Rory
December 1, 2026.
"He's making an announcement tonight at Alpha Darren's wedding." Priya practically vibrated beside me as she said it, and the kitchen erupts like she'd set off a firework. "Alpha Asher is naming his mate tonight."
I froze, but said nothing.
The women around me argued and speculated on who Asher would choose as his bride. Their best guess was Kayleigh Norman, whose father had long been an ally of the Lunar Moon pack. They speculated whether the kitchen staff would even be allowed near the wedding ceremony.
Nobody knew about Asher and me.
He had asked me to keep it quiet. His exact words, two years ago, the morning after the bond had snapped into place and he had kissed me until my legs shook. "I need to speak to Darren first. Get his approval before we make it official. You understand, don't you? I want to do this properly."
I had understood. More than that, I had been grateful. It was thoughtful, I'd told myself. He was protecting me from the pack politics, from the public that would frown on a relationship like ours. He was being careful because he cared.
Two years later, I was still understanding.
He'd been away more than he'd been here. Pack business, he said, Alpha duties, things that needed his attention that he couldn't explain in detail. He hadn't been lying. He was just busy.
I had told myself this so many times it had started to sound like a prayer.
"Aurora."
Lilian, the packhouse keeper, stood in the doorway, peering down at me with scorn. "The Alpha has summoned you to his study."
The kitchens fell silent.
She left before I could ask why, and I felt the gases of the servants around me gleaming with suspicion. Abandoning the dishes, I took to the stairs, heart thudding in my chest. Was this it? Was he finally going to announce our relationship and make me his bride? A smile broke across my face and I ran up the stairs two at a time.
The door was not fully latched.
I was three steps away when I heard it.
The wet slap of skin on skin. Sharp, rhythmic and violent. Then Asher's voice came, rougher than I'd ever heard it, like gravel. "Fuck. Take it, Claire. Just like that."
My feet glued themselves to the floorboards.
A guttural grunt towers out of Asher, the same sound he'd made against my throat the night the bond first snapped into place. The desk slammed against the wall in steady, punishing strokes. Fabric ripped and a high, keening whimper followed. "Harder, Asher. Knot me–Deeper– Oh. Oh gods."
My wolf surged forward so violently I staggered. She howled in my skull and it felt like claws were ripping through my chest. I wanted to flee, but I couldn't move.
My mate was having an affair with his older brother's fiancee.
"Tonight has to go perfectly," I heard Asher say after a moment.
Claire Foreman moaned softly. "Are you sure it was enough?"
"I watched him drink it myself," Asher grunted. "Darren will be dead in a few minutes and by morning, I will be the Alpha of the Lunar Moon Pack, and you, my Luna. There will be no more hiding."
"And the Omega girl?"
My nails bit into my palms as Asher chuckled. "Naive little thing. She never suspected the patterns I created with her. Having her always slipping away during her shift, the guards who saw her sneaking away from this wing, and the house keeper It's the perfect story. Darren's bed slave believed she was going to be his Luna. She grew bitter and poisoned him."
I began trembling. With rage, with fear, I wasn't sure.
"What if she pleads innocent?"
Asher snorted. "She's an Omega, Claire. Nobody is going to look very hard for a reason to doubt the story." A small moan. "Moreover, she prepared his tray herself, same as every night. She just needs to be in the right place when he's found."
My hand on the wall was the only thing keeping me upright.
"It takes being a stonecold bastard to lie to a woman for years, only to have her executed for a crime she didn't commit." Claire laughed. "You really are ruthless, my love."
Everything I had come to believe in the last few months unraveled as he said, "I couldn't stand the filth of her. Every time I kissed her, I thought I would die of revulsion. Cutting her loose is a small mercy. To think she ever thought I could love a nobody like her, when I've only ever loved you."
I pushed off the wall on shaky legs. A calm had come over me in the same way it did before I began to lose my mind.
Where would I go? How would I run? Being framed for the murder of an Alpha would end with my execution. Gods, how could I have been so stupid as to believe Alpha Asher ever loved me?
I started running. The only way I could save my life was by saving Alpha Darren's. If I fled now, I would be caught. I had to ensure there was no reason to be caught in the first place.
***
I should've known something was wrong when I noticed the eerie emptiness of the hallway outside Alpha Darren's bedroom, but everyone was in the great hall for the mating ceremony. Celebrations like this often meant the guards were overworked keeping watch outside the perimeter.
I knocked once on the oak door. No response. I pushed it open.
The room smelled like puke and blood.
Alpha Darren was on the floor beside his desk. He was on his hands and knees on the marble and there was blood on the floor beneath him. When he heard me come in he lifted his head and his silver eyes found mine. They were too bright and as he coughed, more blood splattered.
He collapsed, wheezing, and I was instantly there, grabbing his shoulders. "You need to–I'm going to get help–"
His hand closed on my wrist. "Ash…er…" He coughed. Blood, dark and too much of it, poured down the front of his white shirt and he reached for his neck, clawing at it as he wheezed, his face turning shades of red, purple and black.
And it happened so fast, I could do nothing.
He remained still.
In the same second, the door slammed open, hitting the wall.
Asher burst into the room with four guards, Claire following in tow, dressed resplendently in her white, wedding dress. They found me with Darren in my arms, his blood splattered on my skin and clothes.
Claire let out a horrified scream that echoed through the packhouse. "Darren!" she cried out with anguish.
Asher shoved me aside, pressing his fingers to Darren's neck, feeling for his pulse. There was a crowd forming outside the bedroom now, those who had heard Claire's scream, and Asher's hazel eyes were filled with pain as he whispered, "He's gone."
His head rose then, and no one else saw the cruel smile that curved his mouth as he looked at me.
"She killed him." Claire's voice, breaking on cue. "She killed him, she was obsessed with him, she–someone got her away from him–"
And I understood.
The summons to his study, the door left open just enough for me to see and hear, the timing of the guards, the blood on my hands, the position of the body. I hadn't stumbled into this. I had been deceived into it. Every step I had taken tonight had been according to Asher's plan.
"You bastard!" I shrieked, lunging for Asher.
But the guards grabbed me in the same second my nails raked across his cheek. I kicked. I fought. I begged. I pleaded innocent. I tried to run.
But I was tossed in the dungeons with a death sentence hanging over my head.