Chapter 5
For a moment, no one moved.
The entire crowd stood frozen, exchanging looks, unsure whether to believe me–or Luna Daisy.
Then, finally, someone spoke.
A she wolf from my neighborhood stepped forward, her voice shaking.
“Don’t just stand there–help her!” she said. “I watched Harper and Alina grow up. They’re not the kind of girls who’d chase power. If Harper married into this family, she must’ve had her reasons.”
“Then you go help her,” someone snapped back. “I’m not getting involved. What if we piss off the Alpha? Or whatever monster’s hiding in this cursed pack? It’ll devour us all!”
“There is no monster. I think Alpha Troy and Luna Daisy staged this whole thing. All to cover up their crimes.”
“I doubt it. What would they gain from that? Luna Daisy doesn’t look like a killer. She saw what happened to the other Lunas. Maybe she’s really trying to protect Harper.”
“Still, can we really just stand by and watch another she–wolf die? If you ask me, we should listen to Luna Daisy. Tie
Harper down before she goes insane and kills herself.”
The crowd quickly split into three sides.
One group stayed back, watching in silence, not wanting to get involved.
Another moved closer, siding with Luna Daisy, ready to restrain me.
Only a small handful wanted to help me escape her grasp.
I could feel the tide turning against me.
I didn’t have time to think. I shouted, voice cracking, “Mom! Are you really going to stand there and watch me die?”
“Alina’s gone I’m your only daughter now, and you swore to protect us when Dad died!”
I had doubted many things in this world. But never my family.
My parents met during a rogue attack
They fell in love at first sight and soon discovered they were fated mates After marriage, they were inseparable. Then
Came Alina, then me
When I was born, the labor nearly took her life. There was no one to help–only her own hands and sheer will. Her body never fully healed from the price she paid that night
There were whispers in the pack Some thought he should take another mate, have a son to carry on the bloodline But he never once wavered
“My wife and two daughters, he’d say, “are blessings from the Moon Goddess. I don’t need anything else‘
Chapter 5
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Then, one day, he died in an accident.
My mother nearly followed him. She cried until she went blind in one eye. It was only at the last moment–when she remembered my father’s final words–that she chose to live.
She picked herself back up and raised us, bitter and broken, but fiercely devoted.
For years, some pack members tried to convince her to remarry. She never did.
She said all she cared about was me and Alina. That she’d give her life a hundred times over, as long as we were safe.
So how could I believe this was real? That she’d just stand by and let me die?
As the memories blurred together, my body seized harder, spiraling out of control.
I didn’t know where the strength came from–but I flung Finn across the floor like he weighed nothing.
The warriors rushed toward me, trying to pin me down.
But I moved first.
I grabbed the silver dagger hidden in my boot-
and pressed it to my chest.
Luna Daisy’s face twisted in horror.
“She’s exactly the same,” she cried. “The ninth Luna–it’s happening again!”
“Why does this keep happening to us?”
“Finn,” she sobbed, “I can’t take this anymore. If Harper dies too… I’ll go with her!”
Sobbing hysterically, Daisy lifted a silver blade toward her own chest.
She was inches from plunging it in–when a voice cut through the crowd.
Cold. Sharp, Unmistakable.
It was my mother.
She stepped forward in a black dress, unreadable.
Her face was blank, but her eyes–her eyes were like ice.
She glanced at me, then at Daisy Her voice was flat Emotionless.
“That’s enough, quit the act” she said
Chapter 5
