Chapter Three: Shadows Of Revenge

The night air of the Bloodmoon Pack territory was thick with the scent of pine trees, roasted meat, and the sickeningly sweet fragrance of Jasmine’s favorite lilies.

It was the night of the Solstice Gala.

While Kade and his new Luna celebrated their stolen reign inside the brightly lit packhouse, I was in the dark woods, executing their downfall.

"Move in," I whispered through my mindlink.

On my command, three of my shadow wolves slipped past the western border guards. Over the last few weeks, we had been bleeding Kade’s pack dry, launching strikes against his borders, sabotaging his supply lines, and draining his resources from the dark.

Tonight was the ultimate strike.

While they drank wine, we were dismantling his security piece by piece.

I moved through the underbrush, my new golden blonde hair braided tightly and my emerald-green eyes tracking every movement in the courtyard.

Thanks to the Moonveil potion, I didn't look or smell like Lyra Black anymore.

I was a stranger…a dangerous one.

Two guards patrolled the grounds near the Packhouse cellars. I didn't have my wolf’s brute strength, but Maeve had trained me to be faster and far more lethal.

I slipped from the shadows, my twin silver daggers drawing silent, gleaming arcs through the moonlight.

Before the first guard could even gasp, I lunged forward. My blade found the soft spot of his jaw. He collapsed without a sound. The second guard turned, his eyes widening in alarm, but I was already spinning.

I swept his legs out from under him, sending him crashing into the dirt, and drove the butt of my dagger into his temple, knocking him cold.

"West perimeter cleared," I muttered, wiping a drop of stray blood from my cheek.

I slipped through the cellar doors, navigating the stone corridors of the packhouse basement. I knew these tunnels better than anyone… I grew up here.

My goal was Kade's private study. I needed the information files on their smuggling routes to completely choke his pack's economy, proving to the Alpha King's council that Kade was an incompetent leader.

Avoiding the main stairwells where the muffled sound of music and laughter echoed from the grand ballroom, I made it to the upper floor. The door to Kade's study was locked, but a quick twist of my dagger had it clicking open in seconds.

The room smelled of expensive bourbon and cedar which was Kade's signature scent. It made my stomach turn, the heavy scar on my ribs burning beneath my clothes as a reminder of his betrayal.

I hurried to his desk and began tossing the drawers open. I found the ledger of resources, stuffing the papers into my vest.

Suddenly, heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway outside.

"I tell you, Kade is getting sloppy," a harsh, familiar voice hissed.

My breath hitched. It was Beta Darius Thorn.

"He's distracted by Jasmine," another voice replied…it was one of Darius's loyal enforcers. "Ever since the council cleared him of the Black girl’s disappearance, he thinks he's untouchable."

I pressed my back against the wall behind a heavy velvet curtain, my heart hammering against my ribs.

The door swung open, and the lights flicked on. Through a small crack in the fabric, I watched Darius pace across the room, his face twisted in a familiar, arrogant sneer. He unlocked a hidden safe built into the wall behind Kade's desk.

"Kade can play the lovesick fool all he wants," Darius grunted, pulling out a small, velvet-lined wooden box. "But I’m the one keeping this pack afloat. If it weren't for me, Lyra Black would be running this place, and we'd all be bowing to her ancient family."

The enforcer laughed. "Still, boss, that was a genius move three years ago. Everyone really thought her wolf went wild."

I froze. My muscles locked, and the air in my lungs felt like ice.

Darius opened the velvet box, pulling out a small glass vial containing a deep purple liquid. "The fool had no idea. It takes a very precise, rare blend of crushed midnight wolfsbane to trigger a volatile, monstrous hallucination in a shifting wolf. She walked into that sacred clearing thinking she was ascending, completely unaware that I had slipped it into her ceremonial drink an hour prior."

A roaring mocking laughter filled my ears.

"She thought she was a monster," Darius chuckled evilly, staring at the vial. "Kade got his excuse to reject her and take Jasmine, I got rid of the Black lineage, and the pack thinks we survived an abomination. A perfect set. It’s a shame the rogues tore her to pieces…I almost missed executing her myself."

My hands trembled violently on the hilts of my daggers.

‘It wasn't me.’ The thought crashed through my mind like a lightning bolt. Nyx hadn't failed me. Three warriors were dead, my family name was destroyed, and I had been thrown off a cliff into a wasteland of death…all because of a lie.

I wasn't an abomination. It was sabotaged.

A fierce, blinding rage, hotter than anything I had felt in the last three years, erupted in my chest. I wanted to leap out from the curtains and slit Darius’s throat right then and there.

I wanted to watch the light leave his treacherous eyes.

‘No,’ I forced myself to breathe through my nose, calming my racing pulse. ‘A sudden death is too easy for him. They must all burn.’

Darius placed the vial back in the safe, locked it, and turned to his enforcer. "Come on. Let’s go join the toast. Kade is about to present his precious new Luna."

They walked out of the room, closing the door behind them and turning off the lights.

I stepped out from behind the curtain, my vision practically shaking with anger. The dynamic of my revenge had just completely changed.

I slipped out of the study, carrying the stolen documents, and made my way down the quiet back stairwell, slipping out into the moonlit courtyard. I needed to get back to the valley, Jax, my army, and plan their ultimate destruction.

But as I rounded the corner of the house towards the tree line, I slammed hard into a solid chest.

The collision sent the stolen documents slipping from my vest, scattering across the grass. I stumbled back, my hands instinctively reaching for the silver daggers hidden under my clothes.

"Watch where you're going," a sharp, arrogant voice snapped.

My blood ran cold. It was Darius. He had doubled back alone.

He looked down at me, his eyes narrowing in the pale moonlight. I froze, holding my breath, waiting for the alarm, waiting for him to recognize the girl he had kicked off a cliff three years ago.

But he didn't.

The Moonveil potion had done its job perfectly. He saw molten-gold hair and emerald-green eyes, completely erasing the Lyra Black he used to know.

Instead of growling, Darius stopped. His irritation seemed to melt away, replaced by a strange, intense curiosity. His gaze traveled slowly over my face, lingering on my lips, before dropping to my waist.

A heavy, predatory interest flashed in his eyes. He stepped closer, invading my personal space, completely drawn to my new, enchanted scent.

"Well, now," Darius murmured, his voice lowering into a smooth, purring tone. "I haven't seen you around the territory before. Who do you belong to, beautiful?"

My stomach twisted in absolute disgust, but I forced a polite, fragile smile to my face. "I'm just a guest for the gala, Beta Darius," I said, making my voice sound soft and harmless.

Before I could bend down to grab the stolen papers, Darius knelt and began picking them up for me.

My heart stopped. If he looked closely at the letterheads, he would see they were Kade's private financial and resource documents.

Darius gathered the pages into a neat pile. He stood up, but he didn't hand them back right away. He tapped the papers against his palm, his eyes locked onto mine with a dark, intense fascination.

"A guest," Darius repeated, stepping even closer, his breath hot against my cheek. "Fascinating. You know, I'm usually very good with faces, but I feel like I've met you somewhere before. There's something about you... I just can't seem to look away."

He reached out, his fingers brushing against a strand of my gold hair, entirely captivated by the woman standing in front of him.

"Tell me your name," Darius whispered, his eyes gleaming. "And maybe I won't ask what you're doing sneaking around the back of the pack house with a handful of important-looking documents."