After the documents were sent out via pack courier, the Alpha Council's reply came quickly:

[Luna Wren, the Mate Bond dissolution has been officially processed. It will take full effect on the next full moon, in two weeks' time. Both marks will fade naturally under the moonlight.]

I read the message, and something that had been lodged tight in my chest finally started to loosen.

When I got back to the pack house, the hallway was in chaos.

Servants were hauling my belongings out of the Alpha suite — box after box, stacked in the corner of the corridor. At the same time, Vivienne's clothes and personal items were being carried in.

The butler approached me, choosing his words carefully. "Luna, which room would you prefer? The east guest room has good natural light. I can have it prepared right away—"

"Don't bother."

I glanced at the boxes.

The moonstone candleholder — I'd searched through markets in three different packs before I found it. I'd thought it would catch the moonlight perfectly from the bedside window.

The calming incense I'd blended for Cain — I kept the exact ratios written in a notebook, batch by batch, because he was a light sleeper and even a fraction too strong would give him headaches.

The photograph on the wall, taken at the sacred lake during our first year together. One of the rare times he'd smiled.

"Get rid of all of it."

The butler opened his mouth, then closed it. He turned and went to make the arrangements.

Over the next few days, I shut myself in the small room that had been hastily cleared for me. I packed my things and quietly contacted Elder Seline for updates on Kingsley Pack.

My parents had been the Alpha and Luna of Kingsley Pack.

After they died in the aftermath of a territory war, my mother's sister, Elder Seline, had taken over as interim leader.

She'd been waiting for me to come back and take the Alpha position. But I'd turned her down — I'd been set on being Cain's Luna.

The day Cain recovered enough to return to the pack house, Vivienne came with him.

I heard them arrive. Didn't even look up.

The next few days were the same. I avoided them completely, treated them like they didn't exist.

I thought I could quietly wait out the remaining time until the mate bond dissolved on its own.

Then one night, I was ripped from sleep.

Cain's voice came down through the darkness — low, barely containing his fury.

"Wren, someone put wolfsbane in Vivienne's food."

"She's been here a few days and you're already pulling this?"

"Did you think she wouldn't dare tell me? That you could get away with anything?"

Before he finished, a slender figure appeared in the doorway.

Vivienne stood wrapped in Cain's jacket, face pale, her voice so soft it barely carried — as though she were afraid of disturbing something fragile.

"Alpha… it's really fine. It was just a little wolfsbane. I can handle it. Compared to what Luna used to do to me, this is nothing… Please don't blame her…"

"Compared to what I used to do" — what had I ever done? I had never laid a finger on her.

But Cain's eyes went colder.

I shoved his hand off me.

"I didn't do it. The pack house has surveillance crystals. Check them yourself."

"The servant already confessed." Cain's voice held no warmth whatsoever. "You ordered it."

He threw a half-empty bottle of wolfsbane at my feet. "This is the same type of bottle you use for your herb blends. What's left to explain?"

"Now apologize to Vivienne."

I looked at him.

Then I looked at the woman behind him — head bowed, eyes glistening, every word calculated to perfection.

I let out a short laugh.

I grabbed the bottle of wolfsbane and splashed it directly at Vivienne, right in front of Cain.

Vivienne shrieked, clutching her arm. Where the liquid hit her skin, red welts bloomed instantly.

I met Cain's stunned gaze.

"If I wanted to hurt her, I wouldn't bother sneaking around."

Then I walked past his darkened expression without a second glance, grabbed my jacket, and left the pack house.

My friend Bianca cursed the moment she got my message. Twenty minutes later, she showed up at a tavern outside the territory with a handful of friends.

She slammed her hand on the table before she even sat down. "A wolfsbane frame-up? Seriously? Buy off one servant and suddenly it's your fault? How stupid does Cain have to be to fall for that?"

Mara, sitting next to her, took a long pull of her drink and scoffed. "Wren, you were the Alpha's daughter of Kingsley Pack. You had suitors lined up from the east coast to the west. Who the hell does Cain Ashford think he is?"

"Exactly!" another friend chimed in. "You'll be better off without him."

They went back and forth, ripping into him with gleeful abandon. The pressure in my chest finally eased a little. I raised my glass, clinked it against theirs, and drained it.

When Bianca saw some color return to my face, she slung an arm around my shoulder and steered me toward the back. "Come on. There's a sparring match tonight — some young warriors going at it. Better than sitting here stewing."

They swept me through the crowd. I'd barely found my footing on the viewing platform beside the fighting pit when —

A bucket of ice water crashed down on me from above.

The burn of wolfsbane detonated across my skin — scalp to limbs — like a thousand white-hot needles driving into every inch of my body at once.

Drenched, I stood frozen in place.

The wolfsbane — concentrated, vicious — drove my wolf into near-total collapse. I could barely sense her at all.

Bianca and the others lunged forward, but several Gamma-ranked warriors from Ashford Pack were already blocking their way.

One of them clamped his hand on my shoulder and forced me to the ground.

Then another bucket of wolfsbane ice water came crashing down.

The burn and the cold detonated at the same time. I couldn't even summon enough strength to curse — the words froze in my throat.

Bianca clawed at the warrior's hands. "Let her go! What the hell do you think you're doing? Who gave you the authority—"

"The Luna did something wrong." The warrior's tone was as calm as a weather report. "Alpha Cain's orders. This ends when she apologizes to Vivienne."

The Cain I knew had never used this kind of punishment on any pack member. He handled things with cold restraint. He wasn't even cruel to rogues.

And now he'd ordered his men to douse his Luna in wolfsbane ice water in public — just to force me to bow my head and apologize to that woman.

For what?

I hadn't done anything.

I clenched my jaw and fought, but with my wolf suppressed by the wolfsbane, my body was no different from a human's. The warrior's grip on my shoulders was iron. It didn't budge.

The wolfsbane water came at regular intervals. Burning and freezing, burning and freezing — my skin erupted in angry welts, and feeling drained from my limbs piece by piece.

My resistance grew weaker. Eventually, I couldn't even twitch.

In the end, I heard my own voice grinding out from between my teeth, shaking so badly it barely formed words.

"I'm sorry… I was wrong…"

The grip released. The warriors stepped back and calmly relayed the message.

I lay on the ground — gray-faced, wrung out, trembling without stop — like a rag that had been twisted dry and thrown aside.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Bianca rushing over, wrapping her jacket around me, screaming for the pack healer.

When I woke, I was in the treatment room.

My head was splitting. The wolfsbane burns still smoldered across my skin.

The moment I stirred, a cup of warm water appeared in front of me.

I stared at the hand holding it. Then I used every ounce of strength I had left and smashed the cup right back.

"Get out."

The cup shattered on the floor. Water splashed across Cain's sleeve. He wiped it off. His face showed nothing.

"So you do know what pain feels like, Wren?"

"After you threw wolfsbane on Vivienne, she burned with fever for an entire day and night. You know what Omega bodies are like — she nearly died. Did you ever stop to think about how she felt?"

I pushed myself up against the headboard, my voice raw. "If you're so worried about your Vivienne, what are you doing here?"

Before I could finish, my phone buzzed.

A message from Bianca, sharp and furious:

[Wren, someone used your name to contact Seline — trying to get Vivienne installed in a senior position at Kingsley Pack. Did you know about this?]

My head snapped up. I pinned Cain with my gaze.

"That was you."

"How dare you use my name to shove Vivienne into Kingsley Pack? That pack is what my parents left me. Seline has held it together all these years, waiting for me to come back. And you're handing it to an Omega?"

Cain didn't look the least bit surprised.

He frowned slightly, as if my phrasing displeased him.

"The scandal you caused got her blacklisted by every pack. She had nowhere to go. Giving her a safe place — what's wrong with that?"

A pause. His voice was flat.

"It's not like you're planning to go back and run Kingsley Pack anyway."

My nails dug into my palms.

Then he said one more thing.

"You gave up the Alpha position at Kingsley Pack yourself. You chose to bond with me and become Luna of Ashford Pack. That was your decision."

In that instant, every sound in my ears vanished.

So he'd always known.

Known what I'd given up for him. Known that the Kingsley Pack Alpha succession had been mine by right — that I'd handed it over with my own two hands, because I chose to stay by his side.

He knew how much I loved him.

And that was exactly why he could tear that love from my chest so casually now, and drive it back in like a blade.

I was quiet for a long time.

Long enough that Cain took it as agreement and started to get up.

"Fine."

My voice was level.

"But I have one condition."

"What condition?"

Cain's tone carried a thread of impatience, as though he'd agree to anything so long as I stopped being difficult.

"Give me back my moonstone pendant."

Cain went still.

The pendant was a Kingsley Pack heirloom, passed down through generations of Alphas — given only to one's true mate. The day I placed it in his hands, he'd stared at it for a long time and said he'd wear it for the rest of his life.

"Why do you want it back?" A flicker of hesitation crossed his voice. "Isn't it… only meant for someone you love?"

The corner of my mouth twitched. I was about to say, "Because you don't deserve it" —

His phone lit up.

Vivienne's soft voice came through, the coy lilt audible even at a distance.

Cain's entire expression shifted. The coldness and irritation he wore around me melted away in an instant, replaced by a tenderness I had never once seen on his face.

"Okay. Wait for me."

He hung up and turned back to me.

"What were you saying?"

"Nothing."

I looked away.

"Give me back the moonstone pendant. After that, whatever you want to give Vivienne is none of my business."

His mind had already drifted to Vivienne. Without looking up, he called to the butler: "Have the pendant delivered to the treatment room."

Then he left.

I spent an entire week in the treatment room. The wolfsbane burns went from open sores to scabs to fresh skin. The healer said I'd recovered quickly, but a few faint scars remained — they'd fade with time.

The day I was discharged, an official notice arrived from the Alpha Council:

[Luna Wren, the Mate Bond dissolution will take effect in two days, on the night of the full moon.]

Two days.

I took a deep breath, tucked the notice away, and started packing.

I'd barely stepped through the treatment room doors when three rogue wolves lunged out of nowhere.

My wolf still hadn't recovered. I couldn't shift. They knocked me out in seconds.

When I came to, I was locked in a sealed room, my wrists chained to the wall with silver cuffs.

The door opened. Vivienne walked in.

Her makeup was flawless, her composure absolute.

Nothing like the trembling, teary-eyed waif she played in front of Cain.

"Let me go." I stared at her, my voice roughened by the silver burning into my wrists. "Vivienne, do you have any idea what you're doing?"

She slapped me across the face.

Hard. Clean. No hesitation.

"I know exactly what I'm doing."

Her voice was venom.

"Wren Kingsley, Cain doesn't love you. Why are you still clinging to the Luna title?"

"I'm the one who belongs with him. But because of you, everyone treats me like some shameless Omega."

She stepped closer, hatred pooling in her eyes.

"Do you have any idea what my life was like after you had me thrown out of Ashford Pack? No pack would take me. I did the filthiest work for people who beat me and screamed at me. Rogue wolves nearly caught me and sold me off—"

"And all of that was because of you."

She stopped in front of me and looked down. Her lips twisted into a smile.

"If you'd never taken me in, I would never have come to Ashford Pack. I would never have met Cain, never fallen in love with him, never ended up like this."

"So everything that happened — that's on you."

The sheer, deranged logic of it sent ice crawling down my spine.

She turned and beckoned toward the door.

Several rogue wolves filed in. Their scents were chaotic and dangerous. There was nothing in their eyes but raw brutality.

Vivienne glanced at them, her tone as casual as if she were placing a lunch order.

"She's yours tonight. Beat her until she's begging on her knees. Don't leave anything a healer could trace."

"The harder you hit, the bigger the payout tomorrow."

She walked out.

The rogues closed in.

I fought — thrashing, pulling — the silver cuffs grinding fresh burns into my wrists. The wolfsbane still lingering in my system kept my wolf crushed. I couldn't summon even a tenth of my usual strength.

"Back off!"

"I carry Alpha blood from Kingsley Pack! I'm the Luna of Ashford Pack! Touch me, and none of you walk away!"

They didn't stop.

"Whatever Vivienne's paying you, I'll double it!"

My voice was shaking, but I couldn't let them see it.

Then — on the far side of the room, behind a massive glass wall, a light clicked on in an adjacent chamber.

A tall figure stepped through the door.

Cain.

I screamed his name with everything I had left.

"Cain—!"

Something made him pause. He turned his head and glanced toward the glass.