Lahat ng Kabanata ng Everyone Thought My Screams Were Fake: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

My soul hovered above the stage, staring down at the black metal illusion box that still held my body.Only my head and one hand were visible. My face looked unusually pale beneath the stage lights, and a faint sheen of sweat clung to my temple. Selena glanced at me and faltered for half a second. Her fingers tightened around the microphone, but the hesitation vanished beneath the sweet, guileless smile she wore for everyone else.She bent over the box and lifted the small panel near my face. "Elena, that's your cue. Take a bow."My corpse didn't move.Her smile stiffened. Then she straightened and gave the audience an apologetic shrug. "Looks like our Omega Luna is still mad at me. Let's take ten while I go backstage and talk her down."A ripple of indulgent laughter passed through the ballroom. These were wolves who had trusted me to treat their children at the clinic and bless their newborns as Luna. Yet the moment Selena framed my silence as jealousy, they accepted her explanation

It was almost midnight when the celebration ended.Adrian returned to the pack house with Noah and Selena. The moment he stepped through the front door, he called into the silent foyer, "Elena, come out. We need to talk."Only his voice came back to him.He called again, then a third time. With every unanswered attempt, the line between his brows deepened.Noah lingered near the stairs. "Is Mommy still mad?""She probably went to her mother's," Selena said softly. "This is my fault. She must think you spent the whole night defending me."Adrian took out his phone and called me.My phone didn't ring inside the house. It was lying in a dark corner backstage, its case smeared with my blood.The call went unanswered. Worry touched his face, but it lasted only a few seconds before familiar irritation pushed it aside."She's done this before," he said. "She disappears and waits for me to come running."Selena studied him. "Maybe you should.""No." Adrian put his phone away. "If she thinks wa

Adrian's lips moved, but no sound came out.Mara saw inside and swayed. Someone caught her before she hit the ground.The pack doctor crouched beside me. He checked my pupils, my pulse, and the place where a wolf's spirit should have responded.After several seconds, he stood and removed his gloves."The deceased is Luna Elena Hart Blackwood."“Estimated time of death was approximately nine forty-seven last night. She was already dead before the audience finished applauding.”After the pack doctor spoke, even the wind seemed to stop.Adrian stood frozen, staring past the Enforcer's shoulder at my face. "No."The word came out barely louder than a breath.No one tried to reassure him.The doctor ordered his assistants to remove the outer panels. Metal rails groaned as they were loosened one by one, and at last my body was lifted from the cramped mechanism.When the blade came free, dark blood began seeping from the wound again.Adrian lurched forward, then stopped as if an invisible chai

Noah was placed in a temporary family care center with a pack counselor assigned to him around the clock.For two days, he barely let go of the gray stuffed fox in his arms. I had sewn it for him when he was four and burning with fever. One ear tilted higher than the other, and he used to complain that it wasn't as nice as the toys from the pack store, but he had never truly been able to throw it away.A counselor named Grace sat across from him and kept her voice gentle. "Noah, I need you to think about the night of your dad's birthday. What happened to your mom onstage?""She was doing the trick.""Why did you think it was a trick?""Dad said so."Noah picked at the fox's crooked ear. His voice grew smaller. "Mom kept calling him. Then a lot of red stuff came out, but Dad said it was fake blood. He said she wanted everyone to look at her."Grace waited before asking, "Did you smell anything strange?"He wrinkled his nose. "It smelled bad. Like the disinfectant at school, but also lik

After losing his title, Adrian moved out of the pack house.He remained inside Mooncrest territory under Council order. His long-term sanctions included rebuilding the pack's safety procedures, attending mandatory wolf-counseling sessions, and transferring most of his personal assets into a Luna protection fund.The fund supported female wolves facing mate abuse, pack exclusion, or the systematic erasure of their authority.It wasn't redemption.No policy, money, or regret could return what he had taken from me.It was simply the responsibility he would carry for the rest of his life.Adrian moved into a small cabin near the eastern border. There was no Alpha office, no line of pack members waiting for orders, and no Selena looking at him as though every word he spoke mattered.Every night at nine forty-seven, he woke from the same dream.There were no monsters and no elaborate punishments.Only his birthday party.The first blade entered my body.I called his name.The crowd looked at