Selene's 20th birthday should have been a celebration. Instead, she discovers her boyfriend’s evil betrayal, falls prey to her stepsister’s twisted schemes…and wakes up beside a dangerously cold stranger with eyes like ice. Prince Lucian of the Lycan Kingdom is used to losing everything: his throne, his fated mate, the only woman he ever trusted. But when he meets Selene—an outcast with no wolf and no scent—he mistakes her unique perfume for his betrothed’s and claims her in a night of passion he can’t forget. Now Selene is pregnant with Lucian’s heir, sold off by her own family to hide her shame, and rescued only by the man she barely knows. Thrust into the glittering, ruthless world of royal politics, Selene must find her strength, uncover her secret bloodline…and prove that true power comes from the heart.
view moreChapter 1: Betrayed on my birthday
“Fucking hell, Corwin! Just like that...fuck, yes!”
I stood frozen in the doorway of my boyfriend’s bedroom, my stomach lurching, heart imploding in my chest. We'd been together for years… and I sure as hell wasn’t the girl on her knees with her ass in the air.
The horror bleeding through me now was a gut punch compared to how I felt just this morning.
I’d woken up with a buzz of hope in my veins. It was my birthday, my 20th, and even if no one else gave a damn, I told myself I’d enjoy it. It was supposed to be a big deal...coming of age, stepping into my power, maybe even discovering the wolf buried inside me.
My boss at the perfume shop had let me off early, called it a birthday gift. And with my heart full and dumbly beating for Corwin, I made my way to his place.
He was the only one who ever gave a shit about me. The only one who made me feel seen. I’d trusted him. I was going to give him everything.
And now this.
They were both naked...bodies slick with sweat. The girl moaned like she was getting wrecked in the best possible way, hands fisting the bedsheets while Corwin rammed into her from behind like a goddamn animal.
“You like that? Say it,” he growled.
“God, yes! Harder...fuck me harder!”
Corwin grabbed her waist, slamming his hips into her faster. The girl’s voice cracked into a high-pitched cry, her body jerking in rhythm with every rough thrust. “Shit...you feel so fucking good!”
Then he lunged forward, one hand tangling in her hair, shoving her face into the pillow while he kept pounding her like he was trying to break the bed.
“Fuck, I’m gonna come,” he grunted, deep and raw, while she screamed beneath him...her muffled moans riding the edge between pain and pleasure.
The whole damn bed was shaking like a boat in a fucking storm.
I don’t know what finally broke me out of my trance, but as they both collapsed in their post-orgasmic bliss, I found my voice...and screamed.
“How could you, Corwin?!”
His head snapped toward me, face covered in sweat and guilt, eyes wide. But I wasn’t staying to hear his pathetic excuses.
I ran.
Didn’t stop to see the girl’s face. Didn’t care. Couldn’t.
My life had always sucked, but this… this was a new low.
I’m Selene Caelum. A disgrace. That’s all I’ve ever been.
My father, Alaric Caelum, is Alpha of Duskwatch Pack. Not the biggest, but brutal and respected. Like most Alphas, he wanted a son. Not just any son, a legacy. A beast to carry on his name.
But his wife only gave him a daughter. So, he turned to a surrogate.
And the surrogate...lucky me...was my mom. An ordinary omega with no status.
When I was born a girl, he didn’t even try to hide his disappointment. And when my mother died soon after, he had no choice but to take me in. But he never saw me as his daughter.
He hated me from day one. Hated me for being female. Hated that I turned out to be an omega. And it didn’t help that I never manifested a wolf.
Most shifters awaken their wolves around 15.
I was 20. Still nothing. No wolf. No powers. No scent. Just weak. Weaker than humans, even.
Alaric despised weakness. So he despised me.
His wife wasn’t any better. Cassara hated my mom, and every time she looked at me, she saw the woman who shared her husband’s bed. Her disgust was constant. I was treated like a maid in their perfect little house of lies.
Honestly, I would’ve killed myself years ago if it weren’t for one person: Rhiannon.
My stepsister. Two years older. Confident. Beautiful. She never picked on me, never played the cruel games her parents did. She was the only thread holding me together.
Well, her and Corwin.
Corwin freaking Thornevale.
One of the strongest wolves in the pack. Smart, sharp, hot as hell. Everyone thought he’d be Alaric’s successor. He had his pick of all the girls, and yet somehow, he chose me.
He was the only one who ever looked at me like I mattered.
Corwin had been my light. My escape. My reason to survive.
I was going to give him my virginity tonight. Wrap it up in a bow and hand it over with my whole damn heart.
But that dream just got burned alive.
I didn’t make it far. My legs gave out somewhere in a back alley downtown, and I crumpled to the pavement, sobbing until my voice was raw.
“Selene?”
Rhiannon’s voice broke through the dark.
I didn’t know how she found me. Didn’t care. I was too broken to think. Too shattered to move.
She knelt beside me. I told her everything between hiccups and tears. She listened...calm, quiet, warm.
A car passed by, its headlights slicing through the dark just long enough to catch a glimpse of her wrist.
Her bracelet.
The same damn bracelet I’d seen on the girl in Corwin’s bed.
My stomach flipped. “She even had a bracelet just like yours.”
“She did?” Rhiannon blinked. Her voice caught for a moment as she looked down at her wrist. “Oh… probably just a popular model or something.”
She looked shaken. For a split second, I thought I saw fear flicker in her eyes.
But it vanished. She smiled like always and unfastened the bracelet. “You know what? Screw it. Let’s toss the damn thing.”
She threw it into the dark. Gone.
“No need to keep reminders of tonight,” she said lightly. “We’re rewriting the ending.”
I sniffed. “Rewriting?”
“Duh. You think I’m letting your eighteenth birthday end like this?” She pulled me to my feet. “We’re going out. You’re gonna drink. You’re gonna forget his name. And you’re gonna look so hot tonight, every guy’s gonna want a piece of you.”
“I don’t know if I can…”
“You don’t have to know. You just have to trust me.”
I didn’t trust much anymore.
I wasn’t ready. I was still aching, bleeding inside.
But gods help me, I didn’t want to feel anything anymore. So I let her lead me away.
Chapter 76 – You Lied,Selene’s POVThe beeping from the monitors changes gradually. What had once been a frantic chorus of high-pitched alarms now softens into a gentle rhythm, like the steady beat of a lullaby. I barely breathe as I glance over at the heart rate monitor, watching the numbers stabilize, one after the other. Eira’s body, once trembling and unsteady, begins to settle. Her chest rises and falls with more ease. The doctors who had been tense and whispering among themselves suddenly grow quiet, their attention fixed on the patient with wide, almost disbelieving eyes.One of them finally speaks. His voice is low but laced with awe. “Her vitals are improving. It’s too soon to say for sure, but if this keeps up, she could regain consciousness sometime today.”A murmur spreads across the room. Nurses exchange looks. No one expected this. Not after the condition she was in just a short while ago. But I did. I had to believe that reaching out to her heart would do more than the
Chapter 75 – The Truth Beneath the VialSelene’s POVThe palace halls no longer hum with quiet luxury. They echo now with chaos, fear, and the fast rhythm of feet against marble. Somewhere to my left, a vase crashes to the ground. I do not look back. Maids dart past in flurries of linen and panic. Noblemen speak in hurried bursts, voices too loud to mask their unease. Somewhere down another corridor, a footman calls for a physician. Another bell chimes a second later, then a third. The palace is ringing like a struck chord. Every note cries out the same name.Eira.My pace quickens, not because I share their panic, but because I don’t have the luxury of losing time. My heart clenches, yes. I’m scared, yes. But panic? That’s a trap. I cannot afford it. Not when everything now teeters on a knife’s edge.I slip into a side study no one uses anymore, the door closing with a muffled thud that silences the palace behind me. The noise dims. My fingers tremble, but they move fast. I shove boo
Chapter 74 – A Collapse at the PalaceSelene’s POVThe doctor’s cottage sits nestled at the edge of a sloping hill, framed by a riot of tangled foliage and thick vines that twist around the crumbling stone walls like possessive arms. The roof is shingled with age, half-eaten by moss and time, and a wooden sign swings loosely on a single rusty nail. There’s something ancient and forgotten about the place—like it belongs to a story from long ago rather than the world we know now.As soon as we dismount, I don’t wait. The garden is in full disrepair, and if we’re to earn the doctor’s trust, this is where I need to begin. I move around the back of the house, where the garden sprawls untamed beneath a sky streaked with pale clouds and summer light.Rows of plants have withered into skeletons. Weeds sprout aggressively between cracks in the stone path. The earth is dry and unyielding. I find a pair of stiff, faded gloves dangling from a bent hook on the shed door—leather, cracked from the s
Chapter 73 – The Reason He Chose MeSeleneI never expected a breakthrough to come from a dusty, half-torn journal buried under other forgotten records. I had only taken it on a whim, hoping to find a footnote, a symptom, anything that could shed light on what was happening to Eira. She’d been fading too quietly, too slowly. It was like death had taken up residence inside her but was too polite to knock.I flipped through the fragile pages, my fingers careful not to tear the brittle edges. Most of the writing was cramped and hurried, like the writer had been racing against time. I almost missed it. In the lower corner of one page was a faded illustration of a five-petaled flower. The petals were long and wispy, curling inward in a spiral, and the ink used was faint, almost as if the flower didn’t want to be noticed.My eyes locked onto it. Something about the shape nagged at me until I suddenly remembered where I had seen it. It was the same pattern I had noticed beginning to form on
Chapter 72 – PosionedNarrator POV (Unknown)I have existed for as long as she has, quietly bound to her but never seen. I have no form in her world, no voice to speak with, no presence she can acknowledge. I am the shadow that rests in the furthest corner of her consciousness, unseen and unheard. I have known only silence, only isolation. While she walked and spoke and laughed, I remained buried beneath layers of thought and instinct, watching her live a life that was meant to be shared. My prison was not made of walls or chains, but of the very nature of her mind. A barrier sealed me away, a barrier I could not penetrate, no matter how hard I tried. And believe me, I tried. Every day, for years without end, I clawed and scraped and pushed, feeding off the smallest fragments of energy I could gather. It was a slow, thankless task, but I endured.Then came the fall.She was falling, tumbling from a great height. I felt the terror pulse through her veins, and something within me respon
Chapter 71 – It feels like truth Selene’s POVThe gardens behind the palace are quieter than I anticipated... too quiet, almost like they’re holding their breath. The soft shuffle of our footsteps along gravel paths is the loudest sound, save for the distant murmur of fountains and the occasional rustle of wind through hanging blossoms. I expected laughter or music, maybe the hum of life from a royal estate. Instead, there's a stillness that feels... watchful.Elowen walks between Darian and me with a graceful authority that betrays her title of “princess.” She’s not just decorative royalty; she carries herself like someone who’s used to making decisions that matter. Each time she exchanges a glance or a passing comment with Darian, there’s a flicker of understanding between them... one that’s layered and growing.As we pass beneath an arbor laced with moonflowers, I find myself learning more from their casual conversation than any formal announcement could provide. Her father, I gat
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