The Moon’s Forsaken Daughter: The Queen Returns Chapter 01

The Moon’s Forsaken Daughter: The Queen Returns Chapter 01

After breaking up with my fated mate, I left the pack lands alone, hiding my shattered soul from everyone.

For five years, I changed my name, severed all my mental links, and made a clean break with my past.

Every wolf in my old pack thought I was dead.

They thought I died on the day my fated mate held a mating ceremony with my stepsister behind my back.

For five whole years, moonlight roses were placed on my empty grave, every single day without fail.

Five years later, I returned to lay flowers on my mother’s grave. My ex-mate, Asher Blackwood, was there again, holding a bouquet of moonlight roses to mourn me.

After a moment of shock and awkwardness, I managed a greeting.

“Long time no see, Asher.”

He flinched, hiding the roses behind his back.

“Long time no see, Lily… I thought… you were dead.”

I smiled, pretending not to notice his wolf eyes instantly turning blood-red.

He wasn’t wrong.

Lily Vance was dead.

She died five years ago, on the day he betrayed me and mated with his mysterious stepsister, Bella.

…

When I returned to the Crescent Moon Pack’s cemetery, I found a grave for myself next to my mother’s.

Engraved in silver runes were the words: 【My beloved mate, Lily Vance】.

In front of the tombstone was a bouquet of moonlight roses, a protective charm bearing the pack’s sigil, and a chocolate lava cake, which used to be my favorite.

The pack’s groundskeeper followed my gaze and looked surprised.

“Miss Thorne, doesn’t the portrait on that tombstone look just like you?”

“If I didn’t know you were an honored guest from the Stormcrest Pack, I’d think I was seeing a ghost!”

I chuckled.

“It does look like me, but it’s not.”

My name is Seraphina Thorne, but my friends call me Sera. I am the sister of the Stormcrest Pack’s Alpha, and one of our pack’s top strategists.

I just celebrated my third mating anniversary with my mate, and our cub is two years old.

I’m a total winner in life.

The wolf on that tombstone is Lily Vance.

Five years ago, her Alpha father brought home a stepsister who was diagnosed with “Silver Moon Sickness.” To help her, her father and future Alpha brother arranged a mating ceremony for her behind Lily’s back.

The groom at that ceremony was the fated mate Lily had known since she was a pup.

She was a complete and utter loser.

She and I are not the same wolf anymore.

I tore my eyes away and began discussing the fading crest on my mother’s gravestone with the groundskeeper.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called out to me through a mind-link.

“Lily!”

I ignored it and continued my conversation.

A powerful Alpha aura grabbed my arm.

The groundskeeper gasped as I stumbled and turned to face Asher Blackwood.

“Lily, you… you’re alive?”

A cold smirk touched my lips, but my eyes fell on the moonlight roses in his hand.

It’s been five years.

Why were Asher’s eyes now as red as the rose petals?

……

I asked the groundskeeper to leave us, then stood before my own grave.

Asher followed me, dropping the roses to the ground. His voice was laced with the anger of betrayal.

“Lily Vance, you’re quite the actress, aren’t you? Did you enjoy watching me live in the agony of a broken mate bond for the past five years?”

“You didn’t even leave a single mind-link message.”

I gave him a careless excuse.

“Weren’t you the one who told me to never bother you again?”

Five years ago, when I heard he was holding a mating ceremony with Bella, I drove frantically toward the ritual grounds.

I was ambushed by rogue wolves on the way. My car flipped, and I was pinned inside the twisted metal, bleeding out.

With my last ounce of strength, I sent him a desperate mental plea for help.

But he was busy placing the ceremonial laurel wreath on Bella’s head. He blocked my calls, one after another.

Finally, on my last attempt, he answered.

“Bella has had a hard life as an outsider. Can’t you even let her have this one ceremony?”

“I don’t care if you were in a car crash. Even if you die, don’t bother me. I am going to mate with Bella!”

Asher and I met when we were seven. We discovered our fated mate bond at eighteen and were engaged at twenty-three.

At twenty-six, to marry my father’s illegitimate daughter, he cursed me to die and publicly rejected me.

In that moment, I swore I would never bother him again for the rest of my life.

Now, hearing my words, he gave an unnatural smirk.

“It was just something I said in anger. You actually took it seriously.”

He straightened up, looking me up and down.

“How did you know I’d be at the cemetery today? You’re even wearing my favorite forest green coat…”

He stared at me, his smile not reaching his eyes.

“You don’t really think that after tricking me for five years, you can just play dumb, act a little hard to get, and I’ll abandon Bella to take you back, do you?”

“Let me tell you, Bella has been very good to me while you were gone. Unless you get on your knees and beg for my forgiveness, apologizing for your ‘immaturity’ back then, I will never—”

“You’re overthinking it.”

I couldn’t stand it anymore and cut him off.

“I came back for my mother’s grave. Once I’m done, I’m leaving immediately.”

“Also…”

I paused, turning to walk towards the cemetery gates.

“Since you’ve already mated with someone else, you should stop wearing our bonding token.”

“The wolf’s fang on it is fading.”