Chapter 2
The grand ballroom falls silent as the last of the guests depart, leaving only the echoes of celebration and the lingering scent of champagne. I watch as Beta Liam remains behind, his posture rigid as servants clear crystal glasses and wilting flower arrangements. His eyes keep darting to the screens where my humiliation played out for all to witness, now dark but no less haunting.
Midnight passes, and the pack house settles into uneasy slumber. From my place in the void, I follow Liam as he makes his way to his quarters, his footsteps measured but purposeful. The doubt I planted has taken root, growing with each passing hour.
"Something's not right," he mutters to his wolf, Axel, who growls in agreement within his mind. "The Luna I knew would never betray us like that."
He closes his door, engaging the lock with a decisive click before moving to his computer setup in the corner. Three monitors glow to life, bathing his face in blue light that accentuates the determined set of his jaw.
"If there's something to find, we'll find it," he promises Axel, fingers flying across the keyboard as he bypasses the first layer of security on the Silvermoon server.
I feel a surge of satisfaction. Liam was always thorough, always questioning – qualities that made him invaluable to me as Luna and now make him the perfect instrument of my posthumous justice.
Hours pass as he meticulously combs through the digital archives. His eyes grow weary, but his resolve never wavers. Just before dawn, when the pack house is at its quietest, his cursor hovers over the memorial section – a digital shrine created after my death, filled with carefully curated images and testimonials that paint me as both beloved and betrayer.
"Wait," he whispers, leaning closer to the screen. "That symbol..."
His cursor clicks on my official Luna portrait, the one taken on the day of my appointment. He zooms in on the corner of the frame, revealing the same crescent moon watermark that flickered almost imperceptibly on the videos Christopher had so proudly displayed.
"It's identical," he breathes, his heart rate accelerating. "But what does it mean?"
Within his mind, Axel howls, urging him to dig deeper. Liam's fingers tremble slightly as he right-clicks the image, examining its properties, finding embedded metadata that contains a string of seemingly random characters.
"Coordinates," he realizes. "Digital coordinates within our own server."
He follows the trail, navigating through hidden directories until he reaches an encrypted folder that shouldn't exist – one that requires a password he doesn't possess.
"Damn it," he hisses, running a hand through his disheveled hair. But I knew Liam would get this far. I counted on his persistence.
A small text prompt appears on screen: *"When the moon blessed what man had chosen."*
Liam stares at it, brow furrowed. "A riddle?"
Axel growls again, more insistent this time. *Think, Liam. When did the Moon Goddess bless Victoria and Christopher?*
"The mate ceremony," Liam whispers, fingers hovering over the keyboard. "But which date?"
He tries the day of the public celebration – access denied. He attempts the pack registration date – another failure. Frustration builds as the sky outside begins to lighten.
"What am I missing?" he mutters, leaning back in his chair.
Then it hits him – the private ceremony. Before the public celebration, before the official registration, there was an intimate moment when Christopher and I first acknowledged our mate bond under the full moon. Few knew the exact date, but as Beta, Liam had access to the most private pack records.
His fingers fly across the keyboard once more, entering the date: 05212005.
The screen flickers, and the folder unlocks, revealing dozens of video files, documents, and medical records. At the top sits a single video titled simply: "The Truth."
With trembling fingers, Liam clicks play.
My face fills his screen – not the broken, captive version Christopher displayed, but me in my final days. My skin is sallow, my eyes sunken, but there's a fierce determination in my gaze that transcends my physical weakness.
"If you're watching this," my recorded voice begins, hoarse but steady, "then I am already dead, and Christopher has finally made his choice public."
Liam's breath catches as I continue, "Amanda Cross is not just his new Luna – she has been his chosen mate for years, long before he publicly rejected me. It was she who orchestrated my kidnapping, she who poisoned me with wolfsbane day after day while Christopher turned a blind eye."
Tears well in Liam's eyes as my recorded self struggles to continue, each word clearly causing me pain. "The evidence is all here, hidden in plain sight. Find the key in the records, Liam. I trust you to deliver the truth when the time is right."
As dawn breaks over the Silvermoon territory, Liam sits motionless before the screen, the weight of my final confession crushing down upon him. The first piece of my revenge has found its mark, and there is no turning back now.