Chapter 123: CHAPTER 123

CHAPTER 123

SIENNA'S POV

~ 3 days to the ancient rites~

The dining hall was not quiet like I expected. Instead the pack members engaged in indifferent conversations and to be honest, I liked it. The aroma of food was making my tummy grumble. But this morning, it wasn’t hunger that made my pulse quicken. It was the way Kieran’s gaze brushed mine from across the room.

He sat at the long head table, tall and breathtaking in his chair, his Alpha presence impossible to ignore. Even while seated, he commanded the room without trying. Around him sat the elders, their expressions a mixture of pride and arrogance .

I sat far from him, at one of the side tables with the lower-ranking members of the pack. The tension at my table was noticeable . No one here bothered to hide their dislike for me. I could feel it in the way their eyes were on me, and in the forced clinks of cutlery against plates. I don't know if my presence bothers them so much

Still, I couldn’t deny a small part of me felt loved and special because Kieran had invited me here today.

Since I have arrived in Darkmoon’s pack, I have never been allowed to join them in these weekly breakfasts. They were meant to be a time of unity, where every rank shared a meal together once a week, but for me, I was not a part of them. When I walked in today beside Kieran, I could already hear the whispers and see the silent shock on their faces, including the elders. I wouldn't lie, it made my day.

I just hope things continue this way. It wasn’t foolish to hope. Not entirely. Maybe I was finally being seen as part of his pack. Maybe, slowly, I was becoming more than just the outsider everyone wanted gone.

I lifted my gaze again and found Kieran still watching me. The corner of his mouth tilted slightly, not quite a smile, but softer than the usual hard lines of his face. My heart skipped a beat and I quickly looked away before anyone would notice.

Until I felt her stare. Eva sat at a table away. She sat elegantly on the chair like a queen, her eyes sharp as blades. If looks could kill, I’d have been sprawled on the cold floor already. I didn’t flinch. Instead, I let a smirk tug at my lips. It was petty, but I couldn’t help it. The flare of her nostrils told me she had seen it. Her fingers tightened around her fork before she forced her attention back to the tray a servant had just set in front of her.

A moment later, another servant approached me. She looked at me with a small smile, her eyes darting nervously as she placed a tray in front of me.

“Here you go, miss,” she said, her voice almost too soft to hear over the hum of the room. “Enjoy your meal.”

I blinked at her. “Oh… thank you.”

It was strange that she had served me before anyone else at my table. Usually, the omegas started with the Alpha’s table and worked their way down. I pushed the thought aside, telling myself not to overthink it. Maybe she was just trying to be nice.

I looked down at my meal and I smiled, it's one of my favorites eggs, a slice of warm bread, and some roasted vegetables. My stomach rumbled in response. I picked up my fork, the tension in my shoulders beginning to ease.

And then

I heard a loud scream. The sound pierced through the room, interrupting all conversations. It was high and sharp enough to make me flinch. Heads turned. I followed the sound just in time to see a woman , a pack member I had seen around but never spoken to, stumble backward from her table. Her plate clattered to the ground. Foam bubbled from her lips as her body convulsed violently. Someone screamed again. Chairs scraped back, people rushing toward her, others pulling away in alarm.

I couldn’t move. My fork froze in midair, my pulse hammering. The woman’s gasps turned into choked, ugly sounds, and I realized she wasn’t breathing right. By the time Kieran was on his feet, she was already on the ground, twitching once again before going eerily still.

The hall erupted into chaos. The hall was so loud. Some younger pack members panicked and others were asking questions. I pushed my plate away, my stomach turning. I didn’t need to taste it to know what had happened. Poison. Someone had poisoned the food.

Before I could fully process it, a hand clamped around my arm. Very Hard and very painful. I jerked my head to the side and met the furious eyes of a woman I vaguely recognized, one of the warriors. Her grip was iron, her breath hot against my face as she spat, “You killed her!”

For a heartbeat, the words didn’t register. My mind was still trying to catch up with the image of the woman convulsing on the floor.

“What?”

“You!” Her voice rose above every other noise, drawing more attention. "You caused it , didn't you? You have come to this pack to kill all of us”

The room went quiet in a terrifying and suffocating way. All eyes turned towards me. Dozens of them.

My throat closed. “No, I didn’t—”

“She’s cursed!” someone else shouted from another table. “Of course she caused it!”

Murmurs swelled up, hateful and accusing ones, I tried to ignore all of it but I could feel their judgment, their certainty that I was guilty. That I didn’t belong here. That this was exactly the kind of thing they have expected from me all along.

I glanced toward Kieran, my chest tightening. His jaw was clenched, his eyes dark and unreadable as he watched me. I wanted to shout that I was innocent, that I hadn’t even touched my food, that I’d been seconds away from eating it myself.

But all I could do was stand there, frozen, my pulse thundering in my ears while the walls of the dining hall seemed to close in around me.

The woman was still holding me and she pushed me forward violently “You killed her!”

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