Reborn Luna

Hope’s POV

“Please don't do this,” I choke out.

“Kneel,” Keith, my mate, repeats, the word cracking on his tongue.

My body crumples, and I drop in the center of the council room. The force of the wooden floor reverberates in my knees and thighs. The sealing charm affixed to my back burns, making it impossible to move.

It is nothing compared to the reminder of how it was placed there.

Trickery. Deceit.

Words I would have never thought to place alongside Keith.

When we were invited three days ago to a royal banquet to honor Princess Lilith’s coming of age ceremony, I had no idea it would end up like this. That I would go from esteemed guest, Luna of the Lotus pack, to a criminal.

The Alpha King and his Luna Queen remained quiet, but I could feel their animosity, their conviction. To them, my guilt was absolute, and nothing would stop them from seeking justice for the harm done to their daughter, Princess Lilith.

I search Keith’s familiar face looking for the male I had grown to love, but in his place is a shadow of who I thought I knew. I see the ambition in his eyes now—the need to prove himself mixed into the blue irises that once made me feel whole.

His eyes flash, his wolf rising to the surface. A pained expression crosses his face, and for a fleeting moment, hope blooms in my chest.

He’s going to stop this. He won't let them hurt me. He knows I'm innocent.

In a flash, it’s gone, smoothed over by regret and grim determination… by distance.

My wolf whined in response, confused by what the human half of our mate was doing.

“Keith, you know me,” I plead through the ache in my chest. “I’d never do something like this. I—”

“Alpha Keith,” the Alpha King interrupts from his throne. “If you're unable to fulfill the command, Dane will complete the task for you.”

“I’d be happy to exact my King's orders,” Dane rumbled.

I keep my eyes on Keith, refusing to look the Alpha King's beta in the eyes. I don’t need to see the eagerness in them.

When I was first accused of attempting to murder Princess Lilith, Dane’s demand for justice was the loudest. We might be wolf shifters, but a broken neck would kill us just as any human.

When Princess Lilith had mysteriously lost her footing and tumbled down the stairs, a staircase only the two of us were on, calls of foul play were uttered amongst the gathered packs.

Luckily, the fall down the stone steps of the corridor didn't end her life. Instead, the hit to her temple knocked her clean out. After a day of unconsciousness, a healer declared her blind when she woke, her optic nerves permanently damaged thanks to the blow she took.

A soft whimper sounds from behind Keith—her whimper.

I know I shouldn't look. My wolf warns me against it, but my traitorous