Chapter 1

Scarlett’s POV

“Luna Scarlett, I am sorry. We’ve already administered the maximum dosage but your heart continues to fail. We have done everything possible, but there is no hope.”

“Am I going to die?” I asked with my cracked voice, staring at the ceiling as the tears started running down into my ear.

“I am sorry,” the doctor said. His face was filled with real grief. I had worked with enough doctors to know the difference between fake sympathy and the real thing. “Is there anything you would like me to do for you in the final hours? Anybody you would like to see?”

I could not answer immediately. The shock and the sickness pressed down on me together, stealing my breath. But there was only one answer.

Killian!

I wanted to see my husband one more time before I die.

I picked up my phone with my shaky hands and dialed his number.

Voicemail.

I dialed again.

Voicemail.

A third time, and still nothing but his recorded voice telling me to leave a message.

I put the phone on my chest and stared at the ceiling, all I could do in this crucial hour was to wait, an hour passed before he came.

When the door opened Killian walked in, and my first instinct, even dying, was to feel relief that he actually came.

But the look on his face stopped that feeling immediately, his expression was filled with disgust, he did his face like I irritated him, and on his arm, her head resting on his shoulder and a smug smile, was Tiffany.

My best friend.

She caught my eyes and the smile grew even wider.

“What did the doctor say?” Killian asked.

I thought he was asking because he was worried. I thought that maybe the distance in his voice was just him trying to hold himself together.

“They said the medicine isn’t working and my heart keeps failing,” I said.

“Good.” He sat down on the chair across from me. “So why aren’t you dead yet?”

“What?” I whispered in shock.

“You are finally dying, what’s with the delay Scarlett?” His voice carried on with no single emotion. “It is a relief for everyone. I have been fed up with you for the longest time. The only reason you are still alive is that I couldn’t possibly commit murder myself.”

The tears that had been drying on my face started again, my vision became blurry.

“What have I done to make you hate me this much?” My voice cracked on the last word. “After everything I sacrificed and did for you?

“Stop talking.” He stood up. “Your voice irritates me.

“I really cannot believe it. I actually have to rely on you, a woman, just to join and be acknowledged by the Central Wolf Pack.” You know what? I might as well make it official.” He straightened his jacket. “I, Killian, Alpha of Silver Moon, reject you as my Luna.”

The bond immediately broke. It was not like anything I can describe with words. It tore through me from the inside, and the pain that followed made everything before it feel like a child’s play.

Blood began running from my nose, dropping onto the white hospital sheets in small dark circles. I reached out and grabbed his wrist.

He looked down at my hand on his arm and shoved me.

The force threw me off the bed entirely. I hit the floor and broke my spine.

Killian did not look back, he walked out and banged the door loudly behind him.

I lay on the cold floor trying to breathe.

Then I heard Tiffany’s heels approaching me, she crouched beside me, her short silver gown pooled up to her thigh.

“Thanks to you,” she said, keeping her voice low, “Killian has gained the council’s approval. Silver Moon is now one of the most recognized packs in the region.” She tilted her head slightly. “And thanks to your years of dedication, I, Killian and my son can now be united as a family.”

I looked at her in shock.

“Leo?” I managed.

Ohh you’re surprised? Well Leo is my son. “Killian and I tricked you into adopting him. Did you really never suspect?”

She stood up, adjusted her boobs in her dress, and pulled a red lipstick from her clutch. She applied it slowly, checking her reflection in her phone screen.

“Ohh, since you are going to die anyway, I’m feeling generous so I might as well be honest.” She clicked the cap of the lipstick back on. “I have been poisoning your food for months. It is honestly surprising, Scarlett, a genius like you and you never once thought to check.” She tapped my leg lightly with the toe of her heel. “Adieu, mama. Sleep tight.”

She bent down, patted my shoulder once, and walked out of the room laughing out loud.

I wept with everything I had left in me, my voice breaking open and filling that empty room.

Why? After all of it. Why me?

And then all the memories came all at once.

I grew up alone as an orphan in Silver Moon. Every child in that territory made sure I knew I did not belong. The only thing that saved me was that I had gift for medicine that showed itself early, and it was what got me into the werewolf academy where I met Killian.

Killian was the only person who had ever been kind to me. In a pack that treated me like dirt for being an Omega without a wolf, he fought off the ones who bullied me, slipped me food when no one was watching, and on the day he proposed, there was no ceremony, no witnesses, I said yes before he finished the sentence.

Silver Moon was a weak pack and Killian needed one thing to fix that. A cure for silver poison. If he could develop it, the Alpha Council would recognize him and join the alliance of the central wolf pack.

So I lived in that lab, day and night and gave him every piece of my talent, even when he said I couldn’t carry a child because I was too weak as an omega and wouldn’t be able to withstand the power of alpha blood, I believed him and we adopted Leo instead and I raised that boy like he was mine.

A year ago when Usher came and told me I was the long lost Alpha heir of Moonlight, entitled to inherit everything. Then he asked me if I had a partner and if so, he could also inherit. I had been so excited I ran straight to Killian and handed the position to him without even thinking twice.

Is this my fate, Moon Goddess? Is this the life you chose for me?

The noise from the television drew my attention. “Alpha Killian has this evening presented the anti-silver poison drug to the full council and has received their official recognition and approval…”

Killian,Tiffany and Leo were standing at a podium, everyone cheering them when Killian leaned into the microphone. “I want to use this moment to introduce my beautiful Luna and my heir. You are all invited to the Luna ceremony.”

I closed my eyes and Usher’s voice broke desperately into my mind through the pack link.

Scarlett. Moonlight is gone!

Killian has been absorbing our resources secretly for months, we didn’t know until it was too late. Our warriors are fighting but we are already broken.

Where is Lilith and Zack?

They disappeared at the first sign of the attack and took half the warriors with them.

Then came a sound I will never forget. His wolf let out a painful howl, his voice growing weaker until the link broke.

Usher was dead.

I broke down completely and wailed. The only person I had left was gone.

“Why did you choose to abandon me?” I screamed at the Moon Goddess.

I was played by my husband.

“I hate you, Killian,” I whispered. “And I will never forgive you.”

I took one deep breath, and then the darkness came.