Chapter 3

On the way, I ran into two omegas who served Lilian and Kristin. They were showing off to each other.

"Luna Marian truly treats our Lilian like family. The weather has been cold lately, so she specially ordered a whole season of luxury couture for Lilian."

"Please. Alpha Cedric dotes on Miss Kristin too. This morning, after she knelt to beg for that former luna and hurt her knees, he was so distressed that he personally applied medicine for her, massaged her legs, and coaxed her to sleep."

My chest suddenly felt unbearably tight.

I had never experienced any of that.

Even when I was whipped and nearly died, Alpha Cedric never showed up.

They only sent an assistant to visit me symbolically.

When I drifted back to my bedroom, I unexpectedly found Alpha Cedric and his mother, Luna Marian, both there.

They could not see me, but their expressions were ugly.

"I had only just returned when Lilian came crying to me, saying you had given Seraphina to the kidnappers. Poor child, her eyes were swollen. She was clearly terrified."

"Kristin is only an omega and has never followed rules. She was never qualified to enter the pack house. If you had not insisted, she should have been sent away long ago. How could she deserve to make your fated mate take the blame for her again and again?"

Cedric scoffed.

"Mother, Kristin is not the only one who fails to follow rules. If I remember correctly, the one who got drunk with male classmates last time was your adopted daughter, Lilian, wasn't it?"

"To keep the elders from gossiping, I had Seraphina atone for her too. What is this? It is fine for me to protect your adopted daughter, but not fine for me to protect Kristin?"

"The two of them committed the offense together. If we followed those elders' wishes, each would have been whipped fifty times and expelled from the Shadow Pack. Not one of them would have escaped. Tell me, what else could I have done?"

I could not help giving a bitter smile.

I could not tell whether it was heartache or envy.

Poor discipline, the luna needing to set an example, all of it was false.

I was merely the shield they used to protect the people they cared about.

Seeing Cedric's displeasure, and knowing that what he said made sense, his mother's tone softened.

"I am not blaming you. You are the alpha of the Shadow Pack. You may dote on whomever you like."

"But you must consider Seraphina's father. Besides, Seraphina has followed you for more than ten years and even gave birth to an outstanding child like Lucas."

"Are we not going a little too far by treating her this way?"

"And those kidnappers are exiled rogues. What depraved things would they not do? If something happens to Seraphina, how will we explain it to her family pack?"

Cedric pinched the space between his brows impatiently.

"I already made her luna. I never denied her food, clothing, housing, or anything she needed. I even made her son my heir. How much better am I supposed to treat her?"

Though he seemed unwilling, Cedric still revealed the truth.

"She is my mate, after all. I would not truly wipe her out."

"On the note I gave Jack, I made it clear this was only an act. He was only to let Seraphina stay there for a few days. I gave him a black card. Would he dare treat her badly?"

I froze.

So all of it had been an act?

Publicly severing our mate bond, stripping me of my title as luna, ordering people to tear off my clothes and humiliate me in front of everyone.

In his eyes, such excessive cruelty was merely an act?

As though Cedric had remembered something, the corner of his mouth lifted faintly.

"Wolves of the Silver Moon Pack learn how to fight from birth. As the alpha's daughter, Seraphina is even more capable. If Jack truly threatens her, she can deal with it herself. After all, she is my luna."

"Besides, in the first few years she often talked about wanting to go out and see the world. If she weren't constrained by her identity as luna, she might be even more reckless than Lilian and Kristin. I imagine she is probably so happy now that she no longer wants to return to the Shadow Pack!"

I could not listen anymore. I shook his body desperately beside him, but it was useless.

I could only cry and scream silently.

But you forgot. You had already ordered someone to inject me with the drug that suppressed my werewolf strength!

You had me tied up!

How was I supposed to protect myself?

I am already dead!

Dead in such humiliation!

Even a she-wolf who had betrayed her pack might not have suffered what I did.

As the daughter of the alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, I had long known that I was destined to marry into a powerful pack.

So I hid my own preferences, learned every kind of etiquette, and accepted that the husband I had secretly loved since childhood would have many she-wolves in the future.

Lilian had been adopted by the luna after she lost her daughter. The luna raised her personally, and there was no difference between Lilian and a biological child.

Kristin was an omega, but she was very beautiful. Cedric had met her by chance during his travels and fallen in love at first sight.

Both of them were unruly by nature, disliked pack rules, and refused discipline, often throwing the entire territory into chaos.

To protect the people they cared about, and to keep others from gossiping, Luna Marian and Cedric chose me to serve as their shield.

They lectured me again and again.

They said I was the perfect Luna of the pack, that I had to be tolerant, generous, virtuous, and dignified, a model for the young she-wolves.

If they made mistakes, it meant I had failed. I had to be punished in their place.

So I was not allowed to be jealous or resentful. No matter what mistakes Lilian and Kristin made, I was always the one punished in the end.

This was how they made the two of them take warning and behave for a few days.

Sometimes, I envied them too. In this grand estate, there were people to dote on them and protect them.

They did not have to be bound by so-called family interests, mate responsibilities, or the chains of virtue.