“Isn’t LunaSkin the Vale empire’s flagship perfume?”
“The girl seems like she couldn’t do such a thing,” another voice whispered. “She looks too innocent to be accused of stealing.”
Suzette’s fury boiled over. “Fine!” she shouted, turning toward the crowd. “Let me enlighten you all. This woman’s name is Jessica, the bastard daughter of my father and his mistress. We threw her out ten years ago for her disgraceful behavior. And now she dares to stand here claiming my husband’s best-selling perfume as hers? How could someone like her, who has never set foot in a lab or a healer’s den, possibly create anything of value?”
My hands curled into fists, claws aching to break through my skin.
The nerve of this woman, talking as though what they did to me had been my fault? When in truth I had nearly died in that house.
In that cage in particular.
I swallowed the fire rising in my chest and let a sharp, icy smile curve my lips. “Luna Suzette, you accuse me of theft just because of who I am. Don’t you think that’s rather arrogant? For all you know, I might’ve built my own name and power over the past ten years.”
Suzette let out a sharp, mocking laugh that echoed across the hall. “You? Build a name for yourself? Oh, that’s adorable,” she taunted. With a dramatic flick of her curls, she faced the crowd and spread her arms proudly. “Everyone here knows this event celebrates the LunaSkin Bloom line created by the mysterious Alchemist. Well, guess what? I’m the Alchemist of LunaSkin. That scent she’s flaunting is mine. And my mate can confirm every word.”
Gasps rippled through the hall.
“What? Luna Suzette is the Alchemist?”
“Alpha Johan, is that true? She’s the one behind LunaSkin Bloom?”
Reporters pushed closer, flashes bursting like lightning as questions fired from every direction. I ignored them all, keeping my gaze fixed on Johan. My fingers clenched the silk of my gown until the fabric strained between my hands.
What now, Johan? Are you really going to stand there in silence? After everything we’ve been through, will you not defend me even once?
Johan gulped as my mindlink cut through him. His guilt was written across his face, plain for everyone to see.
But then Suzette cupped his face, forcing him to meet her teary eyes. “Love?” she whispered, trembling just enough for sympathy to bloom around her. “Please don’t let me down.”
He hesitated, then forced a strained smile for the cameras. “Y-Yes. Suzette is the Alchemist. She’s been the mind behind LunaSkin Bloom for the past ten years.”
The words pierced like claws through my chest. No one knew better than he did how much of myself I had poured into those formulas. And now, without a blink, he handed it all to her.
Fine. So be it.
Suzette’s grin widened as the cameras flashed. “You all heard it. That scent is my work. Which means Jessica stole it. She probably took other formulas too.” She snapped her fingers sharply. “Warriors! Check her. See if she’s hiding the notes of my other perfume formulas on her body. I wouldn’t put it past her to smuggle my secrets like a common rogue thief!”
Two warriors immediately seized my arms and slammed me onto the cold marble floor.
With a sharp rip, my dress strap tore open, exposing my back.
The crowd gasped, horror spreading as they saw the long, faded whip scars running down my spine, proof of the cage, of the past I could never hide.
As I struggled against the warriors’ hold, trying to free myself, I noticed a man standing among the guests, his gaze locked solely on me. He clenched his wine glass so tightly that it shattered in his hand. Blood dripped down his fingers, red against the white shards, while his glowing eyes fixed on me with barely restrained rage. Who could he be?
Jessica’s POV
“Release me! This is a violation of pack law!”
I thrashed against the warriors’ iron grips.
From my humiliating position on the floor, my gaze locked onto Johan.
“Can you truly look me in the eyes and claim Suzette created LunaSkin with her own hands?” I stared at him. “You said you’d never let them hurt me again. So why are you letting them?”
“J-Jessica…” Johan stood frozen, caught between stepping forward and staying back, as if debating whether to help me or pretend I wasn’t there at all.
But Suzette clung to his arm, pressing her cheek to his shoulder. “Love, I feel dizzy…”
Her voice trembled just enough to sound pitiful. Her timing was perfect, making Johan attend to her.
Of course he would do that. Suzette was terminally ill, after all. She was his Luna now, his burden to bear, his excuse to abandon me again.
He forced the guilt down and lifted his chin. “Suzette is the Alchemist. My mate. She’s the one behind LunaSkin Bloom.”
The lie sliced through me sharper than claws.
The crowd gasped.
Flashes from reporters burst across the room like lightning. All around, murmurs stirred the room like wind before a storm.
“She stole it?”
“Isn’t she the one they kicked out?”
“Poor Alpha Johan, having to deal with this embarrassment.”
My throat burned.
Even after he mated with Suzette behind my back.
Even after I vowed to forget him.
Even now, I had hoped, foolishly, that he’d speak the truth.
But no.
My wolf paced furiously inside me, her fur bristling. I’d trusted him once. I’d let him see every raw, broken part of me. And now he was ripping it all away.
Suzette turned to the warriors. “Search her body. I want every inch checked. She might’ve hidden the rest of my perfume formulas.”
“Rightaway, Luna.”
I kicked and twisted, desperate not to let them strip more of my dignity. “Stop!” I growled, still resisting.
I wasn’t just being searched.
I was being erased. Again.
Stripped of dignity. Painted as a liar. Even when my very scars screamed the truth.
My eyes snapped toward Johan as I shot a mindlink straight into him.
“How dare you stand there and pretend you don’t know me? Pretend you don’t know what I’ve survived?”
His throat bobbed. Guilt flickered in his eyes before he masked it.
“If you’re not hiding anything, Jessica, then you have nothing to fear.”
“I-If I’m not hiding anything?”
I let out a laugh. Cold. Empty. A smile that wasn’t a smile at all.
He didn’t need to explain. His words said it all.
He wouldn’t fight for me.
Murmurs broke out.
Some recoiled.
Some whispered.
“She looks like she’s been mauled…”
“How could anyone survive that?”
“Disgusting.”
“That’s enough,” Johan snapped, eyes cutting away. “Take her backstage. Search her thoroughly.”
A hot rush of shame and fury exploded in my chest.
He gave the order.
Not to shield me.
But to shut me away like I was a threat to contain.
He wasn’t just letting them humiliate me.
He was validating it.
His command wasn’t to stop the scene.
It was a message: I didn’t matter enough to defend.
But I wouldn’t let them treat me like I was less than nothing ever again.
Not while my wolf howled inside me, begging to be set free.
Not while my dignity bled across this marble floor.
Heavens above, what manner of cruelty is this?
I should not suffer like this. I damn well should not.
I rose slowly.
The warriors stilled, stunned. Even the air held its breath.
“If the Alpha believes I’m hiding something,” I said, voice sharp enough to cut steel, “then why drag me behind curtains like some banished rogue?”
“You want me bare?”
“So be it.”
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