CHAPTER 2

ZARIA'S POV

The suffocating silence of the corridor shattered as a pair of sharp, hurried footsteps came clicking around the far corner.

"Zaria? Oh my God, there you are!" Maya’s voice boomed down the hallway, laced with frantic energy. "What is taking you so—"

Behind the heavy velvet curtains, a sharp, collective gasp cut through the dark alcove. The silhouettes scrambled.

Before I could breathe, before a single sound could leave my frozen throat, the heavy drapes parted. Cynthia stepped out into the dim hallway alone.

My heart hammered violently against my ribs. I stared at her, my vision blurring at the edges, waiting for the guilt, the panic, the shame. But there was nothing. Her expression morphed seamlessly into a picture-perfect look of pure, sisterly concern. She adjusted the cuff of her sleeve, completely unbothered, her posture elegant and composed.

"Oh, thank goodness," Cynthia gasped, rushing toward me and clasping my frozen hands in hers. She put on a flawless act, completely ignoring my wide, horrified eyes. "Maya and I were just looking for you! I came up here to find you because the High Elders are demanding you take your place."

"I... I heard..." My voice died in my throat. I couldn't look past her shoulder at the curtain. I couldn't move.

"You're completely pale, sweetie," Cynthia interrupted smoothly, her voice a soothing purr that made my stomach turn. "Look at you, you're trembling. I knew your nerves would get the better of you."

Maya finally caught up to us, panting slightly as she adjusted her sash. "Seriously, Zaria, you look like you've seen a ghost. Did the panic attack finally hit?"

"Here," Cynthia said, turning slightly to present a glass of tea she was holding. I hadn't even noticed it in her hand. "I fetched this chamomile tea for you. I was bringing it to your room. Take a sip right now. It will settle your stomach instantly."

She pressed the warm glass into my hands. My fingers were so numb I almost dropped it, the liquid sloshing against the rim.

"Drink it, Zaria," Maya urged, placing a supportive hand on my back. "We have less than five minutes before the ancestral bells ring. You need to pull it together."

My brain was a chaotic, spinning void. The betrayal was too massive to process. *My sister. My fated mate.* The words they had just whispered inside that dark nook were echoing in my ears, deafening me. I was in a state of absolute psychological shock, unable to process anything clearly. I needed something to ground me, to clear the fog in my head so I could find my voice.

Without thinking, coaxed by Cynthia and a well-meaning Maya, I lifted the glass to my lips and took a sip of the tea.

The moment the liquid hit my stomach, the world violently tilted.

A sudden wave of intense, unnatural nausea and dizziness washed over me, slamming into my skull like a physical blow. The walls of the corridor seemed to warp and warp again, and I could barely keep my balance.

"Zaria?" Maya’s voice sounded miles away, muffled as if we were underwater. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I..." A dry, violent heave caught in my chest. I had to excuse myself. "I need... the bathroom."

I didn't wait for them. I tore myself away from Cynthia’s steady grip and staggered down the hallway, my vision breaking into fractured, spinning pieces. My maiden silks felt suffocating, wrapping around my legs like lead weights as I stumbled back into my dressing room.

I dropped straight to my knees in front of the vanity basin, dry-heaving violently. My entire body racked with deep, agonizing tremors, completely disoriented and weakened by the sudden, suspicious illness. Nothing came up but bitter bile. My throat burned. The room spun so fast I had to press my forehead against the cold marble counter just to keep from falling sideways onto the floor.

"Zaria! Oh my God, Zaria!" Maya burst into the room right behind me, completely frantic. She knelt beside me, her hands hovering over my shaking shoulders in pure panic. "What is happening? Was it food poisoning? Should I call the doctors? God, the elders are going to kill us, the bells are ringing!"

Through the roaring of the blood in my ears, I could hear it. The deep, heavy resonance of the ancestral bells echoing from the courtyard below. The ceremony was starting.

I forced my head up, trying to fight off the spinning in my head. As I sat over the vanity, staring at my ghostly white skin, the pieces suddenly clicked together in a moment of horrific, clear-headed realization.

*The tea.*

Cynthia hadn't been to the kitchen. She had been in the alcove with Garrick. She was holding the tea before I even told anyone I was going to fetch it. The tea was intentionally meant to incapacitate me so I couldn't disrupt the ceremony. They wanted me gone. They wanted me out of the way so I couldn't step foot near the altar.

"No," I choked out, a raw, primal fire igniting deep within my chest, burning right through the sickness.

"Zaria, stay down!" Maya pleaded, grabbing my arm as I dragged myself to my feet. "You can't even stand! You're violently ill!"

I forced my weak body toward the door, ignoring her frantic protests. My legs wobbled dangerously, my muscles screaming in protest as the poison pumped through my veins, but I didn't care. I was determined to confront them. I grabbed the heavy skirts of my dress and forced myself out of the dressing room, moving down the grand staircase by sheer force of will.

Every step felt like walking through wet cement. My breath came in ragged, shallow gasps, but the rage keeping me upright was stronger than the toxin in my blood.

I reached the grand double doors leading out to the ceremonial courtyard. I threw my entire body weight against the heavy oak doors, pushing them open.

The doors slammed back against the stone walls, and I stumbled out into the blinding light of the courtyard.

Instantly, I was hit by a wall of thunderous, roaring cheers from the pack. The crowd was on its feet, waving banners, shouting in absolute ecstasy. The sheer volume of the noise made my spinning head throb violently.

I squinted through my blurred, fractured vision, forcing my eyes to look up to the raised stone altar at the center of the courtyard.

My heart completely shattered into dust.

Standing beneath the ancestral flames, bathed in the midday sun, was Alpha Garrick. And right beside him, standing in the exact spot that belonged to me, was Cynthia.

Garrick didn't look around for me. Instead, he reached out, holding Cynthia's hand high in the air for the entire territory to see.

The loudspeaker echoed over the crowd, drowning out my voice before I could even speak:

"I choose Cynthia to be my Luna!"