Chapter 2 2

“Don’t be so stiff,” Elena said, eyes shining. “We’re family now.”

Family.

I curled my tail tighter behind my legs. The borrowed dress scratched my skin. My hands didn’t know where to rest.

She lifted the cup. “I made this for you. I begged the cook to teach me. Burned myself a dozen times.” She showed me the thin bandages on her fingers. “I was so afraid you’d hate it.”

Her voice trembled just right. “I had Mom and Dad to myself for so long. Now you’re back… I’m scared you’ll think I stole your place. So I have to work hard, right?”

I swallowed. “You didn’t steal anything,” I wanted to say.

But the words stuck.

“If you don’t drink,” she said softly, “I’ll think you don’t like me.”

I panicked.

“Thank you,” I said, taking the cup. The porcelain was hot, but I’d held worse. I drank.

It was strong, bitter underneath the herbs. A little off, but not enough to question. I finished it in a few gulps, afraid she’d be hurt otherwise.

She brightened. “You like it? That’s a relief.”

Then the heat started. My fingers tingled. My tongue numbed. My heart kicked harder and harder, as if my chest was too small for it. My wolf stirred, pressing against my skin, restless.

Moon tea wasn’t supposed to do that.

Unless something else was in it.

My tail bristled. My ears rang. I clenched my legs together as my bladder cramped.

Not here. Not in front of her.

The carriage hit a bump.

Warmth spilled between my thighs.

The smell rose instantly.

I froze.

Across from me, Elena’s eyes flicked down, then up. For a heartbeat, something sharp flashed there.

Then she softened. “Oh… Lia.”

Her tone was full of pity. Almost kind.

She rapped on the roof. “Stop, please! I need some air!” she called.

To me, she whispered, “Don’t move. I’ll talk to them. I won’t let anyone see you like this.”

She stepped out, closed the door behind her.

Outside, her voice carried: “Please don’t open it. My sister… her wolf almost came out. She lost control. She’s shy. Don’t embarrass her.”

I sat in my own piss and shame, tail soaked, dress ruined.

First day coming home. And already, I was the lower-pack mutt who couldn’t even hold it together in a carriage.

Karl is on his feet at once.

“That’s it?” he says, voice rough. “She pissed herself in a carriage and we’re supposed to what, rewrite the last three years?”

His gaze cuts to me like a blade. “You were nervous. She covered for you. That’s what I saw.”

Luna doesn’t answer.

Her hands are pressed to her mouth. Her eyes are fixed on the empty air where Elina’s bandaged fingers just were.

“She burned herself,” she whispers. “She stayed up to make that tea. She—”

“Drugged her,” witch says calmly. “On purpose or by ignorance, I can’t say. But that tea was not brewed by the book.”

All three of them stare at her.

“You saw the reaction,” the witch continues. “The wolf agitation. The loss of control. That was more than herbs for motion sickness.”

“I drank it,” I say. My throat is dry. “She didn’t pour it down my throat. I wanted to be… a good sister.”

“That’s exactly the point,” witch says quietly. “She knows how to make you hurt yourself and thank her for it.”

Alpha’s jaw tightens. “All I saw,” he says slowly, “was one daughter losing control and another trying to spare her humiliation.”

“Because that’s the story Elina told you,” I say. “You never asked if there was another.”

He flinches, just a little.

Karl leans on the table, knuckles white. “What about after?” he demands. “Back at the keep. At the academy. You said she turned everyone against you. That she made your life a ‘slow death.’”

His lip curls. “From where I stood, everyone was trying to help you fit in. Elina most of all.”

witch taps the bone circlet on my head, drawing their attention back to the stone.

“You’ve seen how the story starts,” she says. “Next, you see how it spreads.”

Luna forces herself to look at me. “Did she… do this kind of thing often?” she asks. “Offer help that… wasn’t?”

I give a small, humorless laugh. “Help was her favorite weapon.”

Silence stretches.

Alpha exhales through his nose. “Show us,” he orders. “The academy. The training yard. Whatever she wants us to see.”

“The first combat drills,” I say. “The day she put me on her team.”