The Luna Who Burned The Pack

s smelled like dust

ed us through the political structure of the pack. Back then, I had sat quietly at th

e walls carved with the history of our bloodlines, and the eno

r that same table. But there was no awe. Only the bit

erve. Not all, just enough to leg

why I w

was t

ean up the mess the Alpha had made when he

felt. I had not been announced. No one acknowledged my presence, but I had felt the pull t

at the head, his lips pressed into the familiar sneer he wore anytime he looked in my direction. Beside him sat Eld

l announcements. His posture was impeccable. His expression was unreadable. He

ace, her chin high, her eyes sharp. She wore gold silk embroidered with the Bloodmoon crest, even

Ama

rn. Daughter of the Eastfang Alpha. Groomed

y, but I felt the heat o

e the table, voi

o claim a mate, one who will help solidify our standing a

I had known they were coming, but nothing prep

al and intentional, before

nize Luna Amaris as the Alpha's intended. Her royal bloodline will s

the room, darin

one

But the crowd stayed quiet, not because they agreed, but because no one

ot glance

not h

ation was

the pack avoided my gaze, in the quiet sound of Amaris's shoes as sh

ssing myself deeper into

leave, a pair of hands

gu

us," one of

fened.

replied, not unkindly, but not

saf

always used when they

to the table, speaking in low tones to Elder Rhian.

it felt like my spirit had gone somewhere else, as if it had slipped

ke me back to t

f the packhouse. The air grew colder the farther we descended, and the tor

lding

during a famine year. I remembered how her hands shook w

idor. The metal door groaned on its hinges, and t

the firs

look at hi

afety in a pack that just watched

dn't

ked the doo

cot in one corner and a cracked bowl of water in the other. The

use the cot looked like it h

the silence settled over me, b

endure

st trying to believe that becau

stared at the small barred window whe

ces and plotting the next chapter of his legacy. And the girl he had chosen sat

girl no on

on chose and t

strange happen

d no

hed from the shame of being dragged out of a room wh

inside the pit of that silence

ow

. Not qu

hing

fi

led, patient like a predator that had be

palm again

ed slightly be

I wasn't. I should have been

the rejection and the chains of sil

he Mo

i