Chapter 9

LILA

“Janet,” I whispered again.

The name lingered in the room like a spell, thickening the air.

Tyler stopped mid-step.

I hadn’t expected the reaction to be so immediate.

His shoulders stiffened, jaw clenched, and when he turned to face me, there was no confusion in his eyes only recognition.

I took a breath. “You knew her.”

His lips parted, then closed again.

Then, finally he nodded. Once.

“I didn’t just know her,” he said. “She was my wife.”

The words cracked something inside me. “What?” How did I not know that Janet was once married to the Alpha. The discovery that I’m wife number three leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

“It was… years ago,” he said, walking toward the window, avoiding my gaze. “Arranged by the council after my father died. She was powerful. The most gifted enchantress we’d seen in decades. She had all the traits they thought a Luna should have; discipline, poise, ambition…”

“Ambition?” I echoed, my voice sharp. “You mean bloodlust.”

Tyler turned. “I didn’t know. Not at first. No one did.”

I crossed my arms, throat tight. “So tell me. What happened?”

His voice darkened. “She started disappearing late at night. Excuses. Secrets. It wasn’t until the first body turned up that we put it together, one of the Omega sentries, his essence drained, magic stripped. His wolf… gone.”

My skin crawled.

“She was siphoning power,” I said.

“She was hunting our weakest,” Tyler confirmed. “Rogues. Exiles. Omegas, those no one would miss. She believed the hierarchy was flawed, that strength should be taken, not inherited. When she was caught, she never denied it. She said the Pack failed her. That if I couldn’t give her what she deserved, she’d take it for herself.”

“So you divorced her,” I said, quietly.

“I banished her,” he replied. “She was stripped of rank and exiled from Raven’s Peak. No contact, no protection and no resources. She vanished.”

“And the Red Hand?”

Tyler hesitated. “Rumours said she founded it. A faction of rogues who wanted vengeance. But we never confirmed it. The council said she died years ago.”

“She didn’t,” I said flatly.

I walked toward him, the vision still burning behind my eyes. “She’s alive. She’s building something. And she’s coming back.”

Tyler didn’t argue.

~

The Pack archives were buried beneath the temple, hidden in the oldest wing of the estate. Not many visited them anymore. Even fewer knew how to read what was kept here.

I did.

My mother had brought me down here once, when I was young, before I shifted, before I was anything. She said healing didn’t start with herbs or power. It started with understanding.

Today, I didn’t come to heal.

I came to hunt the truth.

Aethera met me at the entrance, already holding a lantern and a sealed scroll in her other hand. Her expression was unreadable, but her voice held a whisper of gravity.

“You saw her, didn’t you?” she said softly. “In your vision.”

I nodded. “She’s alive. And she’s watching.”

“I feared this,” Aethera murmured, leading me down the stone corridor. “Come.”

We reached the back shelf of the restricted alcove. Dust clung to the air. She handed me the scroll.

“This was sealed by the council after her exile,” she said. “They tried to erase her. But magic leaves residue, and Janet was not careful with what she took.”

I unrolled the parchment with trembling fingers.

Fate Fragmentation.

An ancient blood rite. It is Illegal and erased from modern spellbooks. A method of breaking or replacing a fated mate bond, temporarily or permanently.

“What is this?” I breathed.

“Janet was never content with the Goddess’s choices,” Aethera said. “She believed fate could be rewritten. That power could be stolen from the Divine itself.”

My eyes locked onto the diagram: two wolves entwined in a glowing thread… but then one thread cut, and replaced by another.

“She severed the bond between me and Tyler,” I whispered. “Or… masked it. Long enough to force him to reject me.”

“She may have redirected the connection,” Aethera said grimly. “Twisted the thread toward Lyric. Temporarily. Just long enough for the pain of rejection to stick.”

“And Gavin?”

Aethera grew quiet.

I already knew the answer.

“Gavin was born from a bond that never had the Goddess’s full blessing,” she said. “He is the son of a fractured fate. And he is the blood price Janet never paid.”

The air left my lungs.

“He’s not just collateral,” I said slowly. “He’s her debt.”

“Yes,” Aethera confirmed. “And now, she has returned to collect.”

~

The council chamber smelled of sage and stale politics.

Seven elders sat along the crescent table, robes perfectly pressed, expressions sharpened by years of holding power like a knife. Behind them, the stained-glass window of the Moon Goddess watched me with eyes as cold as theirs.

I stood alone in the center of the marble floor, the scroll from the archives clutched in my hand, my voice steady despite the burn in my chest.

“Janet’s alive,” I said. “She never died in exile. She’s the one behind the Red Hand. She’s manipulating the mate bond. She tampered with Tyler’s bond to me. That’s why he rejected me. And now she’s come back to collect her price, my son.”

Silence. No gasps. No shock. Just… measured blinking. As if I’d told them the moon had risen.

Then came the voice I expected to hate the most.

Thomas.

He leaned forward with theatrical concern. “And what evidence do you have of this… ghost? A name whispered in a dream? A page from an outlawed scroll?”

My jaw clenched. “You know she was exiled for blood magic. You know she founded the Red Hand—”

“We know what the stories say,” Thomas cut in. “But stories are not law. And fear is not proof.”

“She left a sigil outside my son’s hospital room,” I snapped. “She’s made her presence very clear.”

Another elder shook his head. “Or someone else is using her symbol to provoke you, stir instability and undermine your position as Luna.”

I took a slow breath, grounding myself before I exploded.

“She was Tyler’s wife,” I said, pacing now. “She drained werewolves for power. She was caught and exiled, and you let her go and now she’s built an army out of every rogue and Omega you cast out like trash.”

A few elders stirred.

And then I said what I hadn’t meant to.

“You knew. All of you. Didn’t you?”

They didn’t answer.

I turned to Tyler, who stood near the chamber wall like he wasn’t a part of this at all.

“You said it was over. That she was gone. But you didn’t tell me about the rumours. The disappearances. That she may never have left the territory.”

He didn’t meet my eyes.

He didn’t say anything.

“Say something,” I whispered. “Say something, Tyler.”

But he stayed silent.

And that silence cut deeper than any blade.

I swallowed the scream clawing at my throat, then turned on my heel.

“Keep your secrets. Keep your doubts. But when she comes, and she will come, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

And I walked out.

~

The rain was soft at first. Gentle, almost kind. Like the Goddess was trying to soothe me. But I wasn’t in the mood to be comforted.

By the time I passed through the estate gates, it had started to pour. Heavy, cold drops soaking through my clothes, turning my hair into thick black ropes, my dress into dead weight clinging to my legs.

I didn’t care.

I needed the air. I needed space. I needed to get away from all of them; Tyler, the council, their silence, their pride. Their lies.

Janet was alive.

Gavin was still in danger.

And I was the only one willing to admit it.

I walked down the forest path behind the Packhouse, past the old training grounds, into the trees where the light couldn’t follow. Where it was just me, the rain, and the ghosts I didn’t have time to mourn.

My boots sank into the mud. Thunder growled above me.

I stopped beside an old tree and leaned against it, sliding down to the roots, breath shaky, hands trembling.

For a few seconds, I let myself cry.

Not out of weakness but because everything had caught up to me.

My sister’s death.

Gavin’s pain.

The bond that never had a chance to become whole.

The man who once loved me choosing silence over truth.

How could they all sit in that room and act like I was the problem? Like I was the unstable one. Like I was hysterical for seeing what they didn’t want to face.

But Janet… she wasn’t a ghost. She was a reckoning. And if they wouldn’t fight her, I would.

I wiped my face, rain mixing with tears. I wasn’t just a healer anymore. I wasn’t just a mother. I was someone with something worth protecting and nothing left to lose.

And if they wanted a Luna who played nice, they’d picked the wrong twin.

By the time I returned to the hospital, the rain had slowed to a mist, but the dread in my stomach hadn’t lifted.

I was soaked, shivering, but my steps were fast, fuelled by purpose now, not panic.

I needed to see Gavin. I needed to see he was still safe. But the moment I stepped into the outer courtyard of the medical wing, my heart dropped.

There, on the stone wall facing the entrance, painted in thick, smeared red, was the unmistakable mark:

A crimson handprint. Fingers clawed. Palm flared.

Below it, written in dark ash:

“You stole what was hers.”

I stood frozen.

My breath fogged in the damp air. The world felt hollow for a moment, like I was the only person standing in it.

Then rage bloomed in my chest because they weren’t just threatening me anymore. They were claiming Gavin.

As if he was a trophy.

I turned, walked out of the hospital gates, and headed toward the edge of Blackwood territory where I knew he’d be.

Jackson had been staying just beyond the estate, in a temporary home arranged through his connections with the Raven Pack.

By the time I arrived, my fists were clenched, my voice hoarse, my clothes still dripping.

I knocked once.

He opened the door almost immediately, eyes widening when he saw me; soaked, silent, storm-eyed.

“Lila?”

I didn’t wait for him to invite me in.

I stepped through the door, turned to face him, and said:

“Janet’s alive. She’s been behind everything. And she’s coming for Gavin.”

Jackson’s face hardened.

“Does Tyler know?”

I nodded once. “He won’t move. The council won’t listen. They want to pretend she’s still dead.”

“What do you want me to do?”

I looked him in the eye, and my voice didn’t shake when I said it.

“Help me find her. Help me end this. Because if they won’t protect my son, I will.”

His answer didn’t take long.

He nodded.

“Then let’s burn her kingdom to the ground.”