3

When I recovered from the pain I started searching. Searching for what else have been taken away from me. What more do I have that they want?

I tore through my chambers like a storm, drawers clattering open, chests overturned, fabrics spilling like wounded pride across the polished floors. My hands trembled as I rifled through one garment after another, praying the necklace would appear, tucked into some fold I’d overlooked.

But it didn’t. It was gone. The delicate silver chain Kael had once fastened around my neck the only gift he had ever given me was gone.

The more I searched, the more I discovered that it wasn’t just the necklace.

A small letter I had written weeks ago lay missing from the carved wooden box where I stored private things. It was a letter I had never sent words I had poured onto parchment late one night in desperation, words that confessed how lonely I had felt, how afraid. My cheeks burned even at the memory of it. Who had it now? Who was reading my bleeding thoughts as though they were theirs to hold?

My mother’s bracelet, an heirloom with a faint emerald clasp, was nowhere to be found either. Several of my gowns those I had folded neatly only days ago were slashed at the hems, the delicate embroidery unraveled like veins spilling open. The rest of my wardrobe bore stains I hadn’t left wine splatters, ash smudges, mud ground into velvet.

“This cannot be,” I whispered to myself, though the truth stared me down with merciless clarity. Someone was violating my space. Someone wanted me undone.

I stormed to the door. “Guards!”

My voice carried sharp as steel. The two stationed outside stiffened and entered at once, their eyes flicking nervously to the wreckage of gowns and torn silks around me.

“Call the servants. All of them. Now.”

Within minutes, the chamber was filled with uneasy faces. Maids with bowed heads, guards who refused to meet my eyes, stewards shifting from foot to foot as though they were standing on fire. The room smelled of sweat, tension, and fear.

I folded my arms, forcing myself to stillness. “My belongings have been tampered with. My jewelry has been stolen and my dresses have been ruined. Even my private letters have gone missing. Who dared to enter my chambers without my permission?”

The silence that followed was deafening.

“No one, my lady,” one of the guards blurted quickly. “I swear on my blood, no one passed us.”

I turned on him, narrowing my eyes. “Then explain to me how my necklace, the gift Kael’s gave me on our joining ceremony vanished from my chest. Explain how my gowns are shredded and how letters disappeared from locked drawers.”

The man swallowed hard. “Perhaps you misplaced them ”

“Misplaced?” My voice cracked like a whip. “You dare accuse me of carelessness when I can see the seams torn with a blade? When my drawers are clearly rifled through?”

The servants shifted uneasily. One maid lifted her chin, her voice tight. “My lady, none of us touched your belongings. We would never.”

“Never?” I let the word hang in the air, sharp as broken glass. “Do you think I am blind? Do you think I cannot read your eyes? You are hiding something from me. All of you.”

They protested in a chorus of denials, voices overlapping in a desperate scramble of innocence. But I saw it the tiny flickers in their gazes which said they knew something they aren't telling.

The way they avoided looking at one another, as though afraid of betraying something.

“You will find that I am not as blind as you think,” I warned coldly. “If I learn that one of you betrayed me, the punishment will not be light.”

I dismissed them and they fled like leaves in a storm, whispering among themselves as they retreated down the hall. My chamber felt colder once they were gone, shadows stretching long and accusatory across the walls.

I collapsed onto the edge of my bed, burying my face in my hands. “What is happening to me?” I whispered. “Am I losing my mind, or is someone determined to drive me there?”

A gentle knock interrupted my despair. “Selene?”

Maris’s voice, soft and cautious. She entered without waiting, her presence brought a strange kind of comfort, even in the midst of my chaos. Her eyes widened at the sight of my overturned chests and ruined gowns.

“Goddess above, what happened here?”

I rose quickly, clutching her arms as though she were a lifeline. “My belongings are gone, Maris. The necklace Kael gave me. It’s gone, and so much else with it. My dresses, my bracelet, even my private letter I can’t find them. Someone has been entering my chambers.”

Her brows drew together in sympathy, her voice went low. “Selene… are you certain? Could it be that you misplaced them?”

I recoiled slightly. “Not you too. Everyone is insisting that I’m careless, how can I misplace what I have been guarding with my life. I am not mad, Maris. Someone is sabotaging me.”

She sighed, brushing a strand of hair from my cheek with gentle fingers. “Forgive me. I only ask because… well, paranoia grows heavy in lonely hearts. But if you say this is true, then I believe you.”

I sank into a chair, my shoulders shaking. “It feels like the whole pack wants to see me crumble. Kael barely looks at me, and now this there is a shadow in my own home.”

Her expression hardened, a flash of steel beneath the velvet of her features. “Then we will find them. Whoever did this whoever thinks they can trifle with the Luna of this pack will regret it. I'll make sure of that.”

She knelt beside me, her eyes fierce and steady. “I will help you uncover the truth. Trust me.” And for a fleeting moment, I did.

The following days, Maris set herself to the task with startling resolve. She moved quietly, questioning servants when I could not, slipping into corridors and watching the comings and goings of everyone when no one thought to notice her. She returned often with reports small things, whispers of suspicion, nothing solid enough to grasp.

Until one afternoon, she burst into my chambers, her eyes alight with triumph. “I found her.”

I rose so quickly my chair toppled backward. “Who?”

“A servant. One of the maids who cleans the west wing. I caught her with one of your sashes in her hand. She claimed she was merely washing it, but it was slashed through, Selene. Slashed, as your gowns were.”

My heart thundered. “Bring her to me.”

Minutes later, the girl stood trembling before me, her head bowed so low I could barely see her face. My anger simmered hot and dangerous as I circled her.

“Why?” My voice was ice. “Why are you ruining what is mine? Why are you stealing from me? Who sent you to do it?”

“I I never ” the girl stammered, her eyes darting to Maris as though begging for mercy. “I didn’t mean to, my lady. It was it was only once ”

“Only once?” My hand shot out, gripping her chin and forcing her to meet my gaze. “You entered my chambers and touched what is not yours. Yet you claim it is once? Many of my dresses has been destroyed, leaving me open to the mockery of my people. Do you realize what kind of humiliation you have caused me?”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I swear, no one told me to. I did it alone. Please, forgive me.”

Her words rang hollow, but I had no proof beyond her trembling confession. Rage and helplessness warred within me, leaving me hollow.

“Get her out of my sight,” I whispered hoarsely. “Let Kael decide her punishment.”

The guards dragged her away, her sobs echoing down the hall. Maris placed a steadying hand on my arm. “You see? I told you I would find the one responsible.”

I nodded faintly, though unease twisted my gut. Something about it all felt too convenient, too neat. “Thank you.” I whispered softly.

Later that evening, I was about to go for a quiet walk in the moonlit gardens, desperate for air that wasn't stuffed with betrayal. As I walked the gravel paths, I heard laughter drifting from the fountain. When I moved closer, a cluster of court girls were gathered, fanning their jeweled fans across their face.

I was about to walk by when I heard my name.

“…she told Mari that Kael was growing distant. Can you imagine? The Luna herself, confessing that her mate no longer warms her bed?”

My blood froze. Those words those exact words have only been spoken to Maris and no one else.

Another voice chimed in, mocking. “She also says that she fears the pack will turn against her. She is very insecure, not fitting for a Luna.”

They laughed, cruel and careless.

I pressed myself against the stone wall, heart pounding. Every secret I had whispered into Maris’s ear was spilling from their mouths now, twisted into mockery.

If Maris had not told them, then who had?

There are only two options. Either Maris has been betraying me or someone has been following me, listening to all my conversations.

But as the laughter carried into the night, a chilling suspicion coiled through me. What if

the only person I trusted was the one sharpening the knife against my back?