Three Years Later

The woman staring back at me from the mirror was a stranger.

Not the broken, bleeding girl who'd crawled out of the Silver Moon Pack's territory three years ago. Not the desperate, hollow-eyed creature who'd collapsed at Damian's feet, begging for death without actually saying the words.

No. The woman in the mirror was someone else entirely.

She wore a gown of deep midnight blue, the silk clinging to curves that had filled out in ways the old Luna could never have imagined. Her hair—once a tangled, matted mess—now fell in glossy waves of silver-blonde past her shoulders, catching the light like spun moonlight. Her skin glowed with health, a far cry from the pallid, bloodied wreck she'd been.

But it was her eyes that had changed the most.

They were the same pale grey, the same shape, the same long lashes. But the innocence was gone. The desperate hope was gone. In their place was something harder. Something colder.

Something dangerous.

"Alpha Queen Luna," a voice called from outside the door. "They're ready for you."

I turned away from the mirror, my lips curving into a small, practiced smile. "I'll be right there."

Three years. Three years since I'd been rejected, cast out, left for dead.

Three years since I'd been reborn.

---

The Shadowfang Pack was nothing like the Silver Moon Pack.

Where Silver Moon was all gleaming white buildings and manicured lawns, Shadowfang was wild and untamed. The packhouse was a sprawling, ancient structure built into the base of a mountain, its dark stone walls covered in ivy and moss. The territory stretched for miles—dense forests, rushing rivers, and jagged peaks that scraped the sky.

It was beautiful. It was fierce. It was home.

I walked through the corridors of the packhouse, my heels clicking against the polished stone floor. Warriors bowed as I passed, their eyes filled with respect—and more than a little fear. The servants ducked their heads, murmuring "Alpha Queen" under their breath.

I'd earned that title. Every damn letter of it.

The Shadowfang Pack had been weak when Damian found me. Decimated by a war with a neighboring pack, their numbers depleted, their morale shattered. Damian had inherited a broken pack, just as I had inherited a broken life.

Together, we'd rebuilt. Together, we'd become something unstoppable.

And together, we'd created something else entirely.

"Mommy!"

The voice—high, sweet, full of joy—sent warmth flooding through my chest. I turned just in time to catch the small body that launched itself at my legs.

Leo.

My son. My miracle. My reason for everything.

He was three years old, with a mop of dark hair and eyes that were the exact shade of stormy grey as his father's. Every time I looked at him, I felt a complicated mix of love and pain—love for this perfect, innocent child, and pain for the circumstances of his conception.

But I never, ever let him see the pain. Not once.

"Hey, baby," I said, scooping him up into my arms. He wrapped his little arms around my neck, his face burying into my shoulder. "Were you good for Auntie Chloe?"

"Chloe says I'm a little monster," he announced proudly.

I laughed—a real laugh, the kind that still surprised me sometimes. "Did she now?"

"She said I have too much energy. She said I get it from you."

"Smart woman, that Chloe."

Chloe appeared in the doorway, looking slightly frazzled. Her dark hair was escaping its bun, and there was a suspicious stain on her shirt that looked like grape juice.

"Your son," she said, pointing at Leo, "is a menace. A adorable, exhausting menace."

"He gets it from his father," I said without thinking.

The words hung in the air for a moment. Chloe's expression softened with understanding. She was the only one who knew the full truth—who knew about Xavier, about the rejection, about the night I'd discovered I was pregnant just weeks after arriving at Shadowfang.

She'd been there for me through all of it. The morning sickness, the fear, the agonizing decision of whether to keep the baby or not.

In the end, it hadn't been a decision at all. The moment I'd heard his heartbeat—that tiny, impossible flutter—I'd known. This child was mine. No matter who his father was, no matter the circumstances, he was mine.

And I would die before I let anyone take him from me.

"Where's Damian?" I asked, shifting Leo to my hip.

"Waiting in the great hall. He said to tell you the guests have arrived."

Guests. Right.

The annual Alpha Summit. A gathering of the most powerful Alphas in the region, held to discuss territorial disputes, forge alliances, and engage in the kind of political maneuvering that made my head ache.

This year, the summit was being hosted by the Silver Moon Pack.

The thought made my stomach clench. I hadn't set foot on Silver Moon territory in three years. Hadn't seen Xavier's face, hadn't heard his voice, hadn't felt the phantom ache of the broken bond that still haunted my dreams.

But I wasn't the same girl who'd left. I was Alpha Queen Luna now—a title I'd earned through blood, sweat, and an iron will that would never be broken again.

And it was time for the world to see just how far I'd come.

---

The great hall of the Shadowfang Pack was filled with warriors, advisors, and servants—all gathered to see us off.

Damian stood at the center of it all, his golden hair gleaming in the torchlight. He was dressed in formal Alpha attire—black leather and silver buckles—and his amber eyes lit up the moment he saw me.

My heart still fluttered when he looked at me like that. Even after three years together, even after everything we'd been through, Damian still made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Ready?" he asked, extending his hand.

I took it, our fingers intertwining. "As I'll ever be."

He pulled me close, his lips brushing my ear. "You don't have to do this, you know. We can send someone else. We can skip the summit entirely."

I shook my head. "No. I need to do this. I need them to see."

Damian nodded slowly. He understood. He always understood.

"Then let's show them what a real Alpha Queen looks like," he said, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

Leo wriggled in my arms, sensing the excitement. "Are we going on an adventure, Mommy?"

"Yes, baby," I said softly, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "A very big adventure."

"Will there be bad guys?"

My smile faltered for just a moment. "Maybe. But Mommy will protect you. Always."

"I know," he said, with the absolute certainty of a child who had never known fear. "You're the strongest person in the whole world."

I hugged him tight, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill. He didn't know how much those words meant to me. He didn't know that there was a time when I'd believed I was the weakest person in the world—a wolfless omega, worthless, discarded like trash.

But I wasn't that girl anymore.

I was Luna, Alpha Queen of the Shadowfang Pack. Mother of the most powerful heir the world had ever seen.

And I was about to walk back into the den of the wolf who had destroyed me.

Only this time, I wasn't prey.

This time, I was the predator.

---

The drive to Silver Moon territory took three hours.

I spent most of it staring out the window, watching the familiar landscape pass by. The forests where I used to run as a child. The rivers where I'd learned to swim. The hills where I'd dreamed of finding my mate and living happily ever after.

Such foolish dreams.

Leo slept in his car seat, exhausted from the excitement of the journey. Damian sat beside me, his hand resting on my thigh—a silent gesture of support.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, so as not to wake the baby.

I nodded. "Just… remembering."

"Tell me."

I hesitated. Damian knew the broad strokes of what had happened—the rejection, the humiliation, the exile. But I'd never told him the details. The way Xavier had looked at me with such contempt. The way the pack had watched in silence. The way it had felt when the bond snapped, like my soul was being ripped in half.

"You don't have to," he said quickly, squeezing my leg. "I shouldn't have asked."

"No," I said, turning to face him. "You should know. You deserve to know."

So I told him. About the party, about the speech, about the moment Xavier had pointed at me and declared me worthless.

Damian's expression grew darker with every word. By the time I finished, his jaw was tight, and a low growl rumbled in his chest.

"He's lucky I wasn't there," he said, his voice rough. "I would have killed him where he stood."

"You would have tried," I said softly. "But Xavier is powerful. More powerful than you know."

"I don't care about his power. No one—no one—hurts my mate."

His words warmed something deep inside me. The word "mate" still made my heart skip, even after all this time. We hadn't found each other through fate—we'd chosen each other. And in some ways, that was more powerful than any bond the Moon Goddess could create.

"I can fight my own battles," I reminded him gently.

"I know." He lifted my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. "But that doesn't mean you have to fight them alone."

The car slowed, and I looked out the window. We were approaching the border of Silver Moon territory. Beyond the trees, I could see the gates—tall, imposing, guarded by wolves in uniform.

The last time I'd seen those gates, I'd been running away from them, broken and bleeding.

Now I was approaching them in a luxury car, surrounded by a convoy of Shadowfang warriors, married to an Alpha, carrying the heir of the Silver Moon Pack in my arms.

How the tables had turned.

The car stopped at the gates, and a guard approached. His face was unfamiliar—a newer recruit, too young to remember me. But the moment he saw the crest on the car door—the Shadowfang crest—his eyes widened.

"Alpha Damian," he said, bowing deeply. "Alpha Queen Luna. The Silver Moon Pack welcomes you. Alpha Xavier is expecting you."

Xavier. Just the name made my blood run cold.

But I didn't flinch. I didn't look away. I simply nodded, my face a mask of serene authority.

"Thank you," I said coolly. "Please inform Alpha Xavier that we have arrived."

The guard nodded and signaled to the others. The gates began to swing open.

Damian took my hand, his grip warm and steady. "Ready?"

I looked down at Leo, still sleeping peacefully in his car seat. My son. My future.

I looked at the gates of the pack that had rejected me, the pack that had thrown me away like garbage.

I looked at the road ahead, a

nd I felt something rise up inside me—something fierce and burning and utterly unstoppable.

"Ready," I said.

The car pulled forward, and we drove into Silver Moon territory.

And I didn't look back.