His Lesbian Luna

Sera’s POV

The morning they killed Demi, the sky was clear.

“Bring her out.”

The courtyard was full when they dragged Demi into the light.

Every member of the Ashwood pack had been summoned. Alpha Cain’s orders. No one stayed home today. You watched, or you were next. That was the unspoken rule and everyone understood it.

I stood in the crowd with my arms at my sides and my face completely still and I watched them drag the woman I loved across the stone ground like she was nothing.

Demi did not cry. That was the thing about her. Even now, even like this, she held her chin up and her eyes found me across the crowd the way they always found me — like I was the only still thing in a spinning room. She looked at me and the corner of her mouth moved.

‘Don’t,’ her eyes said. Don’t make a sound.

I wanted to say something. I wanted to scream, fight, run. But my feet were stone and my voice was ash and all I could do was watch the only person I had ever loved get dragged away from me.

I did not cry. Crying felt too small for what I was feeling.

Alpha Cain stood at the top of the stone steps in his ceremonial robes, looking down at the crowd with the satisfaction of a man who enjoyed mornings like this.

“Let it be known,” he said, his voice carrying across the silent courtyard, “that what you are about to witness is the consequence of deviance. Of sin. Of going against the laws of the Moon Goddess and the laws of this pack.”

My nails were cutting into my palms.

“The woman before you was found in an unnatural relationship with another female member of this pack.” He paused, letting the murmurs ripple through the crowd. “There is only one punishment.”

Demi’s eyes were still on mine.

‘Don’t,’ they said again.

I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe. I stood there and I let it happen because Demi was begging me with her eyes to stay alive and the only way to stay alive was to stay still.

It was over in less than a minute.

And then the courtyard was quiet again and Alpha Cain was already turning to go back inside and the crowd was dispersing like nothing had happened and I was still standing in the same spot with my arms at my sides and my face completely still.

Sienna, my wolf, let out one long silent howl deep inside me and then went completely quiet.

They locked me in the cellar for three days. No food. No light. Just the sound of my own breathing and the weight of what I had lost pressing down on my chest like a boot.

On the fourth day, Alpha Cain came himself.

He crouched in front of me, his torch cutting through the dark, and looked at me the way a man looks at livestock he is trying to get a fair price for.

“Sit,” he said.

I sat.

He leaned back in his chair and looked at me the way you look at something you are trying to find a use for.

“You’re lucky,” he said. “She wasn’t.”

I said nothing.

“Alpha Damon of the Northern Lycan Territory is owed a bride.” He folded his hands on the table. “My daughter Lena was promised to him. She ran this morning. Foolish girl.” He shook his head like a disappointed father. “You will go in her place.”

I stared at him.

The fire crackled in the corner of the room.

“You’ll answer to Lena. You’ll carry her documents, wear her seal, speak her name when asked.” His voice was flat. “You do this and your shame dies with you here. You refuse and you follow your little friend.” He tilted his head toward the window that overlooked the courtyard where Demi had been killed.

He didn’t have to say Demi’s name. We both knew what he meant.

I thought about her eyes. The last look she gave me. Soft, even then

“Fine,” I said.

He smiled like I had done him a favor.

They gave me one hour to prepare.

One hour to become someone else.

A woman named Sonja arrived with a trunk of clothes that were not mine and a face that had long stopped feeling anything about the things she was asked to do. She dressed me in silence. Fine fabric, nothing like anything I had ever worn. She pinned my hair back, pressed a leather satchel into my hands.

“You are Lena Cain,” she said. “Eighteen. Eldest daughter of Alpha Cain. Trained in etiquette and pack law. Obedient. Quiet. Demure.” She looked at me with flat eyes. “Nothing like you.”

“How long do I have to keep this up?” I asked.

She looked at me like the question was stupid.

“Until he kills you or the alliance holds.” She straightened the collar of my dress. “Either way, not long.”

The carriage was waiting in the front courtyard.

No one came to see me off. Why would they? I was not Lena Cain. I was not anyone’s daughter. I was nothing.

I climbed in without looking back.

The gates of Ashwood closed behind me and I pressed my back against the carriage seat and closed my eyes and in the darkness behind my eyelids all I could see was Demi’s face.

‘Stay alive,’ she had said without saying anything at all.

I pressed my hand flat against my chest and made myself a promise.

I would stay alive.

Lena Cain. Daughter of Alpha Cain. Offered in alliance to King Damon of the Northern Lycan Territory.

I read it over and over on the carriage ride until the words stopped meaning anything.

King Damon. I had heard the name my whole life the way children hear stories about monsters in hushed tones, with wide eyes. The most feared Lycan King in the land. Cold and ruthless. A man who had gone to war over an insult and won.

And I was about to walk into his territory.

Demi would have laughed. She always laughed when things were terrible. At least you’ll never be bored, she would have said.

My chest ached. I turned back to the window.

Whatever King Damon was, whatever the Northern Territory was going to ask of me, I had already lost the only thing that mattered.

There was nothing left to be afraid of.

Outside the window,

my pack shrunk into the distance and disappeared. I did not look back. There was nothing left to look back for.