Chapter One

“Murderer!!”

“She’s an abomination!!”

“Kill her!!” The shrill scream of contempt landed a blow to my gut.

My heart hammered harshly within my chest, and I panted from exhaustion and fear.

I didn’t do it!

Unadulterated, hateful gazes littered all around me, threatening to send me to my knees from the shivers running down my spine.

I didn’t do it!

I was dragged like the filthy criminal they accused me of being, my left eye snapped shut from swelling—an aftereffect of the mass massacre that almost took place in the hallways before the pack guards hauled me out of it.

My good eye searched desperately for any sign of Lucas. I needed to know he believed me. He was the only sliver of hope I clung to as the pack guards dragged me roughly across the pack grounds and into the throne room.

I was thrown onto the floor, and left to lift my limbs off the ground myself, I realized how much my body trembled terribly.

I didn’t do it!

The clearing of a throat above me caused my head to snap in that direction. My good eye widened at the sight of Lucas sitting upon his father’s throne.

He stared back at me blankly and coldly.

“Lucas—” I breathed, my shoulders sagging in relief, launching myself forward to reach him, but the guards quickly moved to hold me firmly in place.

“Lucas—I-I don’t know what’s happening. I didn’t do anything. I would never—” I wheezed out through the pain in my ribs.

“We are gathered today in respect of the trial to pass judgment on the vile murder of our Luna—my mother,” Lucas announced, and my blood rushed to my ears.

“It is an atrocious crime, and due investigation has been carried out. Valeriana is no longer a suspect; she has been charged guilty of the crime.”

I stumbled backward, an intense wave of shock forcing my knees to buckle.

Valeriana, not Valerie like he would always say.

“Lucas—?” I called out, but I doubted a sound came out.

Lucas turned to his side, and it was then I saw her—Joan, my foster sister, sitting right by his side, on the Luna’s throne.

The intense look they both maintained caused my skin to burn as my heart slammed against my chest. They looked at each other in sadness and kinship, as if they were—

I shook my head hard, my thoughts jumbling over each other.

“Lucas—” I tried again. “You know me. I understand you are hurt and upset right now, but I really didn’t do it,” I said through stuttered breaths, but he refused to look my way.

“Lucas!!” I screamed out, my chest wheezing from the effort.

“You will shut your mouth this instant, traitor!” Joan barked, standing on her feet, her hateful glare meant to burn me to the ground.

“You killed the Luna, murdered her in cold blood when all she ever did was show you love and care,” Joan continued, her face constricting in pain, but I knew better.

“I told all of you how much of an ungrateful mutt she is. My parents took her in and raised her, and all they got in return was losing their lives. She’s a curse upon our land. She kills anyone she nears!” Joan spat in anger.

Her words echoed through the throne room. The surge of memory slammed into me, vivid and unrelenting. I stood in the pitch-black woods at night, my body trembling from the metallic scent of blood thick in the air. Joan’s painful screams had cut through the night as she clung to her parents' lifeless forms. She had turned on me with wild eyes.

This is your fault, she had screamed, hatred blazing through her grief. You killed them. Her words echoed in the forest then, just as they did now in the throne room.

She had always blamed me. She’d never forgiven me.

“Lucas, I didn’t kill your mother. I have no reason to. Why would I kill my mate’s mother?” I panted out in desperation, ignoring Joan and struggling to get through to him.

The crowd erupted into an uproar, loud gasps filling the room.

“How dare you?” Lucas snarled, shaking the entire room. “Why on earth would I be punished by being paired with dirty filth like you? A lowly mutt that poisoned my mother?” He accused, his slithering gaze causing my heart to clench painfully.

I could take anyone looking at me like that—but not him.

“I have found my mate, and she’s standing right beside me.”

It felt like sharp thorns were clawing at my chest, and it took a lot of willpower to remain standing.

It hit me like a punch in my gut—his voice, his words. Lucas had smiled that night beneath the lit sky, his voice low and intimate.

We’re fated mates, Valeriana. No one can come between us, he had whispered, cupping my face as if I were his entire world.

My heart had soared then, foolish and desperate for someone to believe in me. Now that same heart shattered under the weight of his rejection.

“You—you said we were mates. You said you were in love with me. You promised to end my suffering.” I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “I didn’t kill the Luna,” I gritted out even when my mind was anything but quiet.

“I would have you hanged right here for the lies you spew against your Alpha, but your death sentence will be postponed until the annual festival ceremony. I will show the entire Kingdom and the Alpha King what I do to traitors,” Lucas declared before turning to walk out of the room.

I merely stood there, unblinking.

I saw Joan maintain contact with me for a few seconds. I also saw the discreet smirk meant for just me, but I couldn't bare to concentrate on it with Lucas’s words still echoing loudly in my mind.

The pack guards wasted no time dragging me out of the throne room as the angry crowd rained curses and insults upon me.

I could only watch on, numb to everybody, my body too frozen for their hatred to have any effect on me.

I’ve always known what it meant to be hated, to be singled out and labeled an outcast—a nobody—but this level of contempt was new.

Now that my protector, the Luna, was no more, they no longer had to mask it and hiss at me from the shadows. They could now bare their teeth and show me how much they wanted me ripped off the surface of the earth.

This was my life, filled with terrifying misery.

As the guards yanked me out roughly through the angry crowd, the air thick with hatred, Lucas’s words thundered in my head, drowning out the chaos. Traitor. Murderer. My fate was sealed, and this time, there was no escape.