Chapter 1
When my own family and fated mate forced me to leap into the abyss, I did not hesitate.
"You wicked woman, why don't you just die?" My brother Carl pointed at the cliff and roared. "Jump into the Abyss of Sin and atone before the Moon Goddess!"
My fated mate, Enzo, looked at me coldly. "You owe Lilith this."
They expected me to kneel and beg as I had so many times before, insisting that I had never harmed my adopted sister.
Instead, I simply nodded.
Under their horrified gazes, I threw myself over the edge. My body vanished into the silver flames below and turned to ash in an instant.
They did not know this was the seventh obedience contract I had made with the Moon Goddess.
Once I completed seven acts of absolute obedience, I could sever my old bonds and be reborn.
Goodbye, my family—the people I once would have died for.
It began in the cold, dark depths of the Blood Prison.
The reek of blood mingled with the smell of flesh seared by silver, making bile rise in my throat.
My hands were shackled overhead by silver chains. Every breath tugged at the deep whip wounds across my back.
"Confess! Were you the one who put wolfsbane in Lilith's medicine?"
My own brother, Carl, gripped a barbed silver whip drenched in my blood. His eyes were bloodshot as he shouted.
His chest heaved violently, as though the person hanging there were not his little sister, but an enemy he had sworn to destroy.
Behind him stood my parents—Derek, the Alpha of the Darkmoon Pack, and Martha, its Luna. They watched me with cold, expressionless faces. Their eyes held no concern, only undisguised disgust.
At the front stood my fated mate, Enzo, the Alpha of the neighboring Sunfire Pack.
He held a pale girl in a pure white dress protectively against his chest.
Lilith.
My adopted sister. A human girl who could never shift, yet had somehow stolen everything from me.
"Carl… please, stop," Lilith murmured weakly in Enzo's arms. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "Maybe Elara was just jealous that I had your love. She didn't mean to poison me…"
"Jealous?" Enzo's voice pierced me like an icicle. "What right does she have to be jealous?"
He stepped forward, and his Alpha power slammed into me without mercy, forcing me to cough up a mouthful of blood.
He looked down at me with undisguised contempt.
"Elara, you're the pack's chief healer, yet you used your knowledge to harm a defenseless girl. You're no longer worthy of touching another herb."
I struggled to lift my head, but blood blurred my vision.
I looked at Enzo—the mate who had once sworn beneath the Moon Tree to protect me with his life. Now, because of another woman's lies, he was grinding me beneath his heel.
"I didn't…" My cracked lips barely moved. "It was heartsease… for her heart. Not wolfsbane…"
Crack!
Carl lashed my lower abdomen without hesitation.
"You still dare to lie? The medicine was tested. It contained wolfsbane! If Enzo hadn't discovered the poison in time, Lilith would be dead!"
He threw the whip to the floor and turned to my father.
"Father, you can't keep indulging her. She has to answer for this!"
Derek stared at me coldly.
"Elara, you've disappointed me. As of today, you're stripped of your position as chief healer. You're no longer the pride of this family. You're a criminal."
Stripped of my position.
That was their first sentence against me.
The pain grew so intense that my consciousness began to fade. Just as I thought I would die in that grim prison, everything around me suddenly froze.
Carl's furious expression, the faintly triumphant curve of Lilith's lips, Enzo's merciless stare—all frozen in an instant.
A soft yet frigid silver light appeared in the darkness.
The Moon Goddess hovered before me, gazing down at my broken body with pity.
"Poor child," she said. "Complete seven acts of absolute obedience and sever every bond tying you to this world. Endure the torment of the flesh and pass through death itself. In the next world, you will be born anew. Do you accept?"
"I accept."
There was no thought, no hesitation. If it meant leaving this place, I would give up everything.
"The contract is sealed."
The instant the silver light faded, the chains snapped. I crashed heavily to the floor.
Before the agony of my broken bones could fully register, Enzo moved Lilith behind him and strode toward me. He brought his foot down on the back of my right hand.
The bones ground together with a sickening crunch.
"Elara, this is your final warning!" His cruel command came wrapped in the crushing weight of his Alpha power.
"Hand over all your healing books and herbs to Lilith. If you ever touch another herb, or use that twisted healer's craft of yours to hurt anyone again, I will cripple those hands myself!"
"Elara… please don't blame Enzo for protecting me…" Lilith whimpered at just the right moment, hiding the malice in her eyes beneath the shadows.
Everyone looked down at me, waiting for me to weep and beg as I had in the past—to grovel and explain myself.
But I did not.
I lay crumpled on the floor and slowly raised my eyes to Enzo's.
I felt no despair at all.
"All right."
Enzo froze. Everyone in the room frowned, as though trying to guess what scheme lurked behind my unexpected obedience.
I ignored them.
Using my bruised right hand, I pushed myself upright and walked to the corner, where I seized a heavy silver brick studded with barbs and stained with dried blood.
"You said that if I touched herbs again, you would cripple these hands yourself." I looked back at Enzo. Despite my bloodless face, I managed a faint smile. "That's what you said, right?"
"What are you trying to—"
Before he could finish, I raised the brick and brought it crashing down on my left hand.
Crack!
Blood splattered. The barbs tore through the bones of my palm, and the instant the concentrated silver touched my blood, it began to sizzle.
Acrid white smoke rose from the wound.
Lilith let out a shrill scream.
I did not stop.
"Once wasn't enough, was it?"
As though pain no longer existed, I lifted my uninjured right hand and slammed it down onto the brick.
Crack!
White bone pierced torn flesh. The hands that had once belonged to the pack's finest healer were left crushed, broken, and dripping blood.
"Elara! Have you completely lost your mind?" Carl shouted in horror. He took a step toward me, then stopped short.
My parents stared wide-eyed, drawing sharp, disbelieving breaths.
On trembling legs, I turned and raised my ruined hands before Enzo. Shards of bone jutted through torn flesh, blood dripping steadily to the floor.
"Look, Enzo. I crippled them." My voice was flat and hollow. "I did exactly what you told me to do."
He stared at my hands and swallowed hard. Every cruel word died in his throat. For one fleeting moment, panic flickered in his eyes.
"It hurts…" Lilith collapsed at the perfect moment. "Enzo, my chest hurts…"
Her cry shattered the silence.
Enzo snapped back to himself, his brief panic swallowed by fury.
"Freak! Don't think hurting yourself will make me believe you're innocent!" he snarled. "Carl, throw her into the flooded dungeon. No one touches her wounds!"
They dragged me from the Blood Prison, my battered body scraping across the stone and leaving a long trail of blood behind.
I did not beg.
I did not look back.
I closed my eyes and counted silently.
Six more.
