Chapter 1

"Hold off on the surgery. Have all the doctors wait outside," Alpha Laurence commanded.

The doctor, who had just slipped on his gloves, froze. "Alpha Laurence, Miss Ella's burns are severe. There are traces of wolfsbane in her system, preventing her natural healing. If we don’t act now—if we don’t detoxify and operate—she won’t just be disfigured. She could lose her wolf completely. If that happens, she’ll be wolfless, vulnerable, and—"

"Ruined?" Alpha Laurence cut in with a cold chuckle. "If she’s ruined, so be it."

I was barely conscious, my body a wreck of seared flesh and excruciating pain, but my hearing was sharp. And the way he said it—so indifferent, so final—made my stomach churn harder than the wolfsbane had.

A pause. Then my mother spoke, her voice hesitant. "Laurence... Ella is too gravely injured to participate in the Beta selection tomorrow. Maybe we should—"

"Should what?" His voice turned sharp. "Let her recover? Give her a chance to fight back? No. If she can’t be Beta, she’ll find ways to sabotage Celia. You know how Ella is—vain, competitive, selfish. Leaving her half-dead, wolfless, and helpless is the only way to stop her from bullying Celia."

Vain. Selfish.

That’s what he thought of me?

Alpha Laurence exhaled, Then, with a tenderness so grotesquely out of place, he dipped a swab into water and gently pressed it to my cracked lips. The contrast made me want to retch.

"Ella, this is for your own good, You need to learn humility."

My mother sighed, then turned to the doctors. "Just relieve her pain. Clean her burns lightly—don’t let her suffer too much."

Suffer too much?

My breath came in ragged gasps, my chest rising and falling in a painful rhythm. No one noticed how violently I trembled beneath the blankets, as if a blade had pierced my heart and pinned me to the bed.

The fire hadn’t been an accident. The wolfsbane wasn’t a coincidence.

It had been him.

It had always been him.

And my mother—my own mother—had helped.

Outside, they stood talking about me like I wasn’t even here.

“It’s for the best,” Alpha Laurence murmured, more to himself than to anyone else. “I promised Celia she’d be Beta. I won’t let anyone stand in her way.”

The numbness in my limbs couldn’t stop the fire of hatred igniting in my heart.

I had loved this man. The mate the Moon Goddess had chosen for me. The one I thought would fight beside me, protect me.

But I was wrong.

I bit down hard on my lip until I tasted blood, forcing myself not to cry out.

Don’t give them the satisfaction.

A metallic taste spread over my tongue as the pain gnawed at my chest. My vision blurred, and before I could stop it, a mouthful of blood surged up, splattering onto my sheets.

The room fell into momentary chaos.

My mother gasped and rushed toward me, stopping short when she realized there wasn’t a single inch of me she could touch without causing more harm. Tears streaked her face. "Ella, Mommy is here. Does it hurt? Don’t be afraid. Mommy will always stay by your side."

Alpha Laurence, on the other hand, was seething.

"Where are the damn doctors? If anything happens to my Luna, this hospital will cease to exist!"

The doctors, already in on the scheme, fumbled for an excuse. "Alpha Laurence, they’re on their way. There was a traffic accident—the car is stuck. They won’t arrive until tomorrow at the earliest."

Alpha Laurence didn’t even let him finish before he kicked the man out of the room with a growl. "Get lost!"

Then, he turned back to me, his expression softening into a look of practiced guilt. He crouched beside my bed, his eyes searching mine as if he actually cared.

"Ella, I’m so sorry. It’s my fault for not getting here sooner. I should’ve protected you better. But don’t worry," he whispered, grasping my unburned fingers. "No matter the cost, I’ll make sure you’re healed. You’ll always be the strongest Beta in my heart."

I looked at him.

This man—who had orchestrated my downfall—was playing the role of a devoted mate so flawlessly that if I hadn’t heard him earlier, I might have believed him.

I swallowed down the bile in my throat, my voice so weak it barely made a sound. "Will I really recover?"

"You will," he vowed, his thumb grazing the back of my hand. "I promise."

his false sincerity painting me as nothing more than a fool.

To eliminate me as a threat to Celia, my mate—the man who had promised to love me all his life—had strung me along with one lie after another, only to push me down a path of destruction.

Even my mother, who had once held me as her treasure, chose to raise the blade against me for Celia, the two-faced adopted daughter.

At that moment, I wanted to ask them why they had been so cruel to me.

But every word dissolved into the growing coldness in my heart, leaving nothing but a suffocating silence.

A group of doctors entered with disinfectants, their faces marked by pity and regret as they gazed at my mutilated body.

"Miss Ella," one of them said gently, "the specialists aren’t here yet. We’ll just do some basic disinfection for now. Please bear with it."

The moment the disinfectant touched my burns, agony ripped through me like lightning. My fragile veins, still weakened by wolfsbane, burst under the treatment. Blood and pus seeped through the sheets, the sharp, acrid scent filling the air.

My mother let out a strangled sob, her hands trembling violently as she covered her mouth.

Alpha Laurence clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white, his red-rimmed eyes making it look as if he were the one in pain.

Their performances were flawless.

But I saw the truth.

Everything was a lie.

Only the betrayal—and the scars—were real.