Chapter 3
I wailed until my voice gave out, my screams swallowed by the heat, by the silence, by the stone.
My skin blistered and cracked, my flesh peeling away with every twitch of pain. I couldn’t hold my human form anymore. My body shifted on instinct, bones breaking and reshaping until fur began to sprout through open wounds. But even in my wolf form, scorched and broken, I curled around the tiny, charred body lying beneath me.
My baby. My pup. Unrecognizable now.
I tried to shield him with my body. But what good is protection after death?
And while I lay there, melted into the floor of that moonstone altar—alone, broken, stripped of everything—Alpha Byron was declaring his love to another.
To her.
Lucia.
Guilt-ridden and self-righteous, he decided she deserved the world for carrying “their child” alone.
He seized prime land in the center of the pack and threw an extravagant celebration in her name. Soldiers launched flyers from the sky, each printed with his handwritten confessions of eternal love.
Crowds wept at the supposed fairytale they shared. And then—because public humiliation wasn’t enough—he released rare orchids from hot-air balloons to every neighboring pack, proclaiming Lucia as the true Luna of the Silver Moon Pack.
Meanwhile, I watched them from the spirit realm, trapped between life and death.
I watched him feed her, kiss her forehead, stroke her hair in the love nest I had built.
“I’m sorry, Lucia,” he whispered, cupping her cheek. “Hilda lied to me. That night she claimed she sacrificed herself to save me from the love potion. Out of obligation, I made her Luna. But now I know the truth.”
“But” he continued, with that same fake gentleness he once used on me, “we were mates blessed by the Moon Goddess. I couldn’t just abandon her—not without scandal. But don’t worry. I’m putting her in her place now. Once she learns her lesson, we’ll all live peacefully. You, me, the pup we’ll have together... and Hilda with hers. A family of five.”
Lucia blinked, her smile flickering like a flame in the wind. “What?”
“Don’t worry,” Byron said, entirely missing her expression. “Hilda’s just a title. You’ll always be the Luna in my heart. Think of her as... a free nanny. And your child will have a Beta sibling to grow up with.”
Lucia’s face twitched—just a flicker. But in her eyes, I saw it. That calculating gleam. That flicker of possession.
She forced a sugary smile. “Of course. I’ll be... kind to Hilda from now on.”
The absurdity nearly sent me spiraling.
He destroyed me. He crushed my soul and watched my baby die. And still believed I’d smile and wash the sheets where he and his mistress made love?
He had the audacity to think I’d serve them tea and raise our children side by side?!
I bit my lip so hard my spirit still bled, watching phantom tears rise and vanish into the air.
He believed I’d stay—because I loved him. And he was right.
I did.
That’s what made all of this hurt so much more.
For years, I had endured. And it all started with her—Lucia—returning half a month ago, frail and weeping.
Byron was ecstatic. He roasted Luna-grade moon deer himself, humming in the kitchen like we weren’t even mates.
But then she collapsed, blood staining the floor. Her forehead split open, and her lower body was soaked red.
I, heavily pregnant, rushed to get help. I had someone carry her to the Pack Doctor, praying she’d be okay.
And when did she wake up?
She turned her teary gaze toward Byron and accused me. Said I’d pushed her. That I had caused her miscarriage.
No matter how I tried to explain. No matter how many times I walked through the scene. Byron refused to hear it.
I showed him the medical report: “abnormal embryonic lineage.” Her miscarriage had nothing to do with me.
But the moment she cried?
He snapped.
“You’re still acting?!” he roared, releasing his Alpha dominance and forcing me to my knees. “You’re malicious! Just admit what you’ve done!”
Then came confinement. A week of isolation. And when he finally returned, the look in his eyes made my blood freeze.
It was like he didn’t even recognize me.
That’s when I started asking why. How could the man I had saved, repeatedly, become this monster?
And finally, the memories started to piece together.
Two years ago.
We weren’t mates yet. Just allies.
The Silver Moon Pack was collapsing. Prey had vanished. The pups were starving. And Lucia, the woman once promised to Byron, vanished on the night of the full moon—stealing the pack’s entire supply of moonstones and silver mane.
She didn’t just take what was valuable. She destroyed what she couldn’t carry.
Byron broke.
He shifted into his wolf and hid in a gutted house, letting lice and flies feast on him. I tried to help—tossing healing potions into the ruin day after day, only for him to smash them against the wall.
But I didn’t stop.
I traveled through seven territories, negotiating with Alphas at the Moon Shadow Council. To earn their trust, I drank silver-laced alcohol—a humiliation reserved for low-bloodline wolves. My stomach blistered from the inside out. But I kept going.
Finally, the Northern Wolf King offered me White Deer Valley. But there was a price.
“Your pack must submit to mine.”
I ran back to Byron’s crumbling shelter and begged him through tears. I reminded him of his purpose. His dreams. His people.
And somehow… I reached him.
He stood up. Followed me into hell. And we saved the Pack.
But we were notified. A powerful Alpha, fascinated by Byron’s rare blood type and strong build, tried to keep him—for breeding.
I dragged him out in the middle of the night, only to find he’d been drugged—his body burning with desire, his mind clouded from the potion.
And then… his daughter. Barely sixteen. Emotionless.
“Daddy said I can spare your lives. You’ll just be used for breeding purposes. It’s nothing personal.”
I held it together. Convinced her to leave. But before she went, she looked at Byron and said with a blank stare,
“The love potion was strong. He’ll need someone... now.”
I turned to him. He was panting. Shaking. Suffering. I brought him home—safe, alive—and turned my back for a moment to fetch a cold cloth.
And when I turned around...He was already naked. Kissing me. Desperate. Rough.
I never expected it to mean everything to me...And nothing to him.
