06

Sonya~

I slowly dropped to my knees, my dress spreading over the bloodstained floor beneath me.

At that moment, I didn't even look like Luna anymore. Despite everything, I had never knelt before anyone since I was crowned beside Seth, not even when the pack members looked at me as though I wasn't worthy of the position. Yet now, in front of my mate and the woman who had died under circumstances I couldn't explain, I was being treated like a common criminal.

My hands rested against my thighs, but they wouldn't stop trembling. I kept swallowing against the tightness in my throat while my wolf remained curled inside me, frightened and confused by everything happening around us.

Seth walked toward the bed, and I watched him from the corner of my eyes. He didn't look at me anymore. His attention was on Doris, as though her death had erased everything else in the room.

“Bring everything that was found at the scene,” he ordered.

Two guards moved immediately, collecting the evidence that had already been placed aside. The cloth carrying what they claimed was my scent, the personal item they said belonged to me, and the other things recovered from the room were placed before one of the council members.

I stared at them, my stomach twisting because none of them made sense to me. I didn't know how my scent had reached this place, and I couldn't explain how something that looked like mine had ended up beside Doris. The more I looked at the evidence, the more certain I became that someone had impersonated me.

“This doesn't prove that I killed her,” I said, forcing the words past my tight throat. “Someone could have brought those things here.”

One of the elders looked at me coldly. “And the witness?”

My eyes moved toward the maid.

She stood near the wall with her head lowered, still shaking. I couldn't hate her because I didn't know whether she was lying or whether someone had truly made her believe she had seen me. That uncertainty frightened me more than her accusation because if she genuinely believed it was me, then proving my innocence would be much harder.

“She saw me,” I whispered, staring at her. “But she was wrong.”

The maid lifted her eyes briefly, and tears slipped down her cheeks. “I know what I saw, Luna.”

Her words hurt my chest.

I looked away, refusing to argue with her again because nothing I said would change what she believed. Instead, I looked at Seth, hoping there was still something human left in his expression that could make him pause and investigate properly.

“Alpha,” I said quietly, “please. I didn't do this.”

He finally looked at me.

There was no softness in his eyes.

“Enough, Sonya.”

Those two words crushed the little hope I had been holding onto.

Alpha Deacon suddenly stepped forward, and the pain on his face was almost unbearable to look at. His eyes were swollen, and his gaze kept moving between his dead wife and me.

“She murdered Doris,” he said, his voice breaking. “What else are you waiting for?”

Seth didn't answer immediately. His jaw remained tight as he looked at his father, then at the body on the bed. I could see the grief in the way his shoulders carried tension, but none of that grief seemed capable of reaching me.

“After everything I did for you,” Deacon continued, turning toward me. His voice cracked, and he quickly wiped his face with the back of his hand. “I treated you like my daughter when nobody else in this palace wanted you. How could you repay me by taking my Luna's life?”

My lips trembled as I stared at him.

I wanted to tell him that I hadn't done it. But seeing the pain in his face made the words feel useless before they even left my mouth.

“I didn't kill her,” I managed to say.

Deacon's face hardened. “Don't lie to me.”

The words hit me harder than his anger. He had been the only person in this palace who had made me feel that I belonged somewhere, and now even he was looking at me as though I had betrayed him personally.

He turned toward Seth, his breathing heavy. “She cannot remain Luna after this. The pack will never accept a murderer standing beside you.”

Seth remained silent.

The silence made my heart pound harder because I knew he was deciding what would happen to me. I looked at him, waiting for him to remember that I was his mate, his Luna, and the woman who had stood beside him for two years.

But his expression remained unreadable.

The Minister of Justice stepped forward, his face serious as he bowed to Seth before addressing the matter. “Your Majesty, the witness has identified Luna Sonya, and the evidence recovered from the murder scene supports her testimony. Under the law of the pack, the murder of a member of the royal family carries the highest punishment.”

My fingers curled against my dress.

I already knew where this was going.

“The sentence is execution through torture,” he continued, his voice calm despite the horror of his words. “Unless Your Majesty decides to amend the punishment, Luna Sonya will be taken into custody immediately and held in the dungeon until the sentence is carried out.”

My entire body went cold.

Execution?

I stared at Seth, waiting for him to object. Surely he couldn't simply allow them to kill me when I was standing right in front of him, begging to be heard.

“Alpha,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Please.”

Seth looked at me for several seconds.

I searched his face for anything that could save me, but there was nothing. No hesitation. No pity. Not even the smallest sign that he remembered that I was his mate and my death would affect him too.

“Nothing needs to be amended,” he said.

My heart dropped.

“The guards will take her to the dungeon.”

I stared at him as though I had suddenly stopped understanding his words. The room blurred, and the sound of my heartbeat became louder than everything else around me.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “You can't do that.”

Seth turned away.

Something inside me snapped.

I pushed myself forward and grabbed his leg before he could walk away. My fingers wrapped around his trousers, but my throat closed completely, leaving me unable to form the words trapped inside my mind.

He looked down at me with cold eyes.

I shook my head desperately, tears spilling down my cheeks. I wanted to tell him I was innocent. I wanted to beg him to investigate, to give me one chance to prove that someone had impersonated me, but my voice refused to come.

Seth suddenly kicked me away.

I fell hard against the floor, pain shooting through my side as I caught myself with both hands. A cry escaped my lips, and my wolf whimpered inside me.

“You brought this upon yourself,” Seth said coldly.

I stared up at him through my tears, unable to believe that the man who was supposed to be my mate could look at me like I was nothing.

“Take her away,” he ordered.

Two guards immediately approached and grabbed my arms.

I struggled against them, but my body felt weak. They pulled me away from Doris's bedroom while I kept looking back at him.

He never looked at me again.

As they dragged me through the doorway, I caught one last glimpse of Doris's lifeless body on the bed. The sight made my chest ache because I knew that whoever had killed her had also destroyed my life in the same moment.

The guards pulled me down the hallway, and I stopped fighting when I realized no one was coming to help me. My tears continued falling, but I wiped them away with the back of my hand as anger slowly pushed through the fear.

I had not killed Doris.

Someone had used my face, my scent, and something that belonged to me to make everyone believe I had done it. I didn't know who had done this or why, but I couldn't die for their crime.

I was taken back to the palace and straight to the dungeon. 

The dungeon door opened, revealing the darkness waiting inside.

My wolf trembled.

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to control my breathing as the guards pushed me forward.

I was innocent, but I had to survive to prove it.