Alina's POV
The Luna quarters are beautiful in a way that makes me want to scream.
Soft cream colored walls. A bed that could fit five people. Windows that overlook the entire Shadowpeak territory. The furniture is expensive wood carved with careful detail. Everything is designed to make a Luna feel like a queen.
Everything is designed to make a cage feel like a home.
Two servants finish unpacking my belongings while whispering to each other just loud enough for me to hear. They think I cannot catch their words but my wolf hearing is sharp even through the suppressants. They are saying how lucky I am. How fortunate to be chosen by the great Alpha Kael Draven. How girls across all territories would kill for this position.
If only they knew that one of those girls killed my entire family to get here.
I smile softly and thank them for their help. They beam at me like I have given them a gift. Submission is a language I speak fluently now. Weakness is a costume I wear so well that people forget there is anything underneath.
The servants leave and I finally let the smile drop.
My hands are shaking and I hate it. I move to the window and grip the stone frame until my fingers hurt. The suppressant potion I took this morning is already wearing off and I can feel my wolf stirring restlessly beneath my skin. She wants to run. She wants to hunt. She wants to rip something apart with her bare teeth.
Instead I have to stand here and pretend to be harmless.
The suppressants are the worst part. Every morning I swallow the bitter liquid and feel it burn down my throat like poison. My uncle Thomas says it gets easier with time but five years in, I have learned he was lying. It never gets easier. It just becomes normal to feel like you are suffocating from the inside out.
Without the suppressants, Kael would smell the Moonvale blood running through my veins. He would recognize what I am. And my revenge would be over before it started.
So I swallow the poison every morning and I smile and I pretend to be nothing.
I spend the next hour exploring my new cage. I check every corner of the sitting room. I examine the locks on the doors and windows. I find two possible escape routes. One through the main corridor that leads to the fortress entrance. One through a service passage behind the bedroom wardrobe that probably connects to the kitchen or supply rooms.
Information is a weapon and I am collecting every piece I can find.
From the window, I watch the guard patrol patterns. Three wolves rotate through the Luna wing every hour. They change shifts at predictable times. There are gaps in the coverage, moments when the corridor is empty if you are fast enough.
A servant comes to bring me dinner. I watch where she comes from, note the direction she goes. More information. More weapons.
I am so focused on mapping the fortress that I almost miss the knock.
The door opens before I can answer and a woman walks in like she owns the room. She is beautiful in the way that dangerous things are beautiful. Dark hair. Perfect features. Eyes that burn with something ugly beneath the surface.
She looks at me like I am something she found stuck to her shoe.
"So you are the new Luna," she says and her voice drips with disgust. Not even a greeting. Not even basic courtesy. Just judgment.
I lower my eyes immediately. Perfect submission. Perfect weakness. "Yes, I am Alina. It is nice to meet you."
"Alina." She repeats my name like it tastes bad. She circles me slowly, examining me from every angle. I keep my head down and my body small. Let her think I am afraid. Let her underestimate me. "What a forgettable name. Fitting, really, for a forgettable girl."
My wolf snarls inside my chest. I swallow the impulse to respond.
The woman stops circling and stands directly in front of me. I have to look up now. Her eyes are dangerous and they are studying me like she is trying to find something to tear apart.
"I am Vera Stone," she says and there is ownership in the way she introduces herself. "Daughter of the Beta. I am sure you have heard of me."
I have not heard of her but I nod anyway.
Vera's smile is cold. "I expected to be Luna. Kael and I had an understanding. We were going to be mates. Then the Council stuck him with you and ruined everything." She steps closer and I have to force myself not to move away. "Do you understand what that means?"
My heart is pounding but my voice stays soft. "I am sorry if I have caused problems for you."
"Sorry." Vera laughs and it sounds like breaking glass. "You have no idea what problems are coming. Shadowpeak is not kind to those who do not belong. Accidents happen all the time. Especially to those who are weak." She pauses and her smile gets wider. "Especially to those who do not belong here."
The threat hangs in the air between us.
I should be afraid. The smart part of me knows that Vera is dangerous and powerful and has the loyalty of the pack. She could make my life impossible. She could expose me. She could kill me.
But underneath the suppressants, my wolf is laughing.
This woman thinks I am weak. This woman thinks I am just some omega girl who wandered into a fortress and got lucky. This woman has no idea that she is standing in a room with the daughter of the Alpha she lost, the girl who has trained every single day for five years to be dangerous.
Vera is a problem but she is not my biggest problem. She is just a distraction.
I keep my hands steady even though they want to shake. I keep my eyes down even though I want to look at her and let her see what I really am. I keep my voice soft even though I want to scream.
"I understand," I whisper.
Vera studies me for another long moment like she is waiting for me to break. When I do not, she loses interest. She turns toward the door then pauses.
"One more thing," she says without looking back at me. "Kael does not really care about his wife. He will not protect you from pack politics. So do not think that marrying him makes you safe." She finally turns to face me and her smile is pure poison. "Accidents happen in Shadowpeak, especially to those who do not belong here."
She leaves before I can respond.
I stand alone in the beautiful Luna quarters and feel my hands shaking again. This time it is not from the suppressants. This time it is from the effort of pretending.
I walk to the mirror and look at the girl staring back at me. Her eyes are down. Her shoulders are hunched. Her entire body screams that she is harmless and weak and forgettable.
Good.
But I can see something else in the mirror too. I can see the wolf beneath the skin. I can see the girl who watched her parents die. I can see the survivor who climbed out of the ashes and learned how to hunt.
Vera Stone made a mistake today.
She showed me her hand. She showed me that she is threatened by me even though she thinks I am weak. She showed me that she is willing to hurt me to protect what she thinks should be hers.
And she made it clear that the only person I can trust in this fortress is myself.
I open my hidden bag and pull out my journal. I write in careful code that would look like random chicken scratch to anyone who found it. I document everything Vera said. Everything she threatened. Every gesture that revealed her weakness.
Vera is not my target but she is useful. She is unpredictable and emotional and dangerous. She is the kind of enemy who will eventually destroy herself if you just wait long enough.
I close the journal and slide it back into its hiding place.
The suppressant is wearing off again and my body aches. My wolf is clawing at the inside of my skin, demanding to be released, demanding blood, demanding that I stop pretending to be something I am not.
Tomorrow I will take another dose. Tomorrow I will smile and bow my head and play the weak omega again.
But tonight, in this beautiful cage of a room, I let myself feel the rage.
Tonight I remember that I came here for a reason.
Tonight I let myself remember exactly what I am capable of.
A soft knock sounds at the door and I quickly wipe my face clean of any emotion. I am the forgettable bride again. The harmless omega. The girl who belongs nowhere.
"Come in," I call softly.
A servant enters with additional bedding and does not even look at me. I am already invisible.