After My Alpha Betrayed Me, I Found the Lycan King

The Moon Goddess Festival always made my heart race—not from fear, but from pure, electric anticipation. Tonight was no different. I stood on the launch platform, my fingers steady on the ignition switch despite the adrenaline singing through my veins. Below me, the entire Silver Moon Pack had gathered in the ceremonial clearing, their faces turned upward like flowers seeking the sun. This was my moment. My art.

I'd spent three months perfecting this finale. Every fuse timed to the second. Every burst choreographed to paint the night sky in silver and gold—the Moon Goddess's colors. As the pack's Delta and head fireworks coordinator, I took pride in making our most sacred night unforgettable.

My gaze drifted to the VIP balcony where Alpha Luca stood. My mate. The bond between us hummed softly in my chest, a constant warmth I'd grown to cherish in the six months since we'd discovered each other. I expected him to smile, maybe give me that small nod he always did before my displays. Instead, his face was cold. Sneering.

Brittany Green stood beside him, her arm looped possessively through his. Her lips curved into something that made my stomach twist.

Something was wrong.

But the countdown had already begun. The pack was chanting, their voices rising in the ancient hymn to the Moon Goddess. I couldn't stop now. My father's voice echoed in my mind—the same man who'd trained Luca, who'd taught me that duty came before doubt. I pushed the unease down and focused on the switch beneath my palm.

"For the Moon Goddess," I whispered, and triggered the fuse.

The world exploded.

Not the controlled burst of color I'd designed. Not the cascading silver sparks that should have rained down like blessings. This was wrong—violently, catastrophically wrong. The charges detonated early, all at once, and the platform beneath my feet erupted in a wave of heat and blinding light. But worse than the fire was the smoke. Silver-laced and choking, it poured into my lungs with the first shocked gasp.

Wolfsbane.

The realization hit me the same instant the blast threw me off the platform. I felt my wolf, my constant companion since I was fourteen, scream inside my mind—and then go silent. The bond severed like a cut rope, leaving a hollow, aching void where she'd always been.

I slammed into the ground hard enough to crack ribs. Pain exploded through my left side, my shoulder, my face. The smell of burning flesh—my flesh—made my stomach heave. I tried to push myself up, but my arms wouldn't cooperate. Everything hurt. Everything was wrong.

Through the ringing in my ears, I heard screaming. The pack was scattering, panicking. Smoke billowed across the clearing, thick and toxic. I coughed, tasting blood and ash, and tried to call out for help. For Luca. For anyone.

Footsteps approached. Heavy. Deliberate.

"Silence."

The Alpha Command hit me like a physical blow, crushing the air from my lungs and forcing my jaw shut. I looked up through the haze and saw him. Luca. My mate. But his eyes held no recognition, no concern. Only cold calculation.

"Members of the Silver Moon Pack," his voice boomed across the clearing, amplified by his Alpha authority. The panicked crowd stilled, turning toward him like puppets on strings. "What you have just witnessed was not an accident. It was an assassination attempt."

No. No, that wasn't—

I tried to speak, to deny it, but the Alpha Command still held my throat closed. I could only make small, desperate sounds as I struggled to breathe through the pain.

"Evelynn Lynch," Luca continued, his voice dripping with disgust as he stared down at me, "has conspired with Rogue wolves to murder me and destabilize our pack. The evidence is clear. She alone had access to the fireworks. She alone could have made this swap."

Swap? What swap? These were my fireworks. I'd checked them myself this morning, locked them in the—

The storage shed. I'd left them locked, but Luca had the master key. He'd always had the master key.

Oh, Goddess.

I tried to reach for him through the mate bond, to make him feel my innocence, my confusion, my terror. But the bond that should have connected us felt muffled, distant. And when his eyes met mine, I saw the truth. He knew exactly what he was doing.

"Luca," I managed to rasp, forcing the word past the Alpha Command through sheer desperation. "I'm your mate—"

His hand shot out, and I felt his dominance crash over me like a tidal wave. My vocal cords seized. My body went rigid. Every instinct I had as a wolf—even with my inner wolf silent and unreachable—screamed at me to submit, to bow, to accept his authority.

I collapsed fully onto the ground, my cheek pressing into the dirt.

"You are nothing," Luca said, his voice quiet now but somehow more terrible for it. "By my authority as Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, I strip you of your rank as Delta. You are hereby demoted to Omega. You have no rights. No protection. No place among us."

The pack's collective gasp felt like another physical blow.

Omega. The lowest rank. Reserved for the broken, the useless, the unwanted.

Through my blurring vision, I saw Brittany step forward, her smile sharp and triumphant. She leaned down, her lips close to my ear.

"You should have known better than to stand in my way," she whispered.

Then she straightened and took Luca's hand, and together they walked away, leaving me bleeding and broken in the ashes of my own creation.