The Royal Healer’s words echoed in the bone-deep silence. An ancient evil. Something that lived inside Chloe. My mind reeled, trying to grasp the shape of a horror worse than my half-sister’s treachery. Kaelen’s arm was a band of steel around me, his presence the only solid thing in a world that had just tilted on its axis. “What was it?” I whispered, my voice raw. His silver eyes, usually so fierce, held a darkness I had never seen before. “A shadow. A parasite of the soul. It feeds on weakness, on ambition. It promises power, but it only consumes.” My blood ran cold. Chloe had been consumed. Not just by poison, but by her own festering hatred, which had opened a door for something else to walk in. The thought was sickening. But then, another memory clawed its way to the surface, sharp and bloody. Chloe wasn't the only one who had tried to kill me. The forest. The snapping of twigs under heavy paws. The glint of moonlight on bared teeth. The sneering faces of Mark and Silas, two of Logan’s most loyal enforcers, as they left me bleeding on the forest floor, certain I would die. They had followed Chloe’s orders. They had tried to tear me apart. A new feeling, hard and cold as diamond, crystallized in my chest. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t grief. It was rage. A pure, clean rage that burned away all the weakness I once had. I pulled away from Kaelen, turning to face him. My spine was straight, my chin high. “They’re still out there,” I said, my voice flat and devoid of emotion. “The ones who attacked me in the woods. They are still breathing my air.” Kaelen watched me, his expression unreadable, but I could feel the thrum of power coming off him, a low hum of approval that vibrated through the mate bond. “They are rogues now,” he stated. “Scrabbling for scraps in a forest that no longer belongs to them.” “It’s not enough,” I said. The words tasted like vengeance. “They tried to murder your Luna. An attack on me is an attack on you. On our pack. It cannot go unanswered.” His lips curved into a slow, predatory smile that made my heart hammer in my chest. It wasn’t a smile of warmth; it was a smile of shared savagery. “And what do you propose, my fierce mate?” “I’m going back,” I declared, the decision solidifying as I spoke it. “I’m going into that forest. And I am going to hunt them down.” I expected him to refuse. To tell me it was too dangerous. To say he would handle it. Instead, his eyes blazed with a possessive fire that stole my breath. He saw the shift in me, the final death of the weak girl they had all tried to break. He didn't want to protect that girl. He wanted to unleash the queen. “You will not go alone,” he commanded, his voice a low growl. He raised his hand and his Beta, a mountain of a Lycan named Ryker, appeared at his side instantly. “Assemble my Royal Guard. The Luna has a hunt to lead.” Ryker’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second before a look of profound respect settled on his harsh features. He bowed his head low. “At once, my King.” An hour later, I stood at the edge of the Silver Moon forest. The territory felt wrong, tainted by the shame of being declared rogue. The very air was thick with desperation. I was no longer the girl who had run through these trees in terror. I wore black leather armor, silvered to a shine, with Kaelen’s royal crest emblazoned over my heart. My hair was braided back tightly, and at my hip was a dagger with a hilt of carved wolf bone—a gift from the King. Behind me stood twenty of the most lethal warriors in the Lycan kingdom. Kaelen’s Royal Guard. They were silent, disciplined, their power a palpable force. They answered to me. I closed my eyes, breathing in the familiar scent of pine and damp earth. But beneath it, I could smell the fear. The stench of two wolves who knew they were being hunted. “They’re near the old creek bed,” I said, my eyes snapping open. “Trying to mask their scent with running water. They’re amateurs.” Ryker, standing at my right, nodded grimly. “Your senses are sharp, Luna.” “They were always sharp,” I corrected him, my voice like ice. “No one ever bothered to notice.” I didn’t shift. I wanted them to see my face when I found them. I led the guard into the twilight of the trees, moving with a predator’s grace. This forest was my home. It knew me. It had watched me bleed, and now it would watch me reclaim my power. We found them an hour later, just as I’d predicted. Mark and Silas. They were gaunt, their fur matted, their eyes wild with hunger and paranoia. They were trying to trap a rabbit when we surrounded them, melting out of the shadows like ghosts. They froze, their pathetic trap forgotten. Their jaws dropped when they saw me, standing at the head of a phalanx of Lycan warriors. They didn't see the weak, bloodless omega they’d beaten. They saw a queen. “Ayla,” Mark breathed, his voice cracking with disbelief and terror. “It’s Luna Ayla to you,” Ryker snarled, taking a menacing step forward. I held up a hand, stopping him. This was my justice to deliver. “You remember me, then,” I said, my voice carrying in the silent woods. “I’m glad. I want you to remember everything you did. Every blow. Every laugh while you left me to die.” Silas dropped to his knees, his head hitting the dirt. “Please, Luna! It was Chloe! Alpha Logan’s chosen! She ordered us! We had no choice!” “You always have a choice,” I countered, stepping closer. I walked a slow circle around them, my boots crunching on the dead leaves. The Royal Guard remained perfectly still, a wall of silent death. “You chose to follow a weak, conniving female. You chose to attack a pack member. And you chose to try and murder the fated mate of the Lycan King.” I paused, letting the weight of their treason settle over them. “Poor choices all around.” Mark scrambled backward, his eyes darting for an escape he knew he didn't have. “We’ll serve you! We swear! We’ll be loyal to you and the King! Please!” The pathetic begging disgusted me. It was the sound of cowards who only respected power when it was pressing on their throats. I looked at Ryker. “The penalty for attempting to murder the Luna of the Lycan King is death,” I stated, my tone final. I felt no pity. No remorse. Only a cold, satisfying certainty. Ryker and another guard seized them, their claws extending. Mark began to thrash, his sanity finally snapping under the weight of his fate. “No! You don’t understand!” he shrieked, his eyes rolling wildly in his head. “Her blood! It’s not a blessing from the Goddess!” I froze, my hand hovering over the hilt of my dagger. “It’s a curse!” Mark screamed, his voice raw with terror as Ryker’s grip tightened. “Your mother… she knew what they wanted you for!”

Hunting the Traitors