The day Maddison Powell, the Luna of the Silver Pack, confronted me, Henrik Knight, the Alpha, delivered his ultimatum:

“If you refuse to apologize, you can die here!”

He left me alone on the battlefield, retreating to the pack’s headquarters with Maddison.

Half a month later, he questioned his Beta:

“It’s been two weeks. Surely she’s not still sulking? Does she even remember she’s a Gamma?”

“Alpha, Gamma Flora fought alone, but the Ramos warriors stayed by her side. Though none survived, the Blue Pack’s borders remain intact. Congratulations, Alpha!”

“Impossible! I may have told her to die at the border, but that was just anger talking! I left her with enough warriors! How could she die?”

“But Luna Maddison used your token to order all warriors to retreat. Wasn’t that your command?”

He rushed to my family’s territory like a madman.

Only to find the estate draped in white, the ceremonial officer Crue Bailey announcing:

“Open the casket! Send off our warrior!”

Henrik sneered:

“Flora Gilbert, holding the border alone? Ridiculous! How much did she pay you to fabricate this?”

The Beta, Westley Howard, trembled: “I swear it’s true! I wouldn’t dare lie to the Alpha!”

“Enough!”

Henrik hurled his alpha tone at the Beta, his voice thick with impatience:

“A petty Gamma who couldn’t handle being passed over as Luna, throwing tantrums and defying my orders! And you’re telling me she died defending the border? She only got her rank because of her family name! She learned a few fighting tricks from her father and brothers, and now she thinks she’s a real Gamma? If she hadn’t tried to harm Maddison, I’d be thanking the Moon Goddess!”

The Beta didn’t dare utter another word.

“Besides…” Henrik stood, his aura radiating authority. “Though I left her at the border, I ensured she had the best warriors. There’s no way she could have died.”

With that, he turned and left.

My spirit hovered above, a bitter smile forming—

He seemed to have forgotten that he’d granted Maddison authority equal to his own.

He’d once declared to the pack: “Maddison’s word is my word. Anyone who disobeys will face severe consequences!”

It was precisely this favor that emboldened Maddison to mock my father, Dane Gilbert, as a traitor to my face at the border. And Henrik loved her so deeply that he canceled the pack’s counterattack just because I scolded her.

He was always contradicting himself. Claiming he wanted me to die at the border, yet leaving me with the strongest warriors.

But Maddison’s word was the Alpha’s word. She used Henrik’s token to withdraw all the warriors. Only the Ramos warriors remained, standing their ground to the last. That day, the sunset was blood-red, and the rogues’ claws rained down. My brother fell from the watchtower, and I fought through the enemy horde to catch him in my arms. My family followed my father into the afterlife.

In my final moments, I knelt atop a mountain of enemy bodies, blood and tears streaming down my face: “Dad… we held the line…”

When my body was brought home, my mother, Lenora Gilbert, was the only one left. She gazed at my and my brothers’ lifeless forms, her lips trembling: “Take the children inside.”

The pack’s Healer asked when to hold the funeral. She stroked my cheek: “My girl hasn’t even had her 18th birthday yet.”

That night, the Healer, Soleil Ray, entered my room. By dawn, my wounds had been mended, my body dressed in fine clothes, my face carefully made up, as though I were asleep.

“Madame Lenora,” Soleil said, “I’ve preserved Gamma Flora’s body. It won’t decay for a month.”

My mother gently touched my face, carefully placing a necklace around my neck, her smile soft: “My girl, stay until after your 18th birthday. You wanted that embroidered dress, didn’t you? This one is sewn by your mother. Do you like it?”

I lay there, eyes closed, as if asleep. My mother held me in her arms, rocking me gently, just as she had when I was a child.

Henrik Knight hadn’t heard from me in three days.

In the past, whenever Maddison Powell and I had a falling out, I would never let it go. More importantly, the Mark Ceremony was approaching. Every year, I would prepare a gift for him. But now, he had already prepared his gift for me, and I hadn’t even hinted at what he might want.

He was growing restless—

The Silver Pack’s border was guarded by our finest warriors, each capable of taking on ten rogues. Yet, the Omegas reported that Maddison had forged orders to withdraw the patrols. Absurd! Maddison might be spoiled and willful, but she was, at heart, a kind soul. She would never play games with the pack’s safety.

Why, then, did Flora Gilbert have to be so unreasonable? To frame Maddison, she would even use the pack’s security as a pawn in her petty jealousy.

He slammed the gift box on the table with a loud *thud*. “Flora Gilbert! When will you ever grow up?”

My soul hovered in the air, detached from the body that had long since turned to ash. Yet, hearing those words, even in this form, I felt a pang of pain.

It wasn’t that I was immature. I simply refused to compromise. When we were younger, we made a vow—I would never take another as my mate, and he would never take another as his Luna. One day, he would offer me the pack as his bond, and I would be his only mate.

For over a decade, we fought side by side, our bond forged in blood and fire. He was fearless for me, and I bore countless scars for him. Until the day I took a rogue’s attack meant for him and nearly died. When I opened my eyes, I found him holding a delicate, rosy-cheeked girl in his arms. Her beauty was like spring blossoms, a stark contrast to the aura of battle that clung to me.

Henrik declared he would make her his Luna.

That was when we stopped seeing eye to eye. He could never understand my refusal. “I’m not rejecting you,” he would say. “But Maddison is so pitiful. Her family died defending the pack, and she’s all alone. You call yourself the pack’s Gamma. Can’t you have a little compassion? Besides, do you really think you, with your constant fighting, are more suited to be Luna than her?”

I always retorted, “This isn’t about being Luna. It’s about me, Flora Gilbert, refusing to be a second mate!”

Then, I tore up the decree naming me his Beta.

The last time we parted at the border, we even came to blows. When he realized what we were doing, he knocked my claws aside. “A Gamma, with such a petty heart. Maddison doesn’t understand warfare, so she misunderstood your father’s intentions. Your claws should be aimed at our enemies, not turned on your own pack over a few careless words. Flora Gilbert, you’re unworthy.”

I laughed through my tears. “Unworthy? Then is Maddison, who mocked my father as a traitor, worthy?”

He fell silent, pulling Maddison, trembling with fear, into his arms. “A warrior who loses territory is no different from a traitor.”

But he forgot. My father fought to the very end. He gave his life for the pack!

That day, I refused Henrik’s demand that I kneel and apologize to Maddison. Even when he used his Alpha tone to command me, I chose death over submission.

He sneered, “The greatest regret of my life is ever crossing paths with someone as narrow-minded and heartless as you.”