Chapter 1

After five years trapped in a cursed slumber, I finally woke up. The first thing I did was follow the scent of my mate, my Alpha, Kaelen.

I found him in his office, kissing another woman-a mousy Omega I barely recognized. He told me she meant nothing, that she was just there to soothe his grief. Like a fool, I believed him.

But when I went to the pack's Hall of Records, the elder told me I had been declared legally dead three years ago. The petition was signed by my own parents and executed by Kaelen. He had already chosen a new Luna: her.

My own son told me I should have stayed dead. He said the other woman was nicer and should be his mother.

Then, the woman who replaced me tried to kill me, pulling me off a cliff into a raging river. Kaelen dove in, swam right past my outstretched hand, and saved her.

Lying paralyzed in a hospital bed, I was forced to listen as Kaelen used his Alpha's Command to order a blood transfusion to save her life. He never even asked who the donor was. He just demanded they drain my life to save his chosen mate.

As my life drained away, I saw my entire family-my mate, my parents, my son-gathered around her bed, a perfect picture of happiness. That's when I finally understood. Waking up was a mistake. My only path forward was to disappear and pray they would never find the ghost I was about to become.

Chapter 1

LYRA'S POV:

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the scent of him. Kaelen. My mate. It was the smell of a winter forest after a storm, sharp pine and cold, clean earth. For five years, it had been a ghost in my dreams, a memory I clung to in the endless, cursed darkness.

Now, it was real. And it was mixed with something else. Something cheap and sweet, like wilted flowers.

I had woken up just hours ago, my body stiff and weak from a slumber that felt like a century. The witch's curse was finally broken. I was back. But when I followed his scent to his office, I saw him. My Alpha. My Kaelen. He was kissing her, a mousy Omega named Seraphina.

His lips were on hers, his strong hands cupping her face. My heart, which had just started beating with joy, seized in my chest.

He pulled away when he felt my presence, his eyes wide with shock.

"Lyra," he breathed, his voice a raw whisper.

"She... she soothes my wolf," he had stammered, rushing to my side. "It's been wild with grief for you, Lyra. It's nothing. She means nothing."

And like a fool, I believed him. My love for him was a vast, deep ocean, and this was just a single, ugly ripple. I chose to smooth it over. I let him hold me, let his familiar scent chase away the cloying sweetness of hers.

But now, I stand in the Black Moon Pack's Hall of Records, a cold dread creeping up my spine. The elder, a weary wolf with silver in his hair, avoids my eyes.

"I don't understand," I say, my voice trembling. "What do you mean, my file is sealed?"

He sighs, the sound like rustling dead leaves. "Lyra... three years ago, you were declared 'Lost to the Moon'."

The words are nonsense. A formality for those whose bodies are never found, a way for the pack to mourn and move on. "Declared? By whom?"

"The petition was initiated by your parents," he says softly, sliding a heavy parchment across the desk. "For the stability of the pack. And... it was executed by Alpha Kaelen."

My eyes scanned the document. My parents' signatures. Kaelen's official seal, pressed into dark red wax. They hadn't just mourned me. They had legally erased me.

"He has a Chosen Mate now," the elder continues, his voice full of pity. "A Luna. Her name is Seraphina."

Seraphina. The name tastes like ash in my mouth. I remember her from five years ago, a shadow in the corner of every room. I remember the day of the Rogue attack. She had led me into that clearing, her eyes wide with false terror, right into their trap. I had fought to protect Kaelen, who was miles away, unaware. The Rogues' claws had torn me apart, and their witch's curse had dragged me into that long sleep.

Kaelen had found me, bleeding out. He had held me and sworn on the Moon Goddess herself that he would wait for me. "Forever, Lyra," he had wept. "I'll wait forever."

My pack token, a small, carved wolf I hold clutched in my hand, feels cold and useless. "It's void," the elder confirms, seeing my gaze. "It has been for years."

A sharp ping echoes in my mind. It's the Mind-Link, the invisible thread that connects all members of a pack, allowing us to speak mind-to-mind. Alpha Kaelen's voice, warm and smooth as honey, wraps around my thoughts.

"Lyra, my love, are you with the elder? Stay there. I'll have the pack doctor meet you at the hospital. Just a check-up, to be safe. Don't come to the manor just yet."

Don't come to the manor. Because she is there. Because my son, Caelus, brought her there. He calls her his "tutor."

I don't answer the Mind-Link. I walk out of the Hall of Records like a ghost, my feet carrying me toward the one place he told me not to go.

The Alpha's manor, our home, is lit up, music and laughter spilling out into the night. I stay in the shadows of the trees, my enhanced hearing picking up every word.

I see them on the grand terrace. Kaelen. My parents. And my son, Caelus, his small hand tucked into Seraphina's. She's wearing a crown of white flowers. They're celebrating her.

"I wish she hadn't woken up," I hear my son's clear voice say. "Seraphina is nicer. She should be my mother."

My mother laughs, a sound that has always brought me comfort. Now, it feels like a physical blow. "Hush, little cub. Your father is the Alpha. The pack needed a Luna. We did what was best for everyone when we held the ceremony."

My father nods in agreement. "It was the right thing to do. Kaelen couldn't rule alone forever."

They did this. They all did this. They buried me while I was still breathing.

The Mate Bond, that sacred connection the Moon Goddess forges between two souls, doesn't just crack. It shatters. The feeling is a violent, wrenching agony in the center of my being, a gaping void where a universe of love used to be. I gasp, stumbling back, my hand flying to my chest.

Another Mind-Link cuts through the pain, this one old and kind. It's Master Elara, the pack's wisest healer.

"Lyra, child. I know what you've learned. There is a place for you, if you want it. A neutral territory. Whispering Vale. A place where you answer to no Alpha but yourself."

My breath hitches. A place to be free.

"Yes," I send back, my voice in my head raw with unshed tears. "I accept."

I turn my back on the manor, on the family that erased me, on the mate who replaced me. The love I had for them is a corpse now, and I will not stay to watch it rot.

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