Episode 1 – Part 1
🩸 Prologue – "The Night I Died"
SERAPHINA
They crowned me at midnight under the blood moon.
I wore my mother's crown. My brothers stood by my side. The entire kingdom of Duskfall howled my name.
"Seraphina! Queen Seraphina!"
And then — he came.
Alpha Kael Thorncrest.
My fated mate.
My greatest enemy.
He kissed my neck… and slaughtered my court.
---
⚔️ Chapter One – "Four Years Later…"
I stood at the edge of Nightmoor territory, soaked in rain, cloaked in lies.
I wasn't supposed to be here.
Dead queens don't come back.
But I did.
Not for love. Not for justice.
For vengeance.
---
"Name?" the guard growled.
I kept my hood low and voice steady. "Celine Grey. From Riverclaw. I'm the new housemaid."
He sniffed the air. "You reek of rogue."
"Thanks. You smell like wet dog." I smiled sweetly, knowing it was dangerous. I didn't care.
The guard scowled, checked the list, and waved me through. "Stay out of the Alpha's sight. If he scents something he doesn't like—"
"I'll be torn apart. Got it."
What he didn't know was… I already belonged to the Alpha.
He just didn't recognize me.
Yet.
---
🏰 Inside Nightmoor
The packhouse was colder than I remembered. Bigger, too. A fortress of black stone, steel, and secrets.
Just like him.
The head maid shoved a bundle of towels into my arms. "You'll clean the Alpha's chambers. Quietly. Don't ask questions. Don't look him in the eye. Don't speak unless spoken to."
"Easy," I muttered. "He's not my king."
But he was, once.
He marked me. He stole my throne. He left me for dead.
And now?
I was back — in his home, in his pack, in his shadow.
---
I climbed the stairs toward his wing. Every step burned like fire under my skin.
The closer I got to his scent, the more my wolf stirred.
No. Not now. Not ever.
He didn't deserve her.
---
🚪 The Alpha's Quarters
The door was unlocked. I stepped in.
Dark. Cold. Masculine.
And then—he was behind me.
I felt him before I saw him.
The bond. The rage. The silence.
Alpha Kael.
I turned—and froze.
He stood shirtless in the shadows, golden eyes glowing, a scar slashing across his left shoulder.
His voice was deeper now. Rougher.
"Who are you?"
---
I tried to lie. My mouth opened—
But he was already moving.
Fast.
In a blink, his hand was around my throat, fingers tight but not crushing.
Not choking.
Claiming.
His nose grazed my jaw. He inhaled slowly. Then again.
"You smell like ash. And something else. Something… I should remember."
Don't recognize me.
Don't remember me.
"I'm the new maid," I whispered, throat dry.
He didn't let go.
Not yet.
Those gold eyes pierced mine.
"I've smelled this scent before…"
Not today, Kael.
"Maybe in your nightmares," I snapped.
That made him flinch.
He dropped his hand. Turned away.
"Get out."
---
I ran. Down the hall, down the stairs, down into the servants' quarters where no one dared ask questions.
My chest heaved.
Not from fear.
From fury.
He didn't recognize me.
But my wolf still recognized him.
And worse?
She wanted him.
---
🔥 Closing Scene
That night, I stared at the moon through a cracked window.
Four years ago, it turned red as my court bled at my feet.
Tonight, it was silver. Cold. Watching.
I touched the scar on my neck.
He marked me once.
Now I'd mark him back.
With ruin.
Let the Alpha
sleep peacefully tonight.
Tomorrow, I start pulling his kingdom apart from the inside.
And when I sit on that throne again, it won't be as his Luna.
It'll be as the Queen who survived him.
⚔️ Chapter Two – "The Alpha's Shadow"
SERAPHINA
The next morning, I bled.
Not from a wound — from the bond.
My wolf stirred violently under my skin. Every breath I took in his house, in his territory, in his air… pulled me closer to him.
No. He is not yours. He is your target.
But my wolf didn't listen. She never had, not where Kael was concerned.
---
I scrubbed marble floors with blistered hands and a dead heart.
The maids whispered about me. The guards stared too long. One wrong glance, one slip, and everything I worked for — my entire comeback — would burn.
But I didn't care.
Let them talk. Let them wonder.
I came here to finish what he started.
He thought I died with my family the night he stole my throne.
But I survived. Alone. Broken. Hidden.
For four years, I trained with rogues, learned to kill, learned to lie. Learned to bury the girl in the crown and raise the one with the dagger.
---
"Celine."
I froze.
The voice was deep. Commanding. Cold.
Kael.
No. No, not now. Don't turn around. Don't let him see—
"I said, turn around."
I obeyed.
He stood inches from me, dressed in black, his eyes locked on mine like I was prey… or property.
"What did you say your name was again?"
"Celine Grey," I replied, steady.
His gaze narrowed. "You were in my chambers yesterday."
"You asked me to leave. I did."
"Right." His voice dipped lower. "You cleaned. But you left a scent."
I swallowed. "I'm not a pup. I've been trained."
He leaned closer.
"But not well enough."
---
My pulse pounded. His voice hit me like ice — sharp and smooth and meant to make me crack.
But I didn't.
You marked me, Alpha. You destroyed my life. And now I'll ruin yours.
He studied me too long, then turned away.
"You're assigned to me now," he said over his shoulder.
My stomach dropped.
"Pardon?"
"You'll clean my chambers daily. Handle my meals. My clothing. My errands. You'll stay near. I don't like strangers in my space."
No. No. NO.
"Problem?" he asked, pausing.
I straightened. "No, Alpha."
---
💣 Chapter Three – "Close Enough to Kill"
Every day for the next week, I was in his chambers.
Every day, my wolf screamed.
Every night, I dreamed of blood and fire and his lips on my neck as the moon turned red.
And still… he didn't recognize me.
Maybe it was the hood. The voice. The years.
Or maybe he never saw me as anything but a threat — and threats don't live long enough to be remembered.
---
One night, he came in while I was folding clothes.
I stood. Straightened. Kept my eyes down.
But he walked behind me. Slowly. Purposefully.
"You don't flinch," he said.
"I was trained not to."
"By who?"
Rogues. Killers. The very wolves who wanted his head. But I couldn't say that.
"An orphanage outside Riverclaw."
He was silent.
Then—"Your scent… it's driving my wolf mad."
I turned slowly. "Then perhaps you should assign someone else."
"I don't want anyone else."
Those words hit harder than they should've.
---
His eyes locked on me — wild, unsure. Angry at his own confusion.
"You remind me of someone."
Here it comes.
"She's dead."
So you do remember.
But I didn't speak.
Because if I did, the rage would crack through my voice and give me away.
"She had eyes like yours," he said, softer now. "Fire and frost."
I stepped back. "Should I leave, Alpha?"
"No," he growled.
Then I'll stay. And I'll ruin you from the inside.
---
💀 Chapter Four – "A Ghost in the Mirror"
That night, Kael had a visitor.
I wasn't supposed to hear. But I did.
From the back hallway, hidden in the dark.
"Still no trace of the Howlgrave girl?" asked a voice.
"None," Kael replied.
"She'd be twenty-one by now. If she's alive."
"She's not," he said firmly. "She would've come for me by now."
I'm right behind your wall, Kael. Listening. Breathing.
And you don't even know I'm here.
"Her scent disappeared the night of the massacre," said the man. "No body, no trail. That's not natural."
"She's dead," Kael snapped. "Drop it."
But I could hear something beneath his voice.
Doubt.
Guilt.
Memory.
---
After the guest left, Kael entered his room — and found me gathering his empty cup.
He stared.
"What did you hear?"
I blinked. "Nothing, Alpha."
His eyes darkened. "If I find out you're lying…"
"I'm just a maid," I said.
"You're not just anything."
The silence burned between us.
Then he did something that rattled every bone in my body.
He reached out…
And tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
My breath caught. My wolf howled inside.
He didn't speak.
He just stared…
Like he was seeing something he shouldn't.
---
🩸 Closing Line
That night, I stared at m
y reflection in the cracked servant mirror.
Not a maid.
Not an orphan.
Not a survivor.
A queen in disguise.
A ghost with a pulse.
A flame waiting to burn everything down.
And when Kael finally realizes who I am?
It'll be too late.
🌕 Chapter Five – "His Scent, My Sin"
SERAPHINA
He didn't touch me.
But his scent did.
Kael's scent had always been my weakness — pine, smoke, and a storm barely caged.
Back when we were teens and the bond started to pull us closer, I'd hated how it made me feel. Drunk. Dizzy. Dangerous.
Now, in his room again, cleaning glassware and folding black shirts stitched with his crest, that same scent wrapped around my throat like a chain.
My wolf wanted to curl into it.
I wanted to break it.
He walked in, half-shirtless again, damp hair from a shower clinging to his neck.
He stopped when he saw me.
"I didn't say you could be in here this late."
I kept folding. "I wasn't told I couldn't."
He moved slowly — deliberately — and sat on the arm of the couch, watching me.
Studying me.
The way someone watches a blade they almost remember using.
"You don't belong here," he said quietly.
"No," I agreed, "I don't."
Not just in his room.
In his world.
🩸 Chapter Six – "The Night My Throne Burned"
The wind howled. The moon bled. And my mother screamed.
I was seventeen when Kael came to Duskfall.
He was supposed to be our ally. My mate. Our future king.
Instead, he brought a hidden army.
I still remember the moment I saw his eyes shift from love… to betrayal.
"Why, Kael?" I'd asked, clawed, bleeding, crown slipping from my hair.
He didn't answer.
He just turned away as his warriors pulled me from my throne.
The last thing I saw was fire swallowing the walls.
The last thing I heard was my baby brother crying my name.
I woke from the memory gasping.
Back in the servant bed. Back in his territory. Back in my second life.
My wolf was restless. Crying. Torn.
"She still loves him," I whispered.
"But I don't."
🕯️ Chapter Seven – "A Step Too Close"
The next day, I caught Kael watching me.
Again.
It was dinner prep, and I was helping set the table for a guest dinner in the Alpha's wing.
I tried to focus on spoons. Forks. Napkins.
But his eyes burned into my back.
At one point, I turned. Our gazes locked.
And something shifted.
He took a step forward.
I dropped a glass. It shattered loud and sharp.
He was at my side in two seconds.
"You're shaking," he said.
"I'm fine," I lied.
He didn't believe me.
"I know your scent," he said. "It's buried in my memory. Like blood on stone."
I froze.
My hand cut on the glass. Blood pooled.
He grabbed my wrist.
And everything stopped.
The mate bond surged. My blood, his touch — it roared between us like a storm unchained.
His grip loosened.
His eyes widened.
"You're—"
The door burst open.
Beta Mace stepped in. "Alpha, urgent message from West Ridge—"
Kael dropped my wrist. "Later."
I took the chance and fled.
---
🕳 Chapter Eight – "Let Him Chase Ghosts"
Back in the servant corridor, I wrapped my hand tight.
The wound burned. But not from the cut.
From the bond.
It was too soon. I wasn't ready. I couldn't be exposed.
Not yet.
---
Later that night, I returned to his room to retrieve laundry.
He wasn't there — or so I thought.
I went to the wardrobe. Opened the doors.
And saw something I wasn't meant to see:
A necklace. Gold. With the royal crest of Duskfall.
My family's crest.
My breath caught.
Why did he have this?
Why had he kept it?
Was it guilt?
Or proof of conquest?
---
I didn't hear him enter.
"You're not supposed to touch my things," he said behind me.
I turned slowly. "I wasn't."
"Then why are you holding that?"
I looked down.
I was still clutching the pendant.
---
🩸 Closing Line
He walked toward me.
Slowly. Silently.
And for the first time since I returned, I saw fear in his eyes.
Not of me.
But of what I might be.
Of what he might already knows.
🌑 Chapter Nine – "The Memory in His Eyes"
SERAPHINA
He took the pendant from my hand and stared at it.
Silent.
Still.
"I didn't know you kept… trophies," I said, careful with my tone.
Kael didn't look at me. "I didn't keep it as a trophy."
"Then why? It belonged to the royal family of Duskfall. The one you wiped out."
His golden eyes flicked to mine. "I didn't wipe them out."
A beat of silence.
"I led the charge," he admitted. "But I didn't kill her."
Her.
Me.
---
"I was told she died in the fire," he went on, turning the pendant over in his palm. "That she tried to fight, then vanished in the blaze."
I held my breath.
"She was the first person I ever—"
He stopped.
Looked at me again.
And I felt it. The shift. The recognition almost there.
"She had eyes like yours," he whispered.
My heart slammed.
I turned away. "A lot of girls have brown eyes, Alpha."
"They weren't just brown," he muttered. "They had war in them."
---
🩸 Chapter Ten – "Her Ghost Haunts Him"
Later that night, I caught his voice through the open door of his study.
He was talking to someone.
Or maybe to himself.
"She wasn't supposed to die."
I froze in the hallway, every nerve alert.
"Seraphina…" he whispered like the name itself hurt him.
My name.
From his mouth.
My heart cracked in half.
"I did what I had to do," he went on. "But if I could change one thing…"
He never finished the sentence.
---
That night, I couldn't sleep.
I stared at the moon and hated it.
Because it looked like the one from four years ago.
The night I lost my throne.
The night I lost him.
---
💥 Chapter Eleven – "Mine, Even Now"
The next day, the tension exploded.
I was dusting the shelves in his room when I stumbled on something strange:
A sealed letter.
Unopened.
Addressed to… me.
Seraphina of House Howlgrave.
My hands shook.
He never burned it.
Never gave it back.
He kept it. All these years.
I turned—and Kael was there.
He hadn't made a sound.
But his eyes… they saw everything.
"You opened my drawer."
I swallowed. "It was unlocked."
"Still. You shouldn't touch what isn't yours."
"Then stop keeping things that belong to the dead."
---
He walked toward me.
Too close.
Too fast.
"I told you before," he said quietly. "You don't belong here."
I didn't move.
"I don't," I said. "But you won't let me leave."
He leaned in.
Close enough for his scent to burn in my throat.
Close enough for his breath to brush my lips.
"Because you drive me insane," he growled. "Because I smell her all over you. Because every time I look at you—"
He stopped.
His hand went to my neck. Not to choke. Not to control.
To feel.
His fingers brushed the exact place where he once marked me.
It was gone now.
But his wolf remembered.
---
"You're her," he whispered. "Aren't you?"
I stared up at him.
No more lies.
No more fake names.
No more hiding.
"Yes," I breathed. "I am."
---
🩸 Final Chapter – "Not Your Luna"
Kael staggered back.
His wolf flared in his eyes — wild, gold, out of control.
"You're alive."
"You left me to die."
His jaw clenched. "I was lied to. I thought—"
"You crowned me," I snapped. "And then burned me."
"It wasn't like that."
"It was exactly like that."
My voice cracked. I hated it.
But I couldn't stop now.
"You stole my kingdom," I whispered. "Now I'm going to steal your soul."
His eyes burned.
But he didn't stop me when I turned to leave.
Because he knew…
The dead don't run.
They rise.
🔥 Closing Line
Let him chase me now.
Let his guilt burn.
I wasn't here to be his Luna.
I was here to make him regret ever touching a queen.