Episode 10

I was accustomed to muddying my feet, and that included staining my hands with blood as well. As I walked, I could see the smaller wolves shrink in fear—certainly, the explosions had not been anticipated. In one moment, the Southern tribe sealed its borders readying an attack, and in the next we found ourselves the ones under siege, the game appeared to be turning.

Following the meeting with the allied Alphas and the reaction from Cassandra's father, I realized Zedekiah needed solitude, offering me the chance to head towards the medical tent.

"Add this to the Alpha's tea; he needs to sleep," I instructed, passing the vial I had kept concealed in my garment to an Omega who quickly turned and disappeared inside the tent with the flask in hand.

•4 years ago.•

"Sapphire, get that thought out of your head," my mother hollered, her lungs at full capacity as I ascended the stairs after a gruelling day at the training field.

My father had once been second in command alongside Alpha Vasile, but his ambition and greed had been his downfall, ultimately leading to a death sentence.

"What thought?" I asked, pausing at the top of the stairs with an innocent smile playing on my lips.

"You think I don't see it? The way you flirt with Alpha Vasile's son... The boy's already pledged, and there's no chance for you to become the next Luna," my mother stated, her arms crossed as she laid bare hard truths.

"Pledged to a girl of what? Twelve or thirteen years? She lacks the mettle to be Luna, and without a doubt, I would serve better," I retorted, tossing my hair back as I vanished into the corridor toward my room, where a cold shower awaited me.

Only through the kindness of Luna Lydia, who had watched me grow, did my mother and I escape the same fate as my father, but they didn't understand the damage they'd done by forcing a child to witness her father's execution for treachery in front of the entire pack.

The family that sentenced my father should have considered the impact on a ten-year-old child at that time. I set upon a single path, determined to do whatever was in my power to become the Luna of this tribe.

•Present day.•

A small brook flowed near the makeshift camp, the very same where I'd seen my mother for the last time before making her drink an orange juice—which, of course, turned out to be her final glass.

"Feeling nostalgic?" Zedekiah's voice pulled me from the memory, and a smile automatically blossomed on my lips.

"I was just remembering my mother and wondering how she'd react to see me as your fiance," I beamed, growing more smiley as Zed wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my right shoulder.

"You know, I never understood why mix poison in the orange juice?" he finally commented, at which I furrowed my brows. For everything else, we wore a mask—I played the good girl who never hurt a soul, and he the responsible son striving to prioritize the pack, yet inwardly wanting to escape an arranged marriage.

"My mother always knew the kind of daughter she had, and what I was capable of... She drank the juice because she wanted to," I silenced myself then, as the breeze carried a strange scent, signalling we weren't alone. When the crackling of twigs resounded, my wolf was ready to fight.

"Relax, my guests have arrived," Zed whispered into my ear, releasing me to walk toward the riverbank where two men appeared. They were tall, muscular, with brown eyes—the Costa brothers.

"Here's the picture of the wolf, the target is his offspring. I don't care where you take him, as long as you dispose of him on the outskirts of the Northern tribe," Zed pulled out a photo and handed it over to the brothers, at that moment I realized he was moving forward with his plan to punish Lucian. This cast my mind back to an elderly she-wolf I met on my seventeenth birthday.

"If you continue down this path, there will be no happiness, only bitterness and a deep-seated wish to die every day," the old woman had said to me, and just as swiftly as she had appeared, she vanished.

For a few minutes, my conscience flared, protesting that what we were doing was wrong. Zed was supposed to marry Cassandra, and I should have been a supportive friend to the future Luna. Indeed, there was still some shred of humanity within me, even when I accidentally bumped into Cassandra at the Moonlight Festival as a thirteen-year-old with an innocent and angelic smile, I felt sorry for what she'd suffer at his hands. I always knew Zed harbored a dark side, in the end, Cassandra might even thank me.

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