1. The tragedy

[Diana]

‘A courtesan can never be a luna.’

My mother-in-law’s words haunted my head as I looked around the palace frantically. 

Our beta was dead.

Our gamma’s head was displayed on the gallow among our pack public to instill terror in their hearts.

The palace was surrounded by our enemy, our warriors falling over the battlements every second.

“Luna! You have to hide! Luna!” My knight, Noah’s warning, snapped me out of the nightmare I was living.

“Hide? Where can I hide? We are surrounded. It’s just a matter of time… they infiltrate the palace and then…” I placed my hand over my belly.

The rules of a pack war, the winning party not only wins the pack, land, its army and its territory, but its women and its victor alpha win the luna of the defeated pack. 

And if the luna was pregnant, the first thing the victor alpha did was get rid of the previous alpha’s child and what was left for the luna was a life of humiliation, torture, pain — a life worse than hell.

“No, luna. It’s not over yet! Alpha is still fighting for us and our pack,” Noah said. 

I looked at the blood red sky and the dark clouds of mayhem slowly creeping over the horizon. All of us knew we had lost the fight and my mate, my husband and our alpha…

“Alpha Devon is dead!”

A soldier rushed into the palace with the news.

The words made me numb, as if the soul had left my body. The moment Devon’s bite mark on my neck stopped feeling his warmth, I knew something terrible had happened. Something that shouldn’t have happened. 

Noah panicked and grabbed my hand, “we need to hide! Right now! They’ll be here any time now. Luna!”

‘Look what you’ve done!’

‘Look what has happened because of you.’

‘Are you happy now?’

My mother-in-law’s voice rambled through the blood-stained walls of the palace.

“LUNA! We need to go now!” Noah yelled.

The bells of surrender rang, making me widen my eyes. The soldiers on the battlements gave up.

My heart thundered in my chest. Sweating, I looked around as the entire palace swirled in front of my eyes.

“We need to save the heir! As long as the heir is alive, we have hope! Take luna through the secret chambers to the woods,” someone spoke.

There were too many voices around me and inside my head.

I was paralysed, seeing my entire world crumble right before my eyes. 

“He has entered the palace. He is heading towards the inner palace to claim luna! Take her away, quick! Drag her if you have to. She must not be touched. Hurry!”

Tears flooded my eyes.

‘I will never accept a courtesan as my daughter-in-law. Mate or not, I don’t care, but she can’t sit on the throne.’

‘You will regret your decision, Devon. This sinful woman will only stain the crown.’

‘Do you know what they call you behind your back? Do you know what names they call you? Do you know the gaze with which they look at you? All those high rankers look at you as if you are a public property. As if they can buy you with money. You might not have self-respect and character, but do me a favour… now that you are the luna, behave like one.’

‘Don’t think anything changes just because you are carrying the heir. If it’s a boy, they might actually validate you as the luna, but if by any chance it turns out to be a girl, they will throw you out of the palace and this time… Devon will not be able to save you.’

‘For god’s sake! Stop being a whore for once!’

I covered my ears tightly with the heels of my palms, screaming as mother-in-law’s words stormed back into my mind.

A whore.

A courtesan.

Characterless. Loose.

Woman of streets.

A this. A that.

Those words had defined my life ever since my half-brother falsely accused me of attempting to kill his mate and threw me out of my birth pack after my father’s death.

My step-mother, whom I considered no less than my actual mother, took everything from me. But that wasn’t enough for her. She hired rogues to hunt me down and kill me.

Bea, the owner of the brothel, saved me and took me in. That was where I met Devon, my mate and he brought me to his pack, the Wenos pack, and honoured to be his luna.

But ever since I became a courtesan, that word followed me everywhere I went. Even the title of luna couldn’t wash away the stains that one word had left on my character.

But I won’t let that word define me… not anymore. I wasn’t going down in history as a courtesan who became the luna by sinful means.

He hasn’t won yet and I will not let him win. Never.

For once, I want to fulfil my duty as the luna of this pack.

They didn’t have to drag me anymore. I ran through the circular underground chambers as fast as I could. 

I have to hide.

I didn’t even know who Alpha Tyrant was before the war began. Till date, no one knew his real name, so everyone called him Alpha Tyrant.

It’s still not clear who he is and where he popped up from. Or why did he start this war against the Wenos pack?

Devon never told me why he was fighting the war. He kept saying he would protect me and our child at all costs.

All I knew about Tyrant was he was the illegitimate child of alpha of the Jupitus pack. The Jupitus pack was one of the strongest packs with the strongest standing army in Lycannora, the world of the werewolves. 

He wasn’t even a candidate to the throne because Tyrant’s father had hidden him from the world and never planned to reveal him. But one day, Tyrant massacred the entire royal family and claimed the title of the new alpha of the Jupitus pack.

The first thing he did after sitting on the throne was start a war with the Wenos pack to conquer it.

But I had a gut-wrenching feeling that wasn’t the only reason.

Noah blocked my way with his arm. Panting, I looked at him, confused.

It was then I heard footsteps entering the secret chambers from outside. That scent was foreign.

“The enemy,” Noah whispered.

The soldiers behind us came in front of me. Noah held my hand and took me through the labyrinth of cambers. The enemy had blocked every exit.

“There’s only one way, luna. I will charge at them and make way for you. Please use the opportunity and escape,” Noah said.

“Charge at them? It’s a suicide mission,” I said.

“We have no option,” he said, panting. He looked at me with bleary eyes and bit his lips. “Please live, luna.”

He wiped off his tears in his blood-stained sleeves and stepped towards the enemies near the exit. 

Another death. I peered at him with wide eyes as he walked towards his death. His steps halted. He turned and dashed toward me.

“There’s something I wanted to tell you in case I never get a chance… no matter what former luna told you, this pack, its people, everyone in this palace, and even beta Ragnar deeply respected you. Yes, we took our time accepting you, but… you proved every time that no one but you deserve to be our luna. You didn’t give up on us, so we won’t give up on you until our last breath…”

He said and sprinted towards the enemy. The torches dimly lighting the chambers flickered.

The icy hollow chambers were filled with clanging swords, snapping of bones because of shifting and loud, agonising howls.

What Noah said left me thunderstruck.

Ever since I entered this pack, everyone had been cold to me, so I assumed they didn’t accept a courtesan as their luna. And my mother-in-law’s words confirmed the pack didn’t accept me.

But what Noah just said contradicted everything I had ever known. I worked so hard to win their trust all these years, but I never felt respected or at home.

I broke into tears, but now all of them are gone, dead. 

I covered my mouth, muffling my sobs into my throat.

I heard a howl from Noah’s wolf, and it was my cue. I lifted the hem of my gown, took off my heels and dashed through the wolves Noah’s wolf was holding back. They were biting every inch of his skin, and he was still fighting them off.

I clenched my teeth, averting my eyes from Noah, and dashed towards the light coming from the end of the chamber.

My steps faltered as the world beyond that blinding light unfurled before me.

They were outside, waiting for me.

Heaving, I looked around and as far as my eyes went, I could see Tyrant’s soldiers. I gulped hard, licking my dry lips.

“We have found Luna Diana!” One of them yelled.

They locked me in their heavier than shackles scrutiny, but none of them dared come close to me. The soldiers who were inside fighting Noah passed by me and joined the army outside.

Panting, I looked back.

Noah. They killed him.

I took in cold, shallow breaths.

There was no gap between them. My only way was back to the palace, but what then? They would catch me in no time and then, I would not only be thrown in front of that tyrant to be claimed, he would kill my unborn child as well.

The ultimate victory in a pack war came when the alpha of the lost pack was killed and then the luna was claimed by the victorious alpha. They hadn’t won yet, not until the Tyrant claimed me and that would never happen.

I might have been a shame all my life, for my birth pack and for the pack I married into, but not anymore.

I’d rather die with pride rather than live a shameful life again.

The soldiers stepped aside, clearing a path that led to me.

I watched as the dark chiselled silhouette of a man strutted towards me. I widened my eyes as his alpha figure became clearer and the mask on his face made everything even clearer for me.

Mother-in-law was right all this time. My gut instinct was right.

My stomach churned as he got closer to me.

I was the reason for this war, this mass murder and destruction.

Yes, I was a courtesan, but I have had only two clients in my whole life because even the millionaire alphas couldn’t afford to pay for my services.

My second client was Devon, my mate, who took me out of that brothel.

My first client, the first man to ever touch me, was standing in front of me wearing the same mask he wore the nights he spent with me.

I never saw his face, or knew his name because he was the VVIP and hid his identity for privacy reasons. But I remember his stature, the way he walked, the way his pale grey eyes stared at me.

I stepped back, stumbling on a corpse behind me, and I fell to the ground. 

Unfathomable emotions rush through my body like thunder.

I shook my head, “no… this… no…” I mumbled.

Alpha Tyrant stepped closer to me and my breath seized as my stomach churned with an unfathomable pain that clawed its way up to my chest.

“Dia,” his deep, resonant voice called out to me. 

‘Dia. Don’t give your heart to someone else.’ 

‘Be mine forever, like I am yours tonight.’

‘Wait for me, I will come back for you. And when I do, you will mine — entirely.’

I felt his hand wrap around my neck, choking me as his parting words echoed in my head.

“Impossible…” I mumbled to myself.

“I have come, Dia…”

“No…” my voice came out as a shiver. 

Hyperventilating, I recalled the one week I had spent with him at the brothel.

The reverie soon broke when he sat on his one knee in front of me, and I broke into a cold sweat.

I crawled back from him; I got to my feet and dashed into the palace. I ran to my room and locked myself inside. I locked every window and door.

With my back against the door, I slid to the floor. I covered my mouth and broke into whimpers.

It’s all because of me. I held my head as the ringing inside my head became louder and louder. 

I clenched my chest.

‘Look what you’ve done!’

‘A characterless woman should never have become the luna.’

“I am not! I am not a whore! Stop! Please stop! I just wanted to live! I am not characterless.” 

I yelled back at my mother-in-law’s voice. I hugged myself. Tears flooded my eyes.

My throat hurt, my chest tightened, and I felt filthy from within. 

“I am not dirty! I am not… dirty! I am… I am…”

I tried to find words to describe myself, but I couldn’t. 

Who was I? Who am I? 

Maybe it was not just the world that described me with those words. I somewhere settled with their description of me to the point I had lost my complete identity.

I had no identity.

No. I am still something. I am still the luna of the Wenos pack. 

I wiped off my tears and got up, looking around the room.

They started banging on the door, calling me out.

Even through the door, I could feel his presence.

“When you asked me to wait… I waited, but you didn’t come. You didn’t come for years…” 

I exhaled, mumbling to myself. 

“I thought I was stupid to believe your empty words and hollow promises that maybe weren’t empty or hollow. You came, but in such a wrong way at such a wrong time after destroying everything and everyone I loved. I am not your Dia anymore. I am Devon’s wife and the luna of this pack. And you…”

I gulped, clenching my fists.

“You are my enemy and this is war. Alpha Tyrant…”

The banging on the door intensified, and I knew they would break in soon.

I took out the torch from the sconce. There was kerosene oil in the lamps burning in the room. 

I blew off the lamp and opened the oil chamber. I collected all the wooden furniture near the door and windows and poured the kerosene on them.

Streaming the kerosene from the furniture to the middle of the room, I created a kerosene pool.

The banging grew louder. They were trying to break in. 

I picked up the last lamp and drenched myself with the oil.

As the luna, this is the last thing I can do to maintain the honour of the pack.

“I might have lived like a disappointment for everyone and even myself, but I am dying with the pride of a queen today. Untouched. You were right, mother-in-law… a courtesan should’ve never become a luna…”

I shuddered as he kicked open the door, scattering the furniture.

“Dia. Stop…” He panted.

I heard fear in his shaky voice and horror in his eyes when he saw me with the torch.

I smiled, feeling completely satisfied by his reaction.

“You lose…” 

I glared into his eyes through my tears and his mask.

I took a deep breath, shut my eyes and with an exhale, I dropped the lit torch in the pool of kerosene I was standing on. 

“NO! DIA!”

His scream faded somewhere in the huge explosion and roaring flames.

Torrent of flames burst out of every door, window in my room. The feral flames burnt down every hand that reached out to touch me.

With my end, I’d won the lost war.