After My Mate Crowned His Mistress as Luna

I shoved clothes into a worn canvas bag with shaking hands. A spare shirt. Underwear. The silver pendant I always wore—the only thing I owned that felt like mine. My room was barely larger than a closet, tucked in the servants' wing where no one would notice if I disappeared.

Penny had mapped out the blind spots in the patrol routes. The guards changed shifts at midnight. If I moved fast, I could reach the forest before anyone realized I was gone.

The pre-ceremony chaos worked in my favor. Wolves rushed through the halls carrying flowers and ribbons, too focused on tomorrow's Luna ceremony to pay attention to one Omega slipping through the shadows.

I made it to the kitchen door. The night air hit my face, cool and sharp. Freedom was fifty yards away—just across the courtyard to the tree line.

I ran.

My wolf stirred for the first time in months, a faint whisper of warning that came too late. A figure stepped from behind the garden wall, blocking my path.

Amora.

She held a vial in her hand, filled with liquid that glowed sickly green in the moonlight. Her smile was all teeth.

"Going somewhere, little Omega?"

I stumbled backward. "Let me pass."

"I don't think so." She moved closer, and I caught that chemical smell beneath her perfume—the same scent from the dungeon. "You've been very inconvenient, Violeta. Do you know how hard it is to steal someone's essence? I've been siphoning your aura for months, drop by drop, and still the Lycan King's trackers keep searching. They can sense something's wrong."

My heart hammered against my ribs. "I don't understand—"

"Of course you don't. You're too stupid to realize what you are." She laughed, sharp and cruel. "The lost Lycan Princess. The White Wolf everyone's been searching for. And you've been scrubbing floors in my pack this whole time."

The words didn't make sense. Couldn't make sense. I was nobody. An Omega. Worthless.

"You're lying," I whispered.

"Am I?" She tilted her head. "Why do you think Cassius kept you hidden? He sensed something in you, something powerful that he couldn't explain. It terrified him. So he buried it. Buried you."

I turned and ran.

She was faster. Her hand caught my hair, yanking me backward. Pain exploded across my scalp as she dragged me toward the northern border. I clawed at her wrist, but she was stronger—a high-ranking wolf against a dormant Omega.

"Cassius was just a stepping stone," she hissed in my ear. "A way to get close to the royal family. But I can't claim your throne while you're still breathing."

The forest opened onto jagged cliffs. Below, the river raged, swollen from spring melt. The sound of rushing water filled my ears, drowning out my own gasping breaths.

Amora shoved me to the edge. Rocks crumbled under my feet.

"The Lycan King will welcome me with open arms," she said. "His long-lost daughter, finally returned. And no one will ever know the truth."

"Please—" The word tore from my throat.

"Begging doesn't suit you, Princess." Her eyes flashed green, that unnatural color from the dark magic. "Goodbye, Violeta."

Her hands slammed into my chest.

I fell.

The world spun—sky, cliff, water. Wind screamed past my ears. My wolf howled inside me, a sound I'd never heard before, desperate and wild and too late.

I hit the water like hitting concrete.

Cold swallowed me whole. The current grabbed my body and pulled me under, tumbling me like a rag doll. My lungs burned. I couldn't tell which way was up.

Something hard cracked against my skull.

Pain exploded behind my eyes, white and blinding. The river's roar faded to a dull hum. My limbs went heavy, useless.

Darkness crept in from the edges of my vision.

I thought of Cassius. Of the mate bond that had only ever brought me pain. Of three years spent hoping he'd see me, really see me, and choose me.

He never would.

The current dragged me downstream, toward the Royal Territory. Toward a kingdom I didn't know. Toward a fate I couldn't imagine.

My eyes closed.

The darkness took me.