REDEMPTION'S TRAP

(Daciana POV)

The first thing I heard that morning was not the sound of birds but the sharp whisper of fear moving through the pack house.

I opened my eyes slowly, already feeling that something was wrong, because the air around me felt colder than any winter night.

The servants outside my room were speaking in low voices, but my wolf heard every trembling word through the heavy wooden door.

They said Alpha Bardolph had called an emergency meeting in the great hall, and every elder had been ordered to attend before sunrise.

My heart began to beat faster because Bardolph never called the elders before sunrise unless blood had been spilled or someone had betrayed the pack.

I pushed the blanket away and stood up, ignoring the cold floor beneath my bare feet as I reached for my white Luna robe.

As Luna of the Blackfang Pack, I was supposed to know every danger before the others, but that morning, nobody had come to tell me anything.

That silence scared me more than shouting, because silence in the Pack house usually meant someone powerful had already decided your fate.

I tied my robe with shaking fingers and stepped into the hallway, where every maid looked away as if my face suddenly carried a curse.

Only one person did not look away from me, and that person was Ashina, the quiet maid who had served me for almost two years.

She stood near the stairs with a silver tray in her hands, but her eyes were too calm for someone to hear terrible news.

Her brown hair was pinned neatly behind her head, and her mouth held the smallest smile before it disappeared behind a mask of pity.

“My Luna, you should not go down yet,” Ashina said softly, but her voice sounded more like a warning than concern.

I looked at her carefully because my wolf suddenly growled inside me as if she smelled smoke before fire appeared.

“Why should I not go down, Ashina?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady though my hands were growing cold.

Ashina lowered her eyes quickly, but not before I saw something strange shining there, something sharp and pleased like a hidden blade.

“The Alpha is very angry,” she whispered, stepping closer until the tray between us trembled with the cups upon it.

I felt my stomach tighten because Bardolph’s anger could shake warriors, silence elders, and make guilty men fall to their knees.

“My mate may be angry, but he has no reason to hide pack matters from his Luna,” I said, moving past her.

Ashina touched my sleeve, and the tiny movement shocked me because no maid had ever stopped me from entering my own hall.

“Please, my Luna, you must believe I tried to protect you,” she said, and those words made my blood turn colder.

I pulled my sleeve free from her fingers, then walked down the stairs while every servant stepped back like I carried death.

The great hall doors were open, and the voices inside stopped the moment my feet touched the black stone floor.

Bardolph stood near the Alpha chair, tall and dangerous, with his dark hair loose and his golden eyes burning like a storm.

The elders stood beside him, including old Adolphus, cold Boris, and silent Farkas, who never came unless judgment was about to be passed.

My mate looked at me as if I were not the woman he had marked, loved, and sworn to protect under the moon.

He looked at me as if I were a stranger who had walked into his home wearing the face of his Luna.

“Daciana,” Bardolph said, and my name sounded broken in his mouth, like he hated himself for still knowing how to say it.

I took one step forward, but two guards moved between us, and their fear told me they had been ordered to stop me.

“What is happening?” I asked, staring only at Bardolph because nobody else in that room had the right to judge my soul.

Bardolph’s jaw tightened, and for one painful second, I thought I saw doubt flash across his face before rage swallowed it whole.

“You know exactly what is happening,” he said, and his voice cut through me harder than any silver blade.

I shook my head slowly because the man before me looked like my mate, but his eyes held no trust at all.

Ashina entered behind me then, making a small, frightened sound that caused every face in the room to turn toward her.

She carried a folded piece of cloth in her shaking hands, and I noticed red stains across the white fabric before anyone spoke.

“My Alpha, please do not make me say it again,” Ashina whispered, though her voice was loud enough for everyone to hear.

Bardolph’s eyes softened when he looked at her, and that small change hurt me in a way I did not understand.

“She has already told us everything,” Boris said, watching me as if he had waited years to see me fall.

“Told you what?” I asked, but my voice came out thin because Ashina’s tears looked too perfect on her pretty face.

Ashina dropped to her knees and pressed the stained cloth against her chest, as if she were the victim of something terrible.

“My Luna threatened me last night,” Ashina cried, and the hall filled with shocked whispers before I could even breathe.

I stared at her, waiting for her to laugh, waiting for someone to say this was a cruel mistake.

“She said I knew too much about her secret meetings with Conri,” Ashina continued, and every word landed like poison in my blood.

I heard Bardolph growl, and the sound made the guards lower their heads as the room shook with his power.

Conri was the Alpha of the Northridge Pack, a dangerous wolf king who had once asked for peace and left with bitter pride.

I had met him only twice under council law, yet Ashina spoke as if I had welcomed him into my bed.

“That is a lie,” I said, but my voice was almost drowned by the elders murmuring behind Bardolph’s back.

Ashina lifted the cloth higher, showing the red stains like proof, though I had never seen that fabric before in my life.

“She cut her own hand and wiped the blood on this cloth before ordering me to deliver messages outside the border,” Ashina sobbed.

My wolf clawed inside me, furious and trapped, because the lie was so bold that even truth sounded weak beside it.

I looked at Bardolph, begging him with my eyes to remember every night we had shared and every oath we had made.

“Bardolph, look at me and tell me you believe this maid over your own mate,” I said, feeling my heart crack with each word.

His face twisted as if my pain reached him, but Ashina’s soft cry pulled his eyes away from mine again.

That was the moment I understood the first part of her trap, because she had not only accused me.

She had made herself small, wounded, and helpless before a proud Alpha who hated seeing weakness crushed by someone he trusted.

Bardolph walked toward me slowly, and every step sounded like a door closing somewhere deep inside my soul.

“Where were you last night after moonrise?” he asked, and his voice was quieter than before but far more dangerous.

I swallowed hard, remembering how I had gone alone to the healing room because my wolf had felt pain near our bond.

“I was in the healing room,” I answered, though I suddenly knew nobody had seen me enter because the hall lamps had gone out.

Ashina gasped behind me, and I hated how perfectly she chose her moment to make my simple truth look like guilt.

“She told me she would say that,” Ashina whispered, and Bardolph’s shoulders grew tense beneath the weight of her words.

The elders began speaking at once, and I heard my name mixed with betrayal, secret letters, and danger to the pack.

Bardolph raised his hand, and the hall went silent so quickly that even the torches seemed to stop moving.

“Bring the box,” he ordered, and my heart dropped before I even knew what box he meant.

Lowell, one of Bardolph’s young guards, stepped forward carrying a wooden chest I had never seen before in my chamber.

He opened it on the stone table, revealing letters tied with black ribbon and sealed with the mark of Northridge.

My knees almost failed me, because each letter had my name written across it in a handwriting painfully close to mine.

“I never wrote those,” I said, but the room had already begun to choose the lie because the lie had objects to hold.

Bardolph picked up one letter and read silently, and his face hardened with every line his eyes crossed.

When he looked at me again, the mate bond between us burned like a rope being pulled through fire.

“You planned to give my border routes to Conri,” Bardolph said, and his voice was not asking anymore.

“No,” I whispered, stepping toward him until the guards blocked me again with their arms and lowered eyes.

Ashina began crying louder, but I saw her fingers tighten around the cloth as if she were holding back victory.

I wanted to scream that she was lying, but I knew screams only made innocent women look wild before frightened men.

So I lifted my chin and looked at every elder, every guard, and every servant who had eaten under my care.

“Someone placed those letters in my room, and someone is using your fear to break this pack from the inside,” I said.

For one second, Farkas looked away from Ashina and studied the letters with a frown that did not belong to a convinced man.

Then Bardolph spoke, and whatever hope I had left shattered beneath the weight of his next words.

“Until the truth is decided, Daciana will no longer sit beside me as Luna of Blackfang,” he said.

The hall went silent again, but this silence was worse because it sounded like everyone had heard my heart fall.

I stared at him, unable to understand how a bond blessed by the moon could be pushed aside by one maid’s tears.

“You are removing me because of her word?” I asked, and my voice broke no matter how hard I tried to hold it.

Bardolph’s eyes flashed with pain, but his mouth remained cruel because pride had already taken the place of love.

“I am removing you because my pack comes before my heart,” he said, and those words killed something soft inside me.

Ashina lowered her head, but not fast enough to hide the smile that touched her lips like stolen blood.

Bardolph turned to the guards, and I knew the next order would decide whether I was still his mate or already his prisoner.

“Take her to the old servant wing,” he said, and the hall gasped because even accused Lunas were not placed among maids.

My whole body went cold as I realized Ashina had not only stolen his trust; she had stolen my place in my own home.

The guards reached for me, but I stepped back before their hands could touch the mark Bardolph had once kissed.

I looked at Ashina then, and for the first time, her mask slipped long enough for my wolf to see the enemy clearly.

“You wanted my room, my crown, and my mate,” I said softly, making sure only she could hear the poison in my calm voice.

Ashina’s tears stopped for one tiny breath, and her eyes glittered with a hunger that made my blood burn.

Bardolph moved closer to her without noticing, placing his body between the maid and the Luna he had chosen not to believe.

That small act hurt worse than the judgment, because it showed me where his protection had gone before he even touched her.

As the guards led me away, I heard Ashina whisper his name like a prayer meant only for a fool.

I turned once at the door and saw Bardolph watching me with rage, pain, and something that looked almost like fear.

He still felt the bond, and that truth became the first sharp weapon I held inside my broken chest.

Before the door closed, Ashina lifted her face from Bardolph’s shoulder and looked directly at me with dry, shining eyes.

Then she mouthed six silent words that turned my grief into something darker, colder, and far more dangerous.

“He was never yours to keep.”