Chapter 1

Everyone in the Night Realm knew that my husband, the Vampire Lord Valerius, suffered from a blood curse that fiercely repelled the opposite sex.

Any skin-to-skin contact with a woman would cause his flesh to fester and trigger a soul-shattering backlash.

That included me.

In our century together, we never shared a single embrace.

On the day we forged our Blood Pact, I tried to touch him, only to be violently thrown back, coughing up blood upon impact.

That was until vampire hunters set our ancestral castle ablaze. Pinned beneath broken timber, I reached out to him for help on pure instinct.

Valerius dodged my hand. Instead, he turned and gathered that terrified little human girl, Genevieve, into his arms, comforting her with unwonted tenderness:

"Don't be afraid. I'll get you out of here."

His body showed not a single sign of rejection.

It turns out that a so-called deadly blood curse automatically breaks in the presence of true love.

Since my century of pathetic groveling had only ever moved myself, I decided I no longer wanted this Blood Pact.

.....

Flames consumed the castle, turning this vampire territory into a living hell.

Cramps tore through my lower abdomen in agonizing waves.

I reached out to Valerius with a hand covered in ash and blood.

"Valerius! Save me..."

His crimson eyes swept over me, then shifted to Genevieve without a second of hesitation.

"Valerius, I'm so scared..." Genevieve sobbed.

A rare look of anxiety and heartache fractured Valerius's normally icy facade. He pulled Genevieve tightly against his chest.

His body accepted her without reservation.

"Don't be afraid. I'll get you out." His voice was so gentle it felt alien to me.

I froze. My outstretched hand lingered in mid-air, fingertips trembling in despair.

"Valerius! Please... save the baby first!" A warm liquid began to snake down my inner thighs.

Holding Genevieve, Valerius paused slightly as he passed by me.

"Audelia, do you really think spinning some random lie about being pregnant will make me abandon Genevieve? She is just a fragile human, while you are protected by my Blood Pact. You will not die!"

"It's not a lie... it's true..."

Two months ago, when his blood curse went berserk and nearly killed him, it was I who cut open my own chest to feed him my heart's blood to barely save his life.

That ultimate fusion of pureblood allowed me to miraculously conceive a rare blood fetus.

But he had been comatose and knew nothing of this. In his mind, he hadn't laid a finger on me in a century, so he naturally assumed the pregnancy was just an absurd lie fabricated to fight for his favor.

"Enough. You'd better pray Genevieve hasn't inhaled too much smoke because of your stalling. Otherwise, I will not forgive you."

With that, he charged out of the blazing inferno with Genevieve in his arms, never sparing me another glance.

I stared at his retreating back. In that moment, the surrounding flames seemed to lose all their heat, and my heart plummeted into a bottomless ice cellar.

A sickening crack echoed from above.

A massive, flaming wooden beam was plummeting straight toward me.

I had no strength left to dodge.

The timber smashed violently against my back, the sheer impact instantly crushing several of my ribs. I opened my mouth and coughed up a huge splatter of blood.

But all this physical agony was nothing compared to the sudden snapping of a profound connection within my womb.

I could clearly feel that tiny life inside me, in this exact moment, leaving me forever.

My vision blurred, and my consciousness began to slip away into the violent pain and immense blood loss.

When I woke up, the private doctor was throwing blood-soaked gauze into a medical waste bin.

"My Lady, you suffered massive trauma and inhaled a fatal amount of toxic smoke. We couldn't save the child. Furthermore... the damage to your womb is severe. It will be incredibly difficult for you to conceive again."

I stared numbly at the blinding surgical light on the ceiling.

There is no grief greater than a dead heart. It turned out to be true.

Footsteps sounded outside the door.

Valerius walked up to the operating table. Looking at my face, pale as paper, his brow furrowed slightly.

"I thought you were lying," he said, avoiding my gaze. "But even if you really were pregnant, in that situation, I still had to save Genevieve first. And if this child was so fragile it couldn't even survive a fire, it means it wasn't fit for our predatory world. It's for the best that it's gone."

It's for the best.

Those words were like a rusted, blunt knife slowly slicing through my heart.

"What about your repelling blood curse?" I didn't scream or cry as I usually did. I merely looked at him. "Aren't you unable to touch any woman? Why were you completely unharmed when you held her?"

Valerius stiffened. His eyes flickered away unnaturally for a fraction of a second before he replied coldly, "Genevieve is just an ordinary human. Naturally, she wouldn't trigger the curse's backlash."

What a laughable excuse.

Back then, just to be able to embrace him, I hadn't hesitated to seal away all my vampiric aura using silver needles. All I got in return was being ruthlessly blasted away by him.

"I understand," I said, looking away. Even the very last shred of struggle within my heart completely disintegrated.

"Good." Valerius scoffed. "Genevieve is terrified. You will stay here and reflect on your actions. Do not go near her without my permission."

Listening to the door click shut, I closed my eyes.

A century of pathetic groveling, a century of enduring agony just to get close to him, the absolute torture of watching him shelter another woman in his arms...

In this moment, I just wanted to walk away and end it all—but it wouldn't be easy.

The Blood Pact is the oldest, most tyrannical contract among vampires. Once forged, unless one party dies or the dominant party actively severs it, the subordinate is bound for life.

But I knew a forbidden art. One that allowed the subordinate to forcibly sever the pact. The price was relinquishing half of one's soul and all accumulated power.

In the past, I couldn't bear to do it. I would rather be despised by him if it meant staying by his side.

But now, whatever was between us is over.