CHAPTER 5

Seraphina's POV

The next thing I heard was shouting.

My head felt like it was stuffed with wool, heavy and foggy and wrong in a way I couldn't explain. I tried to open my eyes but the light was too bright, stabbing through my skull like needles, and my body wouldn't move the way I wanted it to.

Where was I?

The shouting got louder with voices I didn't recognize, footsteps pounding down a corridor, someone yelling about the Beta's chambers.

I forced my eyes open and the world swam into focus slowly. This wasn't my room. The ceiling was too high, the bed was too soft, and the sheets tangled around my legs were silk instead of the rough cotton I was used to.

I tried to sit up and realized two things at once.

My dress was gone and I was wearing nothing but my thin underthings, and there was a man's arm draped across my waist.

Panic slammed through me so hard I couldn't breathe. I shoved the arm away and scrambled backward until my back hit the headboard, staring at the person beside me.

It was a man I'd never seen before with dark hair, a strong jaw, and a bare chest. He was stirring now, groaning like he was fighting through the same fog I'd just clawed my way out of.

"What..." He blinked up at me with confused eyes. "Who are you? Why are you in my—"

The door exploded open.

Pack members poured into the room, at least a dozen of them with faces twisted in shock and disgust as they took in the scene. Me in my underthings. Him shirtless in bed. The clothes scattered across the floor like we'd torn them off each other in a frenzy.

"I knew it." A woman pushed to the front of the crowd, her voice dripping with righteous fury. "I knew I smelled something wrong when I passed this corridor. The Luna's sister in the Beta's bed on her mating night."

Beta. This was the Beta's room. This was Beta Ezra, and everyone thought I'd slept with him.

"No." The word came out hoarse and broken. "No, I didn't— I don't even know how I got here. I was at the celebration and then I felt dizzy and—"

"Save your excuses." The woman turned to someone behind her. "Fetch the Alpha and Luna. They need to see this for themselves."

"Wait." Ezra was sitting up now, pressing a hand to his temple like his head was splitting. "Something's wrong. I don't remember bringing anyone back to my room. The last thing I remember is drinking wine at the celebration and then..."

He trailed off, his brow furrowing as he tried to piece together memories that wouldn't come.

No one was listening to him. They were all staring at me with hatred in their eyes, the wolfless sister who had somehow seduced the Beta on the same night her twin became Luna. I could already hear the whispers spreading and see the story taking shape in their minds.

I wanted to scream that this wasn't what it looked like, that someone had done this to us, that I would never do something like this. But my voice wouldn't work and my body was still sluggish from whatever had been in that wine, and all I could do was pull the sheets up to cover myself while the crowd grew larger and the accusations grew louder.

Then the crowd parted and Octavia swept into the room.

She was still wearing her white mating gown, still glowing with the triumph of her new bond, and the look on her face was perfect devastation. Her eyes went wide as she took in the scene, her hand flying to her mouth like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Sera?" Her voice cracked beautifully. "What... what have you done?"

"I didn't do anything." I hated how weak I sounded, how guilty. "Octavia, you have to believe me. Someone put me here. I would never—"

"She's lying." The woman from before stepped forward. "I saw her leave the gardens looking unsteady. She must have come here to seduce Beta Ezra while the rest of us were celebrating the Luna's mating."

"That's not what happened!" I looked at Ezra desperately. "Tell them. Tell them you don't remember either."

He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak, the Alpha appeared in the doorway.

Dax Vaelorin looked at me with those cold eyes, the same eyes that had found mine across the great hall just days ago, and there was nothing in them now. No recognition. No warmth. Just the flat assessment of an Alpha looking at a problem that needed to be solved.

"What's going on here?" His voice was ice.

"Your new sister-in-law was found in your Beta's bed." The woman practically vibrated with excitement at being the one to deliver this news. "Half-dressed, on your mating night. She's brought shame on both your houses."

The Luna arrived next, pushing through the crowd with my father close behind. When she saw me huddled in that bed, her face went white with rage.

"You." She started toward me and I flinched back, remembering the soup and the kicks and the way her hand had cracked across my face. "You disgusting, ungrateful little—"

"Enough." Dax's voice cut through the chaos like a blade and everyone went silent. "This is a matter for the Alphas to handle, not a public spectacle. Everyone out except the families involved."

The crowd dispersed reluctantly, shooting me looks of disgust as they filed out. When the door finally closed, only Dax, Octavia, my parents, and Ezra remained.

And me, still half-naked and shaking in a bed I didn't remember climbing into.

"Explain yourself." My father's voice was colder than I'd ever heard it, and he wouldn't even look at me. "If you can."

"I was at the celebration." I forced the words out even though my throat felt like it was closing up. "Someone gave me wine and I started feeling dizzy. I tried to get inside to sit down and the next thing I remember is waking up here with everyone shouting."

"So you expect us to believe someone drugged you and carried you to the Beta's chambers?" The Luna laughed, a harsh sound with no humor in it. "That you just happened to end up half-dressed in his bed through no fault of your own?"

"It's the truth."

"The truth is that you've always been jealous of your sister." The Luna's eyes burned into mine. "You couldn't stand watching her have something you didn't, so you tried to ruin her mating night by seducing her husband's Beta. You wanted to humiliate her. To humiliate all of us."

"That's not—"

"I don't remember anything either." Ezra's voice was quiet but firm. "The last clear memory I have is accepting a drink from one of the servants. Everything after that is blank until I woke up with everyone in my room."

Dax turned to look at his Beta, something flickering in his expression that I couldn't read. "You're saying you were drugged as well?"

"I'm saying something isn't right." Ezra met his Alpha's gaze steadily. "I've never seen this woman before tonight. I have no interest in her, no memory of inviting her here, and no explanation for how we ended up in this situation."

Hope sparked in my chest. If Ezra backed my story, maybe they would investigate instead of just condemning me.

Then Octavia stepped forward with tears streaming down her perfect face.

"It doesn't matter how it happened." Her voice trembled with just the right amount of pain. "The damage is done. Everyone saw them together. Everyone knows. My own sister in my husband's Beta's bed on my mating night." She turned to bury her face in Dax's chest. "I'm so humiliated. How can I ever face the pack again?"

Dax's arm came up around her automatically, his jaw tightening as he looked at me over her head. Whatever doubt might have been forming disappeared behind a wall of cold fury.

He blamed me. Of course he did. His new mate was crying in his arms and I was the cause.

"The girl must be punished." My father finally spoke, his voice heavy with shame. "I'll arrange a marriage to one of our old allies. Lord Vance has been asking after her for years. He can have her and be done with it."

Lord Vance was sixty years old with three dead wives and a reputation for cruelty that made even hardened wolves uncomfortable. My father was offering to send me to my death and he didn't even care.

"No." Dax's voice cut through the room. "Ezra was in that bed too. If there's fault here, it belongs to both of them."

"Alpha, I swear I don't remember—" Ezra started.

"It doesn't matter what you remember." Dax's eyes were hard. "What matters is what the pack saw. My Beta in bed with my Luna's sister. The scandal will follow both houses unless we contain it." He paused, and something shifted in his expression. "There's only one solution that protects everyone's honor."

I knew what he was going to say before the words left his mouth.

"Ezra will mate the girl. Tonight."

The room erupted. Ezra protested that he barely knew me. My mother complained that I didn't deserve a Beta. Octavia cried harder, clutching at Dax like she might faint from the shame of it all.

But no one asked me what I wanted. No one cared that I was being sold off to a stranger because of something I didn't do. I was just a problem to be solved, an embarrassment to be hidden away.

Dax raised his hand and the room went silent again.

"This isn't a discussion. Ezra, you'll mate her and take her back to Blackthorn where she'll live as your wife. She'll be kept away from pack functions so there's no further embarrassment." His eyes met mine for just a moment, cold and empty. "The matter is closed."