Chapter 2

"When you were screwing my best friend behind my back, did you ever wonder if I'd lose my damn mind?" I stared at Lachlan. 

Liora turned to pound her fists against his chest. "Why did you say that? You promised we wouldn't hurt her!" 

Then she dropped to her knees, grabbing my cold hands. "Ellie, I'm so sorry. It was a mistake. We didn't mean to. If you hate me, I'll pack my bags and leave the pack tonight!"

Lachlan immediately grabbed her wrists, pulling her up. He reached out and wiped her tears with his thumb, his gaze softening in a way he never looked at me. Then he turned to me. 

"Stop making her feel like garbage," he said, his voice cruel and flat. "I'm the bastard here. I'm the one who wanted her back. I couldn't let her go."

He pulled her against his chest, tucking her head under his chin. 

"Did you remember? Last week, when you went to the mountains to pick herbs and got attacked, we didn't ignore your distress flares because I was buried in pack business." He said. 

"Liora wore her old mating dress and stood out in the snow. I lost it.” 

“I dragged her into the carriage and fucked her right then and there. She was crying, begging me to go save you, but I pinned her down. I didn't care about anything else."

My whole body went rigid. 

The memory of that day slammed into me. I had gone up that freezing mountain specifically to find a rare herb for Liora’s persistent cough. Three rogue wolves cornered me. I fired my flare gun three times. I even screamed for Lachlan and Liora through our pack mind-link, begging them to save me. But the link was dead silent. I fought them off with a dagger, almost freezing to death in the snowbank with a torn shoulder.

When I finally dragged my bloody, half-dead body back to the castle, Liora was there. Her clothes were wrinkled, her hair was a mess, and her cheeks were flushed. I had actually touched her warm face, telling Lachlan to take her to bed because I thought she had exhausted herself running around looking for me. 

God, I was an idiot. 

Older memories rushed in. Years ago, when Lachlan’s skin-burning curse kept me away, I would cry in my room. Liora was always there. She rubbed my back. She taught me how to mix the soothing oils. She gave me step-by-step advice on how to get past his walls. 

Staring at the faces of the two people closest to me, my vision blurred.

"Ellie, please!" Liora suddenly slapped herself hard across the face. "I couldn't control myself! Every time I saw him touching you, I remembered our past. Slap me, curse me, whatever you want! Just don't say we aren't sisters anymore!"

Lachlan caught her hand before she could hit herself again. He scooped her up into his arms. She buried her face in his neck, trembling. 

He dug into his pocket and tossed a heavy golden storage ring onto the bed. 

"There's enough gold and rare herbs in there to keep you living comfortably for the rest of your life," Lachlan said, not even looking at me. "Take it and stop causing drama. "

He turned on his heel and carried her out. 

I stared at the ring. I slowly rose my hand to pick it up. The cold metal barely touched my palm when the door banged open again. 

It was the pack healer. He was out of breath, his face pale as a sheet. 

"Luna! It's Maggie! You need to come now!" 

The ring slipped from my fingers. "What?"

"She... she's gone, Luna. I'm so sorry."

I didn't hear the rest. I shoved past him and ran. I ran down the stone corridors, my bare feet slapping against the cold floor until I burst into the small room by the servant's quarters. 

Maggie lay on her bed. Her eyes were closed. She looked so small, so incredibly frail. 

I crashed to my knees beside the bed and grabbed her hand. It was ice cold. 

"No, no, no. Grandma, wake up," I whispered, rubbing her knuckles. "Please, Maggie. Wake up."

The healer stood in the doorway, wringing his hands. "She had a massive heart attack, Luna. She was screaming about seeing shadows in her room. Illusions. Lachlan and Liora naked in the snow. The shock... her heart couldn't take it."

Illusions. 

Liora was a plant witch. Mind-altering herbs and visual illusions were her specialty. 

I looked down. Tightly clutched in Maggie's stiff fingers was a little stuffed wolf. She had been sewing it for the baby I was hoping to have. The baby that Lachlan and I were planning for just last month. 

I buried my face in her chest and finally screamed. A raw, tearing sound ripped from my throat. 

“If I had never married Lachlan, would you still be alive?”

My shoulder was still throbbing from the rogue attack, the wounds barely knitted together. I chewed a handful of raw numbing herbs, letting my half-wolf adrenaline override the agony. I wasn't going to let anyone else touch my grandma.

Two hours later, I wrapped Maggie's body in a simple linen shroud. Ignoring the fresh blood seeping through my own bandages, I carried her myself, walking all the way to the pack's stone tombs at the edge of the woods.

A torrential downpour started halfway there. The sky cracked open, pouring freezing rain over us. I dug the stones away with my bare hands, my nails breaking and bleeding, until I made a spot for her.

By the time I walked back to the main castle, I was drenched. Mud coated my legs, and my clothes plastered to my freezing skin. I was numb. My heart felt hollowed out.

I walked up the massive stone steps and reached out to push the doors open. 

Suddenly, two guards stepped out, blocking my path. 

One of them raised a large pitcher. He hurled the contents directly at my face. 

Ice-cold holy water, mixed with crushed sage and bitter wormwood, splashed over my head. It blinded me, stinging my eyes and soaking into the cuts on my hands. I gasped, stumbling backward on the slippery steps.

The guard bowed slightly. 

"My apologies, Madam," he said stiffly. "Alpha's strict orders. Lady Liora is pregnant. You just handled a dead body. You're carrying the aura of death, and it will harm the pureblood pup in her womb. You must be thoroughly cleansed of the dead before you are allowed back inside the main keep."