Ethan and I have been in a mate bond since six years ago. He was the Alpha of our pack.

Our twin pups were going to have their fifth birthday, and I wanted to set up a bloodline trust fund for them.

However, due to their special positions as the Alpha’s heirs, the trust fund required a blood verification to confirm their lineage.

But after the verification, I was shocked to find that our blood couldn’t blend together. It meant I wasn’t the biological mother-wolf of the twin pups.

The Inheritance Officer looked at me sympathetically and said, “I’m sorry, but this trust fund can only be established by their biological mother-wolf.”

I froze for a moment and said, “There must be some kind of mistake. I can call the midwife wolf who helped me deliver them to testify. I am their mother-wolf!”

“As you can see, your blood isn’t merging with theirs, but their blood is merging with the Alpha’s. So these twin pups are indeed the Alpha’s. You’re not their biological mother-wolf. Let me see… Here, their biological mother-wolf should be Helena Grayback. I’m sorry. They have nothing to do with you.”

Helena?

I felt completely shocked. My mind went blank.

I hadn’t heard that name in a long time. She was Ethan’s first love.

Helena was from a pack that had a longstanding hatred for ours.

They couldn’t be together back then, but now, it turned out that the twin pups I had struggled to carry and give birth to were actually Ethan and Helena’s.

I left the trust fund company, but I still felt so shock.

I couldn’t believe what had happened. The twin pups I had given birth to weren’t even mine. And the worst part was that they were Ethan and Helena’s.

How could something like this even happen?

I clearly remembered how hard it had been to carry them. The twin pups had made my belly so uncomfortable back then. I was often in discomfort, with a severe pain in my ribs from the pressure. It had taken me a long time after giving birth to gradually get my figure back.

I got in the car and decided to go find Ethan. I needed an explanation, and I was hoping he might know the truth.

When I arrived at the company, I made my way to the top-floor office, Ethan’s office.

The door wasn’t fully closed, and I could hear Ethan and his friend Liam talking.

Liam said, “Ethan, do you know Helena is coming back tonight? Are you sure you’re going to the airport to pick her up? I know you two have a past, but don’t forget the history between your two packs. You can never be together.”

I hid behind the door in silence, secretly watching Ethan’s reaction.

Ethan looked nodded and said, “I know. What’s between our packs has nothing to do with me and Helena. Besides, my father only didn’t want me to be with Helena back then. He just didn’t want a she-wolf from the Grayback pack to join our pack as my Luna. Helena and I will only be good friends.”

“Good friends? You can only fool others with that. Do you remember how heartbroken you were when Helena broke up with you? Who stayed up all night hunting in the wild, waiting for her at the cliff where you used to hang out? Did you forget how crushed you were? As for your current Luna, don’t be ridiculous. Who didn’t know why you chose her? You got close to her only because her eyes looked like Helena’s.”

A mocking look flashed across Ethan’s face.

“You are right. The first time I met Lila, her eyes were just like Helena’s”

Liam patted Ethan on the back and leaned in to say, “To be honest, if it weren’t for you, she would have been kicked out of our pack by now. Didn’t you secretly have her give birth to you and Helena’s twin pups? Your Luna surely doesn’t know that, does she?”

Ethan said, “I approached her because she was a fertile Omega. I couldn’t have Helena, but at least now my two twin pups still carry Helena’s blood. I have no regrets.”

His friend Liam clapped his hands said, “I kind of feel sorry for this stand-in Luna you found. Lila really does love you, but she is just too stupid. When you tricked her into letting the witch do that thing, saying it would make her have twin pups, she didn’t even doubt it. She’s just your breeding tool and a free babysitter for your pups. If she ever finds out the truth, she’ll definitely go crazy.”

Ethan shook his head impatiently.

“She will be my Luna for the rest of her life, respected by the entire pack. It’s my way of making up to her. She came from such a pitiful background. Being my Luna is her honor. I’m sure she will understand.”

I stood outside the door, watching them silently.

In that moment, my world felt like it was collapsing. My heart felt as if it had been torn into pieces.

In the end, I didn’t have the courage to go in and confront Ethan. I turned around and left.

By then, it was pouring rain outside and lightning struck near my feet.

In the rain, my heart was soaked through.

My family’s bloodline was the lowest in the pack.

Since I was little, people had called me the Omega because I had no special abilities. My family had no wealth or power to send me to the best werewolf academy either.

They also didn’t care about me. They preferred my brother.

Six years ago, I was set up on a blind date by my mother-wolf.

The werewolf I met was extremely awful, with messy fur and a bad smell. He grabbed me, trying to kiss me, wanting to make me his mate.

And my mother-wolf had agreed because he had offered her $200,000. She wanted to buy my brother-wolf the latest luxury car. So she had put the Wolfsbane Lust Potion in my tea.

That day, my head hurt terribly, and I felt my mind was taken by lust. I even wanted to tear my clothes off.

After escaping from the blind date’s apartment, I stumbled into the back seat of a black car.

There was a werewolf there. The lust potion made me lose control.

I hugged him, my hands touching his face. He was really good-looking, just the kind I liked. He smelled of a bergamot scent and that was nice.

When I was about to unbutton his shirt, he suddenly grabbed my hands.

“Please calm down.” His voice sounded cold, but when he looked at me, his turned gentle, as if he recognized me.

“You’ve been poisoned, haven’t you?” he asked.

I nodded.

“I can help you, but you’ll have to do something for me as well.”

My body felt like it was burning, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Yes, anything,” I said.

He looked down at me. “I have someone I love deeply, but we can’t be together. You look like her, especially your eyes. Will you be my ‘antidote’? I mean, will you be my mate?”

For a moment, I felt myself come to my senses a little.

Was he proposing to me? Or asking me to be a substitute of someone else?

I wanted to refuse, but I had no choice.

I rubbed my eyes and really looked at him, it was him.

It’s Ethan, the new Alpha of our pack, the one I had been secretly crushing on for a long time.

I had thought we would never have a connection in real life, but here he was, proposing to me at my most embarrassing moment.

Even if I had to be a substitute, I still wanted to be by his side.

I looked into his eyes.

He seemed serious, not joking.

I nodded and said, “Okay, it’s a deal.”

When Ethan heard me, he let out a laugh. He closed his eyes and pulled me closer. We started kissing in the backseat of the car.

Even though I knew that to him, I was just a substitute for some she-wolf he loved, I was still willing to be his mate.

Ethan transferred one million dollars to my mother-wolf. He also paid for a grand mating ceremony. That was one of the happiest moments in my life, when I became Ethan’s mate.

Everyone in the pack was there to congratulate us.

That day, I became the pack’s Luna, no longer some insignificant Omega.

Six years.

We had shared this mate bond for six years.

Ethan never even showed any interest in other she-wolves, and he was very generous with me all the time.

He let me use his unlimited black credit card and often took me to high-end auctions, just to buy me jewelry.

Then he mentioned he had always wanted twin pups.

I was a bit afraid that my body wouldn’t be able to carry twin pups, but Ethan promised that if we conceive through a witch’s fertilization ritual, it would be safer.

So, I believed him without hesitation.

When I successfully conceived the twin pups, he treated me even better.

He would always cancel his meetings to accompany me to midwife appointments. And he did prenatal care for me and the twin pups every single night. Sometimes he would gently touch my belly and talk to the twin pups.

When he held me as we slept, I thought my mate was the best in the whole world.

After the twin pups were born, he spent a lot of time with them

I truly thought he had fallen in love with me, that was why he loved our twin pups so much.

I thought after six years, I was no longer a substitute. I was his beloved Luna.

But it was all in my head.

He did love the mother-wolf of these twin pups, but that mother-wolf was not me.

It was Helena.

I was just her substitute and Ethan’s breeding tool.

I cried standing in the pouring rain, yet still remembered to tell the housekeeper to pick the twin pups up from kindergarten.

Even though they weren’t biologically mine, I had carried them and raised them with all my heart for five years. They had become like my own.

When I thought of those twin pups, I feel a little nervous, because I didn’t know how to tell them the truth.

My poor Joe and Eva.

When I got home, I was soaked through with the heavy rain.

“Mommy is back! You’re all wet, Mommy. Go change or you’ll get sick!”

Joe and Eva threw themselves into my arms, pulling me toward the stairs to go upstairs.

I suddenly felt the urge to cry.

“It’s okay, my pups. Mommy is fine,” I said.

But then the twin pups pushed me hard, as if they were playing a prank on me.

My foot suddenly slipped off the step, and my back crashed heavily onto the stairs.

The pain was unbearable. Blood streamed from my head. I felt like I couldn’t see anything in front of me.

“Yay! Mommy’s bleeding! Is mommy going to die? We promised Helena we would go meet her! Now, mommy won’t stop us!” Joe cheered.

“Yeah, let’s go find Daddy! We like Helena so much. I want to see her! Not mommy!” Eva added.

They ran off to the living room.

I touched my face. Blood was flowing from my head.

When I looked up, Ethan was standing at the top of the stairs. The way he looked at me was strange, as if the smell of my blood disgusted him so much.

He called a servant over, “You, call the healer. Clean up this mess. Don’t let me see even a single drop of blood on my steps. Otherwise, you will be fired.”

Ethan took Joe and Eva’s hands and walked toward the door.

The twin pups looked back at me. They were both laughing and making faces at me.

“Daddy, we did what you said! You said if we had to choose between Helena and mommy, we should always pick Helena,” Joe said.

Ethan lifted them into his arms.

“I did say that, but you can’t push your mommy down the stairs like that next time, understand?”

Joe shook his head. So did Eva.

Joe said, “It’s okay. Mommy is just a housewife. She is so stupid. We trick her all the time!”

Eva also said, “Yeah, we don’t need to care about her. Daddy, if Helena becomes our mommy, that will be so great. If our mommy died, Helena could be our new mommy!”

The three of them walked out.

I was completely shocked when I heard what they said.

These were the twin pups I had struggled to carry and give birth to. And Ethan was the mate I had loved with all my heart.

Today, I finally realized that in their world, I was so unimportant. Helena was their first choice.

From now on, I wanted nothing to do with them.

I heard the pack’s healer entering in my room.

She carefully healed my wounds. My injury was so deep that when she applied the herbal balm, I couldn’t help but cry out.

I was in such severe pain that my wolf claws dug into my leg, until I started bleeding.

Once everything was taken care of, I went to the study.

Ethan had left his computer on, so I tapped the mouse.

The wallpaper on the screen was a family photo, taken on Joe and Eva’s first birthday. In the picture, Joe and Eva were sitting on my lap, and I was holding them.

I remembered how cute the twin pups were back then. It was their first time going out for a photo. They were really nervous, so they held onto me tightly and refused to let go.

Back then, I was their only source of security. I was the mother-wolf who made them feel safe.

Ethan was sitting beside me. He looked happy as well.

I suddenly recalled how gentle Ethan had been when he had persuaded me to carry these twin pups for him. It had made me think he might truly love me.

I remembered what he had said.

“Lila, having a daughter and a son separately would mean two pregnancies for you. That would be too hard on you. But with the witch’s fertilization ritual, we can have twin pups in one go. That way, you only need to give birth once, and I only have to worry about you once. You are my Luna. I don’t want you to suffer.”

I believed him.

Looking back, I realized how silly I was to trust him.

I thought Ethan really cared for me, that he truly wanted me to suffer less from the pregnancy.

When I first got pregnant with the twin pup, my morning sickness was terrible. I vomited all day and had no appetite.

The twin pups drained me so much that I had almost no extra fat on my body.

My belly was much larger than usual for a pregnant she-wolf. I couldn’t sleep all night.

After the twin pups were born, I took care of them myself.

Back then, if one of them woke up, the other would too. So, I didn’t even get a full night’s sleep for two whole years.

I did it for them out of love.

I came from a terrible family. That was also why I wanted my twin pups to have my best love. That was why I was so close to them.

As soon as they learned to talk, they said to me, “Mommy is amazing, I love mommy, mommy’s the best.”

When did everything change?

Maybe on their third birthday.

That was when Ethan hired an Italian teacher online for the twin pups to learn Italian.

The Italian teacher met with them online every day. The twin pups wouldn’t even let me enter the room when they were having classes. They told me it was how the Italian teacher required.

I was only allowed to stand outside the door and wait for their class to end. I wasn’t even allowed to talk to the Italian teacher. Even bring them juice and water was done by the servants.

From then on, the twin pups slowly changed.

They started looking down on me for being a housewife, for knowing nothing and for not working to earn any money.

But I still took such good care of them.

I could see that the kindness in their little hearts was fading bit by bit.

I thought it was just because they were too young. Until today, when they pushed me down the stairs so hard, I finally understood. These twin pups I had raised looked down on me.

My love for them meant nothing. It only made them hate me more.

I stared at that family photo and shook my head.

It was all a lie, my mate bond with Ethan and my connections with the twin pups.

I used Ethan’s computer to draft an agreement to break our mate bond.

I was about to turn off the computer, when I noticed message boxes popping up nonstop. Ethan had left in such a hurry that he had forgotten to log out.

I clicked on the account. To my surprise, it was one I had never seen before, with a profile picture of Ethan himself.

When I opened it, I found it had only one contact.

Helena.

So this was the special account Ethan used to message Helena.

I scrolled through their chats and found something that left me completely stunned.

The Italian teacher Ethan had hired three years ago was Helena!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Helena had been in my twins’ lives all this time!

Ethan knew it.

The servants knew it.

I was the only on in the dark.

In their messages, I even found a video. Obviously, Ethan had rented out an entire luxury hotel to welcome Helena back.

In the video, Eva and Joe were hugging Helena’s neck.

Joe said to her, “Helena, you are prettier than in the videos!”

“Yes! You are a hundred times better than our mommy! I want to see you every day!” Eva even kissed Helena on the cheek.

Ethan stood next to her. He looked a bit awkward at first, but as the crowd cheered, he pulled Helena tight in his arms. He hugged her firmly and said, “Welcome home, Helena!”

It felt like they were the happy family.

I stared at the screen for a long time, and I found my hands shaking.

I turn off the computer.

So, they are the real family. I was just a substitute for Helena.

That evening, Ethan came back with the twin pups.

Joe sat beside me and said, “Mommy, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push you earlier.”

Eva took my hand and throw herself into my arms.

“Sorry, mommy. We didn’t mean it. You will forgive me, right? Just like every time before?”

I looked at their cute faces. I never knew pups could pretend so well to be kind.

I nodded fast, not even managing to smile.

Eva and Joe were surprised by my reaction. They didn’t know what to do when their usual tricks didn’t work, so they looked to Ethan for help.

Ethan stepped over. He touched the wound on my face.

The second he touched me, all I could think was how his hand once held Helena tightly. I could even smell that strange and disgusting scent from his hands.

He also used my body as a tool to carry Helena’s twin pups. These thoughts made me feel sick.

I felt like vomiting, but nothing came up.

Ethan looked extremely nervous when he saw this. It wasn’t like he was worrying about me, he was worrying about something else.

“Wait, Lila! Are you pregnant? How?! Another accident? We used protection! How could this happen again? Did you do this on purpose?!”

Ethan’s face turned red when he yelled at me.

I shook my head.

“No. I don’t think so.”

Ethan snapped.

“No? Not pregnant? Or you weren’t doing it on purpose! I only want Joe and Eva! No more pups! I can’t split my love for them with anyone else.”

He grabbed my arm, dragging me to the garage. He wanted drive me to the healer’s place to take a pregnancy test.

He pulled my arm so hard that I knocked over a vase on the shelf. It shattered at my feet and shards cut into my leg.

My leg was already bruised and swollen from the fall. Now, it was bleeding.

I knelt to check the wound, but when I looked up, Ethan was gone. He didn’t even notice that I was hurt.

I sighed.

My leg hurt, but my heart hurt more.

Two years ago, I had accidentally gotten pregnant once.

I loved raising pups and always wanted more pups.

Somehow, Ethan was really mad when I told him the good news.

“Your last birth was too dangerous. I can’t let you go through that again. You have to listen to me, we can’t keep this pup.”

Then Joe and Eva refused to eat anything, unless I got rid of the pup in my belly.

I had no choice.

So, I went to the witch and took the special herbal potion to end the pregnancy. Ethan had accompanied me for the whole process.

“Lila, I’m here in case you get upset. I’m not going anywhere.”

He held my hands tightly and refused to leave the room even for a step.

It was all fake. His kindness and love for me was just a lie.

He hadn’t cared about me at all. He was there because he had been afraid that I would secretly keep the pup, dividing the love meant for his and Helena’s twin pups, Joe and Eva.

The potion caused severe harm to my body and had strong side effects. My body became even weaker after that.

When we arrived at the healer’s place, I went to the bathroom and took the test.

After examining my body, the healer said I wasn’t pregnant.

I saw Ethan let out a quiet sigh of relief, as if he was grateful that I wouldn’t have another pup with him.

Good, I thought.

No more pups. Not now, not ever.

Ethan hugged me from behind and said, “Lila, you are just too tired. I don’t want you raising more pups. Joe and Eva are enough.”

What a hypocrite!

“Thank you for caring so much,” I said and forced a fake smile.

Ethan picked up something off in my voice and turned to me.

“Why do you say that? We are family. You don’t have to say this to me.”

Family?

He called me his family?

In that house, I was the only outsider. Since when was I ever part of his family?

I took out the mate bond termination agreement from my purse. I needed Ethan to sign it without him knowing what it was.

I said to Ethan, “I’ve been really tired lately taking care of the pups. I want to buy a small shop, maybe as a reward for raising them for years. Is that okay?”

This was the first time I had ever asked Ethan for something.

I could see that Ethan thought it was a bit odd, but that kind of money meant nothing to him.

Ethan looked at the first page of the document.

If he flipped to the pages ahead, he would discover that it was actually a mate bond termination agreement.

I could feel my heart start beating very fast.

I watched him trying to turn to the next page of the document. He even began to frown.

When Ethan was turning the page, I suddenly interrupted him.

I said, “What? Am I not even worth this? Do you need to show it to your lawyer first?”

Ethan smiled and signed his name. “No. You are my Luna. You can have whatever you want. Let’s go home. You need to rest well.”

I carefully put the document back into my purse. It worked.

When we got home, Joe and Eva were playing games in their bedroom. I didn’t open the door right away and heard them talking.

“Is mommy really going to have another pup?” Joe said. “She is so stupid. What if the new pup is just as dumb?”

Eva thought for a moment and said, “Yeah. She is just lucky to have clear pups like us. If she gives birth to a dumb pup, I will kill it! I really don’t want her to be my mommy anymore. She is so annoying!”

“I agree. She is the worst!”

I stared at their backs but didn’t go in.

I pulled out the signed agreement.

Joe and Eva, you two hated me so much that you didn’t want me to be your mommy? In a month, when this agreement took effect, you would get what you had wished for.

The next day, I didn’t get up at 6 a.m. like I always did.

I left Ethan and the twin pups to the servants.

There were a lot of chaos.

Joe was extremely picky about food. He had only ever eaten the meals I made.

The servants went to great trouble to prepare over a dozen breakfast dishes for him, but he refused to take a bite. In the end, he lost his temper and threw food everywhere.

Eva was no better.

She hated the hairstyle the servants had done for her. Eva was picky about these things, hairstyle and clothes, just like her father.

By the time they were supposed to leave for kindergarten, none of these problems had been solved.

I was resting in my room when another servant rushed in and said “Luna, I am so sorry to bother you again. But could you tell me which tie and cufflinks should go with Alpha’s Armani suit? I asked him several times, but he got mad and kicked me out.”

I glanced at the suit and told her, “His ties are in walk-in closet 3. You need to get the lavender one on the left. His cufflinks are in the left drawer of walk-in closet 5. Grab the ruby ones.”

Not long after, Ethan came into my bedroom.

He sat on the edge of my bed and asked, “What’s wrong? Why didn’t you get up to take care of the twin pups today? Are you upset about something?”

I looked at him.

For a moment, I wanted to confront him with all the mess, but what good would that do me?

I said, “I’m sorry, I still don’t feel well. Because of what happened yesterday, Joe and Eva……”

I didn’t finish my sentences.

Ethan must have remembered why I had gotten hurt. He looked even a bit guilty.

“I’m sorry, I forgot. You should rest. I will tell the servants to take care of Joe and Eva for now,” he said.

Ever since I stopped doing all the housework, everything fell apart.

Joe and Eva threw tantrums until midnight. They refused to sleep or eat, or just simply be quiet.

Ethan had to deal with all kinds of problems when he got home from work. Without my help, he also had to spend more time getting ready in the morning.

These things had never bothered him once in the past six years. Because I was always the one handling them.

Ethan finally snapped.

He yelled loudly at the servants, “Why can’t you get even these little things right? How hard can it be? Can’t any of you just take care of Joe and Eva? I’m swamped at work every day, and now I have to deal with this mess at home. Can’t you give me a break?”

The servants lowered their heads and all looked scared.

I was watching this scene from the upstairs. I laughed.

Just a housewife?

Ethan always thought a housewife’s daily work was so easy, anyone could do it. But he had no idea how much effort I put in.

I cooked hundreds of new dishes just to get Joe to take a bite.

I picked Eva’s clothes and braided her hair every morning so she would agree to go to kindergarten.

When the twin pups were at the kindergarten, I was practicing cooking new dishes for Joe and making Eva’s braids.

And Ethan?

He had an extremely strict taste when it came to clothes and home decorations. I even took fashion classes just to meet his standards.

It took me hours every morning to handle all this. But to him and the twin pups, it was all effortless, like this was just how life should be.

They had no idea none of it would exist without me.

I was not just his Luna or the twin pups’ mother-wolf.

I should be me.

Thankfully, this housewife life was almost over for me. I would have a chance to be myself again.

After a few chaotic days at home, Ethan couldn’t take it anymore. He asked to talk to me alone.

That day, he sat behind his desk, when I stood across from him like one of his employees.

“Lila, what on earth has been wrong with you lately? Are you feeling unwell? Or… Have you found out something?” he asked.