Chapter 1
To save Willa’s brother Jasper after he accidentally fell into the Moonlit Forest, my Alpha husband, Magnus, forced me to go in after him.
But the Moonlit Forest was no ordinary place.
Under a blood moon, it became a hunting ground for wandering souls—a place the Moon Goddess was said to have created as a trial for the living.
Anyone who trespassed would be hunted by the spirits within, and no one made it out without paying a price.
As someone born with Alpha blood, I had once entered the forest with the elders.
I had paid dearly just to make it back alive.
When I finally made it out, my fingertips wouldn’t stop trembling. Only when the moonlight fell across my palms did the shaking finally ease.
The forest demanded a price for every ounce of spiritual power I used.
Every step inside was a bargain with death.
In my first life, I made it all the way to the deepest part of the forest, but I came back without Jasper.
I came back with nothing but the empty rope in my hands, my face drained of color.
Magnus hadn’t cared what condition I was in.
He forced me to go back and retrieve Jasper’s body, no matter what it cost me.
When I finally brought him out, the Pack Doctor examined him and shook his head.
“If you’d gotten him here just one minute earlier, Jasper might have survived.”
One minute.
Those two words lodged in my heart like a thorn.
After Jasper died, Willa killed herself.
From that day on, Magnus hated me with every fiber of his being.
To avenge Willa, he cut out my tongue and severed my limbs.
The pain spread through me again and again as he dragged me deeper into the darkness.
In the end, he sacrificed our son and me to bring Willa back.
It didn’t work.
Maybe the Moon Goddess finally took pity on me.
Maybe that was why she gave me one chance to change my fate.
I woke in darkness with a crushing weight on my chest, every breath sending a sharp stab of pain through me.
Then I opened my eyes.
The moment I recognized the scene before me, my heart lurched.
My body trembled.
I looked at Magnus and asked again, my voice raw.
“You really want me to go in there?”
The moment Willa heard me, tears spilled down her cheeks, making her look painfully vulnerable.
“Magnus, if Luna doesn’t want to go, then forget it.”
Her words immediately set him off.
“Who says she doesn’t owe you?” Magnus snapped, his brows pulling together. “If it weren’t for her, my mother never would’ve torn us apart!”
A bitter laugh escaped me as I forced down the ache in my chest.
“Magnus, your mother told you herself before she died. She didn’t forbid you from marrying Willa because of me. Why won’t you believe me?”
The moment the words left my mouth, something inside me went cold.
The old Luna had never approved of Willa.
She had done everything she could to stop Magnus from bonding with Willa. She saw something the rest of us didn’t. His obsession with Willa would eventually destroy him.
Back then, furious that the old Luna opposed their bond, Willa had shoved her toward the edge of the Moonlit Forest.
I happened to be gathering herbs nearby and managed to pull the old Luna back before the forest could take her.
She never forgot that I had saved her.
She knew I had feelings for Magnus.
Once, she took my hand in hers. Her palms were warm and trembling.
“One day, Magnus will see everything you’ve done for him.”
After we returned, she arranged for Magnus and me to form a Mate Bond, hoping to put an end to Willa’s hopes of being with him once and for all.
She explained the truth to Magnus more than once.
He never believed her.
Instead, he convinced himself that she was lying because she favored me.
Later, after our pup was born, Magnus stopped bringing up Willa.
I foolishly thought that meant he was finally changing.
I mistook a few years of peace for the rest of my life.
