Chapter 5
His words hit me like a thunderclap.
My eyes flew open, every muscle trembling violently.
Ever since Alpha Raymond dragged me away from the last sacrificial ritual, I swore I’d never again offer my power to this cursed pack… not until today.
A broken laugh clawed its way up my throat.
“Release Amos,” I rasped, voice raw, “and I’ll give you what you want.”
Before Raymond could respond, Amos let out a guttural roar that shook the air.
“No, Luna! You’re barely holding onto life as
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it is if you step onto that altar, the Moon Goddess won’t bless you. She won’t save you. The ritual will drain you dry–you’ll die on that stone!”
He turned his tear–streaked, bloodied face toward Raymond, voice cracking with desperation.
“Alpha, stop this madness while you still can! The ancestors are watching. If you go through with this… Shadowmoon Pack will fall. You’ll doom us all!”
Blood welled at the corners of his eyes, streaming down his face like crimson tears. Gasps rippled through the warriors surrounding us.
Raymond’s smirk vanished instantly. He raised a hand, halting the silver–whip lashing that had been shredding Amos’s back.
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Amos had always valued the pack’s survival over his own life. He had never once lied.
Raymond’s gaze shifted upward. The night sky burned red, the Blood Moon swollen and wrong. Though it was a freezing winter night, the air felt blisteringly hot, searing against our fur and skin.
A sick thought slithered into his mind…
No. Impossible.
But whether it was instinct or fear, Raymond understood one thing clearly: neither he nor Shadowmoon Pack could afford for me to die. Not even the smallest chance of it.
He opened his mouth–ready to spare Amos
I
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But Charlotte’s trembling sobs sliced through the silence.
She shoved another figure forward.
My stomach dropped.
Chloe.
My Chloe.
Once a half–dead rogue I’d pulled out of a
blood–soaked battlefield, nursed back to life, and raised as my own Omega.
Now, Chloe kneeling in the dirt, voice shrill and shaking with terror.
“Alpha! Don’t listen to Amos! I heard him this morning–heard him plotting with Luna to overthrow you… to crown a new Alpha!”
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The world tilted sideways.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. My ears rang, drowning out everything except Raymond’s cold, final command:
“Beat him to death.”
The sound of bone cracking under heavy clubs thudded through the clearing. Amos- our healer, our protector–reduced to nothing more than bloodied, broken flesh on the frozen ground.
Chloe, rewarded for her betrayal, strutted forward and took me by the arm, dragging me toward the altar with dutiful reverence.
When no one was close enough to hear, she leaned in and whispered, her tone almost apologetic:
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“Sorry, Luna. But I bet everything on you dying tonight.”
My hollow gaze met hers, a silent question forming on my cracked lips:
Aren’t you afraid of the Moon Goddess’s wrath?
Chloe lowered her eyes, adjusting the ceremonial white robes over my shaking body.
She answered with a strange, feverish calm.
“My dear Luna, you’re joking, right? You’ve bled for this Alpha, been burned, cut, and broken–and tell me, has the Moon Goddess ever struck anyone down for what they’ve done to you?”
Her expression hardened, fanatical light
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blazing in her eyes.
“I don’t want to hurt you… but your death is necessary. With you gone, Charlotte’s pup will be the only heir–the true child of destiny. Once he’s born, Shadowmoon Pack will rise to become the greatest force in the North.”
I didn’t argue.
I didn’t scream.
I just looked down at Charlotte–standing below the altar steps, smugly leaning into Raymond’s side, her hands stroking her swollen belly, smiling like she’d already won everything.
And then… I smiled too.
The Lead Warrior approached Raymond. “Alpha, do we begin?”
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For a long moment, Raymond said nothing.
It wasn’t until Charlotte let out a breathy, staged whimper, clutching her stomach, murmuring about how her legs couldn’t hold her anymore, that Raymond finally snapped his hand downward in a hard gesture.
“Begin, he barked.
Then, louder for the entire pack to hear.
“After this ritual… no one will ever speak Amos’s name again. And my Luna-” his jaw tightened, voice sharp as a blade, “-will always remain my Luna. No one will ever take her place.”
But before he could finish…
His words faltered.
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The entire pack turned their gaze skyward, gasping.
In Raymond’s suddenly constricted pupils, fiery streaks burned across the night sky- several blazing meteors hurtling downward, their molten tails ripping through the darkness as they screamed toward the earth.
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