The stone floor was cold beneath Selene's knees. It always was. Five years, and she'd never gotten used to the chill that seeped through her worn dress, settling into her bones like a permanent frost.
Scrub. Rinse. Repeat.
Her hands moved mechanically, the brush worn smooth from years of use. Blood stained the floor of the training hall... not hers, for once, and she was expected to have it spotless before dawn. Before Alpha Darius woke. Before anyone had to be reminded that the "Cursed Luna" still existed within their walls.
As she worked, memories crept in. They always did in the quiet hours before sunrise, when the pack slept and she was alone with her thoughts and her failures.
Silvercrest.
The name alone sent a dull ache through her chest.
She'd been happy there once. Actually happy. The Northern Mountains of Vaelthorn had been her home, a place where the snow never melted and the moon hung so close you felt you could touch it. The Silvercrest Pack had taken her in as an infant, an orphan with no past, no family. Alpha Ronan had claimed her mother was a close friend, that he owed her memory a debt.
For twelve years, she'd believed she belonged.
She'd trained alongside the other pups, learned to hunt and track, listened to the elders' stories about the great Lycan kingdoms of old. Her foster siblings had played with her in the frost-covered pines. Ronan had ruffled her hair and called her "little moon." She actually had a happy life.
Then came her thirteenth year. The Coming of Age ceremony.
Every wolf was supposed to shift for the first time under the full moon, to meet their wolf and claim their place in the pack. Selene had stood in the sacred circle with the other young wolves, heart racing with excitement as the moon rose high and full above the mountains.
The others had shifted. One by one, they'd transformed... bones cracking, fur sprouting, wolves emerging in shades of silver and gray and black. The air had filled with howls of joy and triumph.
Selene had felt... nothing.
She'd closed her eyes, reached deep inside herself for the wolf that was supposed to be there. Begged the Moon Goddess for her blessing.
Nothing.
The silence had been deafening. When she'd opened her eyes, everyone was staring. The newly shifted wolves. The pack elders. Ronan.
"Where's your wolf?"
"Why isn't she shifting?"
"Something's wrong with her."
The whispers had started that night and never stopped.
Cursed. Wolfless. Worthless.
Within weeks, everything changed. Her foster siblings avoided her. The pack mothers pulled their children away when she passed. Ronan stopped looking at her entirely, his warmth replaced by cold indifference.
She'd tried everything... meditation, rituals, prayers to the Moon Goddess. She'd trained harder, pushed herself to exhaustion, thinking maybe if she proved herself worthy, her wolf would come.
It never did.
By her eighteenth year, Ronan had made his decision. She couldn't stay in Silvercrest... a wolfless female was a liability, a bad omen. But he couldn't simply cast her out; it would raise questions about his honor.
So he'd arranged a "mating" with another pack.
She remembered the day she'd been told. Ronan's cold eyes as he'd explained she was being sent to the Bloodfang Pack in the Blackwood Vale. Alpha Darius Bloodfang had agreed to take her as part of a trade agreement.
*"You should be grateful,"* Ronan had said. *"This is more than you deserve."*
She'd been led away, watching her home disappear into the mountain mists, not understanding that she'd never been wanted. That she'd been a burden Ronan had finally found a way to shed.
Then came Bloodfang.
Selene's hands stilled on the brush, the memory of her arrival sharp as broken glass.
The Blackwood Vale was nothing like the mountains. The forests were thick and dark, perpetually shrouded in red mist. The rivers ran iron-rich, staining the rocks rust-colored. The Bloodfang Pack was brutal, militant, obsessed with dominance and strength.
And Darius...
She'd felt it the moment she'd seen him. The mate bond, snapping into place like a chain around her soul. Fate itself declaring that this powerful, handsome Alpha was meant to be hers.
For one beautiful, stupid moment, she'd felt hope. The Moon Goddess hadn't forgotten her. She had a mate. Everything would be alright.
Then Darius had looked at her, and his expression had curdled with disgust.
"You're wolfless."
It wasn't a question. It was an accusation.
The pack had gathered for the formal greeting. Darius had stood before them all, tall and regal, every inch the powerful Alpha. And he'd rejected her.
"I, Darius Bloodfang, Alpha of the Bloodfang Pack, reject you, Selene of Silvercrest, as my mate and Luna."
The words had torn through her like claws. The mate bond, barely formed, had shredded. She'd collapsed, gasping, feeling like her chest had been carved open.
But Darius hadn't killed her. That would have been mercy.
Instead, he'd declared he would keep her as an act of "mercy," a demonstration of his magnanimous nature. She would serve the pack. Earn her keep. Perhaps one day prove herself worthy of basic respect.
Five years.
Five years of being the pack's slave. The Cursed Luna. A cautionary tale about what happened to the weak.
Beta Kira, who'd always wanted Darius, had led the torment with vicious creativity. The beatings, the starvation, the humiliations designed to break her spirit piece by piece.
Selene had endured. She'd survived.
Some small, stubborn part of her refused to give up entirely. She'd stolen scraps of food when she could. Found moments of peace in the forest when they sent her to gather herbs. Held onto memories of starlight and stories and the feeling of being loved, even if it had been a lie.
And in her darkest moments, she'd fantasized. That maybe, somehow, Darius would see her differently. That her wolf would miraculously appear someday. That she'd prove everyone wrong.
But those were just pathetic dreams of a broken girl.
Selene dipped her brush in the bucket, watching pink-tinged water swirl. The blood was almost gone now. She'd be done soon, could steal a few hours of sleep before the pack woke and found new ways to remind her of her place.
Then again, three days ago, everything had changed.
Darius had gathered the pack and made an announcement: his brother and leader of the Nightfall pack, Lucian Nightfall, was coming to visit.
Alpha Lucian hadn't set foot in Bloodfang territory in over ten years. The brothers were estranged.. everyone knew it, but Lucian had sent word he wished to reconnect, to spend time with his only family.
Darius had agreed, though Selene had seen the tension in his jaw, the way his hands had clenched.
The pack had erupted into preparation mode. Everything had to be perfect. Bloodfang's reputation for strength and prosperity had to shine. Darius's success as Alpha had to be undeniable.
And Selene had been given an endless list of tasks.
Clean the guest wing. Prepare the feast hall. Polish the silverware. Arrange flowers. Scrub every floor until it gleamed. Cook, serve, and remain invisible.
"Don't you DARE embarrass us in front of Alpha Lucian," Kira had snarled, punctuating her words with a vicious slap. "If you make one mistake, I'll make you wish you'd never been born."
As if Selene didn't already wish that every single day.
For three days, she'd worked herself to exhaustion. Her hands were raw, her body ached, and she hadn't eaten more than scraps. But the packhouse was immaculate now. The feast was prepared. Everything was ready.
Alpha Lucian Nightfall would arrive today.
Selene didn't know why her stomach twisted with something that wasn't quite dread. She'd heard whispers about him... that Lucian was nothing like Darius. He was noble. Honorable. And bound by the old oaths rather than brutality.
But all that didn't matter. He was just another Alpha. Another wolf who would look through her like she didn't exist.
She wrung out her brush and stood, her knees cracking. The training hall floor gleamed. Dawn was breaking outside, painting the sky in shades of amber and rose.
The pack would wake soon. Darius would inspect her work with critical eyes. Kira would find something to punish her for.
And Alpha Lucian would arrive, stay for however long brothers who hated each other could tolerate, and then leave.
Her life would continue exactly as it was. Surviving. Enduring. Waiting for nothing.
Selene picked up her bucket and brush, ready to disappear before anyone saw her.
She didn't know that everything was about to change.
That fate... cruel, twisted fate, had one more hand to play in her life.
That by nightfall, the mate bond she'd stopped believing in would snap into place again.
And this time, it would destroy everything.
*********
The Silvercrest Pack had forsaken her.
The Bloodfang Pack had broken her.
The Nightfall Pack would give her hope.
And when that hope was ripped away... She would rise from death itself and burn them all.