Chapter 4

I woke up in darkness.

There were low howls in the distance, and the sound of wolf claws scraping against the ground.

I was supposed to die in that wolf attack—but I didn’t.

I bit them. One of their eyeballs was still stuck beneath my claw.

Robin was the one who found me.

When he dragged me out from the heap of corpses, his face had gone completely pale.

“How did you survive?” he asked.

I wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t even lift my eyelids. I only managed two words: “Bit back.”

The next time I woke up, I was lying in the pack hospital. My arm was wrapped in bandages, the wound stretching from shoulder to elbow—red, swollen, raw and hideous.

But I was alive.

“Who saved me?” My throat was dry and cracked as I asked the nurse by my bed.

She paused for a moment, her voice softer than the wind. “You crawled out to the edge of the cemetery. A night guard spotted you. He thought you were a vengeful spirit.”

“Does Alpha Azrael know?”

“He knows,” she said carefully. “But he said… you need a few days to calm down.”

Calm down? Where was he when I was almost torn to pieces?

I looked down at my mauled left arm. In my mind, I could still see Jazzy standing under the moonlight, throwing bloody meat into the trees to lure the wolves.

A few days later, my body had mostly recovered—only for a far more disgusting rumor to spread.

“Luna Aurora is mentally unstable. She trespassed in the ancestral graveyard and disturbed the spirits, which attracted the wild wolves.”

“She’s been poisoned with mind-rot venom—this is her own doing.”

“Someone saw her self-harming at her sister’s grave… and cursing the pack.”

I sat on the hospital bed, laughing coldly.

Mind-rot venom? So this is how they erased eight years of loyalty—with one line of madness.

Robin came. His expression was tense and unnatural.

“They’ve called a Council of Elders,” he said.

I closed my eyes. I had seen this coming.

“You’re here to tell me they’re exiling me, aren’t you?”

Robin nodded, then hesitated. “Alpha Azrael proposed keeping your title and letting you rest in seclusion. On one condition…”

I laughed—a bitter, sarcastic sound. “Let me guess. An apology? To Jazzy. To the entire pack.”

Robin didn’t deny it.

“He said you’ve given too much to the pack, and he didn’t want to send you away so disgracefully.”

“So he chose something even worse,” I said, locking eyes with Robin. “He wants me to kneel and bow to the child who nearly got me killed. Do you think I’ll agree to that?”

Robin lowered his head. He didn’t answer. Instead, he took out a small charred box from his cloak.

Inside were the broken pieces of my green jade necklace.

It was my sister’s last gift to me.

“I didn’t burn it,” Robin said softly. “It was still on your neck when we found you. It broke in half during the attack.”

I ran my fingers over the cracked jade, as if I were touching the last unbroken piece of my heart.

“Thank you, Robin. But this time… I won’t live for anyone else again.”

I leaned on a cane and walked into the council hall alone.

The air felt like a frozen tomb. Every gaze pierced into my skin like arrows.

“We hereby declare—” one elder announced, raising a scroll of parchment, his voice cold and flat, “Aurora is deemed unfit to serve as Luna. As of today, she is banished from Blackthorn territory. Never to return.”

Azrael said nothing. He didn’t even look at me. Just sat there, like a host waiting for a dull banquet to end.

I scanned the room, lips curling faintly. “Very well. I’ll leave. But remember—you pushed me out. I never walked away.”

As I turned, silence fell.

I saw Jazzy. He stood on the steps, hands in his pockets, smirking like he was watching a comedy show.

When I returned to my room, my belongings had already been thrown outside.

I bent to pick up the broken suitcase. Just as my fingers brushed the leather, I heard a familiar laugh from upstairs.

“Don’t forget this.” A shoe flew down from the window, hitting my shoulder.

I looked up. Jazzy leaned against the window sill, triumphant.

“You think surviving means you deserve to stay? You’ve always been a substitute. Nothing more.”

The window slammed shut.

I stood there for a long time. I didn’t speak. I didn’t cry.

Love had already been burned to ashes. And I had no tears left.

Three days later, a wolf whistle echoed from the horizon. The pack hall erupted into chaos.

A knight stumbled in, nearly choking on his words.

“The Alpha of Silverfang pack… he’s coming with his army!”

Azrael shot to his feet, face pale. “Why is he coming?”

The knight, panting hard, threw a letter in front of him.

“He says… he’s here to take back everything he lost.”

Azrael frowned. “What does that mean?”

The knight’s voice sliced through the air like a blade.

“He said—the Luna you exiled… she carries the blood of his Luna.”

In that moment, the entire council chamber fell silent—so silent even breath forgot how to move.