Forsaken for a Fake: The True Luna's Revenge

My husband, Alpha Kaeden, once looked at me with adoration. But after he brought Clemmie home, his eyes turned cold, glazed over by the "herbal tea" she fed him. Now, I lay chained to a steel table in the dungeon, the smell of my own burning flesh filling the air. Kaeden stood over me, indifferent to my screams. He ordered the guards to electrocute me through silver cuffs—the poison of our kind—even though he knew I was carrying his pup. But torture wasn't the end goal. I froze when I heard the doctor’s question. "The transplant carries risks, Alpha. Taking a heart from a living donor..." Clemmie didn't just want my husband; she wanted my heart to cure her "sickness" and steal my White Wolf power. I waited for Kaeden to refuse. Instead, he rubbed his temples and delivered my death sentence. "Harvest the heart. Dispose of the rest." "And the fetus?" the doctor asked. "Incinerate it." Those words killed me faster than the silver. I died on the operating table that night, my heart flatlining for three minutes to stage my death. Kaeden thinks I am ash in a jar. He thinks he saved his mistress. But when I opened my eyes in the safe house, they weren't brown anymore. They were glowing silver. Beside me, my daughter slept, alive and radiating ancient power. The weak Luna is dead. The White Wolf has risen. And I am going home to take back my pack. Chapter 1 POV: Daria The air in the dungeon didn't smell like damp earth or rot. It smelled like burning sugar and metallic death. It was the scent of Wolfsbane, the purple flower that could paralyze a werewolf's nerves and strip away our strength. I lay on the cold steel table, gasping for air. My wrists were bound by cuffs that weren't just iron. They were plated with silver. Silver is the bane of our existence. To a human, it is just jewelry. To a werewolf, it is acid. It burns on contact, stopping our supernatural healing cells from knitting our flesh back together. "Please," I whispered. My throat felt like I had swallowed glass. "Kaeden, please." The heavy iron door creaked open. Two figures stepped into the dim light. First came Alpha Kaeden. He was tall, his shoulders broad enough to carry the weight of the entire Moonstone Pack. But his eyes, usually a warm amber that made me feel safe, were glazed over, distant and cold. Behind him stood Clemmie. She wore a white silk dress that looked ridiculous in a torture chamber. She clung to Kaeden's arm, looking at me with wide, fearful eyes. But I saw the smirk twitching at the corner of her lips. "She still denies it?" Kaeden asked, his voice flat, sounding more exhausted than angry. "She's stubborn, my love," Clemmie whispered, her hand tightening on his bicep. "The guards said she was screaming threats against me. Against us." Kaeden rubbed his temples as if fighting a headache. He didn't look at me with rage, but with a chilling indifference. "Secure her," Kaeden muttered to the guard. "If she won't tell the truth about the pregnancy stunt, maybe a night in the silver will sober her up." My jaw snapped shut. My tongue felt like a stone in my mouth. I wanted to scream, to tell him about the baby, but the Command held me paralyzed. "You posted it," Kaeden said, staring at the wall rather than my face. "You posted that you are pregnant on the pack forum. You knew Clemmie cannot conceive. You did it to mock her." "Kaeden, don't be too harsh," Clemmie whimpered, pressing her face into his bicep. "Maybe... maybe Daria just wanted attention. Even if it breaks my heart to see her lie about carrying your pup." She looked up at him, tears shimmering in her eyes. "My heart is so weak, Kaeden. The doctor said stress could kill me." Kaeden flinched. The mention of her heart seemed to trigger something programmed deep in his mind. "I won't let her stress you," Kaeden said mechanically. He nodded to the executioner. "Turn it on. Low voltage. Just enough to keep her quiet." The executioner hesitated. "Alpha, the voltage... if she is pregnant..." "She's lying!" Clemmie shrieked, then covered her mouth, feigning shock. "I mean... she must be. Right, Kaeden?" "Do it," Kaeden ordered, his eyes squeezing shut. The switch was thrown. The table beneath me hummed. Then, agony exploded. It wasn't just electricity. The current ran through the silver cuffs, driving the burning metal essence straight into my bloodstream. My body arched violently against the restraints. My pup! My Inner Wolf, the spirit of the beast that lives within every shifter, woke up screaming. She didn't howl for me. She howled for the tiny spark of life in my womb. Alpha! Save the pup! The pup is dying! my wolf cried out through the Mind-Link. The Mind-Link is the telepathic web that connects every member of the pack. Usually, an Alpha can hear the distress of his pack members. He should have felt my wolf's terror. But Kaeden's mental wall was up. It felt thick, unnatural, like a dam built of fog. "Stop acting!" Clemmie shouted over the crackle of electricity, her voice losing its sweetness. "Clemmie needs a stress-free environment. You are a cancer to this pack, Daria." The current stopped. I slumped back, smoke rising from my wrists. The smell of my own burnt flesh filled the room. Blood. I felt a warm, wet sensation between my legs. "No," I croaked, the Command fading slightly as Kaeden's focus shifted. "My baby..." Clemmie walked closer. She leaned down, pretending to check on me. Her voice was a whisper, too low for Kaeden to hear, but loud enough for my sensitive wolf hearing. "He doesn't want it, Daria," she hissed. "And soon, he won't have you, either." She straightened up and turned to Kaeden. "Alpha, I feel faint. Her aura... it's so toxic." Kaeden scooped her up into his arms as if she were made of glass. He didn't even look at the blood pooling on the metal table. "Let her rot here tonight," Kaeden ordered the guard. "If she survives the silver, we will deal with her tomorrow." They walked out. The heavy door slammed shut. I lay alone in the dark. The silver burns throbbed in rhythm with my failing heart. I tried to summon my healing ability, but the silver suppressed it. My wolf was whimpering, curling into a ball in the back of my mind, fading into silence. As the cold seeped into my bones, I realized the electricity hadn't killed me. But the heartbreak might.