Chapter 2

Half an hour later, following the address on the invitation, I arrived deep in the woods of the West Sector.

The venue for the blessing ceremony was set in an open clearing in the forest. Amidst the flickering light of the bonfire, my eyes met a sea of familiar faces.

Quite a few people had shown up, mostly werewolves responsible for the pack's peripheral affairs. But in the crowd, I immediately spotted two people who had absolutely no business being here—my father, Renaud, and my best friend, Maya.

They stood in the shadows not far from the bonfire. My father's gaze was locked onto the woman in the center of the clearing, his eyes holding a borderline obsessive fanaticism I had never seen before.

Maya stood beside him, her hands wrung tightly together. The way she stared at that same woman was filled with an undisguised, bitter jealousy that she was desperately forcing herself to hold back.

I followed their gaze. It was an Omega dressed in a flowing linen gown—Lyra.

The resemblance was perfectly uncanny. The curve of her brows, the slight droop at the corners of her eyes... she was the absolute spitting image of my mother, who had passed away many years ago.

In an instant, everything made sense. No wonder my father, who had always valued pure bloodlines above all else, made a rare exception to let a rogue stay on our land. No wonder Kaelen was so completely bewitched by her.

Actually, I should have seen through all of this much sooner.

Just a few months ago, during a joint pack patrol, Lyra, who was acting as the guide, secretly pointed me toward completely false trail markers under the guise of finding a shortcut.

Because of her, I got completely lost in the fog-drenched Black Pine Forest. Not only did I miss the precious window for gathering herbs, but I was almost torn to pieces by a few frenzied rogue bears.

By the time I dragged myself back to the camp—covered in blood with gashes deep to the bone and barely clinging to life—I found Lyra with red-rimmed eyes, crying remorsefully to Kaelen and my father: "I repeatedly warned Elara about the correct trail markers, but she insisted on going her own way, off the route. If anything happens to her, I wouldn't know how to live with myself..."

Back then, my fated mate, Kaelen, didn't even bother to care about my life-threatening injuries. Instead, he frowned and publicly scolded me in front of all the pack guards, calling me glory-hungry and recklessly selfish. And my father? Without even investigating the route, he grounded me for three days on the spot, claiming I had tarnished our family's honor.

The sound of voices by the bonfire snapped me back to reality.

"Thank you all for coming to my baby's full-moon blessing," Lyra's voice was soft and vulnerable, her eyes glistening. "As a rogue, receiving the pack's protection is the greatest blessing of my life."

As she spoke, her gaze subtly drifted toward Kaelen's direction.

The Alpha who had stormed out this morning, claiming he had an urgent border crisis to handle, was now standing right there, his eyes overflowing with tenderness. His Adam's apple bobbed, and his feet unconsciously took a half-step forward before Maya grabbed his arm, whispering a low warning.

I let out a cold laugh and began to walk slowly into the clearing from the periphery.

"It truly is your blessing."

My voice carried an undeniable, piercing weight that shattered the quiet of the forest clearing. Instantly, all eyes snapped toward me, and the dense crowd automatically parted to make way.

The moment Kaelen saw me, all the color drained from his face. He instinctively tried to step back, but it was too late.

I walked straight up to the bonfire, stopping less than half a meter away from Lyra. Up close, that sickeningly sweet, overripe peach pheromone scent was even stronger, practically drilling into my bones.

"E-Elara." Lyra clearly hadn't expected me to show up. After a brief flash of panic, her eyes—so much like my mother's—quickly filled with tears, looking utterly pitiful. "Why are you here?"

"I'm here to offer my blessings, of course." I stared directly into her eyes, a cold smile curling at the corner of my lips.

I didn't miss the fleeting trace of wariness and calculation that flashed in her gaze.

I turned my head to look at Kaelen, who was standing in the shadows with an ashen face.

In front of everyone, I raised my voice.

"Kaelen, didn't you say this morning that you had border security issues to handle? Why are you hiding in the corner by yourself?" I looked at him, dripping with mockery. "At an occasion like this, as my fated mate, shouldn't we be standing together to give our blessings to you and Lyra's child?"

Kaelen froze in place, his legs heavy as lead, unable to move a muscle. The surrounding werewolves exchanged bewildered glances and broke out into frantic whispers, their shocked gazes darting back and forth among the three of us.

Lyra's face changed. Her mask of fragility finally showed a crack she couldn't hide, her knuckles turning white from clutching her dress so tightly.

She jerked her head down, her voice noticeably trembling, but beneath that tremble, I could hear her grinding her teeth: "You misunderstand. Alpha Kaelen is just being kind. He... he usually just comes by to help me chop wood."

"Is that so?" I let out a light chuckle and took a step closer.

Lowering my voice so only the two of us could hear, I enunciated every word clearly, "Does chopping wood... require stuffing your lace panties into his inner breast pocket?"

Lyra's head snapped up. In those perfectly disguised eyes—eyes so like my mother's—her true malice and sheer panic were finally exposed.

Just at that moment, all hell broke loose.

"Something's wrong!" A young maid responsible for looking after the pups suddenly stumbled out from behind the bonfire. She was deathly pale, clutching a blanket meant to swaddle the baby, her voice cracking from extreme terror.

"The cradle... the pup is gone! The cradle is empty!" The maid pointed in horror toward a wooden cot on the edge of the clearing, where a woven grass cradle sat abandoned.

Lyra's body went rigid. She whipped her head around to look at the empty cradle. A second later, she let out an agonizing, blood-curdling shriek: "My baby!"

As if completely drained of all her strength, she collapsed limply onto the ground.