Episode 1

Aurora

The light spilling from the chandelier touches my skin and glides over my simple white cotton dress. But right now, the hall seems to turn in slow motion.

Dominic...

His pack was the one that rescued me. The one that took care of me, or at least that was what I thought. I shared secrets with him. Secrets no one else knew.

We made vows of love.

But now my eyes are fixed on him, full of tears, and there is no love in them. Only pain. Pure pain.

"You..." My voice comes out shaking. "You lied to me this whole time? But why? You said you loved me... that we'd be together, Dominic."

At last, a tear slips from my eyes.

Everyone at the banquet is staring at me. I feel the weight of hundreds of gazes pressing down. Dominic walks toward me, descends from his throne, and stops right in front of me. Close enough that I can smell his pack on him. But now that scent makes me step back.

"You're weak," he spits, the word leaving his mouth with disgust, as if it were poison on his tongue. "A useless thing who never awakened her wolf. A nobody I scraped up off the ground."

He takes a deep breath. His chest expands.

"Using you was nothing more than a plan. A means to an end. I needed to expand my territory. Your original lands... they were valuable."

He looks me over from head to toe. His eyes shine with a cruelty I have never seen before. Or maybe it was always there and I simply never wanted to see it.

"You only helped me get what I wanted. Your lands are mine now. They're under my rule. And you..." He pauses, leaving the word hanging like a guillotine. "You don't even have the bearing to be a Luna. You're ridiculous."

Then Samanta, the she-wolf who used to drift around the palace giving me sidelong little smiles, the one Dominic insisted was a wonderful friend, walks up to him. Now I see the truth in those smiles. I see the greed. I see her victory.

"Are you two together?" I ask in a whisper, my eyes still wet, my lips trembling.

Her smile widens when Dominic opens his arms and pulls her against his chest. A commotion ripples through the pack guests. Howls of approval. Of support.

My heart breaks into pieces.

"She's so much better than you, Aurora. In every way, if you understand what I mean."

He gives me a mocking smile, glancing sideways as he measures me from head to toe like discarded merchandise.

"You... you're just you. A pitiful girl anyone can use. A stupid, naive girl who actually believes everyone has a good heart."

His smile grows. That smile I once thought was beautiful.

"That? That's exactly what caused your fall," he says.

For a moment, I go still. I don't know whether to smile, cry, or scream. All of those possibilities pass through my mind, painful and sharp. But I do none of them.

It still hurts. I won't lie. The pain is real, physical, almost unbearable. But something inside me, something I cannot name, wakes up.

So I simply walk to the table. My hand moves as if it has a will of its own. I pick up the ceremonial dagger resting there. Everyone cries out in fear. I hear screams. I hear chairs scraping and crashing as the pack draws back.

And then, with one quick, precise motion, I cut my own palm.

I close my fist.

The silence in the hall is absolute.

I look at Dominic while the cut stings and burns. While blood begins to drip onto the table, drop by drop, each one like a bell marking the end of an era.

"I..." I begin, my voice steady now, strong now. "I accept your rejection, Dominic Salazar. And from this day forward, you will have no power over me."

A snap echoes through the hall. It is not a physical sound. It is magical. Ancient. It is the energetic thread that bound us, that sacred bond between an Alpha and his Luna, being torn apart.

It feels as if something has been ripped out of me. But I also feel... freedom. I start walking, my hand still dripping blood onto the hall floor.

"It's done," I say as I pass him, so close our shoulders almost touch, though there is nothing between us anymore. Nothing but emptiness. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? This is what you got."

No one tries to stop me.

I leave the hall with steady steps, cross the grand corridor, and descend the front stairs. Then, as if the universe itself recognizes the moment, a torrential rain begins to fall.

But right now, I do not care about the rain. I let it fall over me. I let it wash my face, my dress, my hair. I let it carry away the tears.

I let it carry away everything.

The forbidden forest waits ahead. Dark. Wild. Deadly. But at this point, I have nothing left to lose. So I walk toward it.

And I do not look back.

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