Two Betrayed Lunas, One Cold Reckoning

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Seraphina's POV

On the anniversary of our mating, my Alpha-mate took me and our pup to the festival grounds at the edge of the human city, where the lights spun bright against the dark treeline.

Midway through the day, an urgent call pulled him away through his communicator. To my horror, the great spinning ride above us groaned and seized, the gears locking, leaving my pup stranded high in the air with me, the wind cold and thin around us.

Clutching her trembling body against my chest, I called her father over and over, ninety-nine times, before he answered at last.

My voice was hoarse as I pleaded for help. But instead of his worried answer, what reached my ears was the sound of muffled, intimate breathing.

Then, after a pause, a woman's voice came through.

"Roderick, back then, when you chose to give up Seraphina's cub in order to save our pup, I was truly moved. I have nothing else to give you, except my body."

There was a brief silence before Roderick Blackmoor answered, his tone low.

"I promised you. I would protect our pup at all costs. As for Seraphina's cub, he never should have survived in the first place."

At that moment, my tears spilled uncontrollably. Somewhere deep inside me, my wolf made a sound I had never heard her make, a low keening that had no name.

For years, I had carried the guilt of losing my cub when he was three.

But now I knew. He hadn't gone missing at all. Roderick had sacrificed him, to save the pup of his precious first love.

With the last of my strength, I dialed Caspian Sterling's number.

"I'll mate you. But I want you to destroy the Blackmoors. Especially Roderick."

A low, satisfied laugh came through.

"Sure. Nothing would please me more."

After ending the call, I clutched my pup in my arms. Her scent, new snow and warm milk, was the only thing keeping my wolf from tearing free of my skin.

Just then, Roderick's communicator chimed again. I answered it without saying a word.

"Roderick," a woman's voice came through, "I saw it on the spirit network. There seems to have been an accident at the festival grounds Seraphina and her pup went to. Do you want to go check on them?"

Roderick's voice on the other end was completely indifferent.

"You still have the energy to worry about things like that? Seems I didn't tire you out enough. Besides, those two aren't fools. I'm guessing the moment I left, they were no longer in the mood to have fun."

I could hear the sound of the woman kissing him.

It was then that I finally recognized her voice. Calla Thornwood, Roderick's first love. Her scent had always clung to him faintly when he came home, sweet jasmine curdling over something rotten beneath, and my wolf had growled at it for moons without my understanding why.

When the Blackmoor territory had collapsed into ruin, Calla hadn't hesitated to flee for the far Northern Alpine lands.

And I, I gave up my arranged mating with Caspian to bond myself to Roderick, who at the time had nothing, no rank, no territory, no name worth speaking in the pack councils.

For ten years, he treated me like a treasure. I truly believed we were happy. I had believed his scorched cedar and woodsmoke meant home.

But in reality, before I knew it, my Alpha-mate's heart had long since changed.

Tears streamed down my face. Wrenna, my pup, must've sensed my pain, because she reached up to gently touch my cheek with one small hand.

On the other end of the line, Calla kept talking. I covered my pup's ears, and with a heart cold as ash, I kept listening.

"Roderick," she asked sweetly, "if our pup were to have another accident, would you save him again? I remember Seraphina still has a daughter left."

My chest tightened sharply. Calla had already been the cause of my cub's death, and now she had set her sights on my pup too.

I had thought, even if Roderick had no love left for me, he would never harm our pup.

But the next second, he replied without hesitation. "When that time comes, I won't think twice. I promised you. Only our pup can be the bloodline heir."

Delight filled Calla's voice, though she feigned concern. "But, if Seraphina ever found out, wouldn't she hate you?"

Roderick paused briefly before answering coldly. "She won't hate me. Those two cubs are my due. She owes them to me. Back then, she was the one who climbed into Caspian's bed first. If both those cubs die, so much the better."

"I'll never reject her. She'll remain my Luna forever. I've already been generous enough to her," he added.

The moment his words ended, I heard the unmistakable sounds of intimacy on the other end.

In that instant, I finally understood why Roderick had done everything he'd done.

My eyes burned, my vision swimming red, hatred clawing at me until I could barely breathe. My wolf surged beneath my skin, claws pressing at my fingertips, every instinct in me screaming to tear Roderick and Calla to pieces.

When the Blackmoor bloodline had fallen into crisis, my own family had not held enough power in the councils to save them.

It was I who went to Caspian, clinging to the remnants of our old feelings.

Caspian agreed to pour his pack's strength into saving Roderick's territory, on the condition that I spend a single day with him.

When I told Roderick, he only smiled, brushed his fingers through my hair, and said gently, "I trust you. Besides, you're doing this for me. I'll never let you down for the rest of my life."

So this. This was his idea of never letting me down.

From that day on, he saw me as tainted. As marked by another wolf's scent.

He even began to doubt whether the twins were truly his.

The thought made my stomach churn. I ended the call without a shred of hesitation.

I knew full well it had been Calla calling.

And yet, I still felt a twisted kind of gratitude. At least she'd laid all the truth bare for me.

A few minutes later, she sent a barrage of taunting messages across the sending-stone thread, along with crystal-captured images of her in bed with Roderick.

I saved every single one, studying them until I could see every detail clearly.

Not long after, my communicator pulsed with a message from Caspian.

[Seven days from now, I'll come for you. Hold on three more minutes. My warriors are nearly at the grounds.]

Reading that made me finally let out a sigh of relief.

I had survived a thousand meters in the air.

Now, the ones who should die. It would be Roderick and Calla.

Seraphinas POV

After the Healing Hall checked her over, I took my pup home.

Once Id settled her in, I went upstairs to start gathering our documents.

That was when I suddenly heard a voice behind me.

Seraphina, what are you doing?

I paused for a heartbeat, forcing down the wave of hatred in my chest, and answered evenly, Im packing our papers.

Roderick didnt sense anything amiss.

As always, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me from behind.

I hadnt expected it and couldnt dodge in time. His embrace closed around me completely. But the moment Callas scent reached me, that sweet jasmine curdling over decay so distinctly hers, clinging to his skin where another wolf had no right to leave it, I nearly gagged. My own wolf recoiled inside me, lips peeling back from teeth I couldnt show him.

He didnt notice my stiff reaction and went on speaking as if nothing were wrong.

Seraphina, Im just so relieved you and our pup are safe. I never imagined something would happen at the festival grounds. If I had known, no matter how urgent pack business was, I would never have left you two behind.

His tone carried lingering fear, his words spoken with such conviction.

But knowing the truth, I felt nothing at all.

I lifted my gaze to him. Rodericks expression was as gentle as ever.

These arms had once been a safe harbor for me and my pup.

Now, they were the very weapon poised to destroy us.

The thought made me lower my eyes. Without a trace of emotion, I slipped his arm away from my waist.

Its fine. Your pack matters. My pup and I are safe.

Roderick, long accustomed to my understanding nature, frowned slightly and put on a show of pained sincerity.

How could the pack ever matter more than you and our pup? I honestly dont know If, after losing our son, I were to lose you two as well, how could I go on living?

At the mention of our dead cub, I couldnt stop the flash of hatred that passed through my eyes. Somewhere deep inside me, my wolf made a low, broken sound at the word son, a grief that had no bottom.

Before I could speak, his communicator chimed.

He pulled the crystal from his pocket, glanced at it, and gave me a smile.

Its someone from the pack. Ill step outside to take this.

I nodded calmly, though my claws pressed so deep into my palm that they drew blood.

When he raised the crystal, I caught the name glowing across its surface, exactly as I expected. It was Calla.

From outside came his hurried, anxious voice. For some reason, my stomach tightened with unease, and my wolf went still and watchful beneath my skin.

A moment later, he stormed back in, eyes flashing gold, and without warning, he struck me hard across the face.

Why did you lay a hand on Calla? Shes carrying a pup right now! If anything happens to her, Ill make you pay with your life!

I clutched my cheek, staring at him in utter disbelief.

The moment he saw the mark blooming across my skin, he froze.

Something flickered in his eyes, something complicated. He reached out, as if to touch my face.

But before his fingers could graze my skin, the crystal chimed again.

He gave me one long, heavy look, and then he turned and walked out.

I bolted downstairs, intent on grabbing my pup and leaving this hell.

But I hadnt even reached the front door before Roderick caught me, his grip on my arm like iron, his Alpha aura crashing down over the hall until the air itself thickened and pushed at my shoulders.

Without a word, he dragged me and Wrenna toward the carriage. No matter how hard she cried, he refused to let go.

By the time I snapped out of my daze, we had already arrived at the same festival grounds we visited on our mating anniversary.

The high coaster, still hanging midair from the earlier accident, remained unmended. In one swift motion, Roderick wrenched my pup out of my arms.

Tell me where Calla is, he growled, the sound rolling up from his chest, or youll regret it!

Clutching my pup tightly, he climbed into the storm-hawk. As it rose higher and higher, my heart lurched. And then, without a shred of hesitation, he placed Wrenna back into that same faulty coaster.

She had already been traumatized by it once.

Now, she wailed uncontrollably.

Her cries tore through me, each sob shredding my chest. My wolf was screaming, throwing herself against the cage of my ribs to reach the pup we could not touch. Watching the coaster sway under his hand, I could barely breathe.

I dont know anything, Roderick! I screamed hoarsely. I dont care who took Calla. Just put my pup down now!

Seraphina's POV

I was nearly hysterical.

But the tender, doting father from earlier was gone. In his place stood a cold, unfeeling man, his expression like stone, his scent gone all wrong, scorched cedar and cold iron now soured by that faint rot beneath, as he deliberately rocked the dangling carriage that held our pup high above the ground.

"I'll give you ten seconds," he said flatly. "And I'll shake it harder each time I count."

True to his word, he increased the force.

I stared at my daughter, her sobs breaking into hiccups, my nails digging deep into my palms until I felt the burn of skin splitting, my own wolf clawing at the inside of my chest with no way out. He showed us no mercy, none at all. My chest ached so violently I thought I might faint.

Seeing her tiny body tremble, her cries nearly turning into convulsions, my tears finally spilled over.

"Roderick, I truly don't know! I have no idea where Calla is! Please, just bring our daughter down, she can't take this anymore!"

My plea didn't move him in the slightest. He simply kept counting, voice as cold as the silver that burns.

"Eight."

Just earlier, back at the estate, he had pressed his forehead to mine and apologized for the fright on the high run, his scent warm then, almost the mate I remembered.

And now, because of Calla, he had become the executioner, his Alpha aura pressing down on me like a cold weight, personally threatening his own.

I broke into a scream. "Roderick! Go check! Look at the watcher-crystals! I didn't take Calla! Please, let Wrenna go! She's your pup too! She's about to collapse! I'm begging you, please!"

I even dropped to my knees in the dirt, my throat closing over the howl that wanted to tear loose.

But he didn't so much as glance at me. The cold, relentless countdown continued.

I couldn't take it anymore. I scrambled toward the suspended carriage, trying to climb up to her.

He watched me with icy detachment, the gold in his eyes flat and dead.

Just as the countdown neared its end, my fingers brushed the edge of Wrenna's carriage. My heart leapt. I reached out without a thought for my own safety, desperate to pull her free.

But in the next instant, Roderick yanked me back onto the deck of the storm-hawk, and, with a sharp crack, he slapped me hard across the face.

"Are you insane? Climbing that high, what if you fell?"

For a brief moment, his eyes betrayed a flicker of worry, his wolf surfacing against his will.

But I could no longer believe in him.

Gripping his sleeve, I choked out, "I'm begging you, Roderick. Do whatever you want to me. Blame me for taking Calla if you must. Just let her go, I'll take Wrenna's place in that carriage if that's what you want."

He gripped my sleeve tightly, the words tearing out of him in a roar that shook the deck. "For the sake of that bastard cub you whelped with Caspian, you'd even throw away your life? Then why did you mate me?!"

With that, he shoved me toward one of his pack warriors.

"I won't let that bastard live. You'd better tell me where Calla is, or else, I'll make that bastard pay with her life!"

I thrashed against their hold, tears streaming freely, my wolf snarling and lunging beneath my skin with nowhere to go.

"I really don't know! After we came down from the high run, we went straight back to the estate! I never had the chance to take Calla! Wrenna's your daughter, Roderick! You can run a bloodline trace if you don't believe me! But please, let her go now!"

I wailed, throwing my dignity into the dirt for him to trample.

And still he refused to believe me.

Seraphina's POV

Roderick heard my words. But instead of calming, the fury rolling off him only thickened, his Alpha aura pressing down on the high wooden platform until the very air felt like it might crack. With a sudden and violent shove, he slammed his weight against the suspended car.

Wrenna had already lost consciousness completely. Her small body began sliding toward the edge.

Beneath her was nothing but a thousand-meter drop into the dark of the ravine. One fall, and there would be nothing left of her.

A madness took hold of me. Somewhere beneath my skin my wolf threw herself against the silver-laced restraints, howling, and I struggled like someone possessed, desperate to pull Wrenna back. But the warriors' hands clamped on me refused to loosen.

Roderick merely stood there, watching my frantic struggle with cold detachment, as though he were watching some circus performance.

At that moment, I understood. He had never once truly cared about me or our pup.

"I've already done the bloodline test, Seraphina," he said, his voice cruel and unyielding. "Your words mean nothing now."

He announced that false result with merciless finality.

I couldn't understand why the bloodline test, false as it was, had turned his attitude so vicious. His scent reached me through the wind, scorched cedar and cold iron, and beneath it that faint rot I had never been able to name. But I was certain, beyond all doubt, that my daughter was his flesh and blood.

Before I could speak, his communicator chimed again. His Omega liaison.

A flash of urgency crossed Roderick's face. He answered quickly, and because he stood so close, I could hear every word with a wolf's ears.

"Alpha, we've located Calla. She was being held in an abandoned mill on the old hunting grounds. Luckily, we reached her in time. If we hadn't, I'm afraid her pup wouldn't have made it. She's been carried to the Healing Hall now."

The moment he heard the pup was safe, the tension in Roderick's face eased.

But when his gaze swung back to me, it turned cold again. Cold and full of rage, his eyes flashing a hard amber.

"I never imagined you could be so vicious, Seraphina. You'll pay for this."

"No! It wasn't me! You can investigate if you want! It wasn't me!"

Panic surged through me. I clutched at the leg of his trousers, desperate for him to believe me, my wolf keening low in my chest.

But he kicked me away without hesitation. And then, before my horrified eyes, he struck the final blow to my daughter, who was barely clinging to the car.

"No!"

I watched her slip away, falling from the platform into the dark.

With the last of my strength, I tore free from the grip holding me and hurled myself forward, ready to follow her, ready to leave this world with her.

But a hand shot out from behind me, seizing me in a crushing grip.

I turned my head to see Roderick, the veins in his arm bulging as he dragged me back. Remembering how mercilessly he'd just treated our pup, I bit down hard on his arm, my canines lengthening into the bite.

But he didn't let go. Even through the pain, he pulled me all the way back into his arms.

He held me tightly, his tears falling hot against my neck, against the spot where his mating mark had long gone cold.

"It's fine," he whispered harshly. "That little brat is dead, and that's how it should be. Only with her gone can we start over. This... This is the price you had to pay."

I thrashed and fought with everything I had, but his strength was overwhelming.

As darkness closed in on me, my unwilling eyes searched the ground below, desperately, hopelessly, trying to catch even the faintest glimpse of my daughter.

Seraphina's POV

When I woke again, my gaze met the stark white ceiling of the Healing Hall above me. Ignoring the weakness that still clung to my limbs, the kind of weakness that came when a wolf's body had nothing left to draw on, I tried to push myself upright.

But before I could, a long and strong hand reached out from beside me and pressed me firmly back down.

It was Roderick. The faint crescent-shaped bite mark I'd left earlier was still etched into his wrist, raw against his scent of scorched cedar and cold iron, that something faintly rotten threading underneath it the way it always did now.

His brows furrowed as he forced me back against the pillow, and then he reached for a glass of juice.

"Drink some juice first," he said.

I pushed his hand aside without a second thought, my voice urgent. "Where's my pup? Where is she?!"

He answered as though I hadn't even asked. "Not a fan of cranberry? I'll have someone bring another."

My patience snapped. I knocked the glass from his hand, sending the dark red liquid splattering across the floor.

"You murderer!" I screamed. Somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf lunged at the bars of her own ruined body and got nowhere. "Where is my pup?!"

His expression darkened instantly. Rage flashed in his eyes, gold bleeding into the brown, and his Alpha aura cracked through the room like a dropped temperature as he slammed a fist into the wall.

"Pup, pup, she's all you ever think about! Let me tell you, because of you, Calla was frightened and lost so much blood she's on the verge of collapse! Until you make amends, I will never let you see that bastard again!"

My heart twisted like a blade was buried inside.

"She's not a bastard," I rasped, my throat raw. "She's your child!"

But Roderick's gaze was as cold as iron, unmoved by my pain.

"That brat is in the emergency room right now," he said flatly. "If you don't apologize to Calla, I'll order the healers to stop trying to save her."

The words knocked the air out of me. I slumped back onto the bed, my voice trembling.

"Fine I'll apologize to her."

For a moment his expression faltered, surprise flickering in his eyes, but just as quickly it was gone, replaced by that familiar, impenetrable mask.

In silence, I let him drag me toward Calla's room.

We hadn't even stepped inside when chaos erupted from within. Roderick's Omega liaison burst out, panic written across his face, the dry-paper-and-weak-tea scent of him soured with fear.

"Alpha, the healer says Ms. Thornwood has lost too much blood, she needs an immediate transfusion!"

Roderick froze, then whipped around as if a thought had just struck him. Without warning, he yanked me into the room.

"Healer! Use her blood!"

The healer frowned, glancing from me to my thin hospital gown. His eyes widened.

"Alpha, this Luna is already weak from blood loss. Drawing more could put her in serious danger. We can easily call for compatible blood from the pack stores"

Roderick's voice cut like ice.

"I'm not asking for your opinion. Just do as I say."

Under his unyielding demand, the thick needle pierced my arm.

I shut my eyes tight, forcing myself to endure the dizziness. I only wanted this over with. The sooner it was done, the sooner I could see my pup.

Roderick reached as if to smooth the deep furrow in my brow, but I turned my head sharply away. His scent came with the hand, cedar and iron and that faint rot, and my wolf shrank from it as though from silver.

"Seraphina," he murmured, voice low and falsely gentle, "I know you're in pain, but this is you paying for what you've done. Bear with it. It will be over soon."

I didn't so much as glance at him.

When it was finally over, my body gave out. I collapsed weakly onto the floor. The room had gone the kind of quiet where I could hear my own thinning heartbeat, and somewhere under it, my wolf had stopped making any sound at all.

As he moved toward the ward door, ready to rush to Calla, I forced my voice out, hoarse and faint.

"Now can I see my pup?"

Even then, seeing me like this, he only scowled.

"You care so much for that brat," he said coldly, "but you still haven't apologized to Calla. Until you do, you won't see Wrenna."

I no longer had the strength, or the will, to remind him that my pup was his own blood, born of his own bloodline.

Four more days. Just four more days, and I could take her away for good.

When that day came, Roderick would never again be her father!