The revenge of the broken luna

Chapter 1

I was dying.

I knew I was dying.

Lying on the luxurious bed in the pack's mansion, I felt every wound, every shattered bone, like fire tearing through me. The taste of blood filled my mouth and it was numb. Every breath felt like ice. My eyelids fluttered like a moth's wings. Squeezing them shut, I tried again, but I kept blinking back into darkness.

I’d been coughing up blood all day. My vision blurred at the edges, and I could feel the end creeping closer. But I didn’t panic. Not anymore. I no longer feared death—I welcomed it, because I knew that at this point, death was the best thing that could happen to me.

A month ago, my very own stepsister, Elizabeth Blackwood, had planned with my own mate, Viktor Thorne and they both handed me over like a lamb to be slaughtered. To Tharros Bloodworth. The very famous deadly lycan king of the west region. 

Me, Ava Athena, was her “gift.” Her offering.

And she had the nerve to call herself family.

It did not make sense. She should have just left me alone after my mother died, just like everyone including my father did. But she stayed, she stayed back just to make sure I also joined my parents in the afterlife. Unbidden, the sarcastic words Elizabeth had hurled at me back in the cell echoed in my head: “It would have been easier if you had died with them that night, but you choose to stay, making my job way harder.”

Now it all made sense, she only came close just to finish the job that they all started.

And for my mate, Viktor Thorne, now I knew the kind of monster that he was. And what hurts me the most is the fact that I was in love with him, that I trusted him with my life. But all he did was throw everything away and choose Elizabeth over me, breaking my heart into a million pieces. 

People always raved about Viktor Thorne. Every woman in the pack would kill to have him. Men respected him. They said he was strong, fearless, untouchable.

But me?

I saw the truth.

I saw the real monster that he was.

I thought about everything I’d suffered in the past month. All the pain. All the humiliation. Not even the drugs Elizabeth had been slipping me for years dulled the agony.

Yeah—years.

She confessed it once, smugly. Said she’d been drugging me since I was a teenager, along with help from my own stepmother. All so they could use me—sell me off to a monster—for a chance at an Alpha mate.

Now, I was barely clinging to life, my body drained, my soul burning with hatred. Hatred for Viktor. Hatred for Elizabeth. Hatred for everyone.

He walked into the room like he owned it, like he hadn’t ruined my life. Viktor.

The bastard laughed when he saw me. Then he sat down beside me, casually brushing his fingers across my bloodied cheek, a smile playing on his lips.

“Turns out people do get tired of a pretty face,” he said, tilting his head. “I can barely stand to look at you anymore. What a waste. No wonder the lycan king had to return you.”

If I could move, I would’ve punched him so hard. Screamed. Clawed at his smug face. But all I could do was glare. I poured every ounce of my hate into that one look.

He touched my bottom lip with his thumb, rubbing my blood between his fingers like it was a damn body lotion.

“Relax, baby,” he murmured. “Today, you’re finally going to be free.”

Free?

I wanted to scream. Is he fucking with me? This was freedom?

Before I could even react, I heard that awful, nasal voice.

Elizabeth.

My twisted, over-plucked stepsister breezed in, her heels clicking like a countdown to death. She raised one eyebrow, smirking. Then—fake smile.

“Ava, I’ve come to take you home to your mommy.”

She had bodyguards with her. Of course she did. One of them moved toward me as she gave the order: “Take her to the place we talked about.”

The man lifted me from the bed. The pain hit me so hard I finally—thankfully—blacked out.

I thought that was it. The end.

But no. I woke up on the side of a road.

Dumped like trash.

They must’ve thought I was dead. And honestly? They weren’t far off. Every inch of me was screaming. Breathing hurts. Existing hurt. I waited for the pain to go away but it never did. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, hoping it would be my last.

Part of me wished they’d just buried me alive. At least then I might have passed in peace.

But peace doesn’t come easy for someone like me.

I couldn't move. I didn’t want to. I just wanted it to stop. I never asked for this. I didn’t deserve any of it.

And yet… no mercy. Not even in death.

“I, Ava Athena,” I whispered in my mind, “if I survive this—if by some miracle I live—I swear by the grave of my late mother, I will be back! And when I do every name on my list will bleed. They will all beg for mercy, but mercy will be far away from them. I’ll become the monster they fear.”

A voice pulled me out of my haze. A man’s voice.

“Miss? Can you hear me?”

I barely turned my head. The pain was unreal. But then—his eyes. I’d never seen eyes like his. Gentle. Beautiful. Filled with panic.

“Hang on,” he said. “I’m taking you to the hospital. Just hold on!”

I wanted to tell him not to bother. That it was too late. But even speaking was too much. I tried to smile, to thank him, but my body wouldn’t obey.

“No…” I managed to whisper. “It’s too late. But… thank you.”

Another breath. Shallow. Weak.

“It hurts... so much.”

Then—darkness.

You’d think after all that, I’d get a moment of peace. A dream. Something.

But no. Even in unconsciousness, the nightmare continued.

Pain. Fear. Voices. Screams. It never stopped.

I was trapped in some twisted limbo, begging for escape.

I don’t know how long I was stuck there. Hours? Days? Years?

But eventually, somehow—I woke up.

Not in heaven.

Not in hell.

Breathless. Disoriented. Alive. I’m alive? How could I be alive?