Two days later.
The date was set.
I’d packed everything that still smelled of me — silks, rings, the old moonstone comb Jace once gave me — into a single trunk.
“Throw it all out,” I told the steward. “Burn it if you must.”
He hesitated. “Does the Alpha know?”
A bitter smile curved my lips. “Tell him the Luna is cleansing her den. He won’t care.”
When the last box left, I stood in the empty chamber.
The walls still hummed faintly with our old bond — the scent of his wolf, the echo of broken vows.
I felt nothing.
---
That was when the rune-crystal rang.
My adoptive mother’s voice thundered through the channel, sharp as silver.
“Come home. Tonight. No excuses.”
A pause, then a hiss:
“If you’re not here before sundown, you’ll regret it.”
The connection snapped.
I stared at the dying glow of the rune. Of course — this was about Lyra.
---
By dusk, I stood before the gates of the Highmoon Manor — my so-called family’s estate.
The heavy oak doors opened, and the first thing that greeted me was a flying goblet.
It struck my forehead.
Warm blood trickled down my face.
I bent, picked up the shattered silver cup, and placed it calmly on the table before my parents.
“Father. Mother.”
Lyra whimpered theatrically, clutching Jace’s arm. “Alpha, she’s terrifying… she’s bleeding!”
But her eyes glittered with triumph.
My mother’s face twisted. “So this is how you behave now that you’ve married into a powerful pack? You dare raise your hand against your sister?”
Her voice dripped venom. “We should’ve drowned you at birth, abomination!”
I swallowed hard. “Am I truly your daughter?”
The question barely left my lips before her hand cracked across my face.
My weakened wolf couldn’t hold me steady — I fell.
For a heartbeat, Jace’s expression flickered — something almost human passed across it — but Lyra’s soft gasp pulled his gaze away.
“Seris,” she said sweetly, “Mother didn’t even use much strength. Why fall so dramatically?”
Jace’s eyes cooled to ice.
“She’s right. Don’t exaggerate, Seris.”
My mother sneered. “Exactly. You’re always pretending to be the victim. You trying to blackmail us now, Luna Thorn?”
I didn’t answer.
I simply stood, wiping the blood from my mouth.
My father rose, slamming his cane against the marble floor.
“Kneel,” he barked. “Apologize to Lyra.”
I stared at him. “For what?”
The cane struck again — this time my leg.
Pain shot up my thigh, but I bit it back.
“Kneel,” he repeated coldly. “And beg forgiveness for trying to harm the Alpha’s unborn heir.”
Unborn… heir.
The words echoed, hollow and cruel.
I turned to Jace, voice trembling. “Do you believe them too?”
He didn’t even look at me. “Just apologize, Seris. End this quietly.”
Something inside me broke — cleanly, irrevocably.
Mother’s contempt, Father’s rage, Jace’s indifference — all of it blurred into a single void.
“Fine,” I whispered. “I’ll apologize.”
---
Lyra’s lips curved. She shot Mother a glance.
My mother instantly snatched two crystal goblets and smashed them to shards at my feet.
“Kneel here,” she said. “Show some sincerity.”
I stared at the glittering fragments. “Are you truly my mother?”
For a second, fear flickered behind her eyes — then hatred swallowed it.
She raised her hand to strike again.
This time, I caught her wrist mid-air.
Our gazes locked.
“You—how dare you touch me!” she hissed. “You see? She’s attacking her own mother! Everyone, look at this monster!”
Father moved, cane raised.
But I released her arm before he could strike.
When I looked at him again, my voice was cold and steady.
“Tell me, Father. Should I also learn from Lyra — seduce my sister’s mate to survive?”
The hall froze.
Lyra gasped, feigning fragility, clutching her belly.
“Please, stop… I don’t want to argue. I just want her to stop cursing my pup…”
Jace instantly wrapped his arms around her, growling low.
“Seris,” he warned, “your words are dangerous. Enough.”
The sight of him — the man who once swore before the Moon Goddess that his wolf and mine were bound forever — holding her like that…
It hollowed me out.
Father sneered. “You’ve become rabid, girl.”
Maybe I had.
Because at that moment, I felt my wolf stir deep within, snarling for the first time in years.
The air shimmered faintly; the light bent.
I took a step forward, my voice low and even.
“I’ll kneel when the Moon herself commands me.”
Lyra’s face was full of sorrow. She swayed on her feet, nearly collapsing, and Jace caught her just in time.
He frowned at me. “Seris, that joke went too far.”
“When you’ve done something wrong, you should apologize. Why are you still insulting Lyra?”
I looked at the man who had once sworn eternal vows to me beneath the Moon Goddess’s light — now holding another woman in his arms, defending her as if she were the one worth protecting.
A hollow ache spread through my chest.
“Seris, I don’t need your apology anymore,” Lyra suddenly said.
She took a trembling step forward, pretending to kneel.
“I only beg you — for the sake of the child in my womb — please stop using the shadow-binding curse. Don’t curse my baby anymore.”
