The Luna They Tried To Erase

For twelve years, I was the shame of the Silver Moon Pack. A Luna who never shifted, a barren wife who couldn't give Alpha Ivan an heir. I thought my body was broken. But on my thirtieth birthday, I learned I wasn't sick. I was being murdered. Tracking Ivan to a downtown gallery, I expected to catch him in a lie about work. Instead, I saw him playing father to a child that wasn't mine, while his mistress looked on with a smirk. Then, I heard my own father’s voice booming through the thin glass. "If that White Wolf blood of hers ever woke up, she'd destroy us all. Better she dies a sickly Omega." My husband, my Fated Mate, didn't defend me. He just checked his watch. "She smells of death already. The Wolfsbane in her tea will finish her off during the fireworks tonight. Then we can finally replace the mule." My knees hit the floor. For five years, the "medicine" they forced down my throat wasn't a cure. It was poison designed to suppress my Supreme rank. They didn't hate me because I was weak; they were killing me because I was stronger than all of them combined. I drove back to the mansion, my sadness hardening into cold rage. I poured the lethal tea down the sink and picked up the microphone for the Pack Gathering. They were expecting a funeral tonight. I was about to give them a public execution. Chapter 1 Aliana POV: *Thirty. That was the number of cracks in the plaster above the bed. It was also the age I turned today.* In our world, the first Shift *usually hits like a freight train* at eighteen. The pain of bones breaking and rearranging is supposed to be a rite of passage, a welcome into adulthood. But for me, that day came and went with nothing but a *low-grade* fever. Twelve years later, I was still just Aliana. The Wolf-less Luna. The embarrassment of the Silver Moon Pack. The heavy oak door creaked open. I sat up, pulling the silk sheets against my chest. Alpha Ivan walked in. He was already dressed in his charcoal suit, *looking like a million dollars and smelling like trouble.* He was my Fated Mate. The Moon Goddess had decreed it. But without my wolf, the bond felt one-sided. *Like shouting into a canyon and waiting for an echo that never comes.* "Happy birthday, Aliana," he said. *Tone flat. Professional.* He leaned down to kiss my cheek. I closed my eyes, desperate for the spark, the electric current that books said mates shared. Instead, I felt nothing but *damp skin.* And then, it hit me. The Scent. Usually, Ivan smelled of crisp pine and rain. But today, beneath the expensive cologne, there was something else. *Peaches. Rotting in the heat.* "You're leaving?" I asked, my voice small. "I thought... I thought we might go to the Moon Stone today. To pray for my wolf?" Ivan straightened his tie in the mirror, not looking at me. "Pack business, Aliana. The border negotiations with the Northern packs are intense. I can't hold their hands and pray to a silent Goddess." He turned, his eyes sweeping over me *with the kind of look you give a dog that needs to be put down.* "Maybe if you focused less on fairy tales and more on your duties as a hostess, the Pack wouldn't be so restless." "I do my best, Ivan," I whispered. "Your best isn't an heir, is it?" he shot back. He checked his watch. "I'll be late tonight. Don't wait up." He walked out. The door clicked shut, leaving me in the silence of the massive, empty house. My stomach churned. *It wasn't just heartbreak. It was physical. For years, I'd been waking up dry-heaving, my joints aching like I was eighty instead of thirty.* The Pack doctors said it was my body rejecting my dormant wolf. I dragged myself out of bed. I needed coffee. I needed to feel like a person. As I drove into town, my phone buzzed. It was Debi, my lawyer and the only friend I had left who didn't look at me like a charity case. "Happy Birthday, Ali," her voice crackled over the car's Bluetooth. "Thanks, Debi." "Let me guess. The Alpha is 'working'?" "Border negotiations," I said, gripping the steering wheel. "*Bullshit,*" Debi said. "*I was at the courthouse filing permits this morning. The Northern delegates aren't even in the state until next week. Ivan isn't at the border.*" "What are you saying?" "I'm saying you should go to his office. Surprise him." I hung up, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I drove to the Hughes Corporation tower. *The security guards barely glanced at me. Why would they? I was the invisible wife.* When I reached the top floor, Ivan's secretary, a Beta female named Sarah, turned pale. "Luna Aliana! We... we weren't expecting you." "Where is my husband, Sarah?" I asked. "He's... he's in a meeting. Off-site. Very private." Her eyes darted to the side. *I caught the distinctive glaze over her eyes-she was Mind-Linking.* *The Luna is here. She knows.* I saw a sticky note on her desk, half-covered by a file. *Reese Gallery - 10 AM.* Reese. The name sent a shiver down my spine. Kiera Reese. The Rogue who had tried to kill me five years ago. My parents swore she had been exiled to the Wastelands. I turned on my heel and ran back to the elevator. The Reese Gallery was in the arts district. I parked down the street, my hands shaking. That's when I saw it. A black armored SUV with the crest of the Blood River Pack. My father's car. I got out, pulling my hood up. I crept toward the gallery's massive glass front. The gallery was closed. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I saw them. Ivan. My father. My mother, Luna Eleanor. And Kiera. She looked radiant. *She didn't look like an exiled Rogue; she looked like she owned the place.* But it was what was happening in the center of the room that stopped my heart. A little boy, maybe five years old, was running around a sculpture. He had Ivan's dark hair. Ivan crouched down, opening his arms. The boy ran into them, giggling. "Up! Up, Alpha Daddy!" the boy squealed. Ivan lifted him effortlessly. The look on Ivan's face... it was pure adoration. I pressed closer to the glass. *Adrenaline spiked through me, sharpening my senses in a way I hadn't felt in years.* "He's strong, Ivan," my father's voice boomed. "A true Alpha heir." "He has your eyes, Richard," Kiera purred, linking her arm through Ivan's. "And Ivan's strength." "When will you announce it?" my mother asked, sipping champagne. "We can't keep pretending Aliana is useful for much longer. The Pack needs a future." Ivan laughed. It was a cold, cruel sound. "Tonight. After her pathetic little birthday dinner. I'll tell the elders that my sperm count is low, a tragic side effect of stress. We'll 'adopt' Leo. No one needs to know he's Kiera's." "And the girl?" Kiera asked. "She smells of death already. That Wolfsbane cocktail you've been feeding her is working slow, though." "Patience, my love," Ivan murmured. "Five years of suppression," my father grunted. "If that White Wolf blood of hers ever woke up, she'd destroy us all. Better she dies a sickly Omega than lives to take my territory." My knees gave out. I slid down the rough brick of the pillar. *They weren't just cheating. They were murdering me by inches.* Wolfsbane. The deadliest herb to our kind. They had been feeding it to me for five years. I looked at my phone. A text message from Ivan popped up. *My dear, Pack business is dragging on. I'm so sorry. I'll make it up to you tonight. Happy Birthday.* I looked through the glass. Ivan was kissing Kiera. Something inside me snapped. *It felt like a rusty lock breaking deep in my gut.* *Kill them.* The voice was ancient. Angry. I scrambled back to my car. I drove. As the gallery faded in the rearview mirror, my eyes caught my reflection. For a split second, my irises weren't their usual hazel. They were white. Pure, terrifying white.