The Luna's vendetta

Chapter 4

The heat clawed at my lungs before I even opened my eyes.

Smoke pressed down on me like a fist, curling into my throat with every breath.

I was on the floor, struggling to move. Wood cracked and splintered above me. Somewhere close, glass shattered. The scent of burnt fabric and scorched hair wrapped around me like a death shroud.

Was I dying?

My world was crumbling before me, burning in flames.

I tried to move but couldn’t. My leg felt twisted, and my dress was still smoldering. I patted it down with trembling hands, the pain biting deep.

I tried to whisper for help, but nothing came out. The smoke only sank deeper into my lungs.

I rolled to my side, coughing hard enough to taste blood. Firelight flickered just beyond the shelves, dancing across the store walls. My sister’s face flashed in my mind—her smile, the day she had saved me and burned in my place.

Now I knew how she must’ve felt.

I gritted my teeth and dragged myself forward. I had to live, I had to survive. Not for them—but for me. For everything they tried to strip from me.

A groan escaped my lips as I reached the back door and forced it open with a surge of strength I didn’t know I had. I tumbled out into the snow, smoke billowing behind me, flames roaring as the building collapsed inward.

The cold slapped me hard.

I rolled onto my back, coughing and shivering, my skin blistered and my eyes wet.

Footsteps crunched in the snow.

I blinked through the haze, and my heart froze again.

Nathan stood at the edge of the flames, his silhouette outlined by the inferno behind him. His expression wasn’t anger or regret.

It was relief.

He thought I’d died.

When our eyes met, he didn’t run. He didn’t speak. He simply turned and walked away.

********

I woke up hours later in the hospital. The painkillers dulled everything—everything except the memory.

“Who found me?” I croaked, my throat like sandpaper.

The nurse hesitated. “A guard, passing by. Said he saw the fire and pulled you out after you’d already dragged yourself into the snow.”

“Not Damien? Not Nathan?”

The nurse looked away.

“No one came,” she whispered.

No one came. Not even to check if I was alive.

A tear slipped from my eye. I had given too much to this family, and it was time to let go.

By morning, the rumors had spread faster than the flames.

“Luna Alice went mad and tried to burn down the memorial store.”

“Envy made her do it—she wanted to erase the memory of the real Luna.”

“She poisoned herself for sympathy.”

Every lie was worse than the last. I was labeled a psychopath, a jealous freak.

I sat on the bed, bandaged and bruised, listening through the window to the voices of the pack as they passed by.

“She’s not right in the head. She should’ve left long ago.”

“How can she even think of taking the position of her sister?”

Beta Zane visited briefly.

“They’ve called a council meeting,” he said quietly. “They want you stripped of your title and exiled. Damien pleaded that you still stay.”

I furrowed my brows, staring at him, confused. “Damien really did that? For me?”

Beta Zane raised his head and looked at me. “But on a condition.”

“And what’s that?”

“You apologize to Nathan and every member of the pack,” he replied.

I laughed, my voice dry and bitter. “Of course, he would say that.”

I turned my face sideways, my lips trembling as tears came rushing down. I shook my head, breathing in deeply. Then opened my eyes and shot Beta Zane a fierce look. “I want you to tell Damien and those shameless elders this: I will never beg them, even if it depends on my life.”

Beta Zane nodded and placed something on my lap before he left. A tiny, charred piece of green jade—what was left of my necklace.

I thought I had lost it in the fire. I held it tightly in my palm.

That night, I left the hospital. I couldn’t stand it anymore—the insults and rumors.

Luckily, I hadn’t sustained much injury from the fire, except for my left arm, which got burned and left a rough scar—a memory I would never forget.

I stood before the council.

They looked at me like a disease. Like a ghost they couldn’t wait to bury.

“We hereby declare that you, Alice Rivers, are unfit to remain Luna,” Elder Rider announced. “Effective immediately, you are banished from the Silverclaw Pack. If you return, it will be treated as an act of war.”

I nodded once.

I didn’t beg like they expected me to. Like I would have years ago.

I returned home to take my belongings. They were already thrown out. I stared down at them, then looked up at the room that belonged to the child I cherished for five years.

Nathan was staring down at me with disgust.

“Oh, you forgot this,” he said, and dropped the shoe directly on my head. He laughed heartily and shut the window forcefully at me.

Damien didn’t even come to see me—not that it mattered. He must be with his new lover now.

Days later, after I left, a messenger arrived at the packhouse, breathless and pale.

“The Red Fang Alpha,” he stammered. “He’s marching toward Silverclaw. Says he’s reclaiming what’s his.”

Damien frowned. “What does that mean?”

The messenger trembled. “He says… the Luna you cast out carried his bloodline.”