The Alpha’s Forgotten Luna

"Hold her down! Don't let her near the Alpha."

I thrashed against the heavy grips of the guards. The cold stone floor scraped my knees. "I saved him! The silver was in his heart. My blood pulled it out!"

Lupa stepped out of the shadows of the healing ward. She dabbed a perfectly clean cloth against her forehead. Not a single drop of sweat stained her brow. Her silk dress was immaculate.

"She's lying," Lupa said, her tone sickeningly sweet. "She tried to kill me while I was performing the moon ritual to save Alpha Kaelen."

"You didn't do anything!" I spat. "You hid in the corner while I bled for him! You watched me cut my own arms!"

Elder Thorne, Lupa's father, stepped forward. His heavy footsteps rang out against the stone walls. He kicked me in the ribs. Pain flared through my chest, sharp and blinding.

I coughed, spitting blood onto the floor.

"A wolfless healer," Thorne sneered. "A weakling. You think the pack believes you over my daughter? The future Luna?"

"Look at my arms!" I screamed. "Look at the cuts! I drained my own veins to purge the poison from his body!"

Thorne reached down, his leather-gloved fingers clamping around my jaw like a vise. He squeezed until my teeth ground together and my jawbone felt ready to snap.

]"And now you have no power left." He whispered, breath hot against my cheek. "Your reserves are dry. You have outlived your usefulness, girl."

"When he wakes up, he'll know the truth," I choked out, tasting copper on my tongue. "The Moon Goddess saw what happened. He is my mate!"

Lupa let out a harsh, mocking laugh that bounced off the cold stone walls.

"A wolfless runt claiming to be an Alpha's mate?" Lupa scoffed, leaning in until her cloying rose perfume assaulted my senses. "The pack would tear itself apart before they let a mongrel like you take the Luna crown. We are doing him a favor by burying you."

Thorne released his grip on my jaw and wiped his glove in disgust. He turned toward the two sentries holding me down.

"Drag her out through the western sally port," Thorne commanded, his voice cold and devoid of mercy. "Strip her of her healer's crest. Throw her beyond the border wards into the wilderness. If she takes a single step back across pack lands, feed her to the rogue patrols."

"No!" I fought with the last shred of my waning strength, kicking and clawing against the stone as the guards hauled me to my feet. "Kaelen! Wake up! Look at me!"

On the healing slab, Kaelen's fingers twitched, a low, pained groan rumbling from his throat as the mate bond strained against the lingering fog in his mind. But his eyes remained shut, trapped beneath the toxic remnants of the silver rot.

A heavy blow struck the back of my head.

Darkness rushed in.

When consciousness returned, it brought with it the freezing sting of autumn wind and the scent of damp earth.

I woke up lying in the dirt beyond the towering iron pillars of the pack boundary.

My clothes were shredded rags; my forearms crusted in dry blood and grime.

Every breath sent agony radiating through my cracked ribs. My legs were lacerated, bleeding from being dragged across jagged border rocks.

They stole my sacrifice. They stole my mate. They left me in the dirt to die.

I clutched my chest, feeling the faint, agonizing thrum of the severed mate bond. Thorne thought he had broken me. Lupa thought she had won her stolen throne.

They forgot that silver poison never truly leaves the blood without a healer's touch. Within six months, as the lunar cycles waxed and waned, the silver rot would fester in Kaelen's veins once more. His mind would fracture. His wolf would go feral.

And when that day came, neither Lupa nor all the council could save him.

I pushed myself up onto my shaking feet, pulling my tattered cloak around my shoulders, and vanished into the shadows of the borderlands.

I would survive. And I would wait.