Chapter 1

Serena and I got tricked into vampire territory, forced into blood slavery.

By the time the pack showed up to save us, I was already the top blood slave in that pit, kneeling beside the vampire count, counting his earnings.

Serena was left rotting in a cell, poisoned, pregnant, and barely alive.

The pack offered a huge bounty to find whoever set us up.

I was the only one who knew. And I said nothing.

Morwenna, the Alpha's mother, begged me on her knees to talk. I closed my eyes, pretending not to hear.

The elders pushed. I stayed silent.

My mate, Alpha Kai, dragged me onto the Blood Moon memory altar, furious.

"Serena's dying in that tent, and you're here protecting those animals!"

"Disgusting. How did I ever fall for you!"

"This stone's going to rip your soul apart and drag you to hell with your precious vampires!"

But when the truth finally surfaced, Kai just stood there. Speechless.

——

The massive circular plaza blazed under the firelight.

Every single wolf in the pack had gathered. Hundreds of eyes bore into me.

Those stares were dripping with hatred and fury, like they wanted to tear me apart limb from limb.

I struggled with everything I had, trying to break free from the silver chains binding my wrists.

Then it hit me—a suffocating wave of pressure crashing down from above.

My body was pinned to the altar, frozen. I couldn't even twitch a finger.

Kai walked forward, slow and deliberate. His towering frame blocked out the moon.

He reached out and gripped my throat. Those emerald eyes that once looked at me with such tenderness now burned with nothing but rage.

"Tell me, Lilia!"

"Who opened the border wards for the vampires?"

"Who threw Serena into that den of bloodsucking monsters?"

I gasped for air, choking under his grip. My ears drooped in agony.

Black spots crept into my vision. My mind started slipping away.

But I bit down on my lip and refused to say a word.

A few high-ranking Betas stormed onto the altar, whips raised, and lashed across my back.

Searing pain tore through my skin. I could feel blood trickling down my spine.

"Filthy traitor!"

"Alpha Kai and Lady Serena treated you so well, and this is how you repay them by helping vampires slaughter our own kind!"

"You just stood there and watched those leeches drain Lady Serena dry!"

The pack's curses rose like a tidal wave, one after another.

Someone ripped my clothes to shreds, leaving me exposed before everyone.

I tried to curl into myself, but the chains held me in place.

Morwenna stood in the crowd, front and center.

Kai's mother turned her blind eyes toward me, her expression twisted with contempt.

"Filthy blood slave, through and through."

"Betrayal is written into the genes of low-ranking Omegas."

"Who knows—maybe she's been craving vampire fangs all along, spreading her legs for a taste of power."

I squeezed my eyes shut, letting the venomous words cut into me like knives.

What was the point of explaining anything?

They only believed what they wanted to believe.

Kai released his grip on my throat and pulled something from his cloak—a stone pulsing with an eerie blue light.

The Soul Regression Stone.

The moment I saw it, my blood turned to ice.

"No…"

Kai pressed the stone against my forehead, looking down at me from above.

"Soul regression will tear your mind apart."

"Twenty times more painful than a silver blade carving out your heart."

I started shaking violently, all those horrific, hopeless memories flooding back.

"Don't look!"

"Kai, I swear on the Moon Goddess—you'll regret this!"

Something flickered in his eyes—a moment of fierce, buried hesitation.

But then his gaze drifted to his mother, standing there with her bloodshot eyes, and that flicker of doubt vanished instantly.

His expression turned to ice.

"Regret?"

"I should have let you die out there in the wilderness."

The words barely left his mouth before he shoved the stone into my forehead without mercy.

My soul tore apart, and the agony swallowed me whole.

A sound ripped out of me—not quite human, more like the howl of a dying animal. My body convulsed on the altar.

Below, the pack raised their torches high, whipped into a frenzy.

"Tear her apart!"

"Traitors deserve to burn to ash under the blood moon!"

Above the altar, the air began to ripple like water.

Ancient magic stirred, and the images buried in my mind surfaced, floating in the space above us.

Everyone held their breath.

The image showed the pack's medical tent, reserved for critical cases.

Serena lay there, nothing but skin and bones—except for her stomach, which bulged unnaturally against her frail frame.