To Taste a Bloody Moonstone

I knew instantly. The girl in the image looked like Lyra, but it wasn’t her. Something was terribly wrong.

I stared at Caleb, my voice low and urgent. “Caleb, look closer at that image of Lyra. Sense it. Don’t you feel that the mana fluctuations are all wrong?”

But he refused to listen. He scowled. “Selene, what are you getting at? Are you still trying to sell this lie?”

I took a ragged breath, fighting for control. “I’m not lying! Please, just believe me! Lyra is really…”

Before I could finish, Morgana interjected sharply, “Selene, have you no shame? You’ve been caught in your lie, and you’re still making a scene. What more do you want? Do you think Caleb is a fool?”

Caleb and Morgana stormed out, slamming the door behind them. The sound echoed in the room, a final, mocking punctuation to their departure.

I collapsed onto the cold floor, staring blankly at the ceiling as despair swallowed me whole.

Caleb had changed so much I couldn’t recognize him. He would rather believe a manipulative outsider than his own mate. Had he ever truly cared about me? About Lyra?

Slowly, I pushed myself to my feet and made my way to Lyra's closet. With trembling hands, I opened the doors. Her clothes were all neatly folded inside. I ran my fingers over each tiny garment, as if I could still feel her warmth, and my vision blurred.

I packed all of it—her clothes, her toys, her magic books, everything she ever loved—into a suitcase. I would take her home. I would leave this cold, heartless Pack behind.

As I dragged the heavy suitcase out of the room, I found Morgana waiting for me in the living room, lounging on the sofa and flipping through a magic magazine.

She set the magazine down when she saw me, a mocking smile playing on her lips.

I tried to walk past her, desperate to escape that suffocating house. But she stood, blocking my path, crossing her arms and fixing me with a provocative gaze.

“Leaving so soon? I thought you’d be shameless enough to stick around,” Morgana sneered.

I stared at her, saying nothing.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?” she gloated at my silence. “I told you a long time ago, you’re not good enough for Caleb. Look at you now, so pathetic and broken.”

I took a deep breath, clamping down on my anger. I wouldn't sink to her level.

But Morgana wasn’t finished. “Just so you know, Caleb loves me now. There’s only room in his heart for me and Damian. You’d be wise to disappear from our lives for good.”

She went on, her tone sharp and cruel. “He’s been so good to me lately. He just branded my wrist with this—a secondary rune, for the Alpha's Protection. Look!”

She held up her wrist, showing off a complex, faintly glowing rune. Then, she smiled smugly, her gaze falling to the back of my neck—to my sacred mate mark.

The mark was dull and faded, and it pulsed with a searing pain that mirrored the one in my heart.

“Did you really think an Alpha’s mate mark was eternal?” she whispered, her voice laced with malicious glee. “Caleb allowed me to attach a parasite rune to it using black magic. Now, it’s nothing but a conduit to siphon your energy and feed my own. You were only ever a stepping stone.”