Chapter 2

I didn't have the patience for a single wasted syllable.

If Drakon knew his Luna was being inspected and sneered at like livestock by a pack of mongrels, this entire forest would be leveled before sunset.

That man possessed a pathological possessiveness and a borderline obsession with my scent. He didn't permit anything filthy to touch me—not even words.

For the sake of keeping these morons breathing, and to ensure the metallic tang of spilled blood didn't nauseate the child growing inside me, I decided to end this farce immediately.

I marched straight toward the black Cadillac idling by the roadside.

"If you’re here to pick me up, let’s move. Enough talk." I pulled at the door handle, my tone flat.

The air went dead for a second.

Then, the silence shattered. Jason and his entourage erupted into a chorus of laughter, harsher and more exaggerated than before.

"Pick you up?"

"Did the frostbite rot your brain out here, Claudia?"

A burly warrior stepped forward, slamming his hip against the car door to block me, a low, threatening growl rumbling in his chest.

"Open your damn eyes and look! Do you see the Royal Insignia?"

Jason actually paused to straighten his tie, his face contorting into that sickeningly sycophantic smile people reserve for true power. "This vehicle is reserved strictly for the reception of the supreme Luna Queen."

In the next second, he swiveled his head back to me. The fawning mask crumbled instantly, replaced by pure revulsion, as if he were staring at dog shit stuck to the tire of a luxury sedan.

"Don't sully the paint job with your filthy presence. Back off."

The verbal abuse apparently wasn't enough to feed his ego. He whipped out his phone, eager for an audience.

"Actually, this is perfect. Maggie needs to see this. She deserves a front-row seat to your humiliation."

The moment the video call connected, Maggie’s shrill, excited voice pierced the air.

"Jason! Honey! Make sure you get a good look!"

On the screen, Maggie’s face was flushed, her excitement making her incoherent. "All the tabloids are going crazy! The legendary Lycan King gave his mate the 'Tears of the Moon'! It's priceless!"

Jason deliberately put it on speaker, cranking the volume to the max, holding the phone aloft like he was reading a royal decree.

"It's made from the highest grade moonstone in existence! It symbolizes absolute power!"

Maggie clasped her hands together, feigning a look of pious obsession. "Oh god... Jason, if I could just have the honor of meeting the Queen, even just to touch that necklace... I’d feel the blessing of the Royals! Our baby would definitely be a powerful Alpha!"

The mockery on Jason’s face melted into a nauseating puddle of adoration. "Of course, babe. Whatever the cost, I’ll beg the Luna Queen for you. For you and the baby, I’d do anything."

He hung up and turned back to me, his eyes regarding me like a pile of refuse.

"Hear that, Claudia? That is what a real Luna Queen deserves."

"Don't look at the car with those unworthy eyes. You think you belong in the same world as her?"

I didn't bother arguing. I didn't even get angry.

Maggie’s words had simply reminded me of something.

My hand drifted up instinctively, fingers brushing against the cold, hard lump of the pendant resting against my collarbone—the real "Tears of the Moon," currently hidden beneath my drab, rough-spun cloak.

My mind drifted back to that night. The tyrant who could tear a rebel Alpha apart with his bare hands had stood behind me, holding this very necklace. His hands—lethal weapons—had trembled slightly, clumsy as a teenage boy on his first date.

"Is it heavy?" I had asked, smiling, tracing the heat of his palm with my fingertips.

"No." His voice had been a low, gravelly rasp, laced with a heartbreaking fragility. "You are the only precious thing I hold."

Thinking of that man—usually so cold, so ruthless—being that clumsy just for me, the corner of my mouth lifted in a soft, involuntary smile.

But to Jason, that smile meant something else entirely.

"What are you smiling at? A reject like you has the nerve to smile?"

He snapped.

He lunged forward, grabbing a fistful of my collar. His fingers dug in, and he yanked downward with brutal force—

Snap.

The sound of the fine silver chain breaking was crisp and jarring. The necklace I had kept hidden was ripped from my neck, exposed to the gray daylight.

The massive moonstone refracted the dim light, glowing with a spectral blue hue. But through Jason’s eyes, it was nothing more than a cheap knockoff.

"Look! Everybody look at this!"

Jason acted like he’d just discovered the world’s funniest joke, dangling the broken chain in front of the crowd.

"This crazy bitch is actually wearing a glass bead she probably bought at a flea market! Dreaming her little daydreams! Claudia, are you playing dress-up as the Luna? Are you insane?"

The surrounding guards erupted into unrestrained jeers.

"God, that probably cost two bucks."

"Trying to imitate the Luna Queen with dollar-store jewelry? That’s pathetic!"

Jason dug into his pocket, pulled out a wad of crumpled bills, and slapped them hard against my chest.

"Since you love acting so much, I’ll buy this trash." He looked at me with supreme charity. "It’s a cheap piece of junk, but it’ll make a great toy for Maggie. She can have a good laugh at your clumsy imitation."

The red welt on my neck where the chain had cut into my skin stung like fire. Watching the pendant swing from his fingertips, I felt nothing but pity for the man standing before me. He was tragic.

"Give it back." I reached out, my voice dropping to sub-zero. "It's not a fake. Drakon gave that to me..."

The air solidified.

That name was a forbidden curse.

Jason's pupils constricted violently, as if he’d heard a death sentence. In a heartbeat, his fear transmuted into blind rage.

He seized my jaw in a vice grip, forcing my head up, and brought his face inches from mine, his voice a low, grinding growl:

"Shut your mouth, Claudia!"

"Do you have a death wish? You think a runt like you has the right to let the Lycan King's name pass her lips?"