He Killed Me

Katherine Knight’s  POV

"Nikolai, please!" I sobbed, clutching at the hem of his trousers. My fingers were trembling, leaving bloody smears on his clothes. "I’ve been a good Luna. I’ve done everything you asked!"

Nikolai looked at me like a piece of trash he’d finally decided to throw away.

"Five years, Katherine," he said, his voice loud enough for the entire pack to hear. "The Seer said a Knight daughter would give me the strongest heir in history. But look at you. You’re still wolf-less. You’re just a broken, human girl playing dress-up 

in a Luna’s throne."

He kicked my hand away. It wasn't a hard kick—it was a dismissive one. That hurt worse.

"You’re useless. A parasite eating my pack’s food and giving us nothing in return."

I looked toward the crowd, desperate for one person to stand up for me. But I only saw teeth. The pack members I had cared for were grinning. And there, in the front row, was my sister.

She wasn't crying for me. She was glowing.

"But the Seer saw my face..." I whispered, my voice cracking. "He said the prophecy was mine."

"The Seer died the day after he met you, Katherine," my sister,Sofia, spat. She stepped out of the crowd, her eyes flashing with a predatory hunger. "You’re the bad luck that’s been rotting this pack from the inside out."

She didn't just slap me. She let her claws slide out—four silver-tipped blades—and ripped them across my face.

The heat was instant. My skin tore like wet paper. I fell back, gasping, my vision blurring as my own blood poured into my eyes.

"You’re a disgrace, sister," she whispered, leaning over my broken body so only I could hear. "And Nikolai is finally letting me wash you for good."

I looked at Nikolai one last time, waiting for the man who used to kiss me goodnight to save me. Instead, he just turned his back.

"End it," he said.

I tried to scramble backward, my hand reaching out for a mercy that didn't exist. "Why?!" I screamed, the word tearing at my throat. "Why are you doing this?!"

Sofia didn’t stop. She walked toward me with the grace of a predator, a sickeningly proud smile on her face. "Why? Because once you’re dead, I’m the strongest Luna this pack has ever seen. The Seer was wrong about you, Katherine. I am the prophecy. I am the one who will carry the Alpha’s bloodline."

The pack gasped, a low murmur of shock rippling through the clearing.

"You’re… you’re pregnant?" I whispered. The heartbreak felt like a physical weight, heavier than the blood soaking my dress. "How could you? You’re my sister! My own blood!"

"Not anymore." Sofia’s hand lurched out, snapping into my hair and yanking my head back until my neck was exposed to the moon. She looked at the crowd like she had already won her crown.

"Nikolai..." I looked at my husband, the man I had slept beside for eighteen hundred nights. "I’m your wife. We swore an oath. You’re married to me!"

Nikolai reached out and took Sofia’s hand, lacing his fingers with hers right in front of my dying eyes. "I married you because I thought you were the one, Katherine. But it was Sofia all along. You were just the mistake I had to endure until the real Luna arrived."

I looked around the circle of faces I had known for five years. I had tended to their wounds, fed their children during the frost, and listened to their sorrows. 

But as I knelt in the dirt, I saw only betrayal. Some looked away, too cowardly to watch but too cold to stop it. Others leaned forward, their eyes flashing with the sick excitement of watching a useless thing die.

Then, the crowd parted. My heart leapt for a split second.

"Mother! Father!" I gasped, reaching out toward the two people who had given me life. "Please! Save me! Tell them the prophecy... tell them I’m your daughter!"

They didn't move. My father crossed his arms, his face a mask of iron. My mother didn't even shed a single tear; she just looked at my bloody face with a flash of disgust, as if I were a stain on the Knight family name. 

They didn't see their daughter. They saw a disgrace that was finally being erased.

Nikolai stepped toward me, the moonlight catching the edge of a heavy silver broadsword.

"In the name of the Blood Moon Pack," Nikolai’s voice rang out, cold and triumphant, "I publicly executed Katherine Knight. You were the worst Luna to ever disgrace this throne. Today, we wash away the rot to welcome our true Luna, Sofia Knight, and the powerful heir she carries!”

The pack let out a clamorous howl of approval. The sound felt like it was tearing my soul apart. 

I collapsed into the mud, my hand instinctively shielding my stomach. It was a secret I had guarded like a treasure, a tiny light I’d been saving for his birthday.

"Nikolai! Please!" I screamed, the words catching on the sob in my throat. "Have mercy on me... I’m begging you. I’m pregnant, too. I’m carrying your heir—your firstborn!"

The crowd went deathly silent for a heartbeat. I looked at Nikolai, praying for a flicker of the man I used to love.

My head snapped to the side as Sofia’s hand collided with my face. "You’re not just a loser, you’re a liar too!" she shrieked, her voice high and panicked. She looked at the pack, then at Nikolai, her eyes wide with desperation. "She’s just jealous, Nikolai! She’s trying to save her pathetic skin by stealing my glory. Kill her! Do it now!"

I looked at Nikolai, my eyes pleading. "I am telling the truth! Please, Nikolai, don't do this to our child..."

Nikolai looked at my stomach, then at Sofia’s smug face. He didn't check for a scent. He didn't call a doctor. He didn't care. 

"Even if there is a pup in there, which is not!" he hissed, leaning down so only I could hear his cold, hollow voice, "I don’t want a 'weak, wolf-less' heir from a woman like you. Sofia is the prophecy. You are just a mistake!"

Nikolai gripped the hilt of the sword and leaned down, his breath hot against my ear.

"Any last words, Katherine? Make them quick. My son is waiting to be born."

I stopped crying. The heat of the heartbreak turned into a freezing, crystalline center of rage. 

I looked him dead in the eye, then turned my gaze to my sister and my silent parents.

"I don't have a prayer for you," I whispered, my voice carrying a weight that made the nearest wolves flinch. "I have a curse. May the Moon Goddess witness this treachery. May the blood you spill today drown you in your sleep. I loved you all, and you gave me death. So if I return, I won’t come as a wife, or a daughter, or a sister. I will come as the reckoning, you aren't strong enough to survive!"

Nikolai’s eyes flashed with a momentary touch of fear. To hide it, he swung the blade.

"Die, then."

I closed my eyes, bracing for the end, but suddenly, the heavy iron gates of the courtyard blasted open. 

"STOP!"

I knew that voice. It was deep, rough, and carried the scent of a winter storm. It was the brother who never spoke to me. The brother I had been told to fear.

Alexander.

I tried to open my eyes, to call out to the only man who had moved to help me, but the silver was already falling. 

The last thing I saw wasn't my husband’s face or my sister’s smile. It was Alexander Grey, the ruthless brother of my husband—charging through the gates like a god of war, his eyes glowing a fierce, golden red. "KATHERINE!"

But it was already too late.