Chapter One

Ella

In the central square of Iron blood Packhouse, it reeked of smoke, sweat and death. I knelt chained on the raised wooden platform.

Guards, elders and the pack members watched with hungry eyes, waiting for what was going to happen next to me, their fallen Luna.

"You pathetic, cum-guzzling whore! How does it feel knowing your sloppy, stretched-out cunt got betrayed in the end, you bitch?" Vivi's voice sliced through the air like a rusty blade. 

My heart stopped immediately those venomous words fell off her lips. 

I struggled to say something to her but I could not utter a word.

I was in so much pain already. 

Her lips curled in a happy sneer and it was a few inches from my face. 

I jolted multiple times, thinking I could free myself from this but the chains only kept rattling. 

I kept praying that this nightmare would end but…I was only a fool.

Wake the fuck up, Ella!

Wake up!

This has to be a dream. 

I tried to talk myself out of it but the cold bite of iron around my wrists was too goddamn real.

As I struggled there with the iron digging into my skin, I spotted one of the guards named Marvin. 

Marvin was from middle school who I had wired cash to last week for his dying mom. 

“Mar…,” I struggled to call his name, hopefully he would do something to help me out but instead, he yanked the shackles tighter until my bones creaked.

His eyes burned with pure hatred for me as though faeces were plastered across my face.  

"Hold still, traitor slut," he growled and a splash of spit from his mouth touched my cheek.

My stomach heaved heavily and hot tears gathered around my eyes.

This could not be happening. 

This could not be happening to me, not after everything.

Vivi moved closer and her vanilla perfume that she always drowned herself in choked the air around me. 

I clung to the one last shred of hope that was left in me. 

Maybe, she would fix this. 

She was still my best friend and my ride-or-die, anyway. 

She would change her mind, spill the truth, beg Cole and those wrinkled prick elders to listen.

She bent low with her hot breath against my ear and a chill ripped down my spine.

"Everything was me, you dumb naive bitch," she whispered. "Yes, I spiked your drinks. I spread the rumors. I fucked your mate behind your back with every chance I got. His large cock was buried so deep in me while you played the perfect little Luna. And the prophecy? It was as fake as my tears." 

The world went still and my eyeballs stopped moving as I listened to what I will call the greatest shock of my life. 

But, she was not done yet. 

“There is no way I was letting a worthless breeder like you pop out Cole's heir and steal my spotlight. That spot was meant for me and not you," She pulled back, flashing that perfect smile as she laughed right in my face. 

My world fractured and I could not hold myself any longer. 

"You... fucking betrayer!"  I screamed and my voice cracked after each word. 

Tears burned hot tracks down my cheeks as this betrayal slammed into my chest like a silver dagger twisting in my heart. 

I struggled with the chains and my wrists kept bleeding, but Marvin and another guard pinned me like the worthless animal they thought I was.

"I trusted you! I loved you like a sister but still ..you had the guts to stab me straight in my back!”

“No way, Vivi. Tell me this is not true. Tell me this is all a joke! Tell me you are pulling off a prank! I will believe it, I swear!” I yelled at the top of my voice and my veins popped out at every corner of my face.

Vivienne just winked, moving back to the crowd with fake sobs. 

She clutched her chest like her soul was shattering but it was all pretence.

Cole rose from his throne next and my heart skipped a beat. 

This was my mate. 

The man whose touch once set my blood on fire, whose knot I had taken night after night. 

He walked down to me, his boots thudding heavy against the ground. 

He stopped so close that I could smell his musk mixed with her scent. 

And a rush of disgust twisted his handsome face into something ugly and cruel.

"Confess, Ella," he snarled. 

His voice sounded so deadly that it shook the atmosphere. 

"Admit that the bastard pup in your belly is not mine. Admit you whored around with some lowlife rogue and plotted against the pack. Do it, and maybe…maybe…we will show mercy to the pathetic Luna you used to be." 

My heart fucking exploded and my eyes seaeched through the crowd but I had no one there.

I had no family in sight.

All I got were staring eyes that were full of hate from people waiting for me to be executed. 

Everything crushed me and I knew immediately that I might not be able to save myself from this. 

I had given this man everything. 

I had given him my body, my soul and my loyalty. Yet he believed Vivienne's lies. 

"Fuck you, Cole," I spat, tears pouring freely now.  "If you and this pack can swallow her lies and judge me like this then just end it! Behead me, you gutless bastard! Rip my head off and choke on the blood!"

" Oh, really? You didn't even try to defend yourself? You knew that you slept with that rogue! You know what you did!" he kept accusing me and I shook my head in disappointment. 

“What's the use? What's the use of trying to prove myself in front of you? There is no need, Cole.  I'm drained. You can do as you wish.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and my chest kept heaving with sobs that tore from my throat. 

I don't think I have a life worth living for. 

Moon Goddess, hear me. 

Please, this can't be the end. 

Give me a second chance. I know you are so powerful to help me. 

All I need is for you to have mercy on me and I swear, I won't be a stupid and trusting fool again. 

I will make sure I burn them all. 

I will listen to their screams and laugh while I use their blood to paint the walls. 

I won't stop until I get a bloody and merciless revenge. 

I begged her with every shattered piece of my heart as the crowd jeered. 

"Carry on," Cole ordered and his cold voice final. 

Stupid me, thought a miracle would have happened. 

Maybe he would have changed his mind but he didn't. 

He said all of that without thinking twice. 

Oh, no. 

My mate, my everything condemned me. 

Of what use is life?

The executioner stepped up and he was massive and hooded. 

My head was forced down onto the blood-stained block and the wood was rough and sticky against my cheek. 

I screamed when I realised that someone dumped wolfsbane over my back. 

The wolfsbane was like liquid fire eating fast into my skin like acid. 

It was sizzling and was peeling off my flesh in layers. I shrieked and a guttural animal sound rippled from my lungs again as blisters erupted across my shoulders. 

My skin bubbled and splitted open and I felt like raw meat exposed to the air. 

My arms burned from the guards' iron grips and I didn't try to struggle. 

In less than five seconds, I would be dead. 

I would die a painful and shameful death just because I trusted my best friend and my mate. 

Five. 

Four.

I shut my eyes tightly and embraced the darkness that engulfed around me. 

Three.

Two. 

It's death anyway.

One. 

The axe whistled down.

THWACK.

White-hot pain exploded through my neck and bones crunched. 

My eyes opened for the last time and tendons snapped out of me like wet ropes. 

Hot blood gushed in thick spurts across the wood I was placed on. 

My vision fractured into a red haze and my final heartbeat thudded in my ears. 

It was already weak and fading away. 

“Second chance... Goddess... please…”, I pleaded and this was my last thought until the darkness of death swallowed me whole.