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.

For one heartbeat, I thought I was saved.

The next second, my blood turned to ice.

Because I watched Vivienne enter from a door on the other side — and throw herself straight into Cain's arms.

He bowed his head and held her. A tenderness surfaced on his face that I had never seen in seven years of marriage. His gaze swept past the glass wall, but he didn't see me at all.

He couldn't see me.

It was a one-way observation wall, crafted with forbidden pack magic. I could see everything on his side with perfect clarity. All he saw was a solid stone wall.

Vivienne had planned this.

That sliver of hope turned to dust.

Laughter erupted behind me from the rogues.

"Not screaming anymore, Luna? That's your Alpha on the other side of the glass, isn't it? Watching your man hold another woman while you get the shit beaten out of you — Vivienne really knows how to put on a show."

When they'd laughed enough, one of them crouched and tossed my phone in front of me.

"Oh, right. Vivienne set up a little game for you."

"Call your Alpha. If he picks up, we let you go — and Vivienne disappears forever. If he doesn't pick up, well—"

The rest was swallowed by their laughter.

They grabbed my hand and forced it onto the phone, triggering the call.

The ringtone echoed through the sealed room, hollow and empty.

Through the glass, I watched Cain's phone light up in his pocket. He frowned slightly, gently pushed Vivienne aside, and murmured, "Why is Wren calling now…"

He reached for the phone.

Vivienne's eyes went red instantly.

"You pushed me away." Her voice trembled with hurt. "You say you love me, but you can't even hold me without pushing me aside?"

She paused, bit her lip, as if summoning enormous courage for what came next.

"You think I don't know? Every time you sleep with her, you're thinking of me."

The words carried through a sound charm embedded in the wall of my cell — every syllable, crystal clear.

My mind went blank.

Every full moon, Cain and I shared a bed. It was the only intimacy we still maintained as mates. He was ice-cold toward me in every other way, but on those nights he was the opposite — fervent, almost unrecognizable.

I never knew that every time he held me, he was thinking of another woman.

He'd poured every forbidden desire he had onto my body.

I froze. On the other side of the glass, Cain froze too.

Vivienne took his hand and slowly guided it to the back of her neck — the marking spot.

She looked up at him, her voice equal parts seduction and ultimatum.

"Cain, I can't spend the rest of my life just being your soul's match."

"If you don't mark me, I'll find another Alpha who will."

The phone kept ringing, stretching those seconds into an eternity.

I watched Cain's eyes flicker — hesitation, conflict.

Then he killed the call, lowered his head, and sank his teeth into the back of Vivienne's neck.

He marked her.

In the same instant the rogues descended on me, Cain completed his mark on Vivienne.

She let out a sigh of pure satisfaction and leaned against his chest. Her gaze drifted toward the glass wall — she couldn't see me, but she knew I was watching.

And I was on the floor beneath the rogues' fists and boots, screaming for help that wouldn't come, silver burning my wrists raw, wolfsbane keeping my wolf silent as death.

One wall apart.

Heaven and hell.

When the blows landed, I stopped fighting.

I stared at the ceiling. Tears ran down in silence.

When I woke, the room was empty.

The silver cuffs had been removed at some point. Two deep burn scars ringed my wrists.

I dragged myself up, numb, and stumbled back to the pack house.

Locked myself in the bathroom. Turned on the cold water.

It ran over a body covered in wounds. It didn't wash away a thing.

My phone buzzed three times.

The first was from Cain:

[Stay in the pack and behave. I'm away for a week on business.]

The second was from Vivienne.

Two photos — a private beachfront villa Cain had booked for her on the southern coast. Blue ocean, golden sun.

I curled in on myself, retching until there was nothing left to bring up.

Only scalding tears remained.

The third message was from the Alpha Council:

[Luna Wren, the Mate Bond dissolution process is complete. The bond will sever automatically at tomorrow night's full moon.]

The bond dissolution… finally done.

Cain and I were both free.

I was letting him go. And letting myself go.

With trembling hands, I packed the last of my belongings and picked up the moonstone pendant the butler had returned.

The pendant held witch-forged magic — capable of replaying any event from the past ten days.

I captured every moment from last night's cell — and every moment from the wolfsbane punishment before it — stored them in full, and left them as a parting gift for Cain.

I took one last look at the front gates of the Ashford Pack house, turned around, and set out on the road back to Kingsley Pack.

At the same moment, those recorded images sent shockwaves through every pack that saw them.