Rose Murdock's POV

Raymond believed I had killed our parents. I couldn't even remember the last time he had called me 'honey.'

I tilted my head up at the unfamiliar werewolf before me and, unable to help myself, nodded.

"Alright."

I followed a werewolf whose name I didn't even know into an unfamiliar house.

The place was spotless.

My gaze swept the room and landed on the coffee table, where several small white bottles were lined up in perfect order. I recognized them instantly—enhanced sedatives. That amount could have put five werewolves to sleep forever.

Beside the bottles sat a black-and-white photograph of a man with a blank, emotionless face.

Noticing my stare, the werewolf walked over, tucked the items away in a drawer, and said softly, "This is a couch. You can sit on it. I'll make you some food."

He truly thought something was wrong with my mind, that I couldn't recognize people or even understand what ordinary things were for.

I kept staring at those bottles, a strange heaviness settling in my chest. Had he, like me, already given up on living?

He stepped into the kitchen, but no sound of cooking followed. When I finally went to check, I found him standing motionless before an empty refrigerator.

"Sorry. I'll have to go out and buy some meat."

For years, I had thought of myself as a hollow shell without a soul. Yet seeing him like that, I realized some people looked even more like the walking dead.

He had already reached the door when, against my better judgment, I called out to him.

"I like beef."

His shoulders stiffened. Winter wind rushed through the crack of the open door, whipping his cloak until it snapped like a banner.

I repeated, "Let's have beef for dinner. Is that okay?"

His fingers gave the faintest tremor before he nodded and said yes.

I watched him leave, then let my gaze drift back to the bottles. Since he had promised to be my brother, he would come back, wouldn't he?

My thoughts drifted back to two weeks earlier, to the final round of the Moon Acolyte selection.

As a 'useless' and wolf-less omega, I had no right to stand on the sacred altar. It had been my father who carved my name onto the monument before his death.

"She belongs to the Moon Goddess."

And yet, my own brother Raymond had pushed the monument down in front of every elder.

"She's just an omega without a wolf. She's unworthy."

That night, I had a bitter fight with Raymond and left the house. Not long after, the rogue attacked me.

I sank back onto the couch. The moment I closed my eyes, the nightmares returned.

My parents should have lived out their lives in peace, but were instead buried beneath collapsing rubble.

I had been dragged from the wreckage by werewolf guards and was forced to carry their stolen years forward.

In my dreams, Raymond's hateful eyes always found me.

"Mom and Dad are dead. Why are you still alive? After all these years, don't you feel guilty at all?"

Of course I did. That was why, in every dream, there was fire, blood, and my parents' faces.

I jolted awake, and almost without realizing, I slid open the drawer and slipped out the bottles like a thief.

But just then, a phone rang on the coffee table.

The sound was so sharp and sudden that I jumped, dropping the bottles to the floor. My heart pounded as I grabbed the phone, only to realize that it wasn't mine.

I pressed the button, and the call connected.

A furious male voice exploded through the line.

"Adrian Sanders! More than 700 million—if you think you're keeping every cent from me, forget it! I'm your father! Your sister died for you. She's gone now, and that's perfect! By blood, everything of hers belongs to me!

"You think you can give it away? Over my dead body!"

Rose Murdock's POV

By the time I came back to my senses and quickly hung up the phone, I had already heard more than enough.

There was a sheet of paper lying on the carpet. I picked it up—it was a medical report. The diagnosis read end-stage heart failure. In the patient column, the name written there was Adrian Sanders, the same one I had just heard on the phone.

That was when I remembered the recent news regarding the leader of the pack's most powerful mercenary corps, Orion. He had suddenly announced that he would hand over his authority to his deputy.

So this was the reason—his body was already failing him.

I put the report back in the drawer together with the bottles of pills.

Time passed slowly. Outside, heavy rain began pouring down, and still, he hadn't returned. Had he really gone off to die?

I threw on a coat and ran out into the storm. His car was still parked in the front yard, so he couldn't have gone far. I headed directly to the mall nearby.

The weather was freezing. I searched three floors of the mall, but didn't see him anywhere.

Suddenly, a voice I knew all too well came from behind me.

"Are you following me?" he asked with suppressed anger.

I turned to see Raymond standing not far away. He was glaring daggers at me.

Beside him was Jenna, the daughter of the Shadow Pack Chamber's president—the same man Raymond had recently struck a deal with. Rumor had it that Raymond had even taken Jenna as his foster sister. That president never stopped praising him for being loyal and righteous.

In the end, he simply didn't want to acknowledge me as his real sister.

I held the umbrella tightly. The sting of humiliation rose like a tide in my chest, but I tried my best not to let it show.

"I wasn't following you. I came here for something else."

The anger in his eyes only became more obvious. He snorted. "You've never set foot in this place before. Do you expect me to believe that?"

Before I could answer, I caught sight of a familiar figure behind him.

Adrian was staring at me in silence.

Raymond saw me ignoring him, and his voice grew impatient. "I'm talking to you! Stop following me. That's against the law. And I'm not your family, do you hear me?"

My gaze shifted to the bag in Adrian's hand. Inside was freshly butchered beef, already cleaned and packed.

So he really had gone to buy beef? For some reason, I couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

Raymond's expression shifted, as if he had seen a ghost. The moment his gaze landed on Adrian, his expression changed drastically.

"What the hell is this werewolf doing here?"

I finally pulled my gaze away from Adrian and looked at Raymond.

"I'm here to find my brother," I said calmly.

Raymond was still staring at Adrian suspiciously. His voice snapped with fury as he barked at me. "How many times have I told you? I'm not your brother! Stop calling me that!"

I ignored him. After walking past him, I stopped in front of Adrian.

Glancing down, I saw his boots were dusted with the distinct mud from the riverbank.

He had wanted to die, but hadn't gone through with it. Instead, he had turned around and gone to the market to buy the beef he promised me.

I reached out and gently took the bag from his hand.

"Let's go," I said softly.

Adrian shivered a little. He hadn't even spoken yet when Raymond suddenly burst forward in rage.

"You're going home with him? Rose, are you out of your mind?"

I looked back at him, my voice faint and confused. "This is my brother. Of course I'm going home with him. Didn't you already know that?"

Raymond's expression darkened. His words were stuck in his throat, and for a long moment, not a single word came out.

I held onto Adrian's arm and started moving forward, but Raymond rushed ahead to block our way.

His whole body trembled with fury as he shouted, "You've been away from the villa all afternoon! Don't tell me you really plan on leaving with this stranger. Are you insane? You don't even have a wolf, and you dare go with a stranger? Do you want to end up dead?"

Rose Murdock's POV

From the way Raymond raged, it seemed he had forgotten that he couldn't wait to sever all ties with me only moments ago.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he suddenly grabbed Adrian by the collar. "You're abducting a minor! I could drag you straight before the Pack Council right now!"

Adrian's voice was calm, almost detached. "She's sixteen. She can make her own choices."

Raymond's expression darkened, his fists clenching at his sides.

My heart clenched in panic. Adrian's health was already so fragile; if Raymond kept shaking him like this, he might collapse right there and then.

More werewolves began stopping to watch the scene.

My heart raced. I shoved Raymond hard, and my voice rose in a fury. "Let go of my brother!"

Raymond worked in the Pack Council, and he cared about appearances. After a tense few seconds, he finally released Adrian and sneered, "Your brother, huh? Then let me ask him something simple—what's her name?"

"Rose," I blurted out before Adrian could speak.

Raymond's face twisted with rage, like he might attack me any second.

"I was asking him! Who told you to answer? You're playing the part well enough, so why don't you keep pretending to have amnesia? You know better than anyone that he doesn't even know you. He doesn't even know your name!"

I looked him dead in the eye and asked flatly, "Are you out of your mind?"

Then, I turned away and laced my fingers through Adrian's. We started to walk.

Behind me, Raymond's bitter laugh cut through the air. "You think pretending you don't know me will wash away your sins? Our parents died because of you! How can you still live like nothing happened?"

My steps faltered for half a beat before I quickened my pace.

Back in the car, I stared out the window. My mind was tangled and restless. In my ears, all I could hear was Raymond's voice.

"You killed our parents. Just being alive makes me hate you! A werewolf like you should never have been allowed to survive!"

I had been premature, born frail and weak. Because of that, our parents poured all their love and attention into me. They treated me like royalty; every year on my birthday, they would call friends and family to celebrate weeks in advance, showering me with gifts. No matter how busy they were, they never missed a milestone—my first lost tooth, my first successful hunt, my first day at the Young Werewolves Academy.

As a child, I was proud. I thought I was a cub especially favored by the Moon Goddess.

Until the year I turned seven.

It was Raymond's birthday. Our parents had gone out of town for a gathering, and when I came home, I found him curled alone in a corner with nothing but a piece of dried meat smaller than his paw.

That night, I swore to myself I'd give him a proper birthday someday.

The chance came at his coming-of-age ceremony.

Our parents had left early that morning for official business in the Northern Territory. My mother, uneasy about leaving me, had wanted to take me with them. I fought her tooth and nail, crying until she finally sighed and relented. She ended up telling the maids to watch over me.

Alone in the house, I secretly began planning a celebration for Raymond.

I used years of saved allowance to reserve a hall at Moonlight Tavern on the outskirts of town. I even contacted some of his friends ahead of time.

By evening, I was just about to message Raymond to send him there when the ground trembled beneath my feet. A brick crashed down from above, knocking me to the floor. My ears rang, filled only with the roar of collapsing stone.

Seeing the chandelier was about to fall, I tried to crawl to safety, but my limbs were too weak.

In the nick of time, my parents descended from above and threw themselves over me.

In the dark, my mother's weak voice whispered against my ear.

"When I was carrying you, Raymond was only three. He was so full of energy. Once, he begged us to take him to see the fireworks at the local festival, but the roads were icy. I slipped, and the fall triggered early labor. I was bedridden for weeks. You came into this world small, frail, and far too soon. Raymond felt guilty ever since. That's why he never let us celebrate Raymond's birthdays. He thought Raymond deserved the punishment."

My head felt increasingly heavy. My parents repeatedly urged me in a soft voice, "Rose, don't sleep. Hold on a little longer. Stay awake…"

I didn't remember how I was pulled from the wreckage. When I opened my eyes, what greeted me were two lifeless bodies.

I screamed in denial, reaching for the werewolves who had rescued me. "That's impossible! I just heard them—they were talking to me! How can they be dead?"

One of the werewolf guards spoke gently. "That was a recording."

Our parents hadn't gone out of town after all. When the quake struck, they rushed back to the villa to save me.

The shards of the silver chandelier had pierced them beyond healing. But with the last of their strength, they had held the roof up through the night, keeping it from crushing me.

Due to severe blood loss, they knew they wouldn't survive. So, they recorded their voices, replaying them again and again at my side to keep me awake.

Raymond, meanwhile, had been away studying in another pack, untouched by the quake.

When he returned and saw the bodies, his eyes welled with tears for the first time. He rounded on me, voice raw with grief and rage.

"Weren't they supposed to take you with them? Why were you home alone? Did you throw another tantrum to get to the theme park? Did you force them to stay for you?"