After My Mate’s Murderer Forced Me to Be His Luna

**[Theodore]**

Air. I needed air.

My lungs seized, forcing a ragged gasp past my lips as my body arched off the mattress. It wasn’t a gentle waking. It was a collision. Two souls, separated by death and a decade of silence, slammed into one another with the force of a freight train.

Machines around me beeped frantically, a chaotic symphony to match the pounding in my skull. I wasn't just Theodore Allen, the Lycan King who had slept for years. I was Keith Mason. I was the boy who drowned. I was the man who had been murdered by his own blood.

My hands clawed at the silk sheets, tearing through the fabric. The strength in these fingers was terrifying, alien, and absolute. I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the vertigo, but when I snapped them open, the room was bathed in a strange, dual light.

"Your Majesty!" A voice cried out from the corner. "He's awake! Get the Council!"

I ignored the flurry of healers rushing toward me. I clutched my chest, my claws digging into the skin over my heart. The pain wasn't physical. It was a hollow, aching void that screamed one name.

*Nora.*

I could feel her. Not as a memory, but as a living, breathing wound. She was in pain. She was breaking.

A low growl vibrated in my chest, shaking the very foundation of the room. My reflection in the glass partition across the room caught my eye—irises of molten gold, rimmed with a sharp, piercing silver.

"I am coming," I rasped, the voice deep and thunderous, carrying the weight of a King and the rage of a lover scorned. "Hold on, Nora. I am coming."

***

**[Nora]**

I sat on the edge of my narrow bed, staring at my hands. They were scrubbed raw, pink and stinging, but I could still smell it. The ash. The varnish. The scent of Keith’s soul burning in the fireplace upstairs.

My room, a small guest quarters on the first floor usually reserved for visiting Deltas, felt like a prison cell. The walls were grey, the furniture sparse. It was fitting, I supposed. I was the Luna in title, but a prisoner in reality.

The door creaked open without a knock. I didn't flinch. I was too empty to be startled.

Selene breezed in, her heels clicking sharply against the hardwood. She held a stack of fresh linens, though we both knew the Omegas usually handled the laundry.

"Just checking in, Luna," she said, her voice dripping with that fake, sugary concern that made my wolf bristle. "Vincenzo wants the house spotless for the meeting tonight. No more... clutter."

She walked past me to the bed. I shifted away, pressing my back against the cold wall. I didn't want her touching me. I didn't want her scent—cloying roses and deception—anywhere near my safe space.

"I can change my own sheets," I whispered, my voice hoarse.

"Nonsense," she chirped. With a swift, practiced motion, she lifted the corner of my mattress. Her hand lingered there for a fraction of a second too long, a quick shuffle of paper against fabric, before she smoothed the new sheet down. "There. All fresh."

She straightened up, smoothing her skirt. Her eyes landed on me, cold and predatory. "You should get ready, Nora. The Alpha hates it when you're late."

She left as quickly as she had arrived, leaving behind a silence that felt heavier than before. I frowned, looking at the corner of the bed she had touched. My wolf whined, a low sound of unease, but before I could investigate, the front door of the pack house slammed shut with a force that shook the floorboards.

"NORA!"

The roar was deafening. It wasn't just a shout; it was an Alpha command fueled by fury.

My heart slammed into my throat. Before I could even stand, my bedroom door flew open, hitting the wall with a crack that splintered the wood. Vincenzo stood there, his chest heaving, his face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated hate.

"You traitorous bitch!" he screamed.

He crossed the room in two strides. I didn't have time to beg. I didn't have time to speak. His hand tangled in my hair, yanking my head back so hard I saw stars.

"Vincenzo, please!" I shrieked, clutching at his wrist as he dragged me off the bed. I hit the floor hard, my knees scraping against the wood, but he didn't stop. He dragged me like a sack of garbage, out of the room and into the hallway.

"Get off me! What did I do?" I cried, scrambling to get my footing, but he was too fast, too strong.

"You know exactly what you did!" he roared, hauling me toward the main meeting hall.

The double doors were already open. The entire pack was there—Betas, Gammas, Elders, even the Omegas. Hundreds of eyes turned to watch as their Alpha threw their Luna onto the center rug like a broken doll.

I gasped for air, pushing myself up on trembling arms. My scalp burned, and tears blurred my vision. I looked up to see Vincenzo standing over me, holding a sheaf of papers.

"I tolerated your weakness," Vincenzo bellowed, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling. "I tolerated your barren womb. I even tolerated your disrespect for my mate!"

He threw the papers at me. They fluttered down like white feathers, landing all around me. I grabbed one, my hands shaking. It was a map. A detailed map of the pack’s northern patrol routes, with handwritten notes in the margins. Notes that looked terrifyingly like my handwriting.

"But I will not tolerate treason!" Vincenzo pointed a shaking finger at me. "I found these under her mattress! She has been communicating with rogues! She plans to sell our patrol routes to the Southern rebels in exchange for my head!"

A collective gasp ripped through the hall. Growls erupted from the warriors, low and threatening.

"No," I whispered, staring at the map in horror. "No, I didn't... I would never..."

"Liar!" Selene stepped forward from the crowd, her face a mask of shock and disappointment. "I saw you hiding them, Nora. I tried to cover for you, hoping I was wrong, but... how could you?"

"I didn't!" I screamed, looking around at the faces of the people I had grown up with. "She planted them! Selene planted them!"

"Enough!" Vincenzo’s Alpha aura slammed down on me, forcing my face into the carpet. The pressure was immense, crushing my lungs. "You have betrayed this pack. You have betrayed me. And you will pay."