Mate.
My hand stilled midair, the dagger hovering inches from my chest, my grip slackening as if the air had been pulled from my lungs. I blinked once. Twice. But the monster looming above didn’t disappear.
Neither did the word, Mate.
I’d never heard anything sound more terrifying.
But the sa word repeated in my head, like confirming that it was all real. Like a secret my body had known long before my mind could na it.
His muzzle brushed against my neck—slowly, deliberately—and I went still. The dagger trembled in my grip, caught between instinct and sothing else I didn’t want to na.
He inhaled, a long, dragging breath, like he was trying to morize the pieces of I no longer knew how to hold together.
Then he growled. He said it again like he was savoring the taste of the word on his tongue.
And still... all I felt was dread.
This wasn’t a fairy tale. This wasn’t fate wrapped in warmth and comfort.
I tightened my grip on the dagger, but he was too focused on my scent that he did not even notice the dagger clutched in my hand.
"Get off ," I said with my shaking voice.
He didn’t move. So I scread at the top of my lungs.
"Get OFF ! YOU Bastard!"
"I hate you," I said, my voice shaking with each breath. "I hate all of you. You ruined ."
I lifted the dagger and turned it—not toward him, but toward myself. Pressed the tip to the soft skin of my throat.
His eyes went wide. He growled with warning at my face... I could feel the shock and hurt behind his eyes.
So when he stepped closer, hand reaching for mine with pleading eyes, I didn’t flinch.
Instead, I drove the dagger forward—straight into his chest, just inches away from the frantic beat of his heart.
His mouth fell open in shock, a strangled sound leaving his throat like he could not believe what I did to him.
I t his gaze with a cold voice. "I told you, you don’t get to have ."
Soon, I was surrounded by three more towering wolves, who shouted in unison, Mate.
And my only reaction was that...
"Co closer," I hissed, voice trembling with sothing like wild rage, "and I swear on the graves of every girl you’ve broken, I will twist this blade through his heart."
****
One week earlier...
Selene’s POV
The wind slled like ashes.
That was all that remained of my ho, just smoke and ruin drifting through the air like a cruel mory that refused to fade.
I staggered forward as one of the guards shoved from behind. His grip was sharp and unforgiving. My bare feet scraped against the rough, jagged path that led toward the gates. Every step sent another jolt of pain through my swollen ankles. My legs trembled beneath , barely holding upright, my skin raw and streaked with gri, blood, and dried tears. The filth had long since crusted over my pale skin. I couldn’t tell what hurt more, the ache in my bones or the sha digging deeper than any wound.
The chains rattled with every movent. Thick iron cuffs bit into my wrists, crusted red where they had rubbed the skin raw. A heavy chain wrapped tightly around my waist, binding to the others behind . There were only five of us now, five noble daughters who had survived the fall of our pack. Warriors, elders, ranked wolves... all of them were gone. Slaughtered in a single night.
Only the won and children remained. And of those, only the lowest ogas had been left untouched. Because they were worthless, powerless, and not even worth the trouble of chaining.
But not .
I am Selene Moonveil, the daughter of Alpha Eirik Moonveil.
The monster who ruled the Crimson Fang pack with violence. The tyrant who had once brought an entire rival pack to its knees in war. And now his enemies had returned, stronger than ever, and they had co not just for him... but for .
My long silver hair was tangled with blood and dirt, hanging in heavy knots down my back. My lips were cracked and split, the taste of iron still fresh in my mouth. I could barely see through my right eye; the skin around it was bruised and swollen shut. My collarbone throbbed where the chain had scraped through the top layers of skin. Every breath I took was shallow, my lungs too tired to do more.
I am only seventeen. I hadn’t even awakened my wolf yet.
And I was being marched through enemy territory, chained and marked like a prisoner of war.
Each ti the distant gates lood larger, my chest tightened. My steps slowed, even when I was yanked forward. I could feel it in my bones that the real punishnt is still far ahead for...
A war criminal.
The words kept echoing in my head, twisting around my thoughts until I couldn’t tell what was real anymore.
I didn’t kill anyone.
I didn’t even fight that day.
I was barely thirteen.
They think I did.
But why can’t I rember?
The questions never stopped. They stabbed at from the inside, louder than the guards’ insults, heavier than the chains around my waist.
A harsh tug from the guard behind snapped back to the present. I stumbled and nearly fell. He spat at my feet and hissed, "Keep walking, murderer."
I didn’t speak. My throat was too dry. My tongue was thick and heavy in my mouth, and I tasted blood every ti I tried to swallow. The other girls, noble daughters like ...kept their eyes on the ground. They didn’t speak either. We were all chained now. Even they, with their Beta and Gamma bloodlines, hadn’t escaped the sha.
But still... none of them were treated like .
They weren’t beaten.
I was.
I lifted my head only once, just as the tall black gates groaned open before us. The sound made my skin crawl. What lay beyond them wasn’t safety. It wasn’t hope.
It was the Silver Dawn Pack, but for ...my nightmare.
It was cold...not in temperature, but in spirit. Everything was dark and precise, the pathways paved with perfect stone, the walls tall and fortified like a fortress carved from obsidian. There was no warmth here, only discipline, control, and mistrust carved into every structure.
Eyes watched us from every direction. Warriors along the battlents. She-wolves behind shuttered windows. Even pups peeked out from behind the legs of stronger wolves, their stares wide and full of fear... and hate.
And then ca the whispers, soft and cutting like blades in the wind.
"That’s her."
"The alpha’s brat."
"The one who slit our people’s throats."
"Why isn’t she dead yet?"
I wanted to scream. To beg them to believe .
I didn’t do it.
I don’t even rember that night.
I didn’t kill anyone. I swear it.
But I knew they wouldn’t listen. Not with the Moonveil na trailing behind like a shadow I could never outrun. Not with my wrists in chains and my body marked with the scar of a whip.
Then... I saw them.
Standing beneath the sigil of the Duskdraven bloodline were four tall figures.
My blood ran cold.
I knew who they were even before the guards dragged closer.
Aeron Duskdraven, the firstborn. The leader’s expression was unreadable, carved from stone. His steel-gray eyes watched without flinching. It was cold and calculating.
Luca Duskdraven, the second. The one who couldn’t hide his anger. His jaw was clenched so tight I thought his teeth might crack. His hands twitched at his sides as I approached. Rage lived just beneath his skin.
Kael Duskdraven, the third. He was refined and silent. There was a sharpness in his gaze, a stillness that made him the most dangerous. Like a predator waiting for the right mont to strike.
And the youngest...Lucian Duskdraven.
He didn’t hide his amusent. He watched with a slow, dangerous smirk, like this was a ga and I was just another broken toy tossed at his feet. It wasn’t kindness in his expression. It was cruelty.
By the ti we reached them, my legs had given up. My knees buckled, and I collapsed. The guards didn’t bother helping . My knees slamd into the stone courtyard. I tasted blood again. I stayed there...face down, gasping, and head spinning.
The chains coiled around with a hollow clink.
Silence settled around us like a storm waiting to break.
And as I knelt in the heart of their territory...before the n who annihilated my people, I realized sothing I hadn’t let myself admit before.
They would never see as anything but a monster.
Even if they found the truth...
Even if the Moon Goddess herself stood beside ...
They wouldn’t care.
Because they didn’t want justice.
They wanted broken.
And deep down... I knew they were going to succeed.
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