THE LUNAR EXECUTION

"On your knees, Vespera. A Dud doesn’t get to stand in the presence of a true Luna."

The command from Alpha Jax hit me harder than the freezing rain drenching the ceremonial grounds. Only an hour ago, this man had been whispering about our future in the back of his truck, promising that even without a wolf, I was his. Now he stood on the high stone dais with his arm locked around my sister's waist. He looked at me with the kind of pity you give a stray dog before you put a bullet in its head.

I didn't move fast enough for him. Jax let out a low snarl, and the weight of his Alpha aura slammed into my shoulders like a physical blow. My legs gave out. I hit the mud with a wet thud that echoed across the silent pack. My white dress, the one I had spent months sewing by hand for this ceremony, turned a filthy, bruised gray as it soaked up the muck.

A few omegas in the front row giggled. My father stood among the elders on that same dais, his face a mask of cold, red-flushed stone. He didn't blink as his eldest daughter was forced into the dirt. He didn't reach for his coat to cover me. He just watched the moon, waiting for the clock to strike midnight so he could stop pretending to be a father.

"Jax, please," I choked out, my mouth filling with the metallic taste of my own blood. I looked up at the dais, searching for a single spark of humanity in the eyes of the man I loved or the man who raised me. I found nothing.

"I wasted three years waiting for a wolf that was never coming," Jax said, stepping off the dais. His heavy combat boots splashed mud onto my face as he approached. He knelt, gripping my chin until his claws punctured the skin. "Look at the moon, Vespera. It’s at its peak. Every shifter in this pack felt the change. Every shifter except you. You’re a genetic error. A stain on the Donovan name."

He stood back up and wiped his hand on his jeans like he had touched something infectious. He turned to the crowd, his voice booming over the thunder.

"I, Alpha Jax of the Silver-Moon, officially reject Vespera Donovan as my mate. I claim her sister, Elara, as the true Luna of this pack. May the goddess forgive us for the weakness we allowed to fester in our bloodline."

The howl that followed wasn't just a celebration; it was a banishment. I stayed there, face down in the muck, listening to the man I loved lead a chorus of joy over my social execution.

Two enforcers grabbed my arms and dragged me through the gravel and the thorns to the very edge of the pack lands. They threw me onto the asphalt of the main road like a bag of kitchen scraps.

I walked three miles in the freezing rain until I reached my father’s house. I pushed through the front doors, dripping mud and blood onto the white marble floors. I found my father in his office, already waiting. He was sitting behind a scarred wooden desk, the only piece of furniture left in a room that used to be filled with family heirlooms. A half-empty bottle of cheap whiskey sat next to a glowing computer screen.

"You didn't say a word," I whispered, my voice shaking with more than just the cold. "You stood there and watched him put me in the dirt."

"I was busy checking my phone," my father replied, taking a heavy swig directly from the bottle. He wiped his mouth with the back of a shaking hand. He didn't even look at my bruised face. "The wire transfer just cleared. Five million dollars. Finally, you’re worth more than the air you breathe."

"Five million?" I repeated, the horror starting to settle in my bones. "Jax didn't just reject me, did he? You knew. You knew this was going to happen tonight."

"Of course I knew," he snapped, slamming the bottle onto the desk.

"I’m the one who told Jax to wait until the Equinox. The buyer wanted the rejection to be public. He wanted you broken, Vespera. It makes the 'taming' process easier."

He slid a thick stack of papers across the wooden surface. The logo at the top was a black wolf’s head inside a gold circle. There was no name. Just the words: The Blackwood Estate.

"What have you done?"

"I saved this family," he said, his eyes finally meeting mine. They were bloodshot and hollow. "The Donovan name is bankrupt. But it turns out there is a man in the Human Sector willing to pay a premium for a girl with royal blood, even if she's wolf-less."

I looked at the bold print on the contract. Ninety-nine days. One biological heir. Five million dollars. No names. No light.

"You sold me as a surrogate," I breathed, my soul leaving my body with the realization.

"I sold a liability," he countered. "He needs a vessel. He doesn't care that you're a Dud. He just wants the DNA. You'll go to his fortress tonight. You'll give him what he wants, and in ninety-nine days, your debt to this family is paid."

"I'm not going anywhere," I said, backing toward the door.

"Then your grandmother dies," he said, his voice dropping to a flat, deadly tone. "The hospital called. Her heart is failing. The moment that five million hit my account, I authorized the surgery. If you walk out that door, I pull the funding. She’ll be dead before the sun comes up."

My heart shattered. I reached for the pen with a hand that wouldn't stop shaking. I signed the name Vespera Donovan and felt the ink bind me to a nightmare.

A black SUV was already waiting in the driveway. We drove for hours, crossing the massive steel gates that separated the Shifter territories from the Human Sector. They led me into a penthouse that felt more like a prison cell. The walls were reinforced concrete. The windows were blacked out.

"The Master will be with you when the sun sets," the guard said, locking the door from the outside.

Every light in the room died at once.

I stood in the pitch black until the heavy electronic lock clicked. A man stepped inside. I couldn't see his face, but the heat radiating off him was terrifying. It felt like standing next to a furnace.

"No talking," the voice growled. It was a rumble that vibrated in my chest.

He moved closer. I could smell pine and something darker. His hand found the back of my neck. His skin was scorching, but the moment he touched me, my blood suddenly began to scream.

He pulled me flush against his massive frame. I felt the hard ridges of his muscles and the erratic, thunderous beat of his heart. But as his teeth grazed my ear, his grip tightened, his claws pressing into my skin just enough to draw a single drop of blood.

"You're not human," I gasped, the air leaving my lungs as I felt his shadow grow claws.

He didn't answer. He slammed me against the concrete wall, his hand crushing my throat just enough to keep me from screaming. The sound of something large and predatory began to pace in the corner of the room. Not him. Something else.

"The contract didn't mention this," I choked out.

"The contract doesn't matter," he whispered, his eyes glowing a feral, bloody red in the dark. "Because you aren't leaving this room alive, Vespera. Not until the wolf inside me finishes what your pack started."