Chapter 1

My wolf hasn't spoken to me in three weeks.

I tell myself it's stress. The pack finances, the upcoming diplomatic visit from the Lycan King, the endless demands from Justin's mother—the Queen Mother, as she insists on being called even though she hasn't held the Luna title in five years. But deep down, in the hollow space where my wolf's presence should hum like a second heartbeat, I know something is wrong.

The hallway outside our bedroom is dark when I hear their voices. I freeze, one hand on the doorframe, my body swaying slightly. The dizziness has gotten worse lately. Another symptom I've been ignoring.

"She's getting suspicious." The Queen Mother's voice cuts through the shadows like a blade. "This morning she asked why the vitamins make her tired."

"Then we increase the dosage." Justin's response is immediate, clinical. "The Lycan King arrives in two days. I can't have her embarrassing me with one of her... episodes."

Episodes. That's what he calls it when I question him. When I push back against his decisions. When I dare to act like the Luna I'm supposed to be.

"The Rogue who sold them to you said—"

"I don't care what that filth said." Justin's voice drops to a growl. "She needs to be manageable. Compliant. Like a proper Luna should be."

I step back into the bedroom before they round the corner, my heart hammering against my ribs. Vitamins. Rogue. Manageable.

The pill bottle sits on my nightstand, innocent and white. I've been taking them religiously every morning for six months, ever since Justin brought them home, claiming the pack healer recommended them for my "hormonal imbalance." I'd believed him. Trusted him.

I'm such a fool.

I wait until the house falls silent, until Justin's snores rattle through the wall from his separate bedroom—another recent development he'd blamed on my "restlessness"—before I retrieve the bottle from the trash where I'd thrown it this morning. My hands shake as I turn it over, examining every inch.

There. Scratched into the bottom, barely visible: a jagged symbol that makes my stomach drop. A Rogue mark. I've seen it before, on wanted posters in the pack house, on the scarred faces of wolves who've been exiled for crimes against pack law.

These aren't vitamins. They're poison.

The next morning, I walk into Justin's office without knocking. He looks up from his desk, irritation flashing across his face before he schools it into false concern.

"Lila. You look pale. Did you take your—"

"No." I set the bottle on his desk with a sharp click. "I'm not taking them anymore."

His jaw tightens. "The healer said—"

"The healer never prescribed these." My voice is steadier than I feel. "What are they really, Justin?"

Something dangerous flickers in his eyes. He stands slowly, his Alpha aura pressing against me like a physical weight. "You're being hysterical."

"I'm being rational."

"You're being insubordinate." He rounds the desk, backing me toward the wall. "This is exactly why you need them. You're unstable, Lila. Paranoid. Unfit to lead."

"Don't—"

The Alpha Tone slams into me like a fist. "TAKE. THE. PILL."

My body moves without permission, my hand reaching for the bottle even as my mind screams in protest. This isn't right. This isn't how mates treat each other. But my wolf is too weak to fight, too suppressed to help me resist, and my fingers are already unscrewing the cap.

Justin's hand closes around my jaw, forcing my mouth open. The pill tastes like ash and defeat. He holds my mouth shut until I swallow, his eyes cold and satisfied.

"Good girl," he murmurs, and I want to claw his face off.

The pack meeting happens an hour later, after the pill has turned my thoughts fuzzy and my wolf even more distant. Justin stands at the head of the room, every pack member assembled, and I know what's coming before he opens his mouth.

"Effective immediately, Luna Lila is relieved of her administrative duties." His voice carries across the room, formal and final. "She will surrender all pack credit cards, keys, and access codes to Summer, who will assume these responsibilities."

Summer steps forward, her smile sharp as broken glass. I watch my keys disappear into her manicured hands.

"Furthermore," Justin continues, his eyes locked on mine, "Lila will join the Omega staff in kitchen and cleaning duties. Perhaps manual labor will teach her the humility befitting her position."

The room is silent. No one meets my eyes. No one speaks in my defense.

I am a Luna, stripped and shamed before my own pack.

And the worst part? I can barely feel the rage I know I should feel. The pill has stolen even that from me.

But somewhere, in the deepest part of my consciousness, something stirs. Something that remembers what I was before the poison. Something that whispers: Remember this. Remember everything.

Because one day, I'm going to make them all pay.