Moonbound: Hated by My Three Alphas – “You should have killed yourself.” The wolf finds me first—but it’s the woman who speaks, her voice cold and utterly devoid of emotion. At first, I can’t even process what she’s saying. The pain comes too fast. The beast’s claws rake across my stomach, sharp and merciless, slicing through flesh as if I were paper. It feels like fire is tearing through my core. The aconite is already in my bloodstream, slowing me down, dragging me toward paralysis. But I still feel everything.
The wolf closes his powerful jaws around my leg and rips it off. I scream, or maybe I don’t. I can’t tell anymore. The pain of a ruptured artery burns like molten metal in my veins as my blood pours out onto the frozen earth. My body convulses, overtaken by violent, bone-deep shivers. I don’t even want to run anymore. I just want it to stop. I want it to be over. But she won’t let me go without delivering one last blow. “You brought this on yourself, Karina,” Selene spits, her fangs glinting beneath her perfectly sculpted lips. “You’re an outsider.
A fucking nobody. You had every chance to kill yourself or run off with the rogues—but no, you just had to cling to this pack.” Her words are distant, muffled behind the ringing in my ears. I can’t understand why she’s saying this. Silver Claw has always been my home. I’ve been bullied, humiliated, beaten down for being weak—but I still wanted to live. Is that so wrong? Is it really a crime to want to live, even when you’re not strong? “Finish her off,” I hear Selene command. “He wants nothing left of her.
And I mean nothing.” He? The thought flares in my mind for one final moment before the massive brown wolf lunges, burying his fangs into what’s left of my broken body. Who is he? And why does he want me dead so badly? Goddess, what did I ever do to deserve this? But there are no answers. Only agony. And then—nothing. *** The loud voices outside the house seep through the open door in the servants’ quarters—a warning sign not to go in that direction. I turn around, making sure my shabby old jogging shorts don’t make even the slightest noise.
But then, the wooden plank under my feet suddenly creaks from the pressure of my weight. I freeze, absolutely terrified. I know every single plank that makes up the floors of the pack house. Even after I woke up in this same body again, I still remember everything about this house. I know exactly which planks make a noise when stepped on. How could I have forgotten? Silently, I scold myself for the careless mistake. Slipping off my worn-out shoes, I tiptoe through the dimly lit corridor of the first floor, holding my breath almost instinctively.
The door is just ahead—so close. I round the corner, my heart hammering in my chest, when suddenly, my right foot hits something sharp. Pain flares as the jagged edge tears into the skin around my big toe’s nail. I stumble, crashing down onto the floor, my elbows slamming into the wood. A rusted nail. At least I haven’t stepped directly on it. “Look at you, crawling on the floor again like the little worm you are—what a miserable display!” I flinch, my breath hitching at the sound of a familiar voice. Selene. She stands over me, vile and arrogant, as always.
Her long, straight black hair flows down her back, reflecting the dim orange lamplight like the surface of a dark lake under a blood moon. Tall. Slender. Beautiful. The perfect female werewolf. Too bad she is a murderer. And I know that because she killed me. I have been thinking about it ever since I got mysteriously sent back in time one year before she killed me. Back then, in the forest, Selene called me a traitor and said that it was “he” who wanted me dead. But the more I thought about it, the less it made sense. I have never crossed anyone in my entire life, but for some reason, it was she who always hated me the most.
Selene called me a traitor, and the triplet sons of our pack’s alpha commanded her to kill me. But what did I do to make them all think that way? I don’t remember. The Moon Goddess sure has a sense of humor. She somehow let me go back in time and live again, but what’s the use? What was she trying to do by letting me live again? I make another mistake of raising my head, and when I do, Selene’s deep brown eyes bore down on me, sparkling with undeserved dominance as she moves her leg slightly forward.
The tip of her silk-covered designer shoe nudges under my chin, forcing my head up as if I’m too dirty to be touched by anything other than her foot. As the beloved daughter of a retired Gamma, her unreasonable hatred for me is the only thing that makes her feel unclean, and yet, she can’t help herself. That’s why she has others to express that dirty hatred in ways she cannot. Two of her closest friends, the gamma twin girls who follow her like a second shadow, stand at her sides, smirking in unison as they watch my lips tremble from the pain of her shoe pressing into my chin.