Alle Kapitel von I DIED AS LUNA, I RETURNED AS QUEEN: Kapitel 1 – Kapitel 5

The day I died, the man I loved stood beside the woman who destroyed me.I used to think death would be loud. I imagined screaming, struggling, maybe even begging the Moon Goddess for mercy. Instead, everything was strangely quiet. The cold iron around my wrists had rubbed my skin raw, but I barely felt it anymore. My knees pressed against the stone platform in the center of the courtyard while hundreds of eyes watched me from below.Pack members. Council elders. Warriors. People I had fed when their homes burned. Women whose newborn children I had carried in my arms. Men whose families I had defended when Kael first became Alpha. Not one of them looked at me like their Luna anymore. To them, I was a traitor, a disgrace, a woman waiting to die.I lifted my head and found him immediately.Kael Mercer.My mate. My husband. My Alpha.He stood at the front of the platform dressed in black, his shoulders straight and his expression unreadable. For years, I had known every version of that f

For one terrible second, I forgot how to breathe.Kael stood in the doorway as though nothing had happened between us. He was younger than the man from the courtyard, but not by much, and there was warmth in his eyes that I had not seen in years.That warmth frightened me more than his hatred ever had.“There you are,” he repeated, amusement touching his voice. “I was beginning to think you were avoiding me.”Once, I would have crossed the room without thinking. I would have wrapped my arms around him, complained that he had taken too long to visit, and spent the rest of the morning trying to steal whatever time I could before his responsibilities dragged him away.Instead, my body remembered dying.I stepped back before he could reach me.Kael stopped.The smile disappeared from his face.Mira looked between us. “Okay… did I miss something?”“No.”The answer came too quickly.Kael’s brows drew together. “Selene?”I forced my fingers to relax around the edge of my nightdress. He had

I barely slept that night.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the execution platform. Lucian running toward me with an expression I still could not explain.Now he was coming here.By morning, the entire pack house was in motion. Servants hurried through the halls, warriors checked the gates twice, and every council member who normally arrived late was suddenly early.King Lucian Cross did not visit ordinary territories without reason.Kael had already left for the council house before sunrise. Mira came to my room while I was getting dressed, carrying the same restless energy she always had when something important was happening.“You should see everyone downstairs,” she said. “They look like they’re preparing for war.”I fastened the last button on my dress and turned toward her. “Maybe they are.”Mira narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been strange since yesterday.”I forced a smile. “You’ve told me.”“And I’m going to keep telling you until you explain.”I looked away before she could rea