SERENITY KELLER
The Moon Ceremony took place deep in a forest that the Vernal pack had sealed off. There, a perfectly round lake—shaped like the full moon—reflected the moon's complete image on the water's surface one night each year when the Moon Goddess ascended her throne.
It was considered the Vernal pack's sacred ground.
Since Lizzie had called when the ceremony was about to begin, I went straight to the sacred lake to find her. I'd worn a hooded cloak to avoid drawing attention, but as I walked along the shore, I still heard pack members observing me from the shadows, along with barely audible whispers.
"Look—it's that traitor! How dare she show her face here? Didn't the Alpha lock her up?"
"Maybe the Alpha let her out for the Moon Ceremony."
"Haven't you heard? She's not leading the ceremony this year. The sweet and kind Miss Liv is."
"My God, how does she have the nerve to come here? Why does she still look like she doesn't even care?"
I kept my spine straight, unaffected by the gossip.
I had voluntarily given up the ceremonial role. They probably wouldn't believe that if I told them.
But without those heavy responsibilities, without hundreds of eyes on me, terrified of making even the smallest mistake—I felt lighter than I had in years.
They thought losing the ceremonial position would crush me.
But I had already let go of Elias, my fated mate. What was a ceremonial role compared to that?
I walked on with a light heart, searching for Lizzie while admiring the sacred lake's silver beauty under the night sky. Once I left the Vernal pack for good, I would probably never see this place again.
"Excuse me, coming through —" While I stood by the lake lost in thought, I suddenly heard Lizzie's voice. I turned to see her and a group of pack members rushing toward me through the crowd. All of them were carrying armloads of ceremonial supplies, panting heavily.
"Luna, you really came!" Lizzie's face lit up with grateful joy.
I nodded and reached out to take some of her load. "Lizzie, let me help."
She tried to stop me, snatching the items back. "No, no! I can't let you do this kind of work!"
"I came specifically to help you." I gently but firmly dodged her hands, then looked at the people behind her. They were also carrying ceremonial supplies, their eyes darting around uncomfortably. I knew what they were thinking. I deliberately raised my voice. "I'm not staying for the Moon Ceremony. Once we're done, I'm leaving."
I watched them quietly exhale with relief.
Only Lizzie looked disappointed. "You really won't stay? Not even as a regular member?"
I didn't answer. Lizzie followed my gaze and turned to see their expressions.
She suddenly exploded and grabbed my arm to lead me away.
"Lizzie?" the group called after her in surprise. She spun around and yelled at them. "Don't follow us! Since you're so unhappy with who I brought, you can get lost! Go find that Liv and see if she gives a damn about you!"
They regretted it immediately. They scrambled to catch up, but the ceremonial items in their arms slowed them down.
Lizzie and I shared the load and ran forward together. Apologies and shouts chased us on the wind. I couldn't help laughing out loud, feeling as if I'd rediscovered the pure joy of running across a meadow as a child.
Finally, we stopped in front of the small cabin in the forest where ceremonial items were stored.
Lizzie pulled out a key and opened the door. We went inside and set everything down. I looked at her young face, still clouded with worry, and shook my head.
"Lizzie." I handed her a folded piece of paper. "This has all the ceremony procedures and the exact placement of every item. I wrote it all down. Take it to them."
"Luna..." Lizzie hadn't expected this. She was almost speechless. "Why would you still help them? After the way they treated you..."
"You're part of their group. If the preparations go wrong, you'll be punished too," I said. "I don't want that to happen to you. Besides, I wrote this down in advance. I knew exactly how they'd treat me."
But I had come anyway, just to repay this foolish girl who had treated me with genuine kindness.
Lizzie's eyes glistened. I turned to organize the supplies, pretending not to notice her losing composure. "Go on. I'll finish organizing these and then leave."
"Yes, Luna…" I arranged everything neatly and prepared to leave. Just as I was about to turn around, the cabin door burst open.
"Well, look who it is. You got kicked out of the pack, yet you'd rather do grunt work just to force your way into the ceremony lineup." An unwelcome voice rang out. Liv stood in the doorway, smirking triumphantly at me.
Her platinum hair was braided beautifully down her back. She wore the flowing white gown reserved only for the ceremony's leader, its layered skirts swaying like a flower about to bloom.
"Serenity, you'd better leave immediately. This isn't a place you should be."
She lifted her chin and looked down at me with disdain. "You're not leading the ceremony. You have no right to touch these sacred items."
I frowned. This was my first time facing Liv directly since her return. It felt strange.
Elias said she'd lost her memory, yet she still harbored the same inexplicable hostility toward me as before. That familiar sense of being targeted made me suspicious. I decided to test her.
"I was just helping out." I turned to face her directly. "This shouldn't be my job. But Liv, if you had done anything, would they have needed to ask for my help?"
A flash of irritation crossed Liv's face. "You have no right to lecture me, Serenity! You're nothing now. No status, no power. Even Elias doesn't want you!"
I looked at her expressionlessly. I felt nothing.
She thought she could hurt me this way. But I wasn't afraid of her anymore.
"And what about you, Liv?" I took a step toward her. "You're always showing off in front of me, but what do you have besides Elias? No—you don't even have him. So what if you staged that fall off the cliff? Even if I'm just a traitor in his mind, after six months, he's still my mate. The real loser is you."
My attitude infuriated her. "Shut up! If you hadn't butted in back then, I would have been Elias's Luna long ago! He's always belonged to me —" She cut herself off abruptly, realizing what she had said. And so did I.
"You didn't lose your memory," I said with absolute certainty.
Liv looked panicked and uneasy for a moment, but she quickly recovered her forced sneer. "So what if you figured it out? Are you going to tell Elias?
Who do you think he'd believe—you or me?"
I stayed silent. Because she was right. Between us, Elias would always believe her.
But I refused to show weakness. I lifted my chin. "How will I know unless I try? You know how much Elias hates being deceived. You're pretending to have amnesia when you remember everything perfectly. Who knows what you're really after? Liv, I don't believe you can keep up this perfect act in front of him forever without slipping up."
I headed for the door. As I passed her, she suddenly grabbed my arm.
"You're not going anywhere!"
Her unexpected yank nearly knocked me off balance. I looked up at her angrily, ready to snap at her, when I saw her face—twisted with something deeply wrong.
Novella sent a warning pulse through my chest.
"You're going to find Elias? How dare you try to get close to him again!"
Liv's eyes were savage. Something had taken hold of her, pushing her into hysteria. "Everyone says you're the traitor! Why won't you just admit it? If you'd confessed earlier, Elias would already be mine!"
Her beautiful face contorted as she screamed. Too bad there was no mirror to show her what she looked like.
"Serenity, you shameless bitch! Seducing another woman's man—you're nothing but a homewrecker!"
I almost laughed at the absurdity. I had no idea what she was even talking about.
"Liv, do you have things backward?" I glared at her. "I'm Elias's mate. What exactly are you?"
Her face went white.
"Elias loves me!" she shrieked.
"So what? Even if he loves you, it doesn't change the facts. From every angle, you're the dirty little secret. You're the underground mistress!" I looked at her coldly. "You have no right to stop me from seeing my own mate!"
Liv's eyes went blood-red, the whites crawling with veins.
She looked terrifying. I quickened my pace toward the door, but she lunged at me like a madwoman.
"Where do you think you're going?" she howled. "I need to teach you a lesson!"
Her nails clawed at my face. I instinctively jerked back. She used my retreat to slam her other hand into my shoulder.
I cried out. My first instinct was to protect my stomach, so I couldn't brace myself. My back slammed into the cabin wall. Dull pain exploded through my nerves. I bit down hard to keep from screaming.
"I won't give you the chance to tattle to Elias." Liv blocked the doorway, her smile sharp as a poisoned blade. "Guess what I'm going to do, Serenity?
I've been wanting to do this for so long!"
Dread flooded me. I scrambled up and rushed for the door.
Too late.
BANG. The heavy iron door slammed shut in my face, followed by the click of a key locking it from outside.
"Think about what you've done in there, Serenity." Her laughter rang out, bright and grating. "Let's see how long you last. You'd better hope someone knows you're in here."
No, no, no— She was serious. She really intended to lock me in here. To let me die.
This cabin was built purely for storing ceremonial supplies. There were no windows. Once the door was completely shut, there was only endless darkness inside.
My breathing turned ragged. Intense fear of the dark and confined spaces overwhelmed me, pushing me to the edge of collapse.
When I was little, still living in the Keller pack, my siblings' favorite way to torment me was locking me in dark, cramped, suffocating storage rooms.
Every time, I would scream and cry all night, but even when my voice gave out, no one came to save me.
"Help! Is anyone there? Let me out!"
This cabin had a reinforced security door. Even a werewolf couldn't easily break through. I pounded on it desperately, but it was useless.
I trembled in the darkness, slowly sliding down the door to sit on the floor.
Outside, the ceremony seemed to have begun. The pack's howls drowned out my cries for help. No one—no one could save me.
"Elias..."
In my terror, I whispered his name without thinking.
Every time I'd been in danger before, Elias had appeared to rescue me.
Whenever I was truly in trouble, he'd show up like a hero.
But then my eyes drifted to my stomach. I thought of the baby inside me and snapped awake, shaking my head hard.
Wake up, Serenity.
How much longer are you going to depend on others before you become truly strong?
You've already done it once, I told myself. You survived on your own without the pack. This is no different. Even alone, you can save yourself.
Strength slowly returned to my limbs. I wiped my tears and forced myself to stand.
I couldn't pin all my hopes on someone else. For the sake of my baby, I had to find my own way out.
I forced myself to calm down, pushing back the fear still gnawing at my sanity, and began to think.
This was a storage room. There had to be useful tools somewhere.
I groped along the walls, feeling through the tool racks. Among the jars and boxes, my fingers finally closed around something cold, hard, and metal.
Judging by its shape, it was probably a pestle for grinding ceremonial herbs.
Yes. This could work.
I grabbed it and went back to the door. The door was locked from the outside, but destroying it from the inside should be easier than from out there.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
I raised the pestle and slammed it against the lock with everything I had. I didn't know how many minutes passed. By the time my arms were so numb from the vibrations that I could barely grip the pestle, the lock finally began to give.
Hope surged through me. I switched tactics and started ramming the door with my body.
My shoulder crashed into steel again and again. The whole cabin seemed to shake with each impact.
The door began to loosen. Thin slivers of moonlight crept through the cracks—still dim, but no longer pitch black. The terror in my heart eased.
I let out a breath of relief.
That was when I noticed my forehead was drenched with sweat. And then— a cramping pain stabbed through my abdomen, so sharp it doubled me over.
The baby...
Why now, of all times… The pain was so intense I could barely think. I was so close to escape, but now all my strength had drained away. I didn't dare move.
I gasped through wave after wave of agony, unable to get enough air. As my consciousness blurred, hallucinations crept in.
"Serenity! Where are you? Answer me!"
I thought I heard Elias calling my name.