PAULINE
The call ended with a click that felt too final.
I set the phone down on the dresser harder than I meant to. The sound cracked through the silence of my chambers. My chambers. Not ours. Never ours currently, not since we’d come to this backwater excuse for a pack territory.
Silver Creek.
Even the name tasted like rust in my mouth.
I turned to face the mirror. The woman staring back at me had my eyes, my bone structure, my mouth set in that same hard line I’d perfected over decades. But the rest... the rest was a betrayal written in skin and the cruel thing that was time.
Wrinkles creased the corners of my eyes. Fine lines branched from my lips like cracks in porcelain. My neck, which had once been smooth and elegant, now showed the faint suggestion of loosening skin. I touched my jawline and felt the barely perceptible softness there. Age was creeping in despite every cream, every treatment, every desperate attempt to hold it back.
I hated it.
I hated the mirror for showing me truth. I hated time for being the one opponent I couldn’t manipulate, threaten or destroy.
My gaze dropped to the bed behind me, reflected in the glass. It was serviceable. I could say clean and as adequate as this place could manage. But it wasn’t the massive four-poster I’d had back home in Nocturne territory. It wasn’t draped in imported silks or piled with pillows that cost good money. What was in front of me was just a bed. A perfectly acceptable, utterly mediocre bed.
Dimitri had his own chambers three doors down.
The thought made my jaw clench. He claimed he needed his own space for pack business. For late-night consultations with sentinels and advisors. For phone calls that couldn’t be disturbed. And of course that the bed would be too small for both us while ranting about how much I hated his late business dealings.
Lies.
All of it lies wrapped in convenience and tied with a bow of plausible deniability.
I knew what he was doing. I’d always known. That man had never met a skirt he didn’t want to lift or a willing body he didn’t want to use. In our own territory, I’d had systems in place. Spies in every corner. Eyes watching his every move. I’d known about every affair, every casual fuck, every moment of weakness.
And I’d dealt with most of them.
The ones who got too comfortable disappeared. The ones who started making demands found themselves suddenly exiled or worse. The ones who dared to think they could replace me learned very quickly that being Luna wasn’t just a title. It was a position you defended with blood if necessary.
Here though, in Silver Creek, my network was smaller. My reach more limited. I had people, yes. But not enough. Not nearly enough to watch Dimitri the way he needed to be watched.
He was probably with someone right now.
The thought slithered through my mind like poison. Some young wolf with firm skin and bright eyes and none of the complications that came with a wife who knew all his secrets. Some eager thing who thought fucking an Alpha meant something more than being a warm body for the night.
I’d dealt with dozens like them. Hundreds, maybe. I couldn’t remember them all anymore. They blurred together into one continuous parade of threats I’d eliminated or neutralized.
But one stood out.
One I couldn’t forget no matter how hard I tried.
Athena.
Even thinking her name now made something ugly twist in my chest. It was not quite rage, nor was it fear. It was something worse. The kind of feeling that could only come from seeing what belonged to you be claimed without effort.
She’d been an Omega. A Nothing girl.
Less than nothing by pack standards if I was being honest. But Dimitri had looked at her like she was treasure.
Like she was special.
And worse than his attention had been with every other of his whore. The way wolves started whispering about her. About how the Alpha favored her. About how maybe, just maybe, she might become something more.
Luna Athena.
The words had never been spoken aloud where I could hear them, but I’d felt them hovering in the air. I’d seen the speculation in people’s eyes. The calculation.
In this world, even being born Luna wasn’t enough protection. I’d watched it happen to others. Wives cast aside for younger models. Lunas replaced by mistresses who’d finally gained enough power and favor. Queens dethroned by ambitious concubines.
I’d sworn it would never happen to me.
The first time Dimitri brought Athena around, I’d let it slide. It was a fling. A distraction. He’d had those before and they always burned out. I always made sure of that.
The second time, I’d made subtle moves. Had her reassigned to less favorable duties. Made sure she wasn’t in places where Dimitri would see her.
The third time, when I found out he’d been sneaking off to meet her, I’d confronted him directly. We’d fought. He’d denied it mattered. Said I was overreacting.
But then the rumors became even worse.
Whispers that spread like rot through the pack. An Omega was going to be elevated. The Alpha was going to make her official. She was going to be given status, title and power.
All the things meant for me and me alone.
She was going to replace me.
I couldn’t allow it. Not then. Not ever.
Murder would have been the clean option. It was simple as it was direct. But sometimes opportunities presented themselves that were too good to waste.
The head warlock of the Primrose coven had approached me through channels so discrete most people didn’t know they existed. He was conducting experiments. Secret ones. The kind that required subjects who wouldn’t be missed. Who wouldn’t be looked for. Who wouldn’t matter.
An Omega fit that description perfectly.