CHAPTER 4: THE LYING TRUTH

Five Years Ago

I stood up from her bed and ran towards Selene’s room, but she was not there.

“I need to speak to someone,” I murmured to myself. “I think I am running crazy or something.”

I left Selene’s room in search of Clay. At least he would listen to me after ouir last encounter with the beast.

I found Clay where I half expected him to be, at the eastern wing, where Silvercrest dropped away into forest and fog. 

Clay stood with his back to me, hands resting on the stone rail, shoulders tense in a way that told me he had not slept.

I stopped a few steps behind him.

“Clay.”

He turned immediately, as if he had felt my presence long before I spoke. His gaze swept over me, searching, assessing, relief flickering through before he masked it.

“You should still be resting,” he said.

“I can’t,” I replied. “Not after what I saw. And  now, what I heard.”

Something in my tone made him straighten. “Come here.”

I stepped beside him, the wind tugging gently at my hair. For a moment, we stood in silence, watching the forest breathe beneath us.

“There’s a Seer,” I said at last.

Clay frowned slightly. “We have no Seer in Silvercrest.”

“I know,” I said. “That’s the problem.”

He turned fully toward me now. “Explain.”

“I didn’t seek him out,” I continued. “He came to me. Or maybe I was led to him. I don’t know which is worse.” I drew a slow breath. “He spoke in fragments. Whispers and warnings.”

Clay’s jaw tightened. “What kind of warnings?”

“That Silvercrest is not as protected as it believes,” I said quietly. “That the wards are listening to the wrong blood. That something ancient has been allowed to sleep for too long.”

The wind picked up, cold against our skin.

“You’re saying the attack wasn’t random,” Clay said.

“No,” I replied immediately. “It was a test. But I  know we both knew it  was not random.”

“Hmm, I need to take leadership of the pack quickly,” Clay exhaled.

I hesitated, then replied, “The healer spoke to me before now. You cannot do that without a Luna.”

Clay looked back at her sharply. “You are right.”

“The Healer called me your Luna,” I said, anxiously waiting for his reply.

The word hung between us, heavy and charged as the atmosphere between us

“Don't you want to be?” Clay asked.

“Who wouldn’t want to be? I know I am royalty, but I also know you’ve got eyes on my friend Selene.” I said.

Clay acted as if he were shocked. “Selene!” He repeated. “Your slave widow?”

“She is not a slave,” I said. “She is my friend and belongs to the beta clan we defeated months ago.”

“Well, I have eyes only for royalty,” Clay said, his voice very cold.

“So you agree to make me your Luna,” I said, smiling softly.

Clay’s expression shifted from surprise, confusion, something dangerously close to hope, then carefully blank. “Many still see you that way.”

“This wasn’t sentiment,” I said. “It was… recognition.”

Clay exhaled slowly. He did not like the way the conversation was going, and he intended not to continue the topic of finding his Luna.  “What else did the Seer say?”

“That Silvercrest was built on a promise,” I replied. “And that promise is being broken.”

Clay’s brow furrowed. “We honour our vows. To the Moon Goddess. To the land. To our ancestors.”

“Do we?” I asked gently. “Or do we honour the version of the story we were told?”

He went still.

“The whispers haven’t stopped,” I continued. 

He studied my face closely now. “And what do they say?”

“That the beast wasn’t meant to kill me,” I said. “It was meant to wake something.”

A chill ran through him. “In you?”

I met his gaze without flinching. “In Silvercrest.”

A long silence followed.

Finally, Clay spoke. “I need to know something.”

I turned to him. “What?”

“Do you feel bound to Silver Crest?” he asked. “Or pulled away from it?”

I considered the question carefully. “Both,” I said. “Like I’m standing on a fault line.”

“You see, Zanny, I have felt that way for a long time,” Clay replied.

“Well, that makes two lost souls mated by the Moon Goddess herself,’ I said as both of us started laughing. 

“Zanny,” Clay called out, his voice lower now, more careful. “Tell me about Selene.”

I turned to him, surprised by the shift. “Hmm, your secret admirer,” I said swallowing my spit. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything you know,” he replied. 

I drew a slow breath. “There isn’t much,” I admitted. “At least, not as much as I thought there was.”

Clay watched me closely as I continued.

“When Silvercrest defeated the Crescent Fangs, Selene came with the survivors. She wasn’t chained like the others. She walked on her own, head high, eyes empty.” My voice softened at the memory. “They said her mate had died in the battle. That she was a widow.”

Clay’s brow furrowed. “She never spoke of him.”

“She didn’t speak much at all in those days,” I said. “Grief hollowed her out. Or so I believed.” I paused. “I took her as my maiden because I recognized that emptiness. Loss has a way of finding those who understand it.”

“You trusted her,” Clay said.

“Yes,” I replied simply. “Completely.”

Clay looked away, jaw tight. “Did she ever mention her family? Her bloodline?”

I shook my head. “No. Only that she had nowhere else to go. That Silver Crest was safer than what she left behind.”

“And you believed her.”

“I wanted to,” I said. “She was loyal. Or she appeared to be. She listened when I spoke, stood beside me when others questioned my place here. She felt… chosen.”

Clay’s eyes darkened slightly. “By you?”

“By fate,” I corrected. “Or so I thought.”

Silence fell between us again.

“The Crescent Fangs were destroyed,” Clay said slowly. “Every survivor was accounted for. No known alliances. No lingering threats.”

I looked at him. “That’s what history says.”

He met her gaze sharply. “And what do you say?”

“I say Selene survived too easily,” I replied. “And I never asked why.”

Clay nodded once, the pieces beginning to align. “If she wasn’t just a widow…”

“Then she was placed,” I finished. “Or guided.”

Clay exhaled through his nose. “By someone who wanted eyes inside Silvercrest.”

My chest tightened. “I brought her here.”

“You showed mercy,” Clay said. “That isn’t a crime.”

“But it may have been a mistake,” I replied.

He turned to face me fully. “If Selene isn’t who she claims to be, then she’s been playing a long game. And she’s had months to learn our weaknesses.”

I closed my eyes briefly. “Then whatever is coming isn’t an accident.”

Clay’s voice hardened with resolve. “No. It’s an invasion that began the day we thought we’d already won.”

The wind carried another whisper through the trees, and I felt the truth of it settle in my bones.

There was a certain quietness between us as if to ensure that each of us meditated on the words we had just heard.  Then Clay turns suddenly towards me.

“I’ve made my decision,” he said at last.

I looked up at him. There was something different in his voice, something final. Not the tone of an Alpha weighing options, but of a man who had already chosen his path and was prepared to bleed for it.

Clay took a step toward me. “Silvercrest needs a Luna who is strong enough to stand against what’s coming. Someone the Moon Goddess recognizes. Someone the pack already feels.”

My heart stuttered. “Clay—”

“I will marry you,” he said.

The words landed between them like a blade driven into stone.

For a moment, the world seemed to tilt. The fire cracked loudly, sending sparks into the air. I searched his face, half-expecting doubt, hesitation, some sign that this was a strategy rather than truth. But there was none. His eyes were steady, resolute, burning with a quiet certainty that left no room for retreat.

“This isn’t about obligation,” Clay continued, his voice lower now. “It’s about balance. About ending the whispers. About claiming what the gods themselves keep pointing me toward.”

I swallowed. “You don’t decide this alone.”

“I know,” he said. “That’s why I’m telling you, not announcing it.”

I opened my mouth to respond, to ask the hundred questions crowding my mind, when the grass creaked softly behind us.

And then we heard footsteps.

Both of us turned.

Selene stood not too far away.

She had clearly heard enough. Her lips curved into a slow, unreadable smile, eyes flicking from Clay to me and back again. The morning light framed her figure like a stage, casting half her face in shadow.

“Did I interrupt something?” Selene asked lightly.

Clay’s jaw tightened.

I felt a chill crawl up her spine. I knew this decision had just ignited something far more dangerous than a marriage.

The Moon Goddess was watching, and I hoped the Moon Goddess heard our conversation and not Selene.

Yet, Selene was smiling.