1. The Mate Who Chose My Death

#Livia’sPOV 

The cold bit into my skin long before the silver did. Heavy iron shackles weighted my wrists,binding my hands behind my back as two pack guards dragged me toward the high stone platform at the center of the square. Every step I took left a red smear in the pale dust. The silver was laced through the chain links to suppress my wolf’s bloodline.

Today my mate will sentence me to death. The thought alone should have terrified me instead, it left a hollow ache where my heart used to be. Inside my chest, my wolf scratched at the back of my mind, her whimpers fading into a dull, thrumming ache. Her voice was thin, choked by the poison in the metal.

“Mate…” She whispered, her presence recoiling from the burning silver. Where is he?

“I'm here.” I answered silently, though I wasn't sure whether I was comforting her or myself.

The town square of the Black Moon Pack was suffocating. Thousands had gathered under the dim gray sky, their shoulders pressed tight while their murmurs rose into a collective roar that vibrated against the stone walls. Some watched with curiosity while others glared at me with pure hatred.

Three days ago, these same people had brought their sick children to me. I had spent three years stitching their wounds, mixing remedies for their winter fevers, and bleeding into broth to keep their elders alive through the frost. Yet now their eyes held no recognition like I'd never done a single good thing for them.

A bruised,half rotten turnip struck my collarbone, spraying sour juice across my collar. A jagged stone followed, cutting a sharp line across my temple and warm blood trickled down my cheek.

“Traitor !” a voice shouted from the front row. A mother whose daughter I had pulled from a frozen river two winters past glared at me with undisguised hatred.

“Murderer!” another screamed. “She poisoned the Alpha!”

The insults didn't pierce the skin but the silence of the man standing on the upper terrace did.

At the top of the obsidian steps, framed by the towering banners of the pack, stood Alpha Asher.

He wore the heavy ceremonial black cloak of the pack’s ruler, his broad shoulders squared against the wind. The silver Alpha Crest rested flat against his chest, catching the faint glint of daylight - the very crest I had polished and fastened around his neck the morning after his father's passing. On that morning, his hands had trembled while he pressed his lips to my temple and whispered.

“No matter how dark the long nights get , Livia, you will never stand alone.”

Today, he looked like a statue carved from winter ice. His dark eyes were fixed on the distant tree line, refusing to drop down to the platform where I stood bleeding.

 Head Elder Vane stepped toward the edge of the execution dais, unrolling a long scroll in his withered hands.

“Livia Hartwell.” Vane’s voice boomed. “Former Luna of the Blood Moon Pack. You stand accused of murdering Magnus Blackwood. You stand further accused of the theft of the Sacred Moon Relic, and high treason by conspiring with rogue wolves along the southern ridge.” His voice echoed across the square.

A furious roar surged through the crowd. Men pounded their fists against their leather doublets while women spat onto the cobblestones.

I lifted my head, tightening my jaw against the throbbing pain in my head. “I didn't poison Alpha Magnus.” I said. My voice was lower than Vane’s, but in the silence that followed the roar, it carried. “I didn't touch the relic.”

“...”

No one cared to answer. The Elder didn't even pause his gaze upon the parchment. Truth was an inconvenience when a pack demanded a villain to mourn their dead King.

“By the laws of the Pack,” Vane continued, his harsh voice slicing through the silence. “the final judgement rests solely upon the reigning Alpha.” he rolled the scroll closed with a sharp snap and turned toward the high terrace. “Alpha Asher. The floor is yours.”

The square suddenly felt silent even though the wind seemed to stop as Alpha Asher descended the steps with slow strides while his every step felt like a heavy stone dropping onto my chest.

When he finally stopped before me, the faint scent of rain and crushed pine -his scent, the scent of my wolf had spent three years tethered to - drifted across the narrow space between us. But it was tainted now by the sour smell of iron and blood.

I looked up into the face I'd once memorized with love. But there was nothing left now, no warmth, no affection, no hesitation for me but only disappointment.

He looked at me then. His jaw was set so tight the muscles twitched beneath his pale skin. There was no rage in his eyes, no sadness but only an endless, terrifying void.

“You have the right to address the Alpha before judgment.” He said. His tone was smooth, flat and colder than the silver burning my wrists.

I swallowed around the dryness in my throat. “Look at me, Asher.”

He didn't blink. His eyes remained locked on my forehead, just above the cut bleeding into my eyebrow.

“Look into my eyes.” I begged softly, the restraint in my voice finally fraying at the edge. “Please.”

Nothing changed in his expression.

“You know me.” My voice cracked, taking a half step forward. The silver chains taut, the metal searing through the sleeves of my tunic, but I barely felt it. “You know I have spent every waking hour keeping this pack alive. I sat beside your father for eighteen hours while his lungs filled with fluid. I watched him die. I held his hands while they grew cold !”

Suddenly Asher’s jaws tightened, the faint pulse in his neck throbbing once, twice.

“The evidence was overwhelming.” Asher said quietly.

 Finally he broke his silence yet his words struck me harder than any blade could as my breath caught.

“It was planted.” I snapped as I took a shaky step forward before the guards yanked me back. “The evidence was left for you to find! Why would I kill the man who welcomed me into this pack? Why would I steal a relic I have no power to use?”

“The Moon Relic was found beneath the floorboards of your cabin’s inner room.” He retorted, reciting the facts like the judge reading a ledger. “wrapped in your tunic.”

“I haven't been to the cabin in four days!”

“Your blood was on my father's silk robe.” He continued.

“Because I was trying to stop the bleeding!” Tears finally rolled down my cheeks. “He collapsed in the council room! I pushed my hands into his chest to stop his heart from failing! When he died….when he took his last breath….”

I paused. A sudden, violent pressure bloomed behind my eyes, sharp as a needle pushing into my temple.

When he took his last breath…he said…

I frowned, my breath catching in my throat. What had he said ?

I remembered the blood - it had been dark, almost black, spilling over his golden embroidery. I remembered the heavy, suffocating smell of burnt copper in the air. But his final words were missing. Every time my mind reached for that moment, a thick greasy gray fog rolled over the memory.

“You're silent now.” Asher noted. His voice dropped heavily that made the hair on my arms stand up.

“I…” I shook my head, fighting the dizzying pain in my head. “Something is wrong with my memory, Asher. Listen to me, the night he died, there was someone else in the hall. I can't…”

The words wouldn't come out because for the first time since my arrest, fear crawled through my heart not because I was about to die but because there was a hole in my memory. A hole that shouldn't exist in the first place. And before I could gather my thoughts, another voice rose behind Alpha Asher. 

“That is enough.”  

A woman stepped out from the shadow of the Elder’s dais, her velvet robes sweeping cleanly over the red stained cobblestones. She carried a small leather satchel over her shoulder - the mark of the Chief Healer, Serena.

She lowered her head respectfully toward Asher before turning her soft, mournful eyes to me.

“Luna Livia,” Serena said, her voice dripping with gentle sorrow. “Please do not make this harder for the pack. I personally examined the Alpha’s remains. The poison in his veins was Night- shade root - a rare , volatile herb that grows only in the soil behind your cabin.I matched the toxin myself.”

The crowd began to snarl again, the low rumble of wolfish anger rippling through the front lines.

 I stared at her, my blood running cold. “You lied. You weren't even in the courtyard when he collapsed. You were at the eastern border.”

“I returned when the bells rang.” Serena said softly, looking away as if she couldn't bear the sight of my distress. “I wanted to believe you were innocent, Livia. I stayed up through the night double- checking the vials. But the proof doesn't lie.”

Her expression was flawless. The slight tremble in her hands, the sheen of sorrow in her eyes - it was a masterwork. If I hadn't been the one facing the blade, I might have wept for her burden.

I stopped looking at her.I turned my eyes back to the man who shared my soul.

 “You believe her?” I asked him.

Asher’s mouth formed a thin, hard line. “She brought proof. You brought excuses.”

“I gave three years of my life to you.” I said, my voice dropping to a harsh whisper that only he could hear. “I bled on the southern ridge to keep your pack members from being torn apart by rogues. I gave up my standing with my own family to bind myself to your pack.”

He said nothing. He didn't even shift his weight.

The last flicker of hope inside me - a small pathetic and foolish thing I hadn't realized I was nursing withered and turned to ash.

The realization settled over me with terrifying clarity. He hadn't come down these steps to search for the truth. He hadn't come to look for a flaw in the evidence. He had come because the pack required a sacrifice to move past the death of an Alpha, and I was the most convenient bone to throw to the dogs.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, the sound startled the guard standing beside me, who tightened his grip on my shoulder.

Alpha Asher frowned at me. “What's funny to you ?”

 “I thought losing my life would be the most painful part.” I said, meeting his eyes fully now, refusing to blink through the blood running into my lash line. The tears stopped. The burning in my chest vanished, replaced by a deep hollow quiet. “I was wrong.”

I took a slow step forward, forcing the guards to lean back against my weight.

“The cruelest part…” I said making sure every word dropped between us like lead. “..is realizing that my mate never once asked me if I did it.”

A faint ripple passed through the crowd nearest to the dais. A few elders shifted uncomfortably, their eyes darting between us.

For a brief second, Asher’s eyes widened. The mate bond pulled taut, as his wolf fought against the wall he had built around himself. Then he turned his back on me.

His simple movement hurt more than any rejection ever could.

He raised his right hand, his voice booming over the courtyard with absolute authority.

“As Alpha of the Black Moon Pack…” His voice echoed across the square. “ I declare Livia Hartwell stripped of her title, her lineage and her protection. I find her guilty of treason, regicide, and theft of the Sacred Moon Relic.”

He dropped his hand. His every word felt like another nail sealing my coffin.

“The sentence is death by the Moon Blade.”

The executioner climbed the platform, his massive frame broad enough to block out the pale sun. In his gloved hands, he lifted a four foot greatsword forged from solid silver, its edge curved like a crescent moon.

Two guards forced me down onto my knees. The cold stone hit into my knees but I didn't pull back. They shoved my head forward, resting my chest against the notch carved into the heavy wood.

My wolf cried out one last time before sinking deep into the dark, smothered by the silver light of the blade hovering above my neck.

I am sorry. I told her. I'm so sorry.

I closed my eyes. Not because I was afraid but because I refused to let the last thing I saw be the man who had promised to love me forever. I refused to spend my final second looking at the back of the man I had loved.

The blade sliced through the air then suddenly I heard a voice soft and clear brushed directly against the inside of my ear. It was a woman's voice, cold as winter.

“Wake up, little wolf…but do not trust the memories you wake with.” 

My eyes snapped open. “What….”

At the exact moment, the executioner’s blade struck my neck but pain didn't follow. Only a cold, dark that swallowed the sky, the stone and the sound of my own dying breath.