Lily's POV
The stone was cold.
Everything was cold. The floor. The walls. The air itself. Lily had been locked in this room for three days and the cold had seeped into her bones until she thought she might never be warm again.
Elder Maris came every morning.
The elder would stand in the doorway with two warriors flanking her and ask the same questions over and over and over.
"Where did you learn the dark magic?"
"I don't know magic."
"Who taught you the binding spell?"
"No one taught me anything."
"How long have you planned to ensnare the Alphas?"
"I didn't plan anything."
Round and round. The same questions in different orders like if Maris asked them enough times, Lily would suddenly confess to something she didn't do. Like the truth would change if she just said it wrong enough times.
Lily's voice was getting hoarse.
On the second day, Maris brought witnesses.
Marcus was first. He stood in the doorway looking nervous, like he didn't want to be there. But his voice was steady when he spoke.
"I saw her. In the forest. Midnight. Drawing symbols on the ground. Dark symbols. She was... chanting something."
Lily's head snapped up. "That's a lie. I've never been in the forest at midnight. I've never drawn anything. I don't even know what dark magic looks like."
"You calling a ranked warrior a liar?" Maris's voice was ice.
"I'm calling him wrong."
"An omega calling a warrior wrong?" Maris smiled like this was funny. "How brave. How delusional."
Then Sera came.
Sera worked at the market. Lily had seen her before. They had never spoken. But Sera stood in that doorway and swore that Lily had tried to buy forbidden herbs from her. Dark herbs. Magic herbs. Stuff that would be used in binding spells.
"She offered me silver," Sera said. "Wanted me not to tell anyone."
Lily stood up. "That's not true. I've never bought anything from you. I've never even talked to you."
"Sit down," one of the warriors said, and there was something in his voice that made it clear what would happen if Lily didn't obey.
She sat.
By the third day, there were five witnesses.
All of them claiming to have seen something. All of them swearing to things that never happened. All of them looking at Lily with a mixture of fear and something that looked like satisfaction. Like they had been paid to lie and they were enjoying it.
No one would believe an omega.
Lily realized it around midnight on the third day. She was lying on the cold stone floor, trying to sleep, and the thought just appeared in her head like it had been waiting there the whole time.
No one would believe her.
It didn't matter if she was innocent. It didn't matter if the witnesses were lying. It didn't matter if Maris was fabricating evidence. Because Lily was omega and they were ranked and in Shadowridge, rank meant truth.
She felt something break inside her chest. Not the bonds. Those were still there, still throbbing, still bleeding. But something else. Hope, maybe. Faith that the system would work. That justice meant something.
Then Vivienne came.
The door opened on the fourth day and Vivienne walked in like she owned the place. Beautiful. Cruel. Smiling like she had already won.
"Hello, abomination," Vivienne said.
Lily tried to stand but her legs wouldn't cooperate. Three days of minimal food. Three days of fear. Three days of listening to lies being spoken as truth. Her body was giving up.
Vivienne sat down on the edge of Lily's thin blanket like she was visiting a friend.
"Everyone knows what you are," Vivienne said quietly. "Pathetic little omega who trapped two Alphas with dark magic because you could never have gotten them any other way."
"I didn't—"
"Shh." Vivienne held up one finger. "Don't interrupt. When they prove you corrupted the bonds, you will be executed. It will be quick. Merciful, really. Better than what you deserve."
Lily's mouth was dry.
"Kael will never choose you," Vivienne continued. Her voice was soft. Conversational. Like they were friends gossiping. "You know that, right? He rejected you. He will keep rejecting you. You are an embarrassment he is forced to tolerate because the Moon Goddess made a mistake."
The words landed like punches because part of Lily believed them. Part of Lily had been believing them for three days.
"Lysander is an exile," Vivienne said. "A traitor to the pack. He will never be allowed to claim you properly. You will never be a real Luna. You will never be anything except a cautionary tale about what happens when an omega thinks she is special."
Lily felt tears on her cheeks. When had she started crying?
"And the best part?" Vivienne smiled. "After you are dead, everyone will forget about you. The bonds will scar them both but they will move on. They will find other mates. Other Lunas. Better ones. And you will be a ghost. A story told to warn other omegas not to get ideas above their station."
Then Vivienne stood and walked to the door.
"The trial is in three days," she said. "You will stand before the pack. The witnesses will speak. The evidence will be presented. And everyone will agree that you deserved to die."
She left.
Lily curled on the floor and felt both bonds.
Kael's was still shredded and bleeding. She could feel his anguish through it. His guilt. But also his resignation. He had made his choice. He was living with it. He was not coming to save her.
Lysander's was whole and bright and desperate. She could feel him pacing. Fighting. Trying to figure out how to get to her. Trying to breach the pack boundaries. The bond pulled at her like a rope. Come north. Run. Save yourself.
She closed her eyes and made a decision.
If she stayed, they would kill her. The trial was rigged. The witnesses were paid liars. The evidence was fabricated. No omega had ever won against the council. No one ranked below Beta had ever challenged the system and come out alive.
She had to run.
The thought should have terrified her. Running meant exile. It meant being hunted. It meant abandoning the only home she had ever known. But staying meant death. Meant being executed while the entire pack watched. Meant proving that Vivienne was right. That she was nothing.
Lily pulled herself up off the floor.
Her legs shook. Her body ached from three days of lying on stone. But she walked to the window and looked out at the guards posted outside.
Two of them. Both strong. Both loyal. But they were also trained to guard against escape from outside the room. Not from inside it.
Not from a girl who had nothing left to lose.
The door suddenly opened.
Lily's heart jumped but it was just the guard bringing her dinner. Watered down broth and hard bread. She took it without looking at him. Without acknowledging him. Just took it like she was broken. Like she was giving up.
The guard left.
And that night, while the pack slept, Lily heard a sound at her window.
A whistle. Low and careful. A pattern that repeated. Once. Twice. Three times.
She went to the window. She could not see anything in the darkness but she could feel it. A presence. A familiar one. Connected to her through a bond that was whole and bright and desperately, desperately determined.
Lysander.
He was here. Outside the pack territory where he was forbidden to be. Outside the boundaries that had exiled him five years ago. Breaking the law. Risking everything.
For her.
Another whistle. The pattern changed. A question.
Lily pressed her hand against the cold glass and made her choice.
She would run.
She would break the laws. She would become an exile. She would abandon the pack that had raised her. She would do it all because staying meant death and running meant survival and for the first time in her life, she was going to choose survival.
Her hand moved to the window latch.
But before she could open it, before she could climb out and jump down to where Lysander was waiting, a new sound cut through the night air.
Howls.
Shadowridge warriors mobilizing. Alarm bells ringing. The sound of an entire pack going to war.
Something was happening.
Something had changed.
And in that moment, suspended between the window and the choice she was about to make, Lily realized that her problems were about to get a whole lot worse.
Because the pack had just gone to war.
And she was trapped in the middle of it.