On the day of my discharge, I expected to return quietly to the Moonridge Packhouse and bury myself in the silence I’d grown used to. But instead of taking the familiar route home, the driver stopped outside a brightly lit amusement park glowing against the twilight sky. Laughter, sweet scents, and the hum of mortal joy filled the air, each sound stabbing at my raw nerves like silver-tipped knives.
“Luna, Alpha Adrian is waiting for you,” the driver murmured.
My heart stilled. I hadn’t seen Adrian since the night he signed my release papers with the same indifference he used to sign a pack treaty.
“No,” I said firmly, my voice trembling despite my resolve. “Take me home.”
Before he could answer, I caught a scent I could never mistake, cedarwood and storm, dark dominance and danger. Adrian.
The next instant, the car door swung open. His shadow fell over me, tall and commanding, his presence alone enough to make weaker wolves bow. His hand closed around my wrist, his touch firm, his tone colder than moonlight.
“Don’t make a scene, Dawn. Come with me,” he commanded, his tone a flat sheet of steel.
“My secretary mentioned that you booked this entire park for a children’s birthday party,” he continued, an icy veneer of charm masking his cruelty. “Since Zara happens to share the same date, I thought it's better to celebrate together. It’s livelier that way.”
Livelier.
The word detonated in my mind. Five years ago, I had begged him to let my babies stay. “Seven months is enough. Deliver them now,” he'd snapped, severing my pleas with a cold finality. My body was torn, my life nearly lost, all because he needed the triplets’ birthday to align with his mistress’s. It wasn't a tragic medical decision; it was a vicious act of calculated humiliation.
Absolutely shameless!
Adrian towed me inside and pointed to a secluded corridor. “Wait for me in the private room. I will bring the kids after they finish their ride.”
My first instinct was to shift and run, to let my wolf break free and vanish into the night. But I forced her down. I needed proof, cold, undeniable evidence that would end this bond and strip him of every lie. Gritting my teeth, I followed his scent and moved toward the room.
Just as my hand reached the cold brass handle, muffled sounds sliced through the thick door, low gasps, the frantic rustle of fabric, the heavy, rough breathing of men. Wrong turn?
I pressed my eye to the crack.
The scene inside made my blood run cold. Zara, her lips swollen and red, her neck mottled with fresh marks, leaned lazily against two strange men. Their shirts were ripped, and the scent of raw, messy lust, not the clean, powerful musk of an alpha, suffocated the air. This wasn’t just a lover’s tryst; this was wrong. Terribly, fundamentally wrong.
I spun to escape, but a hand shot out, dragging me violently inside.
The door swung open a second later. Adrian strode in with the triplets, their laughter instantly dying.
Zara, who had been on her knees, now collapsed, trembling, at my feet. Her clothes were artfully shredded.
"Luna Dawn! I was wrong! I will never dare touch what belongs to you!”
My heart stopped. I wanted to scream a denial, to unleash the predator inside me, but Adrian’s icy gaze was a cage, pinning me down.
“L-Luna, please take me to the hospital, the pills you forced in my mouth to make me surely get pregnant…after all the men are done abusing me… I… I can’t let them…! I will rather die!” Zara wailed, rushing to Adrian, collapsing into his arms like a wilting flower.
But through the streaming tears, I caught it, the small, cold smile forming on her lips. My control snapped. The wolf inside me surged.
“I took advantage of you?” My voice was a low growl, barely recognizable.
“You even ordered them to film it and post it online… I was wrong to post pictures with Adrian.”
Adrian's jaw tightened. His eyes, already glacial, shifted from a whirring camera hidden in the corner to me. Fury replaced disbelief.
“Shut up!” The sound of my own rage was foreign. “It was Adrian who told me you would accompany us! How could I have known unless I’m some magician!”
Before I could continue, the triplets pointed their tiny fingers at me, their voices unnaturally firm, utterly devoid of childish innocence.
“Mom is bad!”
“Yes, it is mommy who said that there would be a great show today! How could we have known she would hurt Aunt Zara? It was… it was Mom!”
The hired men bowed deeply, simultaneously. “Alpha Adrian! It was her indeed! If we had known Miss Zara was your woman, we wouldn’t dare touch her even if we had a hundred guts!”
One of them fumbled out a recording device. A chillingly calm voice, undeniably mine, ripped through the speaker: “Make sure she suffers. Don’t let her walk away. Record everything.”
My eyes widened. The trap, so perfectly sprung, so intricately planned. A small, miserable smile stretched my lips. “All this effort to ruin me… just for a title? What a snake you are—”
I was unable to finish my sentence when Alpha Adrian’s palm landed on my cheek.
The slap landed with a shattering, sickening crack. The thunderous sound ripped through the room. I hit the ground hard, the metallic taste of my own blood flooding my mouth.
Zara’s manufactured sobs vanished, replaced by a ruthless, triumphant smile. Adrian stood over me, his face a mask of primal fury. I turned to look up at him, blood trickling from my lip, my eyes completely blank, stripped of all hope and fear.
He stilled, his hand still raised, a flicker of something, was it guilt? Crossing his sharp features.
“So, at the end, you believe her?” I whispered, the words ragged. “If someone were to see, they might think that she is your real wife while I am the mistress!”
Adrian’s eyes refroze, unmoving.
“So this is how low you will go?” His voice was calm, but each syllable cut deeper than a silver dagger.
He gestured sharply. The men who had touched Zara were dragged out. He stepped closer, his shadow falling over me.
“Did you strip Zara… did you enjoy humiliating her?” His voice was a merciless rasp. “Now it’s your turn.”
My chest seized. My wolf recoiled, utterly exposed. “No! Stop it!”
The moment was violent and sickening. Adrian’s hands seized me, no longer with cold control, but with angry, savage roughness. The stark sound of my clothing ripping filled the atmosphere. The hands that once held me with tenderness now tore at my dignity, leaving red, burning marks on my skin.
Hot tears streamed down my face.
“Adrian… what are you doing? Please, don’t-”
Nobody listened. I wailed like a broken creature, my soul shredding.
His eyes didn't waver.
“You wanted to ruin her name… now the wolf will make you pay. Every heartbeat. Every pride.”
The camera in the corner whirred, catching every motion: my fear, my scent, my unraveling.
“You wanted a spectacle, right? Today, the pack will teach you a lesson your blood will remember for life!”
