Chapter 2

"Well, look what we have here. Isn't it our 'former' princess, missing for five long years?"

The sharp, female voice cut through the noise of the Great Pilgrimage's welcome banquet.

I had just stepped into the grand hall when I heard that sickeningly familiar voice.

Lyla.

She was dressed in a blood-red Luna gown, and around her neck was the sapphire necklace that had once belonged to my mother.

Even more jarring was the crimson pack mark on her collarbone—a blood mark, symbolizing the highest authority.

Damon was the new Alpha.

"Selena!" she said, walking toward me with a fake, surprised smile. "I thought I'd never see you again."

She reached out to hug me.

I took a step back. "Don't touch me."

Her hand froze in mid-air. A flash of anger crossed her eyes before she replaced it with a wounded look. "Selena, what's wrong? I thought we were friends."

Friends?

She used the same act in our last life. Playing innocent to my face while plotting my ruin with Damon behind my back.

"Lyla." Damon's voice cut through the crowd. He was in his formal Alpha attire, wearing the Blood Moon chieftain's crest on his chest. Five years had made him look more mature, and colder.

"Don't get too close to her," he said, wrapping an arm around Lyla's waist.

"Filth is contagious."

A few of the surrounding Alphas snickered.

"Damon's right," chimed in Marcus, the Alpha of the Silverclaw Pack. "I heard some banished wolves will do anything to survive in the Far North."

"Yeah, I hear she had to get friendly with the feral beasts up there to get by," another Alpha added with a smirk.

More stifled laughter. They were implying I'd sold my body to survive.

These fools.

"Your imaginations are running wild," I said calmly.

"Imagination?" Damon sneered. "Selena, do you think any of us are fools? We all know how you survived the last five years."

He glanced around, making sure he had an audience. "A Goddess-cursed wolf, surviving by selling yourself to the lowest of rogues. Look at you. How dare you stand there as if you're not tainted?"

I looked down at myself. A simple black dress, no jewelry. A stark contrast to the glittering Lunas around me.

"You're right," I nodded. "I'm nothing like you."

Lyla started her performance again.

She stroked the pack mark on her neck, her voice dripping with fake sympathy.

"Selena, you must have had it so hard all these years. But don't worry," she looked at Damon, a malicious glint in her eyes, "Damon and I have already discussed it. If you're willing to swallow your pride, we can take you in."

"Take me in?"

"As a handmaiden, of course. After all, in your current state… I doubt you'll find any other options," she sighed dramatically. "At least in the pack, you won't have to worry about where your next meal is coming from."

Suppressed chuckles rippled through the crowd.

Making me, the former princess, her Omega handmaiden. A truly exquisite humiliation.

"What a… generous offer," I said.

Lyla smiled, thinking I was about to break. But Damon had a bigger bomb to drop.

"But before that," he cleared his throat, raising his voice, "I have an announcement to make."

All eyes turned to him.

"After a formal deliberation by the Blood Moon Elders, we have officially stricken Selena's name from the pack's sacred lineage."

What?

"Furthermore," he pulled Lyla closer, "we have officially confirmed Lyla's noble bloodline and have adopted her as the pack's daughter and rightful heir."

My blood ran cold.

Not because my name was removed, but for what it implied.

If my father, an Elder, had truly made that decision, it could only mean one thing.

Something had happened to my mother.

"So, Selena?" Damon looked at me, his eyes filled with malice. "Do you still think you have any right to be standing here?"

I stared at them, my mind racing.

My mother was fine when I left five years ago.

Lyla suddenly having a "noble bloodline" was no coincidence.

She must have done something to my mother.