Kacie POV:
The livestream had done its job. The entire Blood Moon Pack now saw me as the villain, the insecure Omega who bullied the pack's darling.
The next evening, we were summoned to the Moon ancestral estate for a family dinner. Cedric's parents, the former Alpha and Luna, lived there. They were traditionalists who valued bloodline above all else. To them, I was a nobody, an orphan with no known lineage.
Dinner was a torture session.
The dining room was dimly lit by chandeliers, the table set with heavy silver cutlery. Silver was dangerous to werewolves-it burned on contact and prevented healing-but high-ranking families used it to show their resilience and status. We wore gloves, of course, but the threat was always there.
Jayden was seated next to Cedric. I was seated opposite them, like an outsider.
"Jayden, dear, you look thin," Cedric's mother, Carol, cooed. "You need to eat more. The soup was made specially for you."
"Thank you, Luna Carol," Jayden beamed. She looked at Cedric. "Do you remember when we used to catch fish in the Forbidden Creek? You promised you'd always catch the biggest one for me."
Cedric smiled, a genuine, warm smile that I had never received. "I remember. You fell in the mud."
They laughed. It was a shared history, a bond of time that I couldn't compete with.
"Kacie," Carol said sharply, her tone changing instantly. "Pass the tureen. Don't just sit there."
I stood up, my legs trembling slightly. The Wolf's Wither was making me weaker by the day. My coordination was off. I reached for the heavy porcelain bowl of steaming fish soup.
As I walked around the table to serve Jayden-because apparently, the servants weren't enough-Jayden leaned back in her chair.
"You know," she whispered, low enough that only my enhanced hearing could catch it over the clatter of forks. "Cedric told his mother that once you produce an heir, he'll divorce you. He said he can't stand your scent. It smells like desperation."
My heart stopped. The bowl slipped from my numb fingers.
But Jayden was faster. With a subtle, vicious jerk of her elbow, she slammed her arm into the falling porcelain.
Crash!
Hot soup splattered everywhere.
"Ah!" Jayden wailed, clutching her forearm. Blood-bright red and alarming-welled up instantly where the shard had sliced her.
"Jayden!" Cedric roared. He was out of his chair in a blur of motion.
He shoved me aside. I stumbled, my hip hitting the heavy oak table hard.
"She burned me!" Jayden cried, burying her face in Cedric's chest. "And she tried to cut me with the shards!"
"I didn't!" I gasped, holding my bruised side. "She... she did it herself! It fell!"
"Enough!" Cedric's father, the old Alpha, slammed his fist on the table. "You clumsy, malicious girl!"
Cedric examined Jayden's arm. It was a superficial cut, but to a wolf, any injury was an insult. He turned to me, his eyes blazing with fury.
"You are unbelievable," he snarled. "You try to disfigure her in my parents' home?"
"Cedric, listen to me," I begged. "She whispered to me. She provoked me!"
"Lies!" Jayden sobbed. "I was just asking for some bread!"
Cedric scooped Jayden up into his arms, treating her like she was made of glass. "I'm taking her to the clinic. Mother, make sure she," he jerked his head at me, "doesn't leave this room until I decide her punishment."
He didn't look back. He carried another woman out of the room, leaving his wife standing in a puddle of soup, surrounded by hostile in-laws.
I looked down at my hands. They were shaking uncontrollably.
Serenity, I called out to my wolf. Are you there?
There was no answer. Just a faint, static fuzz in the back of my mind. My wolf was dying. She was giving up.
I looked at the grandfather clock in the corner.
26 Days.
Time was running like sand through my fingers, and I had nothing to show for it but bruises and soup stains.
