The Betrayed Luna Returns for Vengeance

I woke up in the basement with the whip marks still bleeding.

"She hasn’t woken up," someone muttered past the iron door.

I kept my eyes shut. The chains on my wrists hissed against my skin, and I could smell my own flesh burning.

"Doesn't matter," another voice said. It was low and bored. "Seraphina says the job's done after tonight."

"She paying the rest?"

"Full amount. Once the ceremony's over, the Luna spot is hers. Nobody's looking for this one anymore."

The second man was Kord. He was the rogue with a scar where his ear should have been. He laughed, short and ugly.

"Silverpine searched for, what, three months? Then the Alpha called it off. Held a little funeral and everything."

My eyes snapped open.

The bolt scraped back. Kord ducked through the doorway with a bucket swinging from one hand. Behind him was Dax, the young one, with a silver whip coiled over his shoulder.

"Morning," Kord said.

"Seraphina," I rasped. My throat felt like broken glass. "Seraphina Dunmore did this?"

Dax grinned. "Big ears for a corpse."

"She grew up in my pack. I trained her. I sat with her when her mother died..."

"And she wanted your mate." Kord tipped the bucket and let the salt water slosh. "Can't blame her. Alaric Thornvale's a hell of a prize."

"He'll find me."

"He already stopped looking." Kord crouched in front of me. His breath stank of cheap whiskey. "Tonight he's marking her. The whole pack watching, all of it."

Deep in my head, my wolf, Ember, gave a broken whine. She pushed at the silver, trying to reach him through the bond.

There was nothing there. It was only cold.

"You're lying," I said.

"Am I?"

He threw the water.

It hit my back like fire, and my scream bounced off the wet stone. I thrashed against the chains and pulled until my shoulders popped and the links groaned.

"Look at her go." Dax let the whip uncoil. "Still thinks she's a Luna."

"I *am* a Luna."

The whip cracked across my ribs. Then it hit me again. The silver bit in deep, and Ember went silent.

When the room stopped spinning, I was laughing.

Dax's grin slipped. "What's funny?"

"You'll never spend her money," I said. "Seraphina doesn't leave loose ends. You two are next."

For one second, neither of them moved.

Then Kord spat on the floor. "Lock it. Let her rot."

The door slammed. The bolt slid home.

I counted their footsteps until I couldn't hear them anymore.

---

The bars over the old drain in the corner had been loose for weeks. I'd felt them shift every time the pipes flooded.

I bit down on my lip to keep quiet and folded my hand until the silver cuff scraped over my knuckles. It peeled skin off with it. The cuff left a raw, black ring around my wrist, like a brand.

*Faster,* Ember whispered. *Go to him. Please go to him.*

"I'm trying," I breathed.

I wrapped my good hand around the iron bars and pulled. They didn't move. I braced my feet and pulled again. Rust flaked into my eyes.

On the third try, the bars broke loose with a screech.

I froze and listened. Nothing came.

The drain was barely wider than my shoulders and full of sludge. I pushed through it on my elbows. A jagged edge of pipe sliced my ankle open, and warm blood ran into my shoe.

Then I felt cold air.

---

The storm pounded the forest flat. I fell many times.

*Shift,* Ember begged. *Let me run. I can get us home.*

"Then do it."

She reached for the change. My bones cracked and stretched. My spine arched...

The silver in my blood clamped down, and the shift collapsed. It threw me face-first into the mud.

"Ember?"

She didn't answer. All I felt was a thin, trembling pulse, like a heartbeat under ice.

I got up anyway.

Silverpine's border came into view a little after midnight. It was the same old pines and the same carved stone markers.

But lanterns hung from every branch, gold and swaying.

White flower garlands were strung between the trees. They were the kind a Luna wears on her mating night.

I wore them once, three years ago, when Alaric pressed his forehead to mine and promised me forever.

A pair of drenched guards passed along the tree line, laughing.

"...Alpha didn't even stay for the toast," one said.

"Can you blame him? Seraphina's been waiting all year. He finally moved on."

*Moved on.*

My knees almost gave out. I gripped a pine trunk until the bark cut into my palm.

*He wouldn't,* Ember whimpered. *Not him.*

"Let's see," I whispered.

---

The side door to the main house still stuck in the rain. I knew to lift it before turning the handle, because Alaric never got around to fixing it. He used to joke that it kept me from sneaking out.

The hallway smelled like lilies and wine.

It also smelled like him. It was cedar and smoke and home, so strong that Ember sobbed inside me.

Then I smelled her.

A low sound came through the door at the end of the hall. It was our door.

"Fuck, Seraphina." Alaric's voice was rough and wrecked. "You're squeezing me so damn hard. You feel too good."

The bed creaked in a steady rhythm.

"Don't stop," she moaned. "Alaric, please, don't stop."

"Good girl. Fuck, that's it. I'm gonna come."

A breathless, sugary laugh followed. I used to think that laugh was sweet.

"I've waited so long for this," Seraphina said. "So long, Alpha. It's finally mine."

My hand closed around the door handle.

The metal was cold. My fingers were shaking, and blood from my wrist ran down the brass.

Ember had gone completely silent.

I pushed my shoulders back, lifted my chin, and turned the handle.