THE CURSED ALPHA’S STOLEN LUNA

Sierra

The lingering heat of his touch instantly turned to ice.

"You are lying." I whispered. I clutched the sheets tight against my chest. My heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

"Get dressed." His voice was completely void of the passion from moments ago. He picked up my torn dress from the floor and threw it at me.

"The entire pack is waiting downstairs. It is time they see exactly what kind of snake we have been harboring under our roof."

He did not give me time to process the whiplash. He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the bedroom. I stumbled down the grand staircase barefoot. The entire elite stood in the ballroom. The music had stopped. Hundreds of eyes turned to watch Santiago drag me to the center of the floor and throw me onto the cold marble tiles.

"Look at her." Santiago spat. He looked down at me with pure, unadulterated disgust. "The sweet little stray. The gold digger who put my father in a coma."

The entire ballroom gasped. The sound echoed off the high ceilings.

I froze. My blood ran cold. "What are you talking about? Your father had a sudden stroke."

"A stroke induced by concentrated wolfsbane." Amaia stepped out from the front row of the crowd. She held a sleek tablet in one hand and a small, empty glass vial in the other. She looked down at me with a victorious smirk. "The exact extract that went missing from the pack infirmary three days ago."

"I did not touch any wolfsbane." I scrambled to my knees.

"Santiago, you have to believe me. I love your father."

"You love his bank accounts." Amaia interrupted smoothly. Her voice was loud and clear for the business partners to hear. "Do not play the victim, Sierra. We checked the security logs. Your keycard accessed the infirmary at two in the morning the night before the Alpha collapsed. And the guards found this empty vial hidden inside your mattress."

"I was getting painkillers for my cramps!" I yelled. Tears blurred my vision. "Someone planted that vial! Amaia, you are lying!"

"Enough." Santiago growled. His Alpha aura flooded the room. It forced my head down. "Do not call my Beta a liar. You expect us to believe someone planted it? You are a parasite, Sierra. Just like your pathetic mother."

"Do not bring my mother into this." My voice shook uncontrollably.

"Why not?" Santiago laughed. It was a dark and cruel sound. "She packed her bags and disappeared two days ago. But she did not just run away because she was scared. My financial team flagged a wire transfer of two million euros to an offshore account in her name. It was a coordinated plan. She took the upfront cash, and you stayed behind to finish the job."

"No." I sobbed. The betrayal pierced straight through my chest. "She left because she could not stand the abuse in this house anymore. She abandoned me. She did not take any money. I do not have a single penny to my name."

"You wanted the entire pack." Santiago stepped closer. His black shoes stopped inches from my hands.

"You wanted him dead so you could claim the inheritance as his legal dependent. You used him."

I looked up at him. My vision was completely blurred with tears. "He was the only person in this house who actually cared about me. He gave me the name Sierra. He said it was because I brought peace to his home, like the mountains from his childhood. He treated me like a real daughter. I would never, ever hurt him."

Santiago's jaw clenched tight. For a fraction of a second, I thought I saw a flicker of doubt in his dark eyes.

But Amaia immediately stepped closer to him. She placed a gentle hand on his chest.

"Do not let her manipulate you, Santiago." Amaia whispered. She made sure her voice carried. "She is a murderer. She is crying because she got caught. She needs to face the consequences before she targets you next."

Santiago's expression hardened back to stone. The ruthless bad boy returned. He looked down at me like I was nothing but garbage.

"I, Santiago Vanguard, officially reject you, Sierra, as my mate."

The words echoed in the dead silent ballroom.

A sharp, violent pain ripped through my chest. It felt like my ribs were being cracked open with bare hands. I screamed in agony, clutching my heart as the brand new mate bond shattered into a million irreparable pieces. I collapsed onto the floor.

Santiago did not even flinch. He just watched me bleed out on the inside.

"And as my first official act as Alpha," Santiago announced over my painful sobs. "I banish you from this territory. You are no longer recognized by this pack. You are property. And your debt will be paid in the North. I have sold you to the Cursed King."

The crowd erupted into shocked whispers. The Cursed King was a savage. He ruled the frozen wastelands with blood and terror. Sending me there was a public death sentence.

I forced myself to stand up. My legs were shaking violently. My chest was hollow and bleeding from the rejected bond. But the sadness was suddenly gone. It was replaced by a burning, violent rage.

I looked Amaia dead in the eyes, and then I turned my hardened gaze to Santiago.

"You are making a terrible mistake." I wiped the blood from my bottom lip where I had bitten it. "You think you broke me tonight. You think you won. But I promise you both. I am going to survive. And when I come back, I will take everything you love and burn it to the ground."

Santiago let out a dark chuckle. He crossed his arms over his broad chest. "Take her away."

Two massive estate guards grabbed my arms. They dragged me away from the center of the room and hauled me toward the grand double doors.

Just as they pulled me out into the freezing night air, the heavy iron gates of the packhouse blew open with a deafening crash.

A massive, terrifying black convoy rolled onto the gravel driveway. The temperature in the courtyard plummeted instantly. Frost crept up the marble steps.

The Northern guards had arrived early.

And stepping out of the lead armored vehicle was a man whose dark, dominating presence made Santiago look like a little boy.

The Cursed King had come to collect his property himself.