THE REASON

MAYA

I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to order her out of my room and slam the door in her face, but before I could utter a single word, Maria reached into the pocket of her silk robe and pulled out a folded piece of ancient, yellowed parchment.

She snapped it open right in front of my face with a sharp, victorious movement.

"Read it, street rat," Maria purred, a cold, disgusting smile spreading across her lips.

My eyes scanned the heavy, faded ink on the page. It was an official pack territory deed, bearing the high seal of the elder council. My breath caught in my throat as the dark truth hit me like a physical blow. The document proved without a shadow of a doubt that the Crimson Ridge pack—the lands, the wealth, the territory—legally belonged to her father’s bloodline.

Alpha Edward was only the ruler because he had married her. His entire title, his power, and his position were completely dependent on his union with Maria.

"You see?" Maria chuckled, her voice dripping with venomous satisfaction as she folded the paper back up and tucked it into her pocket. "You can play your little games, Maya. You can wrap Edward around your finger and trick him into putting a ring on your hand, but it doesn't matter what you do. The moment our marriage ends, I get the pack back. The elders answer to my family, not to a nameless orphan."

I sat frozen on the mattress, my mind spinning into a dark, suffocating abyss.

Before I could react or pull back, Maria lunged forward, her hands pinning my knees apart. She shoved my nightgown up to my waist, trapping my legs wide open against the cold sheets.

"Now stay still," she hissed, her eyes gleaming with a sick, twisted hunger. "Let me see what you've been using to turn my husband's head."

I tried to shove her away, but the sheer weight of her physical strength as a high-ranking wolf held me down. Maria leaned down between my thighs, her long, manicured fingers sliding directly over my skin. She began to finger my pussy, her touch slow, deliberate, and deeply humiliating. She played with my clitoris, her fingers working with a practiced, possessive rhythm that made my skin crawl with disgust.

I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached, staring up at the stone ceiling, refusing to give her the satisfaction of hearing me cry out or plead.

Then, to my absolute horror, Maria lowered her head completely. I felt the wet, warm pressure of her tongue as she began to lick my pussy hole, tasting me right there on the bed where Edward had held me only hours before. She took her time, consuming my body as if I were a piece of meat she had just purchased at the market.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of silent torture, she pulled back. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, looking up at me with a lazy, satisfied smirk.

"Shave off the hairs next time," Maria said flatly, her voice completely calm as she patted my inner thigh. "I love it neatly shaved if I'm going to be eating you regularly."

She stood up, smoothing her silk robe over her hips as if she had done nothing more than inspect a piece of furniture in her house.

"Watch your moves very carefully from now on, Maya," Maria warned, her voice dropping into a dangerous, icy register as she walked toward the door. "Play your cards wrong, and every little trick you think you're pulling will backfire so hard it will destroy you."

She slid the iron bolt back, opened the door, and stepped out into the quiet corridor, shutting the heavy wood behind her with a soft click.

The moment she was gone, I pulled my knees tightly against my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs as a violent shudder ran through my entire body.

Realizing that the pack legally belonged to her father killed a deep, vital part of me inside.

It was like a missing piece of a dark puzzle finally falling into place. For eighteen years, I had lived with the agonizing question of why Edward had allowed my murder to happen. In my past life, when I was Princess Philomena, I knew Edward loved me. I felt it in his touch, in his eyes, in the way he looked at me. Yet, when Maria struck me down with that porcelain vase and stole my life, Edward had done nothing to stop her. He had let her take my place as Luna without raising a sword.

Now, sitting in the cold silence of the attic, the bitter truth stood bare before me.

Edward hadn't just let her kill me out of weakness—he had let it happen because he needed her pack. Maria was the one who had maneuvered Edward into marrying her in the first place, using her father's massive territory and power to bind him to her side. They had used my death to build their empire.

A cold, dark laugh escaped my lips—a sound filled with so much venom and grief that it didn't even sound like my own voice.

They thought they had won. They thought they had calculated every variable, secured every piece of land, and arranged every marriage to keep their power intact forever. They thought I was just another disposable street rat—a soft, weak body they could use for breeding, pleasure, and manipulation whenever it suited them.

They had no idea.

They had yet to realize that the vagina Maria just licked, and the body Edward craved every night, belonged to the very maid—the very princess—they had brutally murdered all those years ago. Philomena hadn't stayed in the grave. I had returned, carrying the memory of every single drop of blood they had spilled.

I reached down, resting my palm flat against my lower abdomen, feeling the faint, warm pulse of the child growing inside me.

"They think they own this territory," I whispered into the dark, empty room, my voice dropping into a low, lethal pledge. "They think a piece of paper protects them."

Maria thought holding the deed to Crimson Ridge meant she held all the power. She didn't realize that a deed was only as strong as the person holding it—and I was going to strip everything from her, piece by piece, until she had nothing left to hide behind.

I slid off the bed, walked over to the small basin of water on the washstand, and began scrubbing my skin clean. The war wasn't over. It was only just beginning, and this time, the true queen was going to burn their empire to the ground.