Chapter 2

"Lana! How dare you disrupt the Luna ceremony!" Silas roared, his heavy combat boot slamming viciously into my back.

"Ugh!"

I was kicked face-first onto the gravel-strewn ground. Fresh blood burst from my mouth, staining the altar beneath me.

"Drag this witch away! Don't let her filthy presence ruin the Alpha's mood!"

Several burly wolf guards rushed forward. They grabbed my hair and hauled me up, dragging me by force to the judgment platform at the center of the altar.

"Wait," Michelle suddenly said. Her eyes reddened as she looked pitifully toward Ronan on the throne.

"Please don't blame Lana. She's always been jealous that I'm your fated mate. She's even cursed me in private more than once. But I believe she didn't mean it…"

As she spoke, she "accidentally" tugged open her collar.

A blurred wound just below her collarbone was exposed.

The injury looked uneven, the edges unnaturally swollen and red, as if it had been cut by a silver weapon and then badly infected.

"Oh, my God! Our Luna is hurt!"

"It must've been Lana, that witch! She's jealous of Luna Michelle and even more jealous of her pure Alpha bloodline!"

The crowd erupted.

Anger burned in countless eyes, sharp enough to tear me apart on the spot.

Ronan sprang to his feet. "Who did this?"

Michelle cried as her body swayed weakly. "It really hurts… Lana snuck into my tent last night. She said if she killed me with a silver weapon, you would be hers again…"

He slowly stepped down from the throne. Each step carried crushing Alpha pressure that made it hard for me to breathe.

He reached Michelle's side and pulled her into his arms, his movements gentle and protective. That tenderness used to belong to me alone.

Then he turned to look at me, his gaze freezing over.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

I struggled to lift my head, peering through blood-blurred vision at the werewolf I had loved for five years.

"You believe her?"

My voice was hoarse and broken, like a dying flame in the wind.

"You believe a lie riddled with holes? You believe that ugly scar was really caused by a silver weapon?"

"Enough!" Ronan shouted. Alpha pressure crashed down on me like a tidal wave.

It felt as if my organs were about to shatter. A metallic sweetness surged up my throat again.

"The evidence is right in front of you, and you still wanna deny it?" Ronan pointed down at me. "Michelle's bloodline was verified by the council elders themselves. And you, blinded by your own jealousy, actually tried to lay a hand on her!"

"I didn't…"

I shook my head desperately. Tears finally spilled over, mixing with the blood on my face until my vision turned completely blurred.

A massive, absurd sorrow seized me. I didn't care how the pack saw me or how Michelle framed me. I only cared about him.

"Ronan." I looked up, my voice trembling from crying. "Is that really what you think of me?

"We were together for five years. Don't you know what kind of werewolf I am? You'd rather believe a she-wolf you've known for six months than believe me?"

There was no sharpness in my questioning, only the raw, devastating despair of being stabbed by the one I trusted most.

"I didn't do it."

I repeated my denial over and over, until the words dissolved into the cold air of the altar.

"Really? I wanted to give you one last chance. But this concerns the safety of the wolf pack. As the new Luna, I won't allow anyone betray the pack."

Michelle suddenly pulled out a rolled parchment and slammed it straight into my face.

"Everyone, look. This is the proof!"

The parchment unfurled, revealing a defensive map of the Sacred Wolf Pack, along with several wolf totems I didn't recognize.

"I found this under her bed. She didn't just envy me. She colluded with outsider rogues, planning to let them infiltrate tonight's ceremony and slaughter the Sacred Wolf Pack!"

Michelle's voice rose, sharp and quivering, laced with deliberately measured sobs.

"What? Colluding with rogues?"

"Rogues are the lowest and most brutal of werewolves!"

"Lana is a traitor. She wants all of us dead!"

"Kill her! Kill her!"

A tide of fury swallowed me whole.

I stared at the unfamiliar parchment, at the twisted faces surrounding me, and suddenly found it all absurd beyond measure.

It was so absurd that I almost wanted to laugh.

Five years of companionship and going through life-and-death trials together meant less than a random piece of parchment and a few sloppy lies. I didn't even feel like defending myself anymore because I already saw the answer in their eyes.

They didn't want the truth. They wanted an excuse to abandon me without guilt, to execute me without remorse.

I would be the sacrifice to secure Ronan's throne and welcome the new so-called pure-blood heir.

That was all I was to them.

The sorrow rising from my heart froze instantly, hardening into cold, unyielding hatred.

Since they had already written the script for me, why should I keep playing along in their fake display of affection?

"Lana Cruz, you are accused of colluding with external enemies. As punishment, you'll be expelled from the pack and exiled to the wastelands."

Ronan's voice was beyond cold.

He lifted his hand and pointed toward the massive black stone monument beside the altar, the Stone of Reckoning.

It recorded the most unforgivable criminals in Sacred Wolf Pack history.

At that very moment, my name was being carved into it by an unseen force.

After my name followed one blood-red word that burned into my eyes.

Exile.