There has always been a saying that the moon wept on the night Lauren Mildred was born.
Not because she was born, but because her mother died.
She entered the world crying during an eclipse, blood on the floor, and silence in her father's eyes. He didn't even look at her. He ignored her. They called it a sign, a curse, a doom. A Luna born without an Alpha's mark.
From the moment she could crawl, she knew she was unwanted. She felt the intense hatred they held for her.
The Moon Crest Pack didn't hide it. They whispered when she was near, spat at her feet, and reminded her she was the reason the pack lost its Luna. She grew up in a home where her name tasted like poison on everyone's tongue.
But still, she loved.
Still, she obeyed.
Still, she believed.
Even when they said she was unfit to lead. Even when the council took away her birthright and gave the Alpha title to someone else. Even when they turned the pack over to Damien.
Her fated mate.
The boy she once thought would love her through the storms.
Damien didn't just take the crown.
He crushed her under it.
"You're not an Alpha," they said. "You don't even have an Alpha wolf. You're just a Luna. You were never meant to lead."
So Damien rose. And Lauren watched.
She watched as the boy who once kissed her beneath the night sky became the monster who called her weak.
He didn't reject her quietly. No, that would have been mercy.
He did it in front of the entire pack, on the sacred stone where the Moon Crest leaders were crowned. She stood in a white ceremonial dress, confused, trembling. He made sure they were all there to witness her ruin.
"I reject you, Lauren Mildred," he said, voice cold and cruel. "You are not worthy of me."
The words struck her harder than claws ever could. But it didn't stop there.
"She is a traitor," he announced. "She gave classified territory maps to Alpha Michael. She sold out our warriors for pleasure and power. She slept with the Ice Mountain scum while our men died."
The gasps were deafening.
The lies were deadly.
Because Lauren hadn't betrayed anyone.
But Damien had.
With her cousin, Aurora—the same sweet-faced viper who helped him plan the entire takedown. The betrayal had layers, and every one of them cut her deeper.
The punishment was instant.
Death.
Declared by the council, led by Damien's father, sealed by the pack's laws.
But Damien spared her—not out of kindness, but out of cruelty. He wanted her to suffer. Exile, not execution. Disgrace, not martyrdom.
"Strip her of her title. Strip her of her name. Let her rot as the rogue she is."
Her wolf shattered that day.
Gone. Silent.
The part of her that was born to lead, to love, to fight—it disappeared as if her soul knew it had no place left in this world.
She wandered for days, maybe weeks. No food. No sense of direction. Just rage building up under her already numb skin. Her feet were bleeding on the ground, but she kept walking. Maybe hoping death would find her where the pack hadn't.
Death didn't.
What found her instead was a man cloaked in black, flanked by shadows.
Alpha Michael.
The one Damien had accused her of sleeping with.
He found her collapsed near the border between territories, barely conscious and half-starved.
"She's mine now," he said to the guards who dared threaten her. "You cast her out. That makes her free property."
"She's a betrayer!" one of them shouted.
"She's a whore!" Damien's voice came from the back—he had followed.
Michael didn't even glance at him. He just bent down, took Lauren's wrist, and pulled her to her feet.
"You no longer own her," he said flatly. "And you don't get to insult what you discarded."
Then he walked away with her in his arms.
Damien didn't dare stop him.
No one did.
But Michael wasn't her hero.
He didn't bring her food in bed or whisper sweet words to her. He didn't kiss her wounds or tell her she was precious.
Instead, he gave her a room.
To stay alone.
Her wounds were bleeding, and her limbs were sore.
He locked the door.
And said coldly, "You have a maximum of 2 months to either get strong or stay broken. I didn't save you to play nanny, Lauren. We both have our reasons to destroy Moon Crest. But I don't carry dead weight."
For the first time in her life, something inside her didn't shatter—it screamed.
A scream that wasn't human.
Not the broken cry of a lost girl.
But a sound full of teeth and fire and something ancient clawing its way through her shattered spirit.
She wasn't empty anymore.
She was awakening.
And the new wolf rising inside her?
Wasn't just a Luna.
It was something far more powerful.
More dangerous.
Something the old world buried.
Something the new world should fear.
Because if they thought the curse broke her?
They were about to meet the consequence of survival.