Chapter Four: A Lie Worth Destroying

​Seraphina's smile widened, sharp and glittering like broken glass.

​"My Alpha," she purred softly, resting a delicate, pale hand against Kael's forearm. "Perhaps... we should hear what she has to say. We wouldn't want anyone thinking we were unfair."

​Her sweet, magnanimous tone fooled everyone. To the pack, she looked like a saint. To me, she looked like a predator playing with its food.

​Kael looked down at me, his features hard as granite. "You have one minute."

​One minute.

​Three years of fidelity, three years of sleepless nights managing his territory, three years of unconditional love... reduced to sixty seconds on a executioner's block.

​I took a shaky breath, my fingers instinctively curling over my lower abdomen. "I..."

​The word died in my throat. This wasn't how I had dreamed of telling him. I had imagined a quiet morning in our chambers. I had imagined the rare, beautiful sight of his stoic face breaking into a smile. I had imagined placing his large, scarred hand over my belly and watching his cold eyes melt.

​Instead, I stood stripped of my title, paraded before thousands as a rejected wife.

​"I have news," I whispered, my voice trembling under the weight of the secret.

​Kael's brow furrowed with dark impatience. "If this is a desperate attempt to retain your position as Luna, Lyra, do not waste my time."

​My heart lurched violently. "No... it's not that. Kael, I'm—"

​Before the word could leave my lips, Seraphina let out a sharp, piercing cry.

​"Ah!"

​The sudden sound sliced through the cool night air. She stumbled backward, her eyes flying wide as she clutched frantically at her chest. Her face drained of all color.

​"Seraphina!"

​Kael caught her before she could hit the stone floor, pulling her flush against his chest. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, her shoulders heaving with sudden, violent tremors.

​"I... I can smell it..." she choked out, her voice frantic. "I smell it again..."

​Kael's posture turned predatory, his dominant Alpha aura flaring so sharply that the wolves nearest the platform dropped to their knees. "What do you smell, Seraphina?"

​Slowly, she lifted her head, pointing a trembling, perfectly manicured finger directly at me. Her emerald eyes leaked tears of simulated terror. "Her... I smell wolfsbane on Luna Lyra."

​A collective gasp exploded through the courtyard.

​"What?"

"Wolfsbane?"

"Assassination?"

​My eyes widened in sheer horror. "What are you talking about? That's a lie!"

​Seraphina shrank back into Kael’s embrace, trembling like a leaf in a storm. "When the rogues held me captive... they used liquefied wolfsbane to burn my skin and suppress my wolf. I would know that sickening scent anywhere." Her voice cracked with heartbreaking precision. "It's coming from her dress. She brought it to the assembly."

​I froze, the blood rushing in my ears. "I have never touched wolfsbane in my life!"

​Kael’s gaze snapped to mine, and the sheer fury burning in his dark eyes made my breath catch. "Search her," he commanded, his deep voice vibrating with absolute authority.

​Two female elite guards hesitated, looking between me and the Alpha. "My Alpha... Luna Lyra has always been loyal. She would never—"

​"I said, search her."

​The guards bowed their heads instantly. "I'm sorry, Luna."

​My hands shook at my sides as their hands swept down the fabric of my white ceremonial gown. I kept my eyes locked on Kael, pleading with him silently. But then, a guard's hand dipped into the deep, hidden pocket of my cloak.

​She stopped dead. Her face turned entirely bloodless.

​"My Alpha..." the guard whispered, her fingers shaking as she pulled a small, black velvet pouch from my garment.

​She loosened the drawstring. The unmistakable, bitter, metallic stench of crushed wolfsbane immediately drifted into the night air.

​The courtyard erupted into absolute chaos. Rage rippled through the thousands of wolves below.

​"She brought poison!"

"She tried to murder the Alpha's mate!"

"Traitor!"

​"No..." The word slipped from my lips, entirely hollow. "No, I've never seen that pouch before. I don't know how it got there!"

​Kael stepped away from Seraphina, his heavy boots clicking against the stone as he approached me. He snatched the pouch from the guard's hand, examining the toxic leaves inside before fixing his gaze on me.

​"Explain this, Lyra."

​"I can't!" My voice broke, tears finally spilling over my lashes. "Someone put it there! I swear by the Moon Goddess, Kael, I am innocent! Look at me—you know me!"

​Behind him, Seraphina sank into the arms of a nearby omega, sobbing uncontrollably. "I knew it... she hates me because I survived. She hates me because I came home. I never wanted to take her place... I only wanted my life back..."

​Her weeping was music to the pack's ears, stirring their protective instincts. They looked at her with profound sympathy—and then they turned their gazes to me, their eyes burning with pure disgust.

​"No..." I whispered, backing away until the heel of my shoe hit the edge of the dais.

​I looked at Seraphina through the madness. And there, hidden beneath her shielding hands, her lips curled into a tiny, wicked smirk.

​It was her. She had planted it. She had orchestrated this entire nightmare to ensure I wouldn't just be replaced—I would be destroyed.

​I turned back to my husband, grabbing the lapels of his black robes in a desperate, final plea. "Please, Kael. Look into my eyes. We have been married for three years. Have I ever shown malice? Have I ever harmed a single soul in this pack?"

​For a fraction of a second, the crushing weight of the pack's angry shouting faded into the background. Kael looked down into my eyes, searching my face. For a fleeting, foolish moment, a spark of hope flared in my chest. Surely he knows my heart.

​Then, he leaned down, his voice dropping to a whisper so cold it froze the marrow in my bones.

​"I believed you once, Lyra," he murmured, his eyes entirely void of the man I loved. "I won't make that mistake again."

​The last remaining shard of my heart shattered into dust.

​As Kael turned his back on me to comfort his weeping first love, Seraphina rested her head against his shoulder. Over his back, her tear-streaked face shifted. Her emerald eyes locked onto mine, wide open and filled with malicious glee.

​She had won. And as the pack began to call for my banishment, I realized the nightmare was only just beginning.