisoning of the Alpha Council during the Winter Summit.”
A collective gasp rippled through the hall like a physical wave.
I stiffened, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
“Additionally,” Silas leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with malice, “you are accused of the ultimate betrayal. Carrying a child that does not belong to our Alpha. A bastard heir meant to steal the throne.”
The hall exploded.
Growls ripped through the air, vibrating in the floorboards.
Outraged shouts of “Whore!” and “Traitor!” pelted me like stones.
The breath left my lungs.
My hands instinctively moved toward my stomach, the chains clinking rhythmically with my tremors.
Inside me, my pup stirred—a tiny, faint flutter of life, confused by the sudden surge of my adrenaline and terror.
They’re using the baby, I realized, a cold dread settling in my marrow.
They aren’t just killing me.
They’re murdering an innocent.
My eyes snapped to Kael.
Surely, this would break him.
Surely, he would protect his own blood.
He didn’t react.
He didn’t snarl.
He didn’t even blink.
He sat there, a king made of marble, watching his wife be stripped of her dignity.
“That’s a lie,” I said.
My voice wasn’t loud, but it carried the authority of the Moon Goddess herself.
The room fell deathly quiet.
Silas smiled thinly.
It was the look of a predator who had already closed its jaws.
“We have proof, Seraphina.”
Two warriors stepped forward, dumping a small wooden box at my feet.
The lid shattered, spilling dried, dark-green herbs across the gray stone.
My nose twitched.
My heart skipped a beat.
“Wolfsbane,” someone whispered in horror.
I stared at the herbs.
My mind raced.
I was the pack’s lead healer.
I knew every root, every leaf.
This wolfsbane was prepared wrong—the stems were crushed instead of sliced, the drying process sloppy and crude.
I would never make it like that, I thought desperately.
Anyone who knows my craft would see the fraud.
“And these,” Silas added, unrolling a stack of parchments.
“Letters exchanged with an Alpha of the Black Moon Pack. Detailed plans for the summit attack. Evidence of your… nightly activities.”
He tossed the letters.
They drifted through the air, landing in the pool of my own blood on the floor.
I looked at the handwriting.
It was beautiful.
Slanted.
Elegant.
It looked exactly like mine—except for the way the ‘S’ curled.
I looked up, scanning the crowd, and my gaze snagged on a face near the pillars.
Elara.
My stepsister.
Her lips curved into a tiny, almost imperceptible smirk.
She looked sympathetic to the crowd, but her eyes were dancing with triumph.
You, I thought, the realization hitting me like a physical blow.
You did this.
I forced myself to breathe.
“This is fabricated,” I said, looking directly at Kael.
“The herbs were planted. The letters are forgeries. Kael, you know me. You know my scent. You know I would never—”
“Enough!” Silas snapped.
“Your scent was found on the vial. Your private seal authorized the guards to leave the storehouse. The evidence is irrefutable.”
My seal.
My seal was kept in my jewelry box.
A box only Elara had access to.
I turned back to Kael.
He was leaning forward now, watching me with an intensity that made the air vibrate.
For a heartbeat, I saw it—a flicker of doubt.
A shadow of the man who had once promised to burn the world down to keep me warm.
Hope flared like a dying ember in my chest.
“Kael,” I whispered, breaking every protocol of the trial.
“Please. You know me.”
The room held its breath.
Kael stood slowly.
The movement was fluid, powerful, and terrifying.
Power rolled off him in suffocating waves, the heavy scent of cedar and thunderstorms filling the hall.
When he looked at me, truly looked, the mate bond throbbed painfully behind my ribs.
“I have heard the council’s decision,” he said, his voice a low rumble that vibrated in my teeth.
Yes, I thought.
Save us.
“And I will not interfere.”
The words hit harder than a silver blade to the heart.
I flinched, my whole body recoiling as if he had struck me.
The hope didn’t just die—it was incinerated.
He wasn’t just letting them kill me; he was choosing to be a spectator to my murder.
Silas exhaled, a sound of pure relief.
“Then by Alpha authority, the sentence is—”
“Wait!” I shouted.
I lifted my chin, refusing to let them see me break.
“If you’re going to kill me for a lie, then look at the proof one more time. Smell it. Truly smell the herbs!”
The executioners approached, their silver-edged axes glinting in the torchlight.
Fear finally curled its icy fingers around my ribs—not for my life, but for the tiny soul inside me.
My pup shifted again, a weak, fluttering movement.
I’m sorry, little one, I thought, my heart shattering into a million jagged pieces.
I tried to be enough for us both.
As they hauled me toward the center of the hall, toward the execution block, the pieces of the puzzle finally locked into place.
The timing.
The council dinner.
The way Silas had pushed for an immediate trial.
This wasn’t just a betrayal.
It was a purge.
I looked at Silas.
His scent spiked—anticipation and a dark, oily triumph.
You didn’t just want me dead, I realized as the executioner forced my head down onto the cold, stained wood.
You wanted me erased so you could take everything.
The silver blade hovered above my neck.
I locked eyes with Kael one last time.
He looked like he was vibrating with repressed power, his face a mask of agony he was trying to hide.
“If I die today,” I whispered, my voice thick with the copper taste of blood, “it won’t end here. I will see you in the next life, Kael. And I will be your ruin.”
The executioner raised the blade.
The silver sang a high, lonesome note.
And then, the world went red.