I Was the Starter Mate

Before, I would've dodged a cheap move like that without thinking.

Now the silver poison had slowed me down.

I tried to pull back. Too late. The blade sliced across the back of my hand. Black blood welled up.

"Ah!" Velda screamed first. She grabbed her stomach and dropped to the floor. "Zara, why did you shove me? If you don't want fruit, fine—but you can't push my stomach!"

"Stop!"

Eric walked in right then, fresh off the call with the Elder Council.

He saw her on the ground. Thought I'd gone for her stomach.

He rushed over and slapped me across the face. Hard.

Velda threw herself into his arms, sobbing. "It hurts... Eric, is Zara trying to kill our pup?"

He held her tight and looked at me like he wanted me dead. "Zara, you're hopeless! Velda peeled fruit for you out of kindness, and you attack the pup she's carrying?

"You're just jealous! You can't carry a pup, so you go after someone who can!"

My cheek burned.

I looked up at the wolf who once swore he'd protect me.

I wanted to explain. I didn't do it. I wanted to tell him I was dying.

But those eyes held nothing but disgust.

And just like that—I knew.

It didn't matter.

With the last of my strength, I shouted, "Get out!"

"Fine. Very fine."

He scooped Velda into his arms and walked out.

At the door, he paused. "Zara, this is your official warning. Touch Velda again and I'll ask the Elder Council to strip you of your Luna title. A she-wolf who can't control her own body, who lives off jealousy and attacks her pack, doesn't deserve to be Luna."

Their footsteps faded.

The door shut.

I swallowed the blood climbing up my throat.

The ache in my eyes went flat. Empty.

After Eric left, the pain—body and soul—made me want it to end.

I moved on instinct toward the pack's hot spring. The healer had mixed medicine into the water. It dulled the hurt.

Before, whenever I got injured, Eric would carry me there himself.

This time, a spear cut across my path.

Ron.

He was still a pup when I pulled him from a pile of corpses. I taught him to hunt. To fight. Raised him like my own.

He followed Eric and me when we built Moonveil.

Now he was the Alpha's guard captain.

"Sorry, Luna. Go back." He wouldn't meet my eyes. "Alpha's orders. The warm spring belongs to Velda now."

"Velda's?" I pressed my hand to my aching stomach. "She's not hurt. Why does she need it?"

"Her skin's delicate. Alpha wants her bathing there." His voice went flat. "He said you're thick-skinned. Greasy. You'd mess up the water."

"I'm injured..." I looked at the wolf who used to cry over a scratch on my hand when he was just a pup. "Let me soak a little. I won't tell him."

Ron frowned, already over it.

Velda's convoy rolled up in the distance.

He shoved me, like I was nothing.

"Leave. You don't belong here. Move, or I'll make you."

I wasn't ready. I stumbled and hit the ground.

My knees slammed into stone. Pain shot up fast.

Ron didn't even look back. He rushed toward Velda's convoy like he'd been waiting for it.

That's when it clicked.

In this pack—after Eric switched up—

I ranked lower than a stray.

Right then, I had no one.