Chapter 4

I backed away until my spine met the cold stone of the wall.

I had always loved quiet. That was why I'd asked to move into Moonshadow Hall, far from the main keep.

Elena had grown up at my side, and I'd decided her care was enough. So I never kept a flock of maids around me.

Caius had assigned twelve guards to protect this place.

But once he left Silvermoon Keep, Selena used the pretext of reinforcing the front lines to pull most of them away, one after another.

The few who remained had clearly fallen under her control.

I had never once imagined that the choices I'd made to carry this child in peace would become the very reason they denied who I was.

Several hands seized my collar and my arms at once.

The sound of fabric tearing filled the hall.

I fought to shield my belly, but I couldn't cover my body at the same time.

"I really am the Luna Queen!"

I stared at Selena and warned her one last time, my voice sharp:

"Caius is already back. Stop now, and maybe you can still save the innocent ones in your family!"

No one paid me any mind.

A hard slap landed across my face.

"Still daring to threaten Miss Selena, even now?"

A second slap came right after.

"Didn't you say the Alpha King was back?"

"Then let him come save you!"

They held my arms and kept tearing at my robe.

Someone dragged their nails across my skin on purpose.

Another grabbed a fistful of my hair, forcing my face up so I had to take each humiliation, one after another.

My cheek swelled fast.

The taste of blood spread at the corner of my mouth.

The silver-white robe Caius had chosen for me himself was torn to ruins.

Great patches of my skin lay bare against the cold air.

I had never been reduced to such a state.

Even at sixteen, when the rogue wolves attacked, I had never been degraded like this.

Selena, though, admired the sight of me and smiled, satisfied.

Then her gaze fell to my long hair.

"That hair's in the way."

"Cut it all off."

A maid brought over a pair of sharp silver shears at once.

My pupils shrank all at once.

In the traditions of the Northern wolves, long hair was the symbol of a woman's dignity.

Only traitors cast out by the pack had their hair cut off in public.

"Selena, you wouldn't dare!"

I thrashed violently.

Several women pinned down my shoulders and my arms.

The cold blade pressed against my scalp.

Snip——

A lock of long hair fell to the floor.

Then a second, and a third.

The maid worked without the slightest hesitation, dragging the shears through my hair in wild, careless cuts.

Strand after strand kept falling, scattering over my shoulders, along my legs, across the bloodstained floor.

One of those cut ends still had the silver hairband Caius had tied there with his own hands this morning, before he rode out.

He had bent down then and kissed my forehead.

"Wait for me to come back. I'll untie it myself."

"Until then, no one is to touch it."

But now the silver hairband was under Selena's foot.

She ground it beneath her heel a couple of times and let out a pleased laugh.

"Now she looks like a proper exiled traitor."

The women around her clapped and cheered.

"Miss Selena did the right thing!"

"A she-wolf who betrays her mate should lose every last shred of dignity."

"When the Alpha King sees her like this, he'll surely thank Miss Selena for cleaning up Silvermoon Keep for him."

I curled up on the floor, using the shredded cloth to cover my body.

The pain in my belly grew sharper by the moment.

The wolf deep inside me let out a mournful howl, yet it could never break through the seal the High had left behind.

I looked at the long hair scattered by my feet, and the anger in my chest cooled, bit by bit, instead.

I memorized every one of their faces.

And every hand that had touched me.

Everything they'd done today to me, to Elena, to my child, I would make them pay back many times over.

"You'll regret this."

My voice trembled a little from the pain, yet it carried clearly to every ear.

The clamor went quiet for a heartbeat.

Selena walked slowly up to me.

She lifted her boot and stamped it down hard on my face, pressing me into the cold stone floor.

"Regret?"

"Since the day I came to Silvermoon Keep, no one has ever had the power to make me regret a thing."

She bent down, cruelty flickering in her eyes.

"But I can make you regret ever being born into this world."

With that, she lifted her foot and gave an order to the guards behind her:

"Drag this woman to the Punishment Grounds."

"Gather every Omega and criminal in Silvermoon Keep. Let them see with their own eyes what happens to those who betray the Alpha King."

Two guards grabbed my arms and hauled me up off the ground.

"Let the Luna go!"

Elena, unconscious until now, suddenly came to.

Her face covered in blood, she struggled and lunged for the hem of my gown.

"She carries His Majesty's only child!"

"Selena, you'll destroy the entire future of the North!"

Selena didn't even turn her head.

"Take this madwoman along too."

"Since she's so loyal, let her watch her own mistress be punished, with her own eyes."

Elena and I were dragged roughly out of Moonshadow Hall.

The rough stone road scraped my skin raw.

The child in my belly thrashed hard, as if sending a cry for help to its father.

At that same moment, from the outer keep in the distance, a long and commanding wolf's howl rose up.

The whole of Silvermoon Keep fell silent in an instant.

Every wolf lowered its head on instinct.

That was Caius's voice.

He had finished the Council of Elders' welcoming ceremony.

He was calling for me.

Selena's step faltered.

But the next second, she laughed as if nothing had happened.

"His Majesty must be summoning me to come and greet him."

She turned to look at the guards dragging me.

"Move faster."

"Before I go to meet the Alpha King, I'll make this liar pay for her crimes first."