Once The Forsaken Luna, Now His Eternal Obsession

Selena's POV:

The moment Damon pulled me out of the Brooks estate, he brought me straight into the Gray Zone.

This was his world—the territory controlled by the Rogue King. Its entrance was concealed behind an ordinary-looking bar, hiding an entire underground domain from the outside world.

The packs above had their borders, their rules, and their hierarchies. The Gray Zone had its own order. There was no Council of Elders here. No one cared about bloodline or status. No one cared what kind of person someone had been before they stepped inside. As long as you had money, courage, or enough ability to make yourself useful, you could carve out a place to survive.

The Gray Zone thrived on everything the surface world tried to bury—drugs, bounties, fight rings, intelligence trading, and black-market auctions.

And Damon was the one who controlled it all.

Years ago, when I was still working as a bounty hunter, I had once accepted a mission to hunt him down.

Back then, he had nearly shot me dead. I had been only a breath away from opening his throat with my blade. Neither of us walked away as the winner. Instead, we ended up fighting side by side, our backs pressed together as we tore through the same ambush that had been meant to kill us both.

That battle changed everything. Afterward, Damon and I became genuine friends—the kind who trusted each other. He even knew how I lost my wolf.

Kael had spent years believing I was nothing more than a useless she-wolf who had schemed her way into the Brooks family.

He had no idea I was capable of far more than he imagined—I could shoot, dismantle explosives, track anyone I hunted, and stay alive in the Gray Zone.

Damon walked in with a bag of food. "The doctor said if we don't get the Moonlight Grass, you probably only have two months left."

The words barely stirred a reaction in me.

I had known this day would come. It had been inevitable from the moment I pulled the silver poison out of Kael's body and took it into my own three years ago.

I saved his life. I lost my wolf. And in exchange, I became the useless Luna everyone in the Golden Moon Pack despised and looked down on.

Yet Kael had spent all this time believing Aria was the one who saved him.

Damon slid a folder across the table and added, "This is your new identity. Forget everything else and focus on getting better. I've already found a lead on the Moonlight Grass. A stalk will be appearing at an auction in two months."

Looking up at him, I asked, "Is Kael still searching for me?"

"Of course he is." Damon let out an icy huff. "But don't be naive enough to think it's because he misses you."

I didn't bother arguing. That was Kael. He could push me aside. He could pretend I meant nothing and leave me behind without a second thought. But the moment I genuinely tried to walk away, his Alpha instinct to possess and control would awaken, despite the fact he had never truly treasured me.

My gaze dropped to my hands.

When I buried that little wolf pup, I had stood before the Moon Goddess Stone and given him a name.

William.

He deserved to have one.

I couldn't give him a family. I couldn't give him a place to belong. The only thing I could do was leave him a name, something that proved he had once existed.

Slowly, I removed the ring that represented my position as Luna and closed my fingers around it in my palm.

For three years, that ring had stayed on my finger, symbolizing my bond with Kael and my place as the Luna of the Golden Moon Pack.

But now, staring down at it, I felt nothing. It no longer meant anything to me.

"Finally, it's over," I muttered under my breath.

...

Kael's POV:

Mason placed a thick stack of reports in front of me, the papers landing against the desk with a heavy thud.

"Alpha, we identified the man who took Luna. It was Damon Walsh—the Rogue King of the Gray Zone."

I knew exactly what the Gray Zone was. The Golden Moon Pack had made a few shady deals with them more than once over the years.

And Damon... His name wasn't unfamiliar.

Everyone in our world knew him as the Rogue King, the man who held absolute control over the Gray Zone. The black market, underground trades, intelligence networks—everything flowed through his hands.

But Selena? How could she possibly have any connection to someone like him?

Mason pushed another photograph across the desk.

It had been taken from far away, capturing nothing more than a blurred silhouette. Damon was holding Selena as he helped her onto the motorcycle.

"Our people confirmed that Damon has been moving around the old district recently," Mason reported. "Alpha, I don't think Luna's departure was a decision she made on impulse. There's a chance she had connections to the Gray Zone long before this."

Something heavy pressed against my chest.

So she'd known Damon all along. The thought sent my mind back to the Rejection she had signed.

She had been willing to walk away with nothing. She had been ready to give up her position as Luna without hesitation.

She didn't need anything from me because someone else was already waiting for her.

A knock sounded at the door before Aria stepped inside. She set a cup of coffee beside me and spoke in a gentle voice. "Kael, Selena left so suddenly and so completely... Do you think she might have planned this from the beginning?"

I didn't answer.

After a quiet pause, Aria lowered her voice. "Or maybe... she's been involved with Damon for a long time."

Her eyes dropped, and she looked almost regretful, as though she had realized she had said too much. "I'm not trying to cause problems between you two. I'm just worried about you. Selena always seemed so obedient whenever she was with you. But who knows what secrets she was keeping from you?"

I turned my gaze away, unable to refute her words.

Deep down, a part of me had already begun wondering if Aria was right.

Selena had stood beside me as my mate for three years, yet I knew almost nothing about the things she'd done or the people she'd been connected to.

Inside the Golden Moon Pack, she had always been quiet—gentle, obedient, and willing to lower herself.

But the second she walked away, she seemed like an entirely different person.

Which version of her was real?