Earlier that day

Malik’s POV

The ceremonial tunic clung to my chest, freshly pressed. My mother had sewn it before she passed, and I had kept it for this day the day I would mark Myra as mine, as Luna.

I stared at myself in the mirror, running a hand through my hair for what must have been the hundredth time. My wolf paced just beneath my skin, restless but content.

With anticipation.

For Myra my mate.

She’d looked so radiant last night when I saw her, her eyes wide and bright, full of hope. My destined. Chosen for me by the Moon Goddess herself.

I touched the pendant around my neck the Luna’s mark I’d have to tie around her throat during the ceremony. A vow not just before the pack, but before Selene.

A knock shattered the quiet.

“Alpha,” came a guard’s clipped voice through the door. “The Council has summoned you. Urgently.”

I blinked. “Now?”

“It’s important Alpha.”

It was hours until the ceremony. What could be so important?

“I’ll be right there.”

I tossed on a cloak, left the tunic behind. A cold prickle had formed beneath my skin. I couldn’t explain it—but something about this wasn’t right.

The Council Chamber was cloaked in shadow. Candles lined the walls.

The five Elders were gathered.

And in the center stood a figure.

An old woman, I didn't recognise.

She was hunched, veiled in tattered gray cloth. Her eyes were blindfolded with silk. Her hands shook as she clutched a gnarled staff, and she muttered under her breath in the old tongue.

The air was thick with incense. I resisted the urge to cough.

“Alpha Malik,” Elder Karr said, voice grave.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes flicking to the Seer. “Why call me now, just before my—”

“She is a seer and she has come with a warning,” Elder Remi interrupted.

The Seer lifted her head slightly, as if she saw me with something beyond her eyes.

“Speak, prophet,” Remi said.

“A Luna without a wolf shall bring a pack to ruin.”

Silence fell like a blade.

I blinked. “What?”

“The mate you have chosen is broken,” she hissed. “Incomplete. The Moon has turned her face from her. Bind yourself to her… and this pack will rot from within.”

My hands clenched.

“That’s a lie,” I snapped. “Myra is kind. Strong in her own way. And she is mine.”

The Seer’s breath came in heaves. “You will see your fields die. Your newborns will fall still in the womb. The blood of your people will stain the earth.”

“Enough,” I said through my teeth.

But she was relentless.

“You were not meant to claim her. She is cursed. She will tear down your legacy and drown your line in sorrow.”

“She’s my fated,” I growled. “The Moon Goddess gave her to me!”

A pause. A silence so sharp I could hear the beat of my heart.

Then

“The Goddess has changed her mind.”

I took a step back.

“No,” I whispered.

“She is not meant to lead. She will bring only darkness. If you love your people, Alpha… choose duty over desire.”

And then, with a final rattling breath, the Seer collapsed.

Gasps filled the chamber.

Elder Naren rushed forward and caught her just before her skull struck the stone.

Her final words hung in the air like a curse.

“Mark my words, Alpha. That girl will cost you everything.”

They carried her out.

And I was left, trembling, in the heavy silence.

The Elders closed in.

Elder Karr’s voice was the first to pierce through.

“She fainted at training last week, didn’t she?”

I stiffened. “She was tired. Pushed too hard—”

“She’s always tired, Malik,” Elder Vanto said. “No wolf. No strength”

“Other packs already whisper,” Naren added. “That our Luna is shiftless. What message does that send?”

“Rumors can’t dictate my future,” I said, trying to sound sure. “She was chosen for me—”

“And if that choice dooms us?” Elder Remi’s voice cut like glass. “Will you bury your people because of a crush?”

“It’s not a crush,” I said tightly. “It’s the bond. The Moon Goddess—”

“Does not always know what is best,” Vanto said bitterly. “Even Selene has made mistakes.”

I reeled.

These were my Elders. The ones who raised me after my father died. Who had trained me, stood beside me during my trials.

And now they looked at me like I was a child. A fool.

“She’s not a mistake,” I whispered.

Elder Karr stepped forward. “Your father would have been ashamed to see this weakness. To see you throw away our future for a girl who cannot even shift.”

My jaw tightened.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit something. But most of all, I wanted Myra.

I wanted to see her standing in the garden, smiling, her hair catching the sun.

Elder Remi placed a hand on my shoulder. Cold. Heavy.

“If you mark her tonight,” she said, voice low and final, “you fracture this pack’s future.”

They all walked out, one by one.

And I was left alone.

Alone with the silence.

With the flickering candles.

And the weight of my pack resting on my shoulders.

I leaned against the cold wall outside the chamber. My chest was tight, my thoughts a storm.

Myra. My wolf howled for her. But my pack… my people…

I closed my eyes and whispered, barely audible…

“I’m sorry Myra, I have no choice.”

Myra's pov

The first thing I felt was the pain.

It wasn’t sharp or fleeting. It was a deep, gnawing agony that started in my chest and spread outward, as if my soul had been ripped from my body and nothing but emptiness remained.

I gasped, but the air did nothing to ease it. My lungs burned. My throat felt raw, as though I had been crying or screaming.

My eyes fluttered open to darkness, shadows flickering on the stone walls of the infirmary. The room was cold. Silent.

Where was Aria?

Where were the healers?

Did nobody at all even care just a little about me?

I turned my head, the simple motion sending a wave of dizziness through me. The room was empty. Only me, lying alone on a narrow cot, the thin blanket twisted around my legs.

The door to the infirmary stood ajar. The faint light of the moon spilled through, pale and cold.

I tried to sit up, but my body protested. My muscles felt weak, as if the rejection had drained every ounce of strength I possessed. My head spun, and I had to grip the edge of the cot to steady myself.

His voice echoed in my mind, over and over, like a curse I couldn’t escape.

I, Alpha Malik Nightshade, reject you as my mate.

The memory of it crushed me anew, the humiliation, the betrayal, the disbelief. I clutched my chest, as if I could hold together the pieces of my shattered heart.

I couldn’t stay here. I had to see Malik, I needed to know what had changed between us. Why he had rejected me.

I stood up and took a shaky step.

One step after the other.

The pain followed me, relentless, but I pushed it down. I reached the door, my hand brushing the wood as I leaned on it for support.

I stepped into the corridor, the chill of the night air wrapping around me like a cloak of ice. The walls of the pack house seemed to close in, the shadows heavy.

Voices reached me low and familiar. I froze, pressing myself against a column, hidden by the deep shadows.

I recognised the voices instantly, it was Jennifer and Blake. My friends. The ones who had laughed with me as children, who had promised loyalty when my parents died.

“It was shameful, but necessary,” Jennifer said, her voice low but clear. “Having a Luna with no wolf, as weak as her, is dangerous as hell.”

“Malik had no choice,” Blake agreed. “We’d have lost respect in the alliance if he accepted her.”

“She should just leave,” Jennifer added. “She’ll doesn't belong here..”

My breath caught in my throat. The weight of their betrayal pressed down on me.

Was I really that bad. I would have devoted my whole self trying to be a good Luna, but I guess that doesn't matter.

I had thought… I had hoped…

I turned away, the tears I had fought so hard to hold back spilling down my cheeks.

Malik.

I had to see him. I had to make him see reason.

This couldn’t be the end.

The Alpha’s house loomed before me, dark and imposing. I crossed the courtyard, each step slower than the last. My strength was failing, but my will kept me moving.

The front doors were open. I climbed the stairs, the carved wood of the banister cold beneath my fingers.

I found him on the balcony, the wind stirring his dark hair, his broad shoulders tense as he stared out over the pack lands.

I stopped at the threshold, my heart in my throat.

“Malik,” I said, my voice barely more than a breath.

He didn’t move at first. Then he turned, his eyes finding mine in the moonlight.

For a moment, I saw the man I knew the one who had smiled at me, who had promised to stand beside me. But the moment passed. His face hardened, his gaze distant.

“Why?” I asked, my voice trembling. I stepped closer, every part of me aching. “Please, Malik. Tell me why.”

He looked away, his jaw tight. “I did what I had to do. The pack comes first. You know that.”

“I would have been a good Luna,” I said, the tears falling freely now. “I will be strong. I can prove it. Just give me a chance.”

His eyes closed, and for a moment I thought he would yield. But when he opened them again, the distance between us was a chasm.

“You don’t understand,” he said softly. “You never will.”

Footsteps echoed behind him. Evelyn emerged from the shadows, her golden hair shining in the moonlight. Beautiful like I would never be. She slid her arm around Malik’s, her smile as cold as the night.

“Run along, Myra,” she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “Before you embarrass yourself further.”

The final blow.

I fled, the sound of her laughter following me, my heart shattering anew with every step.

The forest swallowed me, the cold air biting at my skin. My strength gave out at last, and I sank to my knees, the earth hard and unyielding beneath me.

The pain inside me was too much to bear. I curled in on myself, the tears silent now, the sobs gone. There was nothing left.

Nothing.

The world blurred. My eyes drifted closed.

And then light soft and silver.

I opened my eyes to see her a figure bathed in moonlight, her hair like threads of silver, her eyes endless pools of night. I knew her immediately.

The Moon Goddess.

She knelt beside me, her touch gentle but powerful.

“The night has stolen much, child,” she said, her voice like the wind through the trees. “But you will not fall. You will rise above this, because you are the true Luna. My chosen one.”

Her image shimmered, fading like mist at dawn.

And I let the darkness take me, the words of the Goddess a faint echo in my mind as sleep claimed me on the cold forest floor.

Myra’s POV

It was very cold.

It seeped into my bones, numbing my fingers, my toes, the very core of me. My eyes fluttered open, but the world was blurry.

The forest canopy above me was a patchwork of dawn’s pale light and dark, tangled branches.

I lay still for a moment, my body too sore and stiff to move. My limbs felt like they belonged to someone else, heavy and useless. My skin prickled where the damp earth clung to me, my dress torn and stained with mud.

I had clung to hope through the long, dark night. Hope that it had been some terrible mistake. That the Moon Goddess’s words had been real that I was chosen, that I had a purpose. That Malik would come, apologize, tell me he was wrong.

But as the light of dawn crept through the trees, that hope died.

This wasn’t a bad dream. This was my reality.

And it was colder than the forest floor beneath me.

I tried to sit up, gasping as pain shot through my ribs. My muscles protested with every movement, but I forced myself upright. My head spun. My vision darkened at the edges.

The Moon Goddess’s voice the promise she had given me felt like a distant memory now, like a dream slipping from my grasp.

Maybe it had been just a dream, and this was the reality.

“You are the true Luna. My chosen one.”

Was she real? Or had my broken mind conjured her in my moment of despair?

A crack of twigs made me freeze.

I heard voices and footsteps.

I turned my head, heart pounding, as two figures stepped into view. Pack warriors.

But they didn’t look relieved to see me. There was no kindness in their eyes. Disdain was the only thing I could discern from them.

I didn't have enough mental capacity to be embarrassed at my situation, I was too tired.

“There she is,” one said, his voice flat.

The other nodded, his expression hard. “You can’t stay out here. The Elders have ordered that you be locked up for now, since this you're useless enough to do this.”

I noticed how callous their words were, they could speak like this to my face meant that I had really sunk low.

I opened my mouth to explain, why I was here, but they didn't give me a chance. One of them just hurled me up forcefully.

Their meaning was clear enough.

I wasn’t a Luna. I wasn’t even a pack member worth protecting. I was a problem to be contained.

The walk back to the pack house felt longer than it should have. Every step jarred my aching body.

The other warriors kept their distance, as if my supposed weakness was something they could catch.

They led me past the Luna’s quarters, past the rooms where I had once been welcome, to a small, windowless chamber. The door creaked as they shoved it open. Inside, it was empty except for a thin blanket in one corner.

“This is where you’ll stay,” one said.

The door shut behind me with a final, echoing thud.

Time passed in a blur.

A healer came once, their expression as cold as the warriors’. He barely looked at me before delivering a diagnosis.

“You’ll live,” he said, as if it was an inconvenience, and left without another word.

Food appeared twice a day through a small hole at the bottom of the door. Bread. Water. No one spoke to me. No one visited.

I lost track of time.

Suddenly

A guard stepped inside, his face unreadable.

“Come,” he ordered.

I hesitated, fear knotting in my stomach. But I followed. What choice did I have?

He led me through a back passage I didn’t recognize. The stone walls were rough, the air cool and stale. We stopped near what looked like an old storage alcove.

“Stay here,” the guard said.

I pressed myself against the shadows. Through a narrow crack in the stone, I could see the courtyard beyond, filled with pack members.

Malik stood before them, tall and proud. His face was carved from stone, his eyes unreadable.

“My pack,” he began, his voice clear, carrying across the crowd. “You all know of the rejection that took place. I acted not for myself, but for you all. For the good of our people. An alpha must make sacrifices for his pack.”

The pack murmured their approval.

“I name Evelyn Ashe as my future Luna,” Malik continued, his voice steady, but hollow. “She has strength, courage, and the blessing of our Elders.”

The cheer that rose from the crowd was deafening. It echoed through the stone, through my bones, through my heart.

Every word was a dagger.

I pressed my hand to my mouth to stifle the sob that rose.

The guard grabbed my arm roughly.

“Luna Evelyn wanted you to witness that,” he hissed, dragging me back the way we’d come.

He shoved me back into the small room, the door slamming shut behind me.

My knees gave way. I crumpled to the floor, bruised, broken, defeated.

I wept until there were no tears left.

That night, voices outside my door roused me from a restless, painful sleep.

“Imagine being stuck guarding this weakling,” one voice sneered.

“Don’t worry,” another replied. “I guarded the last Elders’ council. They’re going to send her away soon. The council’s meeting to decide. She’ll be banished by soon enough”

I gasped

“Good. We don’t need her here.”

“Let's leave, no use standing there not like she can escape.”