Chapter 1
On the eve of my mating ceremony, my twin sister and I were abducted by rogues.
My Alpha fiancé and my parents drained our territory's wealth, but only bought back my sister Elara's life.
Upon her safe return, Elara seamlessly took my place, claiming my marking ceremony to become his Luna.
Meanwhile, left to rot in the rogue camp, a wolfsbane-laced blade violently carved out my wolf's essence.
Tossed into the wilderness like rotting meat, stripped of my ability to shift and bear pups, I became the Crescent Pack's ultimate disgrace.
Forsaken by my pack, Silas—Alpha of the Obsidian Pack and my childhood friend—defied the Council’s fury. Under the Moon Goddess, he publicly marked me, sheltering me like an absolute treasure.
But now, in the third year of our bond, I accidentally knocked over a half-sealed Memory crystal in his study.
It projected a hidden dark magic ritual into mid-air, tearing the lie of that kidnapping to shreds in an instant.
In the projection, Silas held my sister's hand, his eyes brimming with a sickening devotion.
"Don't be afraid, Elara. Aria's twin essence is a perfect match. With this, you'll safely carry pups with the strongest Alpha bloodline."
A heartbeat later, Silas approached my blindfolded, bound body.
With zero mercy or numbing agents, he carved out my essence with his own hands, drowning out my agonizing howls.
Phantom pain pierced my body. My shattered wolf whimpered, our mate bond recoiling in sheer disgust.
That rogue attack that ruined my life... from the very beginning, it was a slaughterhouse meticulously orchestrated by Silas himself!
If he had already stolen my essence, why force a bond with me? Why play the sole savior in the dark?
Just as my wolf teetered on a total breakdown, the crystal's residual magic surged, shorting out the ward on a half-open drawer.
Inside, an unsecured Link-stone flared red, instantly intercepting a live comm-link with his pack healer.
"Alpha! The pureblood essence you bled from Aria this month... it's pushing past her lethal limit!"
The healer's voice trembled with dread. "You already dug out her essence. Now you bleed her monthly under the guise of 'Moon Goddess Blessings.' Keep draining her, and she'll drop dead!"
The Link-stone vibrated with Silas's ruthless reply:
"I defied the Elders to mark her for one reason: to bind her to this territory forever. She's nothing but a blood vessel to keep Elara's body from rejecting the transplant."
He paused, chillingly casual. "Besides, since I can't mark the woman I truly want, her identical face feeds my obsession well enough."
Ignoring the healer's horror, he handed down a cold, hard command.
"Enough talk. Elara is due any day now, and this is when she needs Alpha pureblood protection the most. Prepare the ritual circle. I'm bringing Aria in for another extraction tomorrow."
"Are you insane?! It hasn't even been two days since the last bleed! Do you really not care if your mate dies?!"
The healer frantically spiked the mind-link, desperate to stop him, but Silas mercilessly severed the connection without a ripple of hesitation.
Silence reclaimed the room.
The mate mark on my neck burned like venom, but my tears had already run dry.
Fooling me as a substitute, stripping me of pups, and draining my last drop of blood simply to nourish Elara and another man's pup.
What a sickening display of profound love.
Before the thought could settle, the heavy thud of the front door echoed from downstairs. Instantly, an aggressive scent of cedarwood flooded the grand hall.
He was back.
Face pale as a sheet, I blindly shoved the Memory crystal back into the drawer.
I ducked into the bathroom, splashing freezing water on my face to forcefully suppress my erratic breathing before forcing myself downstairs.
But his razor-sharp Alpha instinct caught the faint redness in my eyes.
Silas strode over, scooping me up and carrying me to the sofa. His palm rested on my hollow lower abdomen—where my essence used to be.
"Aria, why were you crying?" he murmured gently, a mask of perfect pity. "Is the old wound from those rogues acting up again?"
When I didn't answer, he kissed my hair. "Push the pain through our mark, let me feel it. Don't push through it alone, my wolf will die of heartache."
Hearing him shift his sins onto the rogues without blinking made my stomach violently churn.
Right then, several Omegas walked in, heads bowed, carrying baskets of rare healing herbs and prime cuts of fresh, blood-rich game.
Every month after every "blessing," Silas arranged these magnificent feasts.
I used to think it was his undeniable devotion. Now I knew the truth... he was merely using the "blessing" as a cover to bleed me dry, then feeding me like livestock to secure a limitless pureblood supply for Elara.
Swallowing the tremors tearing at my soul, I probed in a hoarse voice, "Silas, I don't want this today. The 'blessing' has been agonizing. Can I... skip the altar tomorrow?"
The words barely left my mouth when a suffocating wave of Alpha aura crushed my lungs, only for him to reel in the raw violence a second later.
He forced my chin up, his golden eyes flashing dark. "No, Aria. You suffered a fatal blow. Without an essence to protect you, the 'purification blessing' absolutely cannot stop."
He leaned down and pressed a kiss against my forehead, sounding obsessively devoted. "You have no idea what you mean to me, Aria. I won't let a single scratch touch you. Not when you're this vital to me."
In the past, those words would have moved me to tears.
Now, seeing the bone-deep calculation beneath his sweet poison, I felt only a freezing, despairing cold.
Silas had just picked up the silver bowl when his Link-stone buzzed. Unmasked ecstasy erupted in his eyes, his breathing hitching.
"A sudden emergency at the pack clinic. I need to leave right now. Be good, finish eating, and wait for me."
The moment the front door clicked shut, my numb facade crumbled. I dumped the repulsive food straight into the waste bin.
Hours passed in a blur. I sat frozen in the study, intending to seal that Memory crystal away... Suddenly, an alert popped up on his screen.
It was Elara's latest status on the pack's private network.
[Thank you, Silas, for sheltering me when my mate's borders fell to chaos. Locking down the clinic with top-tier healers... having an Alpha step up to value your life over his own makes childbirth fearless.]
Attached was a photo. Silas, red-eyed, was holding Elara's newborn pup against his chest. Resting against the infant's fragile neck was the Silver Alpha Crest—the Obsidian Pack's ultimate symbol of authority.
I stared at that photo, unblinking. My stiff fingers fumbled deep in the drawer, knocking loose a parchment scroll.
The seal broke. An Eternal Bloodline Pact, branded by the High Lycan Court.
It was written in black and white: Silas willingly transferred ninety percent of his territory and precious resource lands into a trust, irrevocably gifting it to Elara's offspring.
I forced a cracked smile, one more agonizing than tears, wiping away the absolute last drop from my eye.
So this was an Alpha loving to the absolute extreme. Even for the sister who stole my fiancé, Silas would hollow out his entire pack to provide for them.
If that's the case, Silas... you no longer need to keep me caged or fake this grand romance.
I would grant your ultimate wish—vanishing from your world forever.
