Chapter 1

"I agree." I signed away my life to save the girl who framed me. My mate didn't even look up from her tears to notice I was dying. "Stop pretending. This much blood loss won't kill you," he said, storming out with her in his arms. What he didn't know? That contract wasn't a healing pact—it was an execution order. And I'd just started my 72-hour countdown to burn his entire kingdom down with me.

——

"I agree."

My voice came out eerily calm, almost jarring against the thick stench of blood that filled the medical room.

The Head Healer of the Crescent Moon Pack, hands trembling, slid the ancient parchment blood contract across to Maddox.

The edges of the parchment shimmered with a faint crimson glow—the mark of a life-force transfer incantation.

"Alpha Maddox..."

Cold sweat beaded on the healer's forehead, his eyes darting between Maddox and me.

"Are you certain you want to initiate this ritual? The Shadowsilver poison in Lady Rayna's body has already reached her bones. If her life force is drained into Miss Sienna now, she will—"

"Shut your mouth. She already agreed, so why are you still babbling?"

Maddox cut the healer off.

This Alpha, arrogant beyond measure, was now kneeling beside another bed.

In his arms, Sienna sobbed softly.

Sienna had only scraped her skin during the hunters' attack—not a single drop of blood had been spilled—yet she put on the act of a fragile creature about to faint at any moment.

"Maddox, don't do this..." Sienna buried her face against his chest.

"Rayna was only protecting the territory when she got hurt. Even though... even though she carelessly opened the wrong gate in the defense system and let the hunters in, she surely didn't mean it. This pain of mine—I can bear it."

At those words, Maddox's eyes turned to ice.

"Protecting the territory? If she hadn't tampered with the security code out of jealousy, how could the hunters have possibly breached the inner court?"

He turned to me, disgust plain on his face.

"Sienna is a precious Healer Omega. She's been traumatized, her mental strength drained. Since you're the one who caused this disaster, offering your life force to soothe her is exactly what you deserve."

I lay quietly on the bed, watching him.

The Shadowsilver poison raged through my veins like wildfire.

Every breath felt like swallowing shards of glass.

I wanted to fight back, but I knew doing so would only deepen Maddox's contempt for me.

"Alpha, the conversion rate on this contract is set extremely high. Are you certain you don't wish to review it more carefully?" The healer made one last desperate attempt.

"What is there to look at?"

Maddox snatched the bone quill from the healer's hand, impatient, and sliced his finger open without hesitation.

Thick drops of Alpha blood fell onto the parchment.

He didn't even glance at the terms of the contract before pressing down his bloody print.

The moment the print sealed, the parchment erupted in blinding red light.

I could feel it clearly—the warmth in my body surging violently toward Sienna.

Her already rosy cheeks bloomed with startling vitality.

Over Maddox's shoulder, she cast a small, secret smile my way.

I didn't acknowledge it. I only stared at the ceiling, calm.

In my mind, the long-dormant mechanical voice of the System finally spoke.

[Host's life force forcibly seized detected.]

[Lethal Shadowsilver poison has breached the cardiac barrier.]

[Final stage of Death Escape Mission activated. Life depletion countdown: 72 hours.]

"Finally... release," I murmured.

"What are you mumbling about!" Maddox stood, sparing me a glance.

"Stop pretending to be dying. This much life force won't kill you. For the next three days, you'd best stay here and reflect—until you apologize to Sienna in front of the entire pack."

With that, he carefully lifted Sienna into his arms and walked out of the medical room without a backward glance.

The door slammed shut.

Watching his retreating back, I suddenly found it almost funny.

Maddox, you have no idea what you just signed.

That wasn't some ordinary contract to soothe a wounded psyche.

It was the Absolute Forfeiture Blood Contract, the one Sienna had bribed the healer to swap in.

With your own hand, you just moved my death sentence up to three days from now.