The Rejected Luna's Secret Triplets & The Lycan Emperor

The thunderous chimes of the ceremonial bells echoed through the stone corridors, vibrating straight through the soles of Evelyn's boots. Her mind was a chaotic blur, running on pure instinct as she raced toward the main pack house. The betrayal from Connor's letter felt like a gaping wound in her chest, but a smaller, stubborn part of her refused to accept it until she heard the truth directly from his lips.

When she swung open the doors to the central wing, the air inside was suffocatingly thick. It didn't smell like a celebration. There were no flower garlands or joyful scents of wine. Instead, the distinct, sharp stench of panic and copper filled the hallway.

Instead of a wedding procession, a crowd of high-ranking Elders stood clustered around the entrance to the medical sanctuary. Their voices were low, furious rumbles.

"Step aside!" a guard barked, his arm extending to block Evelyn as she tried to squeeze past.

"I am the pack healer," Evelyn said, her voice shaking slightly, though she forced her posture straight. "Let me through."

The guard glanced at her silver ring-the one still clinging to her trembling finger and hesitated just long enough for her to duck beneath his arm.

She burst into the sunlit infirmary, but the sight waiting for her made her blood run instantly cold.

On the central cot, sprawled among white silk sheets, was Sienna. Evelyn's half-sister the fragile girl Evelyn had rescued from the rogue borderlands three years ago-was writhing in pain. Her skin was deathly pale, slick with cold sweat, and dark purple veins bulged along her neck. She whimpered, her body shuddering with violent tremors as if her very nerve endings were on fire.

And standing over her, holding her trembling shoulders with white-knuckled intensity, was Connor.

He wasn't wearing his ceremonial Alpha robes. His leather tunic was unbuttoned at the collar, his dark hair disheveled, and his eyes burned with a raw, terrifying panic.

"Connor..." The name barely escaped Evelyn's throat.

At the sound of her voice, Sienna gasped, violently flinching as if she had been struck. She buried her tear-streaked face against Connor's chest, her small hands clutching tightly to his shirtsleeves.

"Don't let her near me!" Sienna sobbed, her voice high and raspy, suffocated by hyperventilation. "Please, Connor! Keep her away from me! She-she gave it to me!"

Connor's head snapped toward the doorway. The warmth, the fierce devotion, and the desperate love that had filled his amber eyes on Moonlit Ridge hours ago were completely gone. In their place was a wall of arctic frost.

"Evelyn," Connor growled, the Alpha aura rolling off him in heavy, suffocating waves that forced the lesser wolves in the room to bow their heads. "What did you do?"

"I haven't done anything!" Evelyn took a step forward, her eyes darting between Connor and her half-sister. "I just arrived. Sienna, what are you talking about? I haven't seen you since yesterday afternoon!"

"You're lying!" Sienna cried out, her chest heaving as a streak of blackish blood trickled from the corner of her lip. "You brought me that lavender tea last night! You said... you said it would help calm my nerves for the ceremony. You said you wanted us to be close again!"

"I didn't bring you any tea," Evelyn said, her voice dropping into a desperate whisper. She looked at the Elders standing around the room, then back to the man who had held her beneath the stars only hours before. "Connor, you know I was at the apothecary all night. I was preparing the salves. Then I was with-"

She stopped herself, the words catching in her throat. She couldn't say it. Not in front of the Elders. Not when his letter explicitly warned her to stay away.

"She's convulsing because of Night-Shade extract," an Elder named Vance interjected, stepping forward with his arms folded over his chest. His harsh eyes locked onto Evelyn. "It's an ancient, odorless toxin. It paralyzes a wolf's internal mana pathways and slowly rots their spirit from the inside out. Only an experienced apothecary knows how to refine it."

"I know what Night-Shade is," Evelyn said, her hands balling into tight fists. "And I don't possess any. It's forbidden by pack law! I would never harm Sienna. I saved her life!"

"Did you?" Sienna's personal guard, a tall male named Marcus with a scar across his jaw, stepped out from the shadows near the medicine cabinets. He held a small, velvet-lined wooden box in his hands-Evelyn's private medicine chest, the one she kept locked in her quarters.

"What are you doing with my things?" Evelyn demanded, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.

"When Lady Sienna began choking on her blood an hour ago, I took the liberty of searching the healer's quarters for an antidote," Marcus said, his voice smooth and devoid of emotion. He reached into his coat pocket and produced a tiny, glass vial filled with a thick, viscous black liquid. "I found this hidden beneath the false bottom of her silver apothecary kit."

The room went dead silent.

Evelyn stared at the vial in horror. "That isn't mine. I've never seen that before in my life!"

"It bears your apothecary seal on the stopper, Evelyn," Elder Vance said coldly, taking the vial from Marcus and holding it up to the morning light. "And the wax matches the batch you poured three days ago."

"Someone planted it!" Evelyn shouted, stepping toward Connor, her eyes begging him to look at her, to see the truth. "Connor, look at me! You know me. You know my heart. I have dedicated my entire life to healing this pack. Why would I poison my own sister?"

Sienna let out a fresh burst of agonizing sobs, clinging tighter to Connor's neck. "Because she hated me!" Sienna wept, her voice ringing clear through the quiet room. "She found out that the Council offered me as a secondary consort to the Crimson-Fang Alpha to secure the treaty if the wedding failed! She thought... she thought I was trying to steal her place!"

"That's a lie!" Evelyn's voice cracked. She reached out, her fingers almost touching Connor's arm. "Connor, please. Speak to me."

Connor slowly stood up, pushing Sienna gently back onto the pillows. As he turned to face Evelyn, his expression was a mask of cold, unyielding granite. The heavy weight of his Alpha presence hit her like a physical blow, forcing her back a step.

He didn't ask for her side of the story. He didn't demand an investigation. He simply stared at her with a look of profound, sickening disgust-as if the woman standing before him was a stranger he regretted ever touching.

"You were bitter," Connor said, his voice flat, devoid of any warmth. "I thought you were quiet. I thought you had dignity. But you couldn't bear the thought of losing what you thought was yours."

"Connor, no-"

"Silence!" he roared, the sheer force of his voice rattling the glass bottles on the shelves.

He reached out and grabbed Evelyn's left hand. His grip was so tight the bones in her wrist groaned under the pressure. With a harsh, brutal jerk, he ripped the heavy silver band off her finger, tearing the skin at her knuckle.

Evelyn gasped, tears finally spilling over her eyelashes as a drop of blood trickled down her hand.

Connor held the Ring of the First Luna up between them for a fleeting second, his eyes burning with a dark, bitter rage. Then, without a moment's hesitation, he tossed the ancient heirloom onto the cold stone floor. The silver band bounced twice, ringing sharply against the quiet room before rolling into the dust at Elder Vance's feet.

"I gave you my heart," Connor whispered, his voice laced with a lethal, unforgiving ice that cut deeper than any blade. "And you tried to murder my bloodline."

He turned his back on her, kneeling beside the cot to take Sienna's shaking hand once more.

"Take her to the damp dungeons," Connor ordered the guards, not even bothering to look at Evelyn as she stood frozen in place. "Strip her of her apothecary title. If Sienna's wolf dies today, Evelyn hangs at sunset."