The Lunar Queen Chapter 28

Summer POV

I have exactly two months to put my last plan into motion. By then, Mason and the others will have graduated and left for Alpha training. I’m going to let that little freak think everything is fine, let her breathe easy, let her start smiling again, let her believe she actually survived me. When she finally lets her guard down again, I’ll pull the rug right out from under her, and this time it’ll hit harder because she won’t be expecting it.

“Summer, I don’t think we should do this,” Seris whispers in my mind.

“Shut up, you stupid wolf. How did I get stuck with a pitiful wolf like you?” I snap at her, already irritated that even my own wolf is too weak to do what needs to be done.

“Our family will hate us when they find out what we did. We can’t do this,” she cries.

“We are doing this. Now shut up,” I shout, blocking her, because guilt is useless, and fear is even worse. Neither of those things gets me what I want.

“Savannah, meet me in my room,” I tell her.

Savannah knocks about five minutes later. “What’s going on, Summer?” she asks.

“We need that stupid warrior to follow Lyric around for the next two months,” I say, already rearranging the plan in my head before she even answers.

“He can’t. She will be doing senior stuff for the rest of the year, preparing for graduation,” she replies.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Lyric isn’t a senior,” I say, annoyed, the words coming out faster and sharper because nothing about that makes sense.

“Yes, she is. I work in the school office. I overheard the principal talking to her teachers last week. Your dad is supposed to come today to sign the papers for her to graduate early,” she says timidly.

“How is this possible? How is she graduating with him?” I snap, my chest tightening with something ugly and hot because of course she found another way to get closer to him. Of course she did.

“She’s really smart, Summer,” she responds.

“GET OUT,” I snap, and she runs out before I can say anything else, which is smart, because right now I really might hit her just for being the one to tell me.

She thinks graduating with him will give her more time with him, but she’s sadly mistaken. If anything, it just gives me a deadline—and I work better with those.

“We need to push the plan up. She’s getting too bold,” I link Nathaniel.

“Okay, when?” he replies.

“The day before graduation,” I say. “Make sure everything is ready, including the cabin,” I add, closing the link. No more waiting. No more dragging this out. She had her chance to stay small and invisible, and instead she got bold. That’s on her.

Good luck keeping him now, bitch. Because by the time you realize what’s happening, it’ll already be too late to stop it.

Unknown POV

Nathaniel just told me that Summer wants to move up the plan. I can’t keep hurting Lyric. I’ve been telling myself I’m just helping, just following directions, just trying not to make things worse for myself, but none of that changes what this really is. After the last time, I was sick to my stomach for days. I can still hear her screams, and the worst part is that I know exactly what they sounded like because I was there. I helped cause them.

I have to tell somebody. Who will believe me? They might now after what happened,” David, my wolf, says.

“Yeah, but we will get in trouble,” I say, and even hearing myself say it makes me feel smaller than I already do, because what kind of person still worries about themselves after what was done to her?

“And we deserve it. We hurt the Beta’s daughter, and she was nice to us when nobody else was,” he says, retreating.

That hits me harder than anything else, because he’s right. She never looked at me like I was nothing. Never talked down to me. Never acted like she was too good for anybody. And I still stood there and let this happen to her.

I need to start recording our conversations, and then I need to help her. I need to make sure she doesn’t get hurt again. I need to pretend like I’m still helping them, then refuse and link for help when we get there. Yeah, that is what I am going to do. I don’t know if it will be enough to make up for any of this, and I don’t even know if I deserve the chance to try, but I know one thing for sure—if I stay quiet again, then whatever happens next is on me too.

She can’t get away with this. Even if it means I go down with her, I’m not letting them touch Lyric again.