CHAPTER ONE: THE WINE

Aurora’s POV……..

The glass bottle neck bit hard into my lower lip, tasting of sweet, bitter copper and cloying red wine.

"Drink it, bastard!" Victoria snarled.

Her knee slammed brutally into my hip, her full weight pinning me flat against the hotel mattress.

I choked. The dark liquid sprayed across my chin and collar, burning down my windpipe. I thrashed, my heels kicking uselessly against the duvet, but my wolf lay dead inside me—silent, dormant, useless. My heavy body felt like lead under the drug’s swift onset.

Victoria dragged my head back by my hair, forcing my face toward the glowing screen of her phone resting on the wooden nightstand.

A photo lit up the dark room.

My breath locked in my throat.

It was Tristan—my fiancé—sprawled half-naked across silk sheets. A text message sat right beneath his face, sent ten minutes ago: Is the pig asleep yet? Hurry back to my bed, Luna.

My throat seized shut. My vision blurred as cold air rushed into my lungs without making a sound.

Tristan. The man who had held my hand at dinner six months ago. The man who had looked me in the eye and swore protection under the sacred blood oath.

"See that?" Victoria whispered right against my ear, her breath hot and reeking of mint. "Six months, Aurora. Six months he’s been touching me while you sat downstairs waiting for him to call you pretty."

My hands went limp on her wrist. My fingers slid off her skin, dropping onto the sheets like dead weight.

"Why?" I croaked out. My lower lip trembled so violently my teeth clicked together. "The... the blood oath..."

"He despises you," Victoria sneered, her fingers digging deeper into my jaw until bone ground against bone. "He hates every inch of your useless, fat body. But he couldn't break the oath without looking like an unjust Alpha to the pack elders. So he needed a scandal. A reason to throw you out like trash."

She snatched her phone off the table and stood up, smoothing down her fitted silk dress without a single drop of wine on her own clothes.

"By midnight, Tristan will bring the Elder Council right through that door," Victoria said, tossing the empty wine bottle onto the carpet with a dull thud. "They’re going to find you disgraced in this bed. The oath breaks automatically under treason, and I take my place as Luna of Shadow Glint Pack."

A violent, unnatural heat suddenly erupted deep in my belly, rushing straight through my bloodstream like boiling oil.

My skin flushed deep crimson. My fingers twitched uncontrollably against the duvet, pulling at my collar as my chest heaved for air. I tried to drag my heavy legs over the edge of the mattress, but my knees buckled completely. I hit the carpet hard, shivering violently as the heat coiled tight in my abdomen.

"What..." I gasped, my throat dry as sand. "What was in... that wine?"

"Just a little aphrodisiac to make sure you put on a proper show for the man coming through the door," Victoria sneered, stepping right over my shaking hand. "Can't have you fighting back when the witnesses arrive."

"You... you monster," I gritted out, my nails digging into the carpet fibers as I tried to pull myself toward the bathroom door.

"Look at you," Victoria scoffed, taking two steps back toward the small entryway. "Dragging yourself on the floor like the dog you are. Right on schedule."

"Please," I whispered, my vision swimming with dark spots as my skin flushed crimson. "Victoria, don't do this to me. I'll leave. I'll leave Shadow Glint Pack. I'll never come back."

"You think I'd let you leave alive to tell your pathetic story?" Victoria spat. "You're staying right here until Tristan walks in with the elder council to catch you."

I squeezed my eyes shut, pulling my knees up to my chest as the heat tore through my muscles. Father... did Father know about this? Did he let them treat me like this all these years? No. He couldn't. He wouldn't.

"Is Father..." I choked out, swallowing hard against my dry, burning throat. "Does Father know?"

"Father gave Tristan the keycard," Victoria said smoothly, checking her reflection in the wall mirror with a smirk. "Did you really think anyone in that house actually cared about you? You were just an annoying mouth to feed until we found a way to use you."

The final illusion shattered inside my chest, leaving a cold, hollow void. No one is coming. No one was ever coming to save me.

Footsteps echoed down the corridor outside—heavy, dragging, and irregular.

Victoria checked the door lock, ensuring the handle was closed, but explicitly leaving the deadbolt unlatched from the inside so Tristan and the Elders could burst in unannounced later.

She turned toward the opening door, a cruel, triumphant smile spreading across her face.

"Enjoy your guest, sister," Victoria whispered, stepping out into the hall as the door handle turned downward.

"Come in," she said.