Chapter 2

I threw clothes into a bag with shaking hands while Luna slept on. My mind raced as I packed only essentials—we had to move fast. Whatever Dimitri Stone wanted, staying here for Holden's rejection ceremony would destroy us both.

"Mommy?" Luna stirred, rubbing her eyes. "Where are we going?"

"On an adventure, baby." I forced a smile, lifting her into my arms. "Remember how you always wanted to see new places?"

She nodded sleepily against my shoulder. I grabbed our bags and headed downstairs where Dimitri waited, his presence filling my small living room like a storm barely contained.

"Ready?" he asked.

Before I could answer, the front door exploded inward. Holden stood there, his chest heaving, eyes blazing with fury. Behind him stood three of his warriors.

"Going somewhere, Camille?" His voice was deadly calm—the kind that came before violence.

"That's none of your concern anymore." I held Luna tighter. "You made your choice."

"You're not taking her." He stepped forward. "Luna stays with me."

"Over my dead body."

Holden's laugh was cruel. "That can be arranged. You think I don't know what you are? What you've been hiding?"

My blood turned to ice. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Your mother wasn't just an omega, was she?" He moved closer, and I instinctively stepped back. "She was something else. Something forbidden. And you..." His eyes narrowed. "You're an abomination."

Dimitri moved then, positioning himself between us. "That's enough, Ford."

"This doesn't concern you, Stone." Holden's canines extended. "She's still my mate."

"Not after tonight." Dimitri's voice carried a power that made everyone in the room tense. "You were planning a public rejection. Consider it done."

"She doesn't get to leave. Not with pack secrets. Not with my daughter."

"Pack secrets?" I found my voice. "What secrets? What are you talking about?"

Holden's smile was cold. "Your mother didn't die in a rogue attack, Camille. She was executed. By my father. For being a witch."

The world tilted. "What? No. That's impossible. Witches are extinct—"

"Are they?" Serena stepped through the doorway, her blonde hair perfect even at this hour. "Your mother certainly wasn't. And neither are you."

I stared at her, then at Holden. "You knew? All this time, you knew?"

"I suspected." Holden's jaw clenched. "Your mother bound your powers before she died, but they've been trying to break free. Why do you think I never let you mark me? Why did I keep you at arm's length? A witch-wolf hybrid marking an Alpha would have consequences."

"Then why marry me at all?" The words came out as a scream.

"Because I needed to keep you under control. Monitor you. Make sure you never became what your mother was." His eyes were ice. "But now Serena's here. I don't need you anymore."

Luna whimpered in my arms, confused and scared. My heart broke for her, for us, for the lie our entire life had been.

"You used me." The truth was suffocating. "Our whole marriage, our daughter—"

"Luna's mine." His voice turned possessive. "She's a pure wolf. I've had her tested."

"Tested?" Rage flooded through me. "You had our daughter tested like some kind of experiment?"

The windows in the room suddenly cracked. The lights flickered. That warm feeling from earlier returned, but this time it burned like fire in my veins.

"Camille." Dimitri's voice was warning. "Control it."

But I couldn't. Seven years of humiliation, rejection, and now this betrayal—it was too much. The temperature in the room spiked. The wooden coffee table began to smoke.

"Mom?" Luna's terrified voice snapped me back.

I forced the power down, breathing hard. Everyone in the room stared at me with a mixture of fear and disgust. Except Dimitri. He looked... impressed?

"Get out of my territory," Holden snarled. "Take your cursed blood and leave. But Luna stays."

"No judge would give you custody after what you just admitted," I said, finding strength I didn't know I had. "You married me to control me. Used me. That's abuse, Holden."

"What judge?" Serena laughed. "Wolves don't use human courts. And every wolf in this pack will side with their Alpha over a witch."

She was right. I had no power here. No allies. No one except—

"Actually," Dimitri said smoothly, "she has me. And I'm claiming sanctuary rights."

The room went silent.

"You can't." Holden's face paled. "Sanctuary rights are for—"

"For any wolf seeking protection from an unjust Alpha." Dimitri's smile was sharp. "Ancient law, Ford. You reject her publicly, and I immediately claim her and her daughter under my protection. Unless you want to start a war between our packs?"

Holden's hands clenched into fists. Shadow Moon Pack was twice the size of Silver Creek, and everyone knew it.

"This isn't over," he growled.

"Yes, it is." I stood straighter, meeting his eyes for the first time without flinching. "I reject you, Holden Ford. As my mate, as my Alpha, as my husband. I reject the bond between us."

Pain flared through the mate bond as my words took effect. Holden doubled over, gasping. I felt it too—like something being torn from my chest—but I didn't fall. I stayed standing.

"You'll regret this," Serena hissed. "When everyone knows what you are, what your mother was—"

"They already know." A new voice came from the doorway. Maya, my best friend, stood there with her phone raised. "I've been live-streaming this entire conversation to the pack social media page. Everyone just heard their Alpha admit to marrying Camille to control her, to testing their own daughter like a lab rat."

Holden roared in fury, but more wolves were gathering outside, murmuring in shock and disgust. Not at me—at him.

"Time to go," Dimitri said quietly.

I nodded, holding Luna close. As we walked past Holden, he grabbed my arm.

"This power inside you," he whispered, "it killed your mother. It'll kill you too."

I yanked free. "My mother died protecting me from your father. From wolves like you who fear what they don't understand."

"You don't know what you are, Camille. What you're capable of."

"No," I agreed, "but I'm going to find out."

We walked out into the night where a black SUV waited. As Dimitri helped us inside, Luna finally spoke.

"Mommy, are we never coming home?"

I looked back at the house where I'd spent seven miserable years trying to earn love from a man who was only using me.

"No, baby. But we're going to find a better home."

As the car pulled away, I saw Holden standing in the doorway, Serena beside him. But for once, he didn't look triumphant. He looked... afraid.

"He's right about one thing," Dimitri said quietly as we drove through the night. "You don't know what you're capable of. But I do."

"How?"

"Because I knew your mother." He glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "And she wasn't just any witch, Camille. She was the last Queen of the Crimson Coven."

My heart stopped. "That's impossible. The Crimson Coven was destroyed fifty years ago."

"No. They went into hiding. And your mother... she was their most powerful witch in centuries. Until she fell in love with a wolf and had you."

"Why are you helping me?"

His eyes met mine in the mirror, and for a moment, they flashed red instead of amber.

"Because, little hybrid, I've been waiting twenty-seven years to find you. Your mother made me promise to protect you when you finally awakened."

"You knew my mother?"

"I knew her very well." His voice carried old pain. "She saved my life once. Now I'm returning the favor."

Luna had fallen asleep against my shoulder, but my mind raced with questions. My mother, a witch queen? Me, a hybrid? And Dimitri Stone, who was he really?

As if reading my thoughts, he said, "Sleep, Camille. Tomorrow, your real training begins."

"Training for what?"

"For the war that's coming. The one your mother died trying to prevent."

Before I could ask more, exhaustion crashed over me like a wave. The last thing I saw before darkness took me was a pair of red eyes in the mirror and a whispered promise:

"No one will hurt you again."