CHAPTER 3

Chapter Three: Broken Moonlight

(From Selene's perspective)

As the poisoned wine burned down my throat, the entire world swung sideways. The sharp, cruel, and bitter taste of metal stuck to my tongue, but the pain that followed was even worse. As though claws of ice and flame were tearing me apart from the inside out, it began in my chest and spread like fire through my veins. The weight of my wedding crown slipped off my knees, causing them to buckle and fall to the ground.

The last thing I saw before the blur engulfed me was my mate, my Alpha, getting up from his seat with his hand outstretched too late, his eyes wide.

"Selene!" His voice cut through the din of the feasting hall, through the clinking of silver goblets, the music, and the laughter. I briefly believed he was going to catch me. The darkness, however, came more quickly.

The cold marble floor gave me a nasty thud as I fell to the ground. The shallow, ragged breath caught in my throat. Once glowing in the candlelight, my wedding gown felt confining, like a silk prison.

Chaos broke out all around me. I heard shouts, gasps, and chair scraping, but her laughter was the sound that pierced the haze the most.

I was aware of it, even though it was gentle, controlled, and nearly concealed behind her hand. My stepsister. Lyra.

I opened my eyes. Her face stood out as if the moon itself had chosen to shine on her alone, amidst the swirling colors and shadows of the surrounding world. Lyra's eyes blazed with victory, but her lips curled into a honey-sweet smile.

I managed to whisper despite the poison choking me as it crawled up my throat. "You..."

Her expression didn’t waver. She tilted her head, her voice smooth, barely audible over the panic. “Oh, sister… some crowns were never meant for you.”

The words stabbed deeper than any blade. My chest heaved as I tried to call out to Kael, my mate, my Alpha, but the bond between us trembled like glass about to shatter. I felt it—the pull of his spirit to mine, the way our souls were meant to be joined forever—but it was fragile now, cracking under the weight of betrayal.

“Hold on!” Kael’s voice thundered above me, firm yet trembling. His hands cradled my face, warm against my clammy skin. His golden eyes searched mine, desperate, terrified, as though willing me to stay alive. For a moment, I saw the man I loved, the one I had trusted my whole life to. But then doubt flickered across his gaze, a dangerous shadow.

“Who poisoned you?” he demanded, his voice cracking with fury.

My lips parted, the name trembling on my tongue. “Ly—”

“Don’t,” Lyra’s voice cut sharply, sharper than her smile. She pressed a hand to her chest, feigning pain, tears springing to her eyes on command. “Sister, please! Don’t say such things… not on your wedding night. Why would I ever hurt you?”

Her performance was flawless. Even poisoned, dying, I could see how the crowd bent toward her, how their eyes softened, how whispers rippled through the hall like poison of their own.

Kael’s grip faltered. His eyes flicked between us—me gasping on the floor, Lyra trembling with fake sorrow—and hesitation rooted him in place.

That hesitation broke me.

“You don’t… believe me,” I rasped.

He swallowed hard, jaw tightening, but he said nothing. Nothing.

The silence was an answer sharper than a thousand blades.

Tears burned my eyes, mingling with the sting of the poison. The bond between us quivered, thin as thread, and I felt it weakening. He should have known. He should have trusted. But love, I realized in that broken moment, was not stronger than doubt.

My heart screamed louder than my failing lungs.

“You promised me,” I whispered, my voice barely a ghost. “You promised to protect me… to trust me… always.”

Kael’s lips parted, his face twisted in anguish. “Selene, I—”

But my strength broke before his words could reach me. My vision dimmed, black creeping in from the edges. The music of our wedding feast was gone now, replaced by frantic voices and the pounding of footsteps. Somewhere in the distance, the moonlight flickered through the high windows, casting silver light over my broken body.

And then—everything stopped.

The sound, the pain, even the bond. For a heartbeat, there was only silence. Cold, endless silence.

Yet, as the darkness dragged me under, something strange happened. The mark on my shoulder—the sacred mate’s mark Kael had placed there during the ceremony—burned with sudden heat. It glowed faintly, pulsing, as if fighting to keep me tethered to this world.

But another hand, colder, stronger, pulled me away.

I felt myself falling, tumbling through shadows. The marble hall disappeared. 

The voices faded. The last tether to my body snapped—and the bond with Kael shattered with a soundless cry inside my soul.

I was gone.

Or so I thought.

When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t lying on marble floors or wrapped in silken sheets. I was on damp earth, beneath a canopy of twisted trees. Moonlight filtered through branches like broken glass, painting the forest floor in shards of silver. My body was different—smaller, frailer—but the mark on my shoulder still burned, glowing faintly in the darkness.

I gasped, clutching at the strange fabric covering me. It wasn’t my wedding gown but a torn dress I didn’t recognize. My hands were thinner, my nails longer, my skin paler. My reflection shimmered briefly in a pool nearby—a face I didn’t know stared back at me.

Long, dark hair tangled around sharp cheekbones. Eyes that glowed faintly violet instead of my usual silver. Lips cracked, trembling with confusion.

This was not my body.

“What…” My voice cracked, hoarse and unfamiliar. “What happened to me?”

I staggered to my feet, clutching at the tree beside me. My head pounded with memories that weren’t mine—voices I didn’t know, fragments of another life. A woman crying. A fire in the distance. Chains rattling in the dark.

The forest seemed to breathe around me, alive with whispers. And then—through the quiet—I heard it.

“Selene…”

The voice was soft, deep, achingly familiar. It was Kael’s.

My breath caught. My eyes darted around the empty trees. “Kael?”

But there was no one there. Only the wind, curling through the branches. Yet the mark on my shoulder pulsed again, bright and insistent, as if answering his call.

My chest tightened. Could he feel me? Could he still sense our bond, even after death had stolen me away?

Before I could process it, a rustle came from the shadows. My body tensed. A pair of glowing amber eyes blinked at me from the darkness, watching, waiting. The air grew colder, and a low growl rumbled through the trees.

I stumbled back, my legs shaking. Whoever—or whatever—it was, it had been waiting for me.

And then, a voice, rough and menacing, broke the silence.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

The figure stepped forward, his face still hidden by shadows. But the way he moved—the calm, predatory grace—told me he was no ordinary wolf. His eyes locked on the glowing mark on my shoulder, and his lips curled into something between a sneer and a smile.

“That mark doesn’t belong to you.”

My breath froze in my throat.

And before I could speak, before I could even run, the figure lunged.