Chapter 2
The next morning, the news came to me the way most truths did, sloppily, thoughtlessly, thrown like scraps.
Ken, crumbs clinging to his shirt, spoke with his mouth full of crisps. “Marga rented the whole top floor of the Starview Hotel! Big feast. Dad says it’s for us. A pack celebration.”
I paused mid-mop, the wooden handle slick in my palms. “Us?”
Kurt’s smirk was sharp enough to cut. “Not you, Ma. Grandpa said you’re… not up for it. I mean, look at you.”
Not
up for it. As though I were sick. As though I were fading. As though I were a wolf too weak to even matter.
By sunset, the house had shed its noise. Alpha Shawn had shaved, combed back his silver-streaked hair, and doused himself in that rare cologne he reserved only for funerals or blood-oath gatherings. He looked every inch the Alpha he once was, broad-shouldered, commanding, untouchable. He adjusted the twins’ collars with the care of a proud elder while Mark smoothed the lapels of his best suit.
‘Remember,” Alpha Shawn told them, his voice threaded with authority, “Marga does this because she loves us. She is family.”
The boys grinned, their voices cruel in unison. “That’s why we love Marga more than Grandma Stella.”
No goodbye. No promise to bring me back a plate or even a whisper of acknowledgment. Only the door shut with the finality of a coffin lid.
Silence settled in the pack house. Not the peace of quiet, but the hollow echo of being forgotten. t rang louder than any slap.
stood in the hallway in my worn slippers, clutching a basket of unfolded clothes. My stomach growled, but I hadn’t cooked. Why feed a ghost?
Out of defiance, I switched on the television.
There they were, projected larger than life on the evening broadcast. The Starview Hotel sparkled with crystal chandeliers, golden candelabras, and the low hum of violin strings. Marga glowed in ner white fur shawl, Alpha Shawn beside her, my son and his mate smiling with the polish of politicians. The twins, Ken and Kurt, raised soda glasses in tuxedos tailored too fine for their spoiled shoulders.
The reporter announced it with reverence: “A private Ravenshade Pack gathering- Marga Hartclaw’s homecoming. The family behind one of the most powerful shipping empires in the country.”
But I was not in the shot. Not in the story. Not in whispers.
They toasted with champagne. I sipped stale coffee.
They laughed under gilded chandeliers while I wiped a smudge from the glass door.
Then came the cut deeper than any blade, Marga leaning toward Alpha Shawn, whispering something that sent both of them into laughter. My son joined in. I didn’t hear her words, but my
ΔΙΑ 19%
6:41 pm
wolf bristled. I felt them. And I knew they were about me. The bond between wolf and insult does not need translation; it burns through the bones.
Hours later, well after midnight, the front door groaned open. My heart leapt, foolishly, thinking perhaps my son, Mark, had returned to me. But no. It was them.
Marga entered like she owned the ground she walked on, her heels striking the marble with the confidence of a queen. Alpha Shawn leaned heavily against her, drunk and pliant, his tie undone, his lips still stained with wine.
“Oh, Luna Stella,” she cooed, smirking when she found me rooted at the staircase like a phantom. “Didn’t think you’d still be awake.”
She steered him forward, arm entwined with his as if she were his Luna instead of me. “Mark and the boys are staying at my penthouse. Too tired to come back. But Alpha Shawn…” She patted his chest possessively. “Well, he can’t rest in strange beds. Poor Alpha.”
recognized the lie immediately. She was not helping him home; she was parading my eplacement in front of me.
From her bag, she pulled a container and tossed it carelessly at my feet. “Leftovers,” she said, her tone mocking sweet. “Go eat, Luna. You look like you weigh thirty kilos at best. A wolf that rail wouldn’t last a hunt.”
didn’t move. My fists clenched, nails biting into my palms. My wolf snarled low inside me, desperate to lash out.
‘I’ll put Alpha to bed,” Marga added, a sly curl on her lips. “I know you two don’t share a room anymore. He told me your side of the bed reeks of…”
She looked me over from head to toe, as if weighing my every flaw and strength, measuring what I was truly capable of, then she continued.
…disappointment.”
stepped forward once. Just once. My hand twitched with the urge to claw her across the face. t would have felt good, almost holy. But I didn’t. Because the true knife came from him. Drunk, his eyes glazed, Shawn smiled at her like she was the only star in the sky. “Marga’s so pretty,” he slurred. “Smells like peaches. My luna, Stella, just smells like dishwater and old arguments.”
They ascended the stairs together, his weight resting against her, her laughter echoing down the hall like a song of conquest.
And in that moment, I realized: they did not kill me.
They simply replaced me.
**
I waited. Not because I still cared, but because I needed to know.
One o’clock. Two o’clock. Still no sign of her leaving. The lights above remained lit, the silence heavy but alive.
Then came the sound. A thump. Then another. Steady. Rhythmic. Intimate.
213 31%1
6:41 pm
My blood turned to ice. My wolf growled inside me, dragging me forward like prey tethered to a predator.
I climbed the stairs, each step heavy as stone, each breath sharp as broken glass. The hallway stretched like a grave path, leading me to the bedroom, the Alpha’s room that once had beer ours. The door was ajar. I saw.
Marga, bare and shameless, straddling Shawn. Her red painted nails raked his chest like talons. Her head tossed back, curls wild, as she rode him with the hunger of a she-wolf in heat.
And Shawn, my mate, my Alpha of three decades, grunted beneath her, his hands gripping her like she was his salvation.
My knees threatened to give. My throat burned dry.
Her voice cut through me, a howl of mockery. “Alpha Shawn, ruin me. Fill me the way she neve could.”
And Shawn, panting like a beast, groaned, “You’re perfect, Marga. You’ve always been the one.”
fled, my wolf clawing inside me, screaming to tear them apart, but my body faltered. I stumbled nto the downstairs bathroom, retching until my ribs cramped, the sound of their betrayal still bounding in my ears.
t was not about sex. It was about erasure. About being stripped of my place in the pack, my nate bond rotting while another woman wore my crown.
They didn’t just want to humiliate me. They wanted to watch me wither.
But a she-wolf who survives this doesn’t stay curled on the floor. She waits. She remembers. Anc she learns to haunt quietly,
until the night she finally lets her wolf break free.
Chapter 2
3/3 3.8%
6:41 pm
Lucia Morh is a passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.