Luna's Vengeance:Last Blood of the Moon Goddess

Alpha King Caius Acevedo carried the strongest wolf bloodline in all the North, and yet he could not father an heir.

For ten full years, the royal house chose the healthiest, most fertile young she-wolves from every territory and sent them into Silvermoon Keep.

Not one of them could conceive his child.

Until I appeared.

In the second month after I joined with Caius, I was found to be carrying a royal bloodline blessed by the twin moons.

It was his only heir.

Caius was beside himself with joy. That very day, before the Council of Elders, he revealed our mate mark and named me Luna Queen of the North.

He treated me and the child in my womb as something more precious than his own life.

The physician assigned to examine me let his hand linger just a moment too long against my belly, and for that Caius stripped him of his wolf power with his own hands and drove him, along with his entire family, out of the North.

To protect this hard-won child, Caius settled me in Moonshadow Hall, in the deepest heart of Silvermoon Keep.

Twelve royal guards watched over it day and night.

Beyond the handmaids he chose himself, no one was allowed near.

But in the eighth month of my pregnancy, Caius led the wolf armies south to put down a rebellion.

On the second day after he left, Selena, newly risen in his favor, stormed into Moonshadow Hall with a group at her back.

She was the sister of the Western general, the woman Caius had brought home after settling the conflict along the border.

With her beauty, her family's power, and the authority Caius had left her before he rode out, she carried herself as though she were the true mistress of Silvermoon Keep.

But she did not know who I was.

To her I was only a lowly she-wolf, cast off by the Alpha King and hidden away in a side hall.

"A discarded plaything, and you dare to seduce a royal guard and get yourself pregnant with some mongrel of unknown blood?"

Selena seized me by the hair and forced my face up.

Her eyes burned with a bright, vicious excitement.

"Today, I'll show the whole pack what it means to betray the Alpha King."

She ordered them to cut off my long hair, tore away the silver robe that marked my station as Luna, and dragged me toward the dungeon where traitors were kept.

She meant to punish me before every lowborn wolf.

And at the end, she even pressed a silver blade to my high, swollen belly.

She said she would cut out this "unclean mongrel" with her own hands and present it to Caius to earn his favor.

But she did not know

The one she wanted to kill was the sole heir the entire North had waited ten years for.

And that lowly she-wolf she claimed the Alpha King had cast aside was the very Luna Queen Caius had publicly sworn, on his own life, to protect.

Once my pregnancy reached the eighth month, my body grew heavier and heavier.

The child in my womb had inherited Caius's powerful bloodline, and even unborn, it could already release a faint royal pressure.

Ordinary handmaids could not stay by my side for long.

Even the high-ranking wolves who guarded Moonshadow Hall would instinctively bow their heads when they came too close, forced down by that bloodline pressure.

That afternoon, I had just lain down when a shrill clamor broke out beyond the hall.

"A she-wolf hidden inside Silvermoon Keep, carrying on with a guard?"

"She didn't just betray the Alpha King, she dared to get pregnant with that man's mongrel. She's spitting in the face of the entire royal house!"

"Miss Selena, His Majesty Caius entrusted the running of Silvermoon Keep to you. A filthy traitor like this can't be let off easily."

"That's right, she has to be punished in public. It's the only way to warn the she-wolves who forget their place!"

Moonshadow Hall sat in the deepest reaches of Silvermoon Keep, where on ordinary days the only sound was the wind moving through the pines.

The sudden uproar left my head throbbing.

The child in my womb seemed to feel my discomfort too, shifting a few times, restless.

I opened my eyes and, one hand braced on the edge of the bed, slowly pushed myself upright.

"Elena Clark, what's happening out there?"

Elena, my personal maid, hurried to the window.

She tilted her head to listen for a moment, and something strange crossed her face.

"Forgive me, Luna. They're saying there's a woman in Silvermoon Keep who's been carrying on with a royal guard and has fallen pregnant. Miss Selena has brought several of the other noble ladies to punish her herself."

I frowned.

Caius ruled the twelve wolf territories of the North, and Silvermoon Keep was not only the seat of the royal house but the very center of the North's power.

Any scandal touching a royal guard would shake the pack's standing.

Though I had kept to Moonshadow Hall to rest through my pregnancy and rarely meddled in territorial affairs, I could not simply stand by and let this unfold.

More than that, before he left, Caius had held my hand and told me again and again.

If anything unusual happened in Silvermoon Keep, my authority to act stood above everyone else's.

I threw back the blanket and, with Elena's support, got to my feet.

"Take me to see."

But no sooner had I reached the doorway than the shut doors of the hall were kicked open from the outside.

A thunderous crash.

More than a dozen strange women poured into Moonshadow Hall.

The woman at the front wore a fiery red gown, her golden-brown curls spilling over her shoulders, a wolf-fang necklace marking her as Western nobility at her throat.

Her gaze rested on my face for a moment, then dropped to my swollen belly.

Thick hostility rolled off her all at once.

Before I could get a word out, she was already rushing at me.

Crack

Her palm struck my face, hard.

My head snapped to one side, a sharp ringing bursting to life in my ears.

"So it really is you!"

Selena jabbed a finger at my belly and snarled:

"A lowly she-wolf shut away in a side hall, and you dared go behind the Alpha King's back, seduce his guard, and get yourself pregnant with a mongrel?"

"Today, I'll teach you exactly what it costs to betray the royal house!"

The sudden slap froze me where I stood.

Elena's eyes went wide with shock.

Since I had been named Luna Queen, no one in the entire North had dared touch me like this.

And no one had dared run wild in Moonshadow Hall.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

My voice had gone cold.

The noble ladies behind Selena broke into sneering laughter at once.

"She actually dares to question Miss Selena?"

"You don't carry the Alpha King's openly claimed scent, and there are only a few male guards outside your hall. Short of sleeping with a guard, how else could you have gotten pregnant?"

"Look at her, putting on such airs. Anyone who didn't know better would think she was the Luna of Silvermoon Keep."

"A she-wolf who betrays her mate like this ought to be driven into the wastelands and left to whatever the mindless strays there want to do with her!"

Their venomous words fell one after another.

And at last I understood. The woman they spoke of, the one carrying on with a guard, pregnant with a mongrel, was me.

Caius had worried his own scent might unsettle the child in my womb, so before he left he'd had the High Priest use moongrass to mask the mate scent on my body for a time.

The guards of Moonshadow Hall had also been ordered to reveal nothing of my identity.

Selena had clearly read all of this as something else entirely.

I forced down the fury churning in my chest and looked at her coldly.

"How dare you."

"I am the North's"

Before I could finish, Selena raised her hand again.

Crack!

The second slap landed harder than the first.

I stumbled backward, the small of my back nearly striking the sharp corner of the table.

Elena caught me in time, or I would have fallen.

A tight, wrenching pain spread through my belly.

At once I curled both hands around the child, my breath turning ragged.

"Daisy Clark!"

Elena cried out my name in alarm, then whipped her head around to glare at Selena.

"You insolent How dare you harm the Luna and"

Selena seized a fistful of Elena's hair and dragged her away from me.

"When the mistress is speaking, since when does a low maid get to cut in?"

She shoved Elena hard to the ground and gave an order to the attendants behind her.

"Teach her the rules of Silvermoon Keep."

Several powerful serving women closed in on Elena at once.

The dull thud of fists and boots came one after another.

"Stop!"

I tried to lunge forward, only to have two others clamp down on my arms.

Before long, Elena lay sprawled on the cold stone floor.

Her forehead was gashed, blood running down her cheek, her body utterly still.

"Elena!"

Deep inside me, my wolf let out a furious snarl.

An aura that belonged to a Luna Queen surged out on instinct.

The two maids nearest me went white, their knees buckling against their will.

Selena, too, gave half a step back.

But she steadied herself quickly, the shame and anger on her face fiercer than before.

Months ago, when Caius had brought her back to Silvermoon Keep, I'd heard what she was capable of.

Her brother, Fergus Norris, was the West's most powerful general, commanding nearly a third of the North's wolf armies.

To keep the West stable, Caius had allowed her to lodge at Silvermoon Keep for a time.

She had used that privilege to bring in a whole circle of highborn friends.

They banded together into their own faction, claiming they meant to restore order on behalf of the royal house.

In only a few months, several she-wolves once trusted by Caius were framed and driven out of Silvermoon Keep.

Some had their wolf power stripped away, some were sent to the borderlands, and one young mother, unable to bear the disgrace, threw herself from a cliff on the night of the full moon.

I had heard these rumors.

Yet I'd always assumed there had to be some exaggeration in them.

This was Silvermoon Keep, after all.

No one would be foolish enough to act so brazenly inside the Alpha King's own domain.

Only now did I understand that the rumors fell far short of how cruel the truth was.

I stared at Selena and spoke each word with care.

"Assaulting a member of the royal house, harming an innocent maid, forcing your way into Moonshadow Hallany one of these is enough to bring you before the Council of Elders."

Selena crossed her arms over her chest and laughed with contempt.

"Put me on trial?"

"Before His Majesty Caius left, he handed me the authority to govern Silvermoon Keep himself. Everything here is decided by me now."

The highborn ladies behind her chimed in at once.

"In all of Silvermoon Keep, who doesn't bow their head when they see Miss Selena?"

"A hidden little plaything like you dares threaten her with the Council of Elders?"

"Miss Selena is clearing out traitors for the Alpha King. Even when His Majesty returns, he'll only reward her."

"And Miss Selena's brother commands the Western Legion. However high your standing, could it possibly stand above hers?"

I ignored them and kept my eyes on Selena alone.

"I'll warn you one last time."

"Before you strike again, you'd best send someone to confirm exactly who I am."

Selena covered her mouth and laughed, as if she'd heard something too absurd for words.

"A she-wolf with no mate scent, kept in secret in a side hallshe's worth wasting my time to investigate?"

"You think moving into Moonshadow Hall lets you pretend to be someone important?"

She stepped closer and patted my cheek.

"The woman His Majesty Caius favors most is me."

"My brother is the West's general, and my family holds tens of thousands of wolf warriors. Whoever the man behind you is, he can't protect you."

When she finished, she let her gaze drift slowly around the silent Moonshadow Hall.

It came to rest on the silver-white drapes along the walls.

"It's too quiet in here. Too plain, too."

The corners of Selena's red lips lifted.

"I want to add a little red to it."

The women behind her understood her meaning at once.

They rushed me all together, grabbing my hair and my arms, and slammed me down hard onto the floor.

The instant my knees hit stone, agony shot straight to my skull.

Someone kicked me in the back.

Someone seized my long hair and forced my head up.

And one foot came down straight toward my belly.

"No"

I twisted violently onto my side, both arms locked around the swell of my stomach.

My wolf slammed itself again and again against the bindings inside me.

But to keep from harming the child in my womb, the High had long ago sealed my wolf power. Right now I couldn't even complete the shift.

All I could do was curl on the floor and take their blows with my own body.

The pain in my belly grew sharper and clearer.

A warm liquid slid slowly down the side of my leg.

I lowered my head and saw a spot of glaring red bloom across the pale skirt.

Selena followed my gaze, and instead of fear, an even more excited smile spread over her face.

"Looks like this bastard whelp is even more fragile than I thought."

She raised her foot and came toward my belly once more.

I lifted my face, slick with cold sweat, shielded the child in my womb, fixed my eyes on her, and forced out each word in a fierce cry.

"Everyone, stop!"

"I am not some lover Caius cast aside."

"I am the mate who swore an open vow with him before the Moon Goddess Altar, who shares his life and his sovereignty"

"The North's one and only Luna Queen!"

As the words fell, heavy, ordered footsteps came suddenly from outside Moonshadow Hall.

An instant later, a royal guard, drenched in blood, burst into the hall.

He dropped to his knees, his voice near breaking with terror.

"The Alpha King has ended the war in the South early."

"He's already on his way back to Silvermoon Keep!"

Luna Queen?

As the words left my mouth, the women clawing at me finally went still.

For a heartbeat, the hall fell silent.

Selena narrowed her eyes, staring me down.

You just said you're the Luna Queen of the North?

That's right.

I cradled my belly, where the pain kept pulsing, and fought to steady my breathing.

I carry Caius's only heir.

If this child comes to the slightest harm, not just you, but the families behind you will never withstand the Alpha King's fury.

I thought that once I named my station, they would at least stop to verify it.

The safety of the royal heir was tied to the whole of the North, after all.

If they had a shred of reason left, they would send word to the Council of Elders at once.

And beyond that, the royal guard who'd come with the message was still kneeling at the door.

But in the next instant, a burst of shrill laughter erupted through Moonshadow Hall.

Oh, I'm so frightened!

She actually claims to be the Luna Queen?

This woman's been shut away in a side hall so long her mind's gone, hasn't it?

Maybe she's always dreamed of being the Alpha King's mate. Now that we've exposed her filthy little secret, this is the only ridiculous lie she can invent to save her skin.

Their laughter grew louder and louder.

The noblewoman in the purple dress at Selena's side clutched her stomach, doubled over laughing.

Everyone knows Lord Caius and his Luna share a public Mate Mark.

She looked me over with open contempt.

But you don't carry a trace of His Majesty's scent.

If you truly were the most exalted Luna in the North, how could you have nothing but one lowborn maid and a handful of male guards around you?

The way I see it, those guards aren't protecting you. They're taking turns keeping you company, aren't they?

Vicious laughter rose again all around me.

My fingers slowly curled tight.

To protect the child, Caius had personally asked the High to mask my mate scent.

The guards of Moonshadow Hall had been handpicked from the elite of the Royal Captain of the Royal Guard.

Yet all these arrangements meant to protect me were now being twisted by these women into proof that I had betrayed Caius.

Selena looked down at me, her gaze slowly turning cruel and cold.

Here I thought you dared to defy me because you had someone important standing behind you.

Turns out you're just a madwoman too stupid to tell fantasy from reality.

She bent down and seized my chin.

Do you know what the Luna Queen is?

She holds power second only to the Alpha King in all the North. Every wolf across the Twelve Territories must bow their head at the sight of her. How could a woman like that be living in a side hall no one gives a second thought to?

Let alone without even a single decent guard of her own.

Selena's nails dug deep into my skin.

If you want to save yourself with a lie, you should at least invent an identity someone could believe.

Her gaze slid to my belly, and the smile vanished from her face.

A bastard whelp you got by whoring with a royal guard, and you dare pass it off as the heir of the North.

For that one sentence alone, I could sentence you to death.

The guard kneeling at the door went pale.

Miss Selena, everything she says is true!

The woman in Moonshadow Hall is Luna Daisy herself. The child in her womb has already passed the blood verification at the Moon Goddess Altar. It is His Majesty's only

Shut your mouth!

Selena spun around.

A lowly guard set to watch over a side hall, and even you dare to deceive me?

I'd say you're her lover!

The guard's head jerked up in shock.

I belong to the Royal Captain. My number is engraved on my Silver Armor. You need only ask the Captain

Seize him!

Selena gave him no chance to explain.

The two high-ranking wolves behind her lunged at once, wrenching the guard's arms behind his back and forcing him to the ground.

He tried to fight them off, but out of fear for my safety he didn't dare unleash his wolf strength.

Selena walked over and kicked away the silver emblem at his waist, the mark of his rank as a royal guard.

The emblem skidded across the stone floor and slid into the shadows beneath the drapery.

Forge yourself an emblem and you think that makes you a real royal guard?

She gave a cold laugh and ordered:

Throw him in the dungeon. Once I've dealt with this woman, I'll question them myself and find out just how they conspired together.

Even as he was dragged out, the guard fought with everything he had.

Your Majesty, protect the child!

The Alpha King has already reached the outer keep. The Council of Elders is receiving him now. Hold on just a little longer and he'll

A heavy fist slammed into the guard's stomach.

He grunted, and the rest of his words were forced back down his throat.

Watching his figure disappear beyond the hall doors, the last flicker of hope in my heart went out with him.

These people hadn't simply mistaken who I was.

They believed only what they wanted to believe.

Even with the proof laid out before them, they would destroy the proof along with everything else.

Selena came back to stand before me, a cruel excitement glinting in her eyes.

So there's more than one lover.

No wonder you're so brazen.

But you'll learn soon enough that in Silvermoon Keep, no man can protect you.

She turned to the women behind her and gave the order in a cold voice:

Tear the clothes off her.

I want to see just what tricks this body used to bewitch those guards.

The noblewomen bared vicious smiles and started toward me at once.

Don't touch me!

I backed away until my spine met the cold stone of the wall.

I had always loved quiet. That was why I'd asked to move into Moonshadow Hall, far from the main keep.

Elena had grown up at my side, and I'd decided her care was enough. So I never kept a flock of maids around me.

Caius had assigned twelve guards to protect this place.

But once he left Silvermoon Keep, Selena used the pretext of reinforcing the front lines to pull most of them away, one after another.

The few who remained had clearly fallen under her control.

I had never once imagined that the choices I'd made to carry this child in peace would become the very reason they denied who I was.

Several hands seized my collar and my arms at once.

The sound of fabric tearing filled the hall.

I fought to shield my belly, but I couldn't cover my body at the same time.

"I really am the Luna Queen!"

I stared at Selena and warned her one last time, my voice sharp:

"Caius is already back. Stop now, and maybe you can still save the innocent ones in your family!"

No one paid me any mind.

A hard slap landed across my face.

"Still daring to threaten Miss Selena, even now?"

A second slap came right after.

"Didn't you say the Alpha King was back?"

"Then let him come save you!"

They held my arms and kept tearing at my robe.

Someone dragged their nails across my skin on purpose.

Another grabbed a fistful of my hair, forcing my face up so I had to take each humiliation, one after another.

My cheek swelled fast.

The taste of blood spread at the corner of my mouth.

The silver-white robe Caius had chosen for me himself was torn to ruins.

Great patches of my skin lay bare against the cold air.

I had never been reduced to such a state.

Even at sixteen, when the rogue wolves attacked, I had never been degraded like this.

Selena, though, admired the sight of me and smiled, satisfied.

Then her gaze fell to my long hair.

"That hair's in the way."

"Cut it all off."

A maid brought over a pair of sharp silver shears at once.

My pupils shrank all at once.

In the traditions of the Northern wolves, long hair was the symbol of a woman's dignity.

Only traitors cast out by the pack had their hair cut off in public.

"Selena, you wouldn't dare!"

I thrashed violently.

Several women pinned down my shoulders and my arms.

The cold blade pressed against my scalp.

Snip

A lock of long hair fell to the floor.

Then a second, and a third.

The maid worked without the slightest hesitation, dragging the shears through my hair in wild, careless cuts.

Strand after strand kept falling, scattering over my shoulders, along my legs, across the bloodstained floor.

One of those cut ends still had the silver hairband Caius had tied there with his own hands this morning, before he rode out.

He had bent down then and kissed my forehead.

"Wait for me to come back. I'll untie it myself."

"Until then, no one is to touch it."

But now the silver hairband was under Selena's foot.

She ground it beneath her heel a couple of times and let out a pleased laugh.

"Now she looks like a proper exiled traitor."

The women around her clapped and cheered.

"Miss Selena did the right thing!"

"A she-wolf who betrays her mate should lose every last shred of dignity."

"When the Alpha King sees her like this, he'll surely thank Miss Selena for cleaning up Silvermoon Keep for him."

I curled up on the floor, using the shredded cloth to cover my body.

The pain in my belly grew sharper by the moment.

The wolf deep inside me let out a mournful howl, yet it could never break through the seal the High had left behind.

I looked at the long hair scattered by my feet, and the anger in my chest cooled, bit by bit, instead.

I memorized every one of their faces.

And every hand that had touched me.

Everything they'd done today to me, to Elena, to my child, I would make them pay back many times over.

"You'll regret this."

My voice trembled a little from the pain, yet it carried clearly to every ear.

The clamor went quiet for a heartbeat.

Selena walked slowly up to me.

She lifted her boot and stamped it down hard on my face, pressing me into the cold stone floor.

"Regret?"

"Since the day I came to Silvermoon Keep, no one has ever had the power to make me regret a thing."

She bent down, cruelty flickering in her eyes.

"But I can make you regret ever being born into this world."

With that, she lifted her foot and gave an order to the guards behind her:

"Drag this woman to the Punishment Grounds."

"Gather every Omega and criminal in Silvermoon Keep. Let them see with their own eyes what happens to those who betray the Alpha King."

Two guards grabbed my arms and hauled me up off the ground.

"Let the Luna go!"

Elena, unconscious until now, suddenly came to.

Her face covered in blood, she struggled and lunged for the hem of my gown.

"She carries His Majesty's only child!"

"Selena, you'll destroy the entire future of the North!"

Selena didn't even turn her head.

"Take this madwoman along too."

"Since she's so loyal, let her watch her own mistress be punished, with her own eyes."

Elena and I were dragged roughly out of Moonshadow Hall.

The rough stone road scraped my skin raw.

The child in my belly thrashed hard, as if sending a cry for help to its father.

At that same moment, from the outer keep in the distance, a long and commanding wolf's howl rose up.

The whole of Silvermoon Keep fell silent in an instant.

Every wolf lowered its head on instinct.

That was Caius's voice.

He had finished the Council of Elders' welcoming ceremony.

He was calling for me.

Selena's step faltered.

But the next second, she laughed as if nothing had happened.

"His Majesty must be summoning me to come and greet him."

She turned to look at the guards dragging me.

"Move faster."

"Before I go to meet the Alpha King, I'll make this liar pay for her crimes first."

Selena gave a single command, and several guards seized my arms at once.

"Let go of me!"

I fought with everything I had, but I didn't have the strength left even to stand.

They ignored my screams, dragging me the whole way from Moonshadow Hall to the most remote corner of Silvermoon Keep, the Punishment Grounds.

My bare skin scraped over the rough stone path again and again.

Behind me, two stark trails of blood slowly smeared across the ground.

Elena was dragged along too, hauled by another guard.

Her face was covered in blood, and still she kept repeating it, over and over:

"She's the Luna..."

"She's carrying the Alpha King's heir..."

"You'll kill His Majesty's only child..."

But every guard we passed lowered their head. Not one of them dared step forward to stop it.

Selena had governed Silvermoon Keep for only a few months, yet she had already taught every soul here to fear her.

Those who once defied her had either been cast out of the pack or thrown into the dungeons.

No one wanted to be next.

When we reached the Punishment Grounds, the guard holding me gave a careless shove.

I hit the ground like a piece of discarded trash.

A violent, plunging pain tore through my belly.

By instinct I curled inward, both hands pressed tight over my child.

The Punishment Grounds held more than a hundred wolves guilty of grave crimes.

Some were wolf-kind traitors stripped of their standing, some were rogues no territory would take in, and a few, bound so long in silver chains, had already slipped into a half-feral state.

Every day they hauled ore here, cleared filthy runoff, and dug out the most dangerous underground passages of Silvermoon Keep.

My arrival stirred them all in an instant.

The sound of chains dragging across the ground rose one after another.

They stopped their work and turned, all of them, to look at me.

When they saw my ruined robe and the wounds bared to the open air, their eyes changed at once.

Surprise.

Curiosity.

And something malicious that turned my blood to ice.

Ashamed and furious, all I could do was sit on the ground and clutch the torn fabric tight against my body.

Selena strolled forward with that flock of noble young ladies.

She watched me shield myself in such wretched shame, and one corner of her mouth curled with contempt.

"Only now you learn shame?"

"When you were seducing the royal guard, why didn't you spare a thought for your dignity?"

"Since you claim you're not afraid of defiling the royal bloodline, today I'll let everyone see just how filthy a woman who betrays the Alpha King really is."

Dread clamped down on my heart in a single beat.

I lifted my head and stared at her.

"Selena, what exactly are you trying to do?"

She didn't answer me.

She turned to face the wolves imprisoned in the Punishment Grounds, her voice carrying clear across the whole square.

"This woman is impersonating the Luna Queen, and she lies that the mongrel in her belly is the heir of the North."

"She conspired with a royal guard, trampling the Alpha King's dignity in the open."

"Today, I grant you all the right to punish her on Silvermoon Keep's behalf."

She paused, and the smile on her face turned crueler still.

"Whoever pleases me most, I'll consider pardoning his crimes and setting him free again."

Freedom.

To those caged in the Punishment Grounds, that word held more temptation than food or life itself.

Heavy breathing broke out all around me at once.

A few of the rogues threw down their tools first and closed in on me.

Then more of them worked loose the ropes binding them to their labor, crowding forward, unable to wait.

I shrank back in terror.

"Don't come near me!"

"I am the Luna Queen of the North!"

"I carry the Alpha King's only heir!"

Those words made the ones in front stop where they stood.

Even criminals cast out of the pack understood what it meant to harm the Luna and the royal heir.

A man with a long scar across his face glanced warily toward Selena.

"Is what she says true?"

"If she really is the Luna, every one of us will be executed."

Selena's expression went cold in an instant.

"Do you think the true Luna would be lying here on the Punishment Grounds in torn rags?"

"She's nothing but a madwoman babbling to save her own skin."

"I am the steward of Silvermoon Keep, appointed by the Alpha King himself. If anything goes wrong, the answer falls to me."

Her gaze swept over the crowd as she went on, luring them:

"Or would you rather keep those silver chains forever and die here in this Punishment Grounds, than seize your one chance at freedom?"

In the end, the pull of freedom overpowered their fear.

They closed in on me again.

I wanted to run, but I didn't have the strength even to rise.

Hands filthy with mud reached for me.

Someone grabbed my arm.

Someone pinned my shoulder.

Someone tried to tear away the last scrap covering me.

I curled tighter, fighting to shield my belly and my body.

"Stop!"

"Don't touch my child!"

My cry was swallowed by the laughter and the rattle of chains all around me.

The women guards of the Punishment Grounds saw that Selena did nothing to stop it, so they took the whips down from the wall too.

They wanted to please the most favored woman in Silvermoon Keep.

The first lash landed across my back.

The pain was so fierce my whole body snapped taut.

The second came right behind it.

The whip split my skin, each stroke leaving a burning welt on my body.

All I could do was arch my back and curl my body around my child, shielding him.

"Daisy!"

Elena's scream was pure despair.

She bit down on the guard dragging her, tore free, and threw herself over me, using her own back to take the falling whip.

"She's eight months pregnant!"

"Can't you feel the royal presence coming off her?"

"Please, I'm begging you, go get the High!"

One of the guards drew back her foot and kicked Elena away.

"A low-ranking maid, giving us orders?"

Elena crumpled to the ground and went completely still.

"Elena!"

I tried to crawl toward her, but I was hauled back again.

The wolf deep inside me roared like something maddened.

She slammed again and again at the seal the High had left, straining to protect our child.

But every blow made the pain in my belly worse.

Soon my blood had soaked the stone floor beneath me.

One of the noble ladies standing beside Selena finally showed a flicker of unease.

"Selena, she does live in Moonshadow Hall, after all."

"That presence she gave off just now didn't feel like an ordinary she-wolf either."

"If she really is connected to the royal house, and we let these criminals treat her this way, won't it enrage King Caius?"

Selena toyed with her curls, unbothered.

"Caius favors me above any woman in Silvermoon Keep."

"I'm only punishing a traitor in his place. Why would he ever blame me for that?"

"Besides, my brother commands the Western Legion."

"He gave me his word himself. As long as I don't betray the whole North, no one can touch me."

Hearing this, the other noble ladies chimed in at once.

"That's right, General Fergus has tens of thousands of warriors."

"Even the Council of Elders has to show the West some deference."

"King Caius still needs General Fergus to hold the borders. Why would he ever punish Selena over some woman whose identity no one even knows?"

The woman who'd been worried a moment ago finally set her doubts aside.

She even stepped closer, admiring the sight of my suffering with open interest.

I didn't know how long I endured it.

The pain slowly went numb.

The sounds around me began to grow distant.

Just as I was about to lose consciousness, a pain like nothing before tore through my belly.

As if something were being ripped forcibly out of my body.

I lowered my head.

A stream of warm blood was pouring out from beneath me, and it wouldn't stop.

"No"

I gathered the last of my strength to cover my belly, and for the first time my voice carried a fear I couldn't hide.

"The baby"

"My baby"

My head snapped up toward Selena.

"Get a healer!"

"Please, call a healer here right now!"

"The baby won't hold on!"

Selena had drunk her fill of my wretchedness, and at last she lifted a hand.

"Stop, all of you."

The criminals ringed around me drew back, unwilling.

I lay on the freezing ground, wounded everywhere, forcing my breathing steady.

If the healer got here in time, maybe there was still a chance.

Werewolves heal far better than ordinary people.

And my child carried the purest royal bloodline of all.

He would survive. He had to.

I couldn't lose him.

Selena came to stand before me and looked down at the blood pouring from beneath me.

There wasn't a trace of panic on her face, only the toying amusement of a cat with a mouse.

"You want me to save that bastard?"

"Fine."

Hope flared in my chest in an instant.

"What do you want?"

She raised her chin.

"Kneel. Kowtow to me."

"Admit that you're a liar who slept with a guard."

"Admit that you impersonated the Luna Queen, just to escape punishment."

My body went rigid.

I was the mate Caius had publicly acknowledged before the Moon Goddess Altar.

The Luna Queen the Twelve Territories of the North had sworn their loyalty to as one.

By the law of the wolves, no one but the Moon Goddess and my mate had the right to make me kneel.

But the pain in my belly kept building.

My child's presence was fading, little by little.

Through the bond of our shared blood, I could feel his faint, struggling flickers.

Weighed against my child's life, dignity meant nothing at all.

"Fine."

I braced my wound-covered body and forced myself up onto my knees.

"I'll kneel."

My knees came down in the pool of blood.

I bowed my head and drove my forehead hard against the stone floor.

Once.

"Please, call a healer."

Twice.

"Please, save my child."

Three times.

"As long as he lives, I'll do anything you want."

I threw away every shred of a Luna's dignity, and I forgot everything Selena had ever done to me.

In that moment, I was only a mother trying to keep her child.

He was more than the heir the North had awaited for ten years.

He was the child I had carried eight months, whose heartbeat and kicks and breath I had felt more times than I could count.

Before Caius left, he had pressed his face to my belly and murmured to him,

"Wait for me to come back, and I'll teach you how to become the strongest wolf of all."

He had promised he would welcome our child into the world with his own hands.

And I had promised Caius I would keep him safe.

As long as the child could live, I was willing to give up everything.

My forehead struck the stone again and again.

Blood ran down over my brow.

Only when my vision began to blur did Selena finally smile, satisfied.

"So you really do care about this bastard."

Weakly, I lifted my head.

"I've done everything you asked."

"Now call the healer."

"Of course."

Selena turned and walked toward the tool rack of the Punishment Grounds.

I thought she was going for the communication crystal that could reach a healer.

But her hand passed over the crystal and closed around a silver blade used for cutting hides.

The edge flashed a piercing, icy light in the sun.

My breath stopped dead.

"What are you doing?"

Selena came toward me, step by step, the silver blade in her hand.

"Since you want so badly to save him, let me do you a favor."

"I'll let him be born early."

"That way everyone can see for themselves whose lowborn guard's blood he really inherited."

Terror swallowed me whole.

I scrambled backward, but two guards clamped down on my shoulders.

"No"

"Selena, the child is innocent."

"Don't you want Caius's favor? If you hurt his only heir, he'll never forgive you!"

Her steps didn't stop.

"Even now, you still think you can threaten me with the Alpha King?"

"Hold her down."

The two guards pinned me to the ground.

I thrashed wildly, my nails clawing streaks of blood across the stone.

But the silver seal crushed my wolf strength, and my broken body couldn't fight them at all.

"Don't touch my child!"

"Caius"

The silver blade in Selena's hand came down.

A cold light flashed before my eyes.

Then a pain beyond words swallowed me whole.

I screamed, a raw and terrible cry.

The whole Punishment Grounds seemed to fall away from me in that instant.

Through my fading consciousness, I saw Selena take a piece of white cloth from the healer's emergency kit.

The cloth was soaked through with blood in moments.

She lifted a tiny shape into her arms.

My child was terribly quiet.

No cry.

No heartbeat.

That breath tied to my very blood vanished completely in that instant.

My wolf let out one anguished wail and then collapsed deep in my consciousness.

Tears kept sliding from the corners of my eyes.

"Give him to me"

I reached out a hand covered in blood.

"Please"

"Give me back my child"

Selena glanced down at the child in her arms and suddenly cried out in excitement,

"It's a boy!"

The male heir the North had waited ten years for.

Caius's only son.

But she quickly shook her head with regret.

"What a shame. He's already stopped breathing."

She held the child up before me, as though showing off a trophy she had just claimed.

"Do you see?"

"You're the one who killed him."

"If you hadn't betrayed the Alpha King, he never would have come into this world."

The noble ladies around her broke into applause.

"An unknown bastardbetter off dead, cleaner that way!"

"Miss Selena has protected the purity of the royal bloodline for the Alpha King."

"When His Majesty learns the truth, he's sure to reward you."

"That's the kind of strength a future Luna should have!"

Even the keepers of the Punishment Grounds began scrambling to flatter her.

"Miss Selena is wise."

"You've rid us of the bastard who impersonated the royal heir, and protected the dignity of the whole North."

"Only you deserve to stand at the Alpha King's side."

Amid all the praise, Selena gazed down at the breathless child with satisfaction.

The corners of her lips curled, as if she were admiring her most perfect work.

"Little bastard, don't be impatient."

"I'll find your father soon enough."

"When I do, I'll send your whole family off to be reunited in the same place."

The words had barely left her mouth when heavy, measured footsteps sounded outside the Punishment Grounds.

A pressure fierce enough to make every wolf's soul tremble swept across the entire square in an instant.

Everyone who had been cheering a moment before froze where they stood.

Then the Captain's ringing announcement rang out through Silvermoon Keep,

"Kneel for the ruler of the North"

"His Majesty, Alpha King Caius, has arrived!"