Chapter 3

The night air carried a biting chill as I wandered the west corridor of the pack house, seeking solitude after another day of humiliation. My wounds from the rogue attack had barely begun to heal, both the physical ones and the deeper cut of finding Nathan with Isabella in our bed. The journal entries I'd discovered days ago still haunted me, each word etched into my memory like acid on metal.

The corridor was bathed in moonlight streaming through tall windows, casting long shadows across the polished floor. I paused at one of the windows, gazing up at the nearly full moon. Tomorrow night would be the pack run, another ritual that once brought me joy but now promised only more pain.

"Admiring what you'll never have?" Isabella's voice sliced through the silence.

I turned slowly, refusing to show the startled jump of my heart. She stood at the end of the corridor, her silhouette outlined in silver moonlight, making her appear almost ethereal—a cruel goddess come to torment me.

"What exactly is it that you think I want, Isabella?" I asked, surprised by the steadiness in my voice.

"Everything that's mine." She glided toward me, her movements graceful and predatory. "My position. My pack. My mate."

"He was never yours," I said, my wolf stirring within me. "The Moon Goddess chose me as his mate."

"And yet here we are." Her smile was razor-sharp. "Him in my bed, you cleaning my floors."

Something in me snapped. Perhaps it was the journal entries, or the memory of Nathan's hands on her body, or simply the accumulated weight of every humiliation I'd endured.

"I want an explanation," I demanded, stepping toward her. "What did I ever do to deserve this cruelty? What gives you the right to take what the Goddess ordained as mine?"

The change was immediate. Isabella's confident posture crumpled, her hand flying to her throat as she staggered back against the wall. Her eyes widened in apparent fear, her breath coming in short gasps.

"Please," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Don't hurt me."

I froze, confused by the sudden transformation. "I wasn't—"

"Victoria!" Nathan's voice thundered from the end of the corridor. He must have been nearby, perhaps waiting for this very confrontation.

He was at Isabella's side in an instant, his arm protectively around her shoulders as she trembled against him. The performance was flawless.

"She threatened me," Isabella whispered, her voice breaking. "She said the pack would never accept me as Luna while she lived."

"I never said that!" I protested, but Nathan's eyes had already hardened with fury.

"You should know your place," Isabella said, her trembling voice suddenly steady as she met my gaze over Nathan's protective embrace. The mask slipped just enough for me to see the cold calculation beneath. Then, in a voice so quiet only I could hear, she added, "Unless you want a formal rejection before the entire pack."

The threat hung between us, heavy as a executioner's axe.

* * *

The next evening, the pack gathered at the edge of the forest for the full moon run. My wolf paced restlessly within me, eager for the freedom of the shift despite our weakened state. These runs were sacred, a time when hierarchy was somewhat relaxed and wolves could simply be wolves.

Nathan stood at the head of the assembled pack, Isabella at his side wearing the ceremonial Luna's pendant that should have been mine. I remained at the fringes, ignored by most except for a few pitying glances.

"Tonight we celebrate the blessing of the Moon Goddess," Nathan announced, his Alpha voice carrying through the clearing. "May she watch over our pack and guide our paths."

One by one, pack members began to shift, their bodies contorting as human forms gave way to wolf. Nathan and Isabella shifted together, his massive black wolf standing protectively beside her smaller russet form. With a howl that signaled the start of the run, they led the pack into the forest.

I shifted last, my silver-grey wolf emerging with a whimper of pain as the transformation pulled at my still-healing wounds. We followed at a distance, unwilling to challenge the hierarchy but unable to resist the call of the moon.

The pack scattered through the territory, some hunting in small groups, others racing through familiar paths. I found myself alone, as I had expected, running along the eastern boundary where the forest thinned toward the mountains. My wolf reveled in the simple joy of movement, of moonlight on fur and the earth beneath our paws.

Hours passed in the freedom of the run. I was making my way back toward the gathering point when an unfamiliar scent caught my attention—rogues, not far from our territory line. My wolf growled softly, memories of our recent attack still fresh.

Suddenly, a panicked howl cut through the night—Isabella's voice, calling for help. Without thinking, I changed direction, racing toward the sound. Whatever my feelings toward her, pack loyalty ran deep.

I found nothing but disturbed earth and the fading scent of her passage. Following her trail, I realized with growing alarm that she had crossed our territory boundary. Had she been chased? Taken?

The pack was in chaos when I returned to the gathering point. Nathan paced in human form, his face contorted with rage and fear.

"Where is she?" he demanded when he saw me. "Where is Isabella?"

"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "I heard her call and followed, but her trail led beyond our borders."

His eyes narrowed with suspicion. "You were the last to see her."

Before I could defend myself, a commotion rose from the edge of the clearing. Isabella stumbled into view, human form, her clothes torn and smeared with blood. She collapsed dramatically into Nathan's waiting arms.

"Rogues," she gasped, her voice breaking. "Victoria... she led me to the boundary... said she wanted to show me something..."

"What?" I shifted back to human form, ignoring my nakedness in my shock. "That's a lie! I never—"

"They were waiting," Isabella continued, tears streaming down her dirt-streaked face. "She left me there... said it was time I learned what happened to false Lunas."

The pack's murmurs grew hostile, eyes turning to me with suspicion and anger. Nathan's face had gone completely still, a mask of cold fury that chilled me to the bone.

"Nathan, you can't believe this," I pleaded. "Check the scent trails. I never led her anywhere!"

But his mind was closed, his judgment already made. Isabella had played her hand perfectly.

"Victoria Hayes," he said, his Alpha tone making my knees buckle. "For endangering a high-ranking pack member and conspiring with rogues, I sentence you to immediate banishment to the mountain cabin until further notice."

Gasps rippled through the gathered pack. The mountain cabin was our most remote outpost, used as shelter during winter hunts—and now, it seemed, as my prison.

"The winter storms are coming," someone murmured. "She'll freeze up there alone."

Nathan's eyes remained cold as he held Isabella's trembling form. "Then she should hope for the Goddess's mercy. It's more than she showed today."

As two Delta wolves moved to escort me away, I caught Isabella's eye over Nathan's shoulder. The triumph in her gaze was unmistakable, and in that moment, I knew with bone-deep certainty that this had been her plan all along.

The mountain exile wouldn't kill me quickly—but in the bitter cold of the approaching winter, alone and cut off from the pack bond, it might accomplish what the rogues had failed to do.