---- Chapter 2 "Well, look what we have here. Isn't it our 'former' princess, missing for five long years?" The sharp, female voice cut through the noise of the Great Pilgrimage's welcome banquet. Ihad just stepped into the grand hall when I heard that sickeningly familiar voice. Lyla. She was dressed in a blood-red Luna gown, and around her neck was the sapphire necklace that had once belonged to my mother. Even more jarring was the crimson pack mark on her collarbone-a blood mark, symbolizing the highest authority. Damon was the new Alpha. "Selena!" she said, walking toward me with a fake, surprised smile. "I thought I'd never see you again." She reached out to hug me. ---- I took a step back. "Don't touch me." Her hand froze in mid-air. A flash of anger crossed her eyes before she replaced it with a wounded look. " Selena, what's wrong? I thought we were friends." Friends? She used the same act in our last life. Playing innocent to my face while plotting my ruin with Damon behind my back. "Lyla." Damon's voice cut through the crowd. He was in his formal Alpha attire, wearing the Blood Moon chieftain's crest on his chest. Five years had made him look more mature, and colder. "Don't get too close to her," he said, wrapping an arm around Lyla's waist. "Filth is contagious." A few of the surrounding Alphas snickered. "Damon's right," chimed in Marcus, the Alpha of the Silverclaw Pack. "I heard some banished wolves will do anything to survive in the Far North." ---- "Yeah, I hear she had to get friendly with the feral beasts up there to get by," another Alpha added with a smirk. More stifled laughter. They were implying I'd sold my body to survive. These fools. "Your imaginations are running wild," I said calmly. "Imagination?" Damon sneered. "Selena, do you think any of us are fools? We all know how you survived the last five years."' He glanced around, making sure he had an audience. " A Goddess-cursed wolf, surviving by selling yourself to the lowest of rogues. Look at you. How dare you stand there as if you're not tainted?" I looked down at myself. A simple black dress, no jewelry. A stark contrast to the glittering Lunas around me. "You're right," I nodded. "I'm nothing like you." Lyla started her performance again.