Chapter 2
Series 1 Chapter 2
That night, I completed the entire Moon Goddess Festival alone.
Hundreds of eyes watched me from below.
None of them knew that minutes before the ceremony, Damon had been in our bed with another woman.
For three hours, I made no mistakes.
My voice never shook.
I did not shed a single tear.
Even after the final horn sounded, Damon never appeared.
The next morning, the council gathered as usual.
Elders, commanders, and senior stewards filled the main hall.
As Luna, I took my place to the left of the Alpha’s seat.
Quiet whispers moved through the room.
Everyone was talking about Damon’s absence the night before.
I offered no explanation.
And for once, I did not cover for him.
The heavy doors opened.
Damon finally walked in.
Selene was holding his arm.
She wore an expensive silk gown. Her face looked slightly pale, but the smug smile on her lips was impossible to miss.
Damon led her to the front of the hall.
When he spoke, his voice carried the authority of an Alpha.
“I called everyone here to make an announcement.”
The room fell silent.
Every gaze dropped to their joined hands.
Damon turned to Selene, and his expression softened.
“Selene has only just returned to Blackwood. She’s still weak.”
He paused.
“And she’s carrying my child.”
His child.
The words cut through me like a rusted blade.
My gaze dropped to Selene’s flat stomach, then to the hand she had placed over it before anyone asked.
No Blackwood physician had examined her. No healer had confirmed how far along she was.
Damon had accepted her claim because it gave him exactly what he wanted—a pureblood heir and an excuse to put her above me.
A wave of shocked murmurs swept through the hall.
A pureblood wolf’s child was rare and precious.
The Alpha’s firstborn even more so.
That child represented the bloodline.
The future heir.
Three years ago, when Damon had been dying, I used a forbidden drug to save him.
It had damaged my body beyond repair.
I would never be able to have children.
Damon knew that.
He had always known.
Yet now he stood before the entire pack and announced that another woman was carrying his child.
He did not even look at me.
As though my pain did not matter.
“Starting today, Selene will live in the main house.”
The hall went completely still.
Several elders looked up sharply.
For generations, the main house had belonged to the Alpha and his Luna.
It was more than a residence.
It represented rank, authority, and the protection of the Moon Goddess’s bond.
By pack law, no woman except the recognized Luna was allowed to live there.
I rose slowly.
“Damon, do you understand what you’re saying?”
He turned toward me.
“Of course I do.”
“The main house belongs to the Alpha and Luna,” I said.
“Selene is not the Luna.”
“What right does she have to move in?”
His face darkened at once.
Then he gave a cold laugh, as if I were being ridiculous.
“It’s just a house.”
“When did you become so petty?”
Petty.
Last night, he had abandoned the most sacred ceremony of the year for Selene.
Now he was breaking pack law for her.
Yet somehow, I was still the problem.
“It isn’t just a house,” I said, forcing my voice to remain steady.
“The main house is a symbol of the Moon Goddess’s bond.”
“Enough.”
Damon cut me off.
“Selene is carrying my child. She needs proper care.”
“The main house is closest to the herb garden and infirmary. It’s the best place for her to recover.”
“I’ve already made my decision.”
“I’m not asking for your permission.”
With that, he took Selene’s hand and walked past me.
She stopped in front of the silverwood chair reserved for the Luna.
Then she glanced at me and slowly sat down.
Several people gasped.
Selene acted as though she had heard nothing.
She reached for the laurel crown that symbolized the female head of the pack and placed it on her head.
“It suits me, doesn’t it?”
Then she turned the crown slightly and smiled at the council table.
“If I am to live as Luna, I should also hold the household seal, approve infirmary requests, and review the winter accounts.”
Several stewards stiffened. Those were not ornaments. They were the systems that kept Blackwood alive.
Damon did not ask whether she understood any of them.
“Give her whatever access she needs,” he said.
He was not merely humiliating me. He was trading the territory’s safeguards for Selene’s approval—and assuming I would quietly repair whatever she broke.
She smiled up at Damon.
He did not stop her.
He only looked at her with indulgence.
Before I could look away, the doors opened again.
A steward hurried into the hall with an urgent report clutched in his hand.
“Alpha, the northern outpost is requesting winter grain and medical supplies.”
His eyes briefly moved toward Selene.
She was still seated in the Luna’s chair, the laurel crown resting on her head.
But she only frowned at the interruption.
Damon barely glanced at the report.
“Have the granary steward deal with it.”
The man remained where he was.
“The northern and southern outposts have requested the same reserve shipment.”
“If both orders are approved, one of them will run out of food within seven days.”
“Then send it north,” Damon said.
The steward’s face tightened.
He did not dare challenge his Alpha.
I watched Damon in silence.
He had not asked how many wolves were stationed at either outpost.
He did not know how much grain remained.
He had not even asked why the south needed the supplies.
He simply wanted the problem removed from his sight.
“The southern outpost received more than thirty wounded soldiers yesterday,” I said.
“If their supplies are cut, the injured will be the first to suffer.”
Damon turned toward me, irritation flashing across his face.
“Then fix it.”
Of course.
He could give my home and position to another woman.
But the moment Blackwood needed a real decision, he still expected me to make it.
“Send part of the festival surplus south,” I said to the steward.
“Then open the eastern hunting grounds three days early. That will keep both outposts supplied.”
The steward bowed immediately.
“Yes, Luna.”
The title hung in the air.
Selene’s fingers tightened around the silver armrest.
I looked at Damon.
He showed no gratitude.
No embarrassment.
He did not seem troubled that I had once again solved the problem he had dismissed without a second thought.
Instead, he rested one hand on the back of Selene’s chair, as if reassuring her that the seat still belonged to her.
A cold pressure settled beneath my ribs, so steady it was almost clarifying.
That was when I understood.
This was never about giving a pregnant woman somewhere comfortable to rest.
Damon intended to give Selene everything that belonged to me—while still expecting me to carry every burden that came with it.
My home.
My position.
My dignity as Luna.
The elders and pack members stared in stunned silence.
Some looked angry.
Others avoided my eyes.
I stood there and watched the man who had once sworn to protect me place another woman in my seat.
The last trace of warmth inside me disappeared.
I did not argue.
I did not cry or demand an explanation.
I simply looked at him.
My silence seemed to irritate him even more.
Damon frowned.
“Since Selene is moving into the main house, she’ll need the master bedroom.”
“Clear out your belongings today.”
I held his gaze.
“And where do you expect me to go?”
He did not hesitate.
“The west storage quarters.”
The hall went dead silent.
The west quarters were cold and cramped.
Only the lowest-ranking servants and punished prisoners were housed there.
And I was his wife.
The Luna chosen through the Moon Goddess’s bond.
The woman who had spent three years holding Blackwood together.
Now, to make his pregnant first love comfortable, Damon was ordering me into the servants’ quarters in front of the entire pack.
He looked at my pale face without the slightest trace of remorse.
“It’s only a different room.”
“Don’t embarrass me in front of everyone.”
I laughed.
Even now, the only thing he cared about was his pride.
Damon believed he was casting aside an unwanted wife.
He had no idea that from this moment on, I would no longer protect Blackwood from the consequences of his mistakes.