I nodded weakly, unsure of what else to do. My body was too broken to argue, too exhausted to fight. The man straightened, his piercing gaze never leaving me.

“I know who you are,” he said, his voice calm but carrying a weight I couldn’t ignore. “You’re Luna Selene. Kael’s mate. The Scarlet Moon Pack’s Luna.”

Hearing my title, my connection to Kael, sent a sharp pain through my chest. He was my mate. My husband. The man who was supposed to protect me.

The man who betrayed me.

“And you know what else?” he added, his tone growing darker. “We’re the ones who attacked your celebration.”

His words hit me like a slap. My breath caught, and anger surged through me like wildfire.

“You what?” I hissed, forcing myself to sit up despite the stabbing pain in my side. My hands curled into fists. “You’re the reason my pack is in shambles? You killed them? You destroyed everything?”

I didn’t even think. My hand shot out, ready to slap him, but he caught my wrist with ease. His grip wasn’t tight, just firm enough to stop me.

“Before you lose yourself in anger,” he said coldly, “you might want to hear the rest of the story.”

I glared at him, my chest heaving with rage and pain.

“I saw him,” he continued, his tone unwavering. “Your Alpha. Your mate. I saw Kael put an arrow in your side.”

His words stopped me cold. My body froze, my mind racing to catch up.

“No…” I whispered, shaking my head. “You’re lying.”

“Am I?” he countered. “I saw it with my own eyes. He shot you. Then he ordered his warriors to drag you to the border and throw you out like trash. With the baby.”

The baby. Theo. Not Elias.

The image of Kael standing on that tree stump, commanding his warriors, flashed in my mind. The way he looked at me—cold, empty, like I was nothing.

Tears welled up in my eyes, spilling down my cheeks before I could stop them. “No,” I repeated, my voice cracking. “He wouldn’t. He’s my mate.”

“Your mate?” the man scoffed, letting go of my wrist. “Does a mate betray you? Leave you to die? You think I’m the monster? I lost five warriors in that ambush, but nothing—nothing—compares to the betrayal you just lived through.”

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. His words crushed me, every syllable driving the knife of betrayal deeper into my heart.

Kael shot me.

He ordered me thrown out.

And Aria… my best friend… she took Elias. She took my son and left me to die.

The pain was unbearable, suffocating, like I couldn’t draw a full breath. My vision blurred with tears, and I crumpled, clutching my knees as sobs wracked my body.

“I—I trusted them,” I choked out, the words barely audible. “Kael… Aria… they were my family.”

“And they betrayed you,” the man said flatly, no sympathy in his tone. “Now, you have a choice. You can lay here and die like they wanted, or you can get up, survive, and figure out what you’re going to do about it.”

His words hung in the air, heavy with challenge. I wiped at my tears, my hands trembling.

I didn’t know who this man was, or why he’d saved me after attacking my pack. But one thing was clear: Kael and Aria had left me to die.

And somehow, I was still alive.

“I’ll survive,” I whispered, my voice shaking but resolute. “For Theo. For Elias.”

The man nodded, a flicker of approval in his eyes. “Good. Then you’d better rest. You’ll need your strength.”

That night, I couldn’t stop crying. No matter how hard I tried to hold it together for Theo, the tears kept coming, silent and endless. My heart felt like it had been torn into pieces, and every memory of Kael only made the pain worse.

I used to think he was perfect. The way he loved me… it felt like a dream. I remember how he stood up to my father—my father, the most powerful Alpha I’d ever known—just to be with me. Kael was only a low rank werewolf.

“Selene is my mate,” Kael had said, his voice firm, even as my father glared at him. “I’ll prove I’m worthy of her.”

And he did. Over and over again. My father eventually stepped down and gave Kael the title of Alpha. Kael led the Scarlet Moon Pack with strength and grace. I was so proud of him. So in love with him.

But then Aria came back.

She’d been gone for years, traveling abroad, training with different packs, and growing into her role as Beta. When she returned, I was thrilled to see my best friend again. She's like a sister to me.

But Kael… something shifted in him the moment she walked back into our lives.

I remember catching them once, late at night. I’d gone looking for Kael, expecting to find him in the study, but instead, I found him with Aria. They were standing too close, their voices hushed.

“What are you going to do about it?” Aria had whispered.

“I’ll handle it,” Kael replied, his tone tense but soft.

When they saw me, they froze. Kael quickly stepped away from her, his face unreadable.

“What’s going on?” I’d asked, my stomach twisting.

“Nothing,” Kael said, forcing a smile. “We were just talking about the patrols.”

But I wasn’t stupid. There was something else. Something they weren’t telling me.

Later, I couldn’t shake the image of the way he looked at her. His eyes… they sparkled in a way I hadn’t seen in so long.

Still, I dismissed it. I trusted him. I trusted Aria.

When I finally confronted him about it, I’d been so nervous. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I asked, “Kael… is there something going on between you and Aria?”

He’d looked hurt, almost offended. “Selene, no. How could you even think that? You’re my mate. My Luna. Don’t you trust me?”

“I do,” I’d said quickly, desperate to believe him. “I just… I saw the way you two were talking, and I—”

“It’s nothing,” he’d interrupted, pulling me into his arms. “I promise. Trust me. Trust us. Aria’s your best friend. She loves you, Selene.”

I wanted so badly to believe him. So I did.

Even when I overheard them talking about a pregnancy, I brushed it off. It wasn’t my place to assume. Aria was allowed her privacy. And Kael… Kael would never betray me.

But now, lying here in a strange place, with Theo snuggled against my chest, I couldn’t stop replaying all those moments in my head.

The late-night talks. The stolen glances. The lies I told myself because I loved him too much to see the truth.

Kael and Aria had been betraying me all along.

I cried harder, clutching Theo tighter, as if holding him could somehow stop the pieces of my broken heart from scattering any further.

I’d given Kael everything—my trust, my love, my whole life—and he’d thrown it all away.

And Aria… the woman I called my sister, my confidante… she’d taken it all from me. My mate. My child. My place in the pack.

I wiped at my tears, but they kept falling. It felt like the betrayal would never stop hurting.

“I trusted you,” I whispered into the darkness, my voice cracking. “I trusted both of you.”

But they hadn’t cared. They’d left me to die.

Theo stirred against me, his tiny hand gripping my shirt. His soft, fragile breaths were the only thing anchoring me to reality.

I took a shaky breath and pressed a kiss to his head. I couldn’t break. Not now. He might not be my son but he needed me.

The days blurred into weeks. I was still weak, my body still recovering from the wounds Kael had inflicted, but I forced myself to move, to adapt. I couldn’t afford to fall apart. Not with Theo depending on me.

Thorne, the rogue leader, made his presence known early on. He was a tall, imposing man with silver hair and piercing dark eyes that always seemed to see too much. He rarely smiled, and when he spoke, it was with the kind of authority that demanded attention.

“Selene,” he said one morning, watching me struggle through a set of push-ups with the other rogues. “You want to survive here? You’ll need to work harder than that.”

I glared at him, my arms trembling as I pushed myself up again. “I didn’t ask for your help,” I snapped.

“No,” he said coolly, crossing his arms. “But I’m giving it anyway. You’ve got fire, Luna. But fire alone won’t save you out here.”

Hearing him call me “Luna” stung every time. I wasn’t a Luna anymore. Not to Kael. Not to anyone.

The rogues were tough—physically, mentally, emotionally. They trained relentlessly, honing their skills with a kind of brutal efficiency that left no room for weakness. I tried to keep up, but it wasn’t easy. My body was still healing, and I’d never trained like this before.

Thorne made it clear he had no patience for excuses.

“You’re too soft,” he said after one particularly grueling session. “Your pack pampered you.”

I clenched my fists, anger bubbling up inside me. “I’m not soft. I survived being betrayed by my own pack. I survived being left for dead.”

Thorne studied me, his gaze sharp. “Then prove it.”

The other rogues weren’t any kinder. Most of them didn’t trust me, and I couldn’t blame them. To them, I was just another pack wolf—a Luna who didn’t belong in their world.

But Theo… Theo was a different story. After weeks turn into months…

He’d started bonding with the rogues in ways I hadn’t expected. One of the younger men, a lanky wolf, often played with him, making funny faces and coaxing little giggles out of him. An older woman, had taken to knitting tiny blankets for him in her spare time.

And then there was Thorne.

I caught him one evening, crouched beside Theo with a surprisingly soft expression on his face. Theo reached out and grabbed a strand of Thorne’s silver hair, giggling as he gave it a tug.

“You’ve got a strong grip, little one,” Thorne murmured, his voice unusually gentle.

I watched from the shadows, my chest tightening. It was bittersweet, seeing Theo like this—seeing him smile and laugh when I was still grieving for Elias.

I couldn’t help but wonder: if Elias were here, would he have bonded with these rogues too?

The thought made my heart ache, but I shoved it aside. I couldn’t afford to dwell on what I’d lost.

While we were resting after a brutal training session, a healer among the rogues came to me. She was an older woman with wild, silver hair and kind eyes, but there was a sharpness to her that made her more than just a healer.

“Selene,” she said softly, her voice low as she approached me. “I’ve been watching your ‘son’.”

My heart froze. “Theo?” I asked, my voice tight.

“Yes,” she replied. “He’s sick, isn’t he?”

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. I hadn’t told anyone about the illness that had been slowly consuming him. But the truth was, I’d been afraid to admit it to myself, let alone anyone else.

The healer’s eyes softened with empathy. “There’s something that might help him,” she said, her gaze flickering to the distant horizon. “A rare herb that grows in Scarlet territory. It’s heavily guarded, but it could heal him.”

I felt a surge of hope, something I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in a long time. “What kind of herb?”

She hesitated, as if weighing her words. “It’s called moon’s touch. It’s said to have healing properties that can cure almost any illness, but it only grows in one place—deep within the heart of Scarlet territory. The pack guards it with their lives.”

My chest tightened. Scarlet territory. My territory. Where Kael’s warriors would no doubt hunt me down if they saw me.

But Theo needed it. If there was even a chance to save him… I had to try.

“Can you help me?” I asked, my voice raw with desperation.

The healer nodded. “I can. But you’ll have to get it yourself. No one can enter that land without being detected. Not unless you can move through the shadows, unnoticed.”

I clenched my fists, determination settling in my bones. This was my chance. My only chance.

“Then I’ll do it,” I said, my voice hard with resolve.

And as I stood there, looking out into the wilderness, I realized something else.

I wasn’t just fighting for Theo anymore. I was fighting for my own survival, for the vengeance I’d promised myself. For my son, Elias. The Scarlet Moon Pack had betrayed me, but they would learn that I wasn’t someone they could discard so easily.

I’d find the moon’s touch. I’d heal Theo. And then… take my son, Elias from Kael and Aria.