Chapter 5

Selena gave a single command, and several guards seized my arms at once.

"Let go of me!"

I fought with everything I had, but I didn't have the strength left even to stand.

They ignored my screams, dragging me the whole way from Moonshadow Hall to the most remote corner of Silvermoon Keep, the Punishment Grounds.

My bare skin scraped over the rough stone path again and again.

Behind me, two stark trails of blood slowly smeared across the ground.

Elena was dragged along too, hauled by another guard.

Her face was covered in blood, and still she kept repeating it, over and over:

"She's the Luna..."

"She's carrying the Alpha King's heir..."

"You'll kill His Majesty's only child..."

But every guard we passed lowered their head. Not one of them dared step forward to stop it.

Selena had governed Silvermoon Keep for only a few months, yet she had already taught every soul here to fear her.

Those who once defied her had either been cast out of the pack or thrown into the dungeons.

No one wanted to be next.

When we reached the Punishment Grounds, the guard holding me gave a careless shove.

I hit the ground like a piece of discarded trash.

A violent, plunging pain tore through my belly.

By instinct I curled inward, both hands pressed tight over my child.

The Punishment Grounds held more than a hundred wolves guilty of grave crimes.

Some were wolf-kind traitors stripped of their standing, some were rogues no territory would take in, and a few, bound so long in silver chains, had already slipped into a half-feral state.

Every day they hauled ore here, cleared filthy runoff, and dug out the most dangerous underground passages of Silvermoon Keep.

My arrival stirred them all in an instant.

The sound of chains dragging across the ground rose one after another.

They stopped their work and turned, all of them, to look at me.

When they saw my ruined robe and the wounds bared to the open air, their eyes changed at once.

Surprise.

Curiosity.

And something malicious that turned my blood to ice.

Ashamed and furious, all I could do was sit on the ground and clutch the torn fabric tight against my body.

Selena strolled forward with that flock of noble young ladies.

She watched me shield myself in such wretched shame, and one corner of her mouth curled with contempt.

"Only now you learn shame?"

"When you were seducing the royal guard, why didn't you spare a thought for your dignity?"

"Since you claim you're not afraid of defiling the royal bloodline, today I'll let everyone see just how filthy a woman who betrays the Alpha King really is."

Dread clamped down on my heart in a single beat.

I lifted my head and stared at her.

"Selena, what exactly are you trying to do?"

She didn't answer me.

She turned to face the wolves imprisoned in the Punishment Grounds, her voice carrying clear across the whole square.

"This woman is impersonating the Luna Queen, and she lies that the mongrel in her belly is the heir of the North."

"She conspired with a royal guard, trampling the Alpha King's dignity in the open."

"Today, I grant you all the right to punish her on Silvermoon Keep's behalf."

She paused, and the smile on her face turned crueler still.

"Whoever pleases me most, I'll consider pardoning his crimes and setting him free again."

Freedom.

To those caged in the Punishment Grounds, that word held more temptation than food or life itself.

Heavy breathing broke out all around me at once.

A few of the rogues threw down their tools first and closed in on me.

Then more of them worked loose the ropes binding them to their labor, crowding forward, unable to wait.

I shrank back in terror.

"Don't come near me!"

"I am the Luna Queen of the North!"

"I carry the Alpha King's only heir!"

Those words made the ones in front stop where they stood.

Even criminals cast out of the pack understood what it meant to harm the Luna and the royal heir.

A man with a long scar across his face glanced warily toward Selena.

"Is what she says true?"

"If she really is the Luna, every one of us will be executed."

Selena's expression went cold in an instant.

"Do you think the true Luna would be lying here on the Punishment Grounds in torn rags?"

"She's nothing but a madwoman babbling to save her own skin."

"I am the steward of Silvermoon Keep, appointed by the Alpha King himself. If anything goes wrong, the answer falls to me."

Her gaze swept over the crowd as she went on, luring them:

"Or would you rather keep those silver chains forever and die here in this Punishment Grounds, than seize your one chance at freedom?"

In the end, the pull of freedom overpowered their fear.

They closed in on me again.

I wanted to run, but I didn't have the strength even to rise.

Hands filthy with mud reached for me.

Someone grabbed my arm.

Someone pinned my shoulder.

Someone tried to tear away the last scrap covering me.

I curled tighter, fighting to shield my belly and my body.

"Stop!"

"Don't touch my child!"