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.

Found out what? I wondered.

They didn’t even try to hide it. Ethan had always been in public with Helena since she came back.

Everyone in our pack knew that he had even bought an entire elementary school, so Helena could be its principal. Just because she said she wanted to be a teacher.

I had asked him about it once, and he said impatiently to me, “Helena and I are just friends. This is not your business.”

But I didn’t want to tell Ethan the things I had found.

I shook my head, “No.”

Ethan frowned.

“Even if you are jealous, the twin pups are innocent. Do you not want to be their mommy anymore? Why aren’t you taking care of them? You will disappoint me and the twin pups.”

I looked at him in the eyes and said, “Then I won’t be their mommy anymore.”

Ethan was shocked by my words.

He stared at me, then suddenly laughed.

“I know what’s going on now. Are you jealous of Helena? Are you afraid she will take your place as the Luna? I have told you. There’s no way Helena and I will be together. You will always be my Luna and the twins’ mother-wolf.”

I looked at his face, he acted just like every time he had lied to me before.

I didn’t say a word.

Ethan shook his head and said, “Stop this nonsense. I don’t have time to deal with this. The twin pups’ birthday is coming up soon. You need to help plan their party.”

The birthday party.

Every year before, I had planned their birthday parties.

I personally picked out gifts and invited their friends. But not this year.

A few days earlier, I wanted to set up that trust fund as a gift for them. But then I found out I wasn’t even their real mother-wolf.

Why bother? They weren’t even mine.

Ethan flipped through some documents, then looked up as if he remembered something important.

“Oh, right. Helena and the twin pups share the same birthday. What a coincidence! You should plan a joint celebration for them. I will invite Helena too. It will be so great.”

Something inside me shattered.

I could feel that the rage inside me.

I thought back to the day I had given birth to the twin pups. I had already been so weak and I could barely eat. The midwife suggested that I take the herbal portion to help give birth as soon as possible.

Ethan said, “The date isn’t good enough now. We need to wait.”

I suffered horribly, but Ethan still refused. He insisted on his chosen day.

The twin pups kicked so hard they broke my ribs, but he wouldn’t budge at all.

I had no clue why he was so picky about the date.

I finally got it.

I went through all that suffering just so Helena and the twin pups could share a birthday.

He wanted them to celebrate together someday.

How ridiculous! Did he think I was some kind of pup-making tool?

The birthday party was held in our ballroom.

I stood in the crowd, watching Helena on stage in a red gown covered in diamonds.

Ethan had booked the world’s top fashion design studio to make it for her. Every diamond was specially chosen and hand-stitched onto the gown.

Ethan wore a tuxedo with a red rose pinned to his chest, as if they were mates.

They walked hand in hand, keeping Joe and Eva company.

What a perfect family of four!

A guest who didn’t know Helena said, “That must be our Luna! What a happy family! Look how much she loves the pups. And to have an Alpha that rich and hot…”

A she-wolf nearby stopped her from saying more.

She looked at me and whispered, “That is the Alpha’s first love, Helena. She just moved back. They say they are ‘just friends’, but does that look like friendship to you?”

Another voice joined in, “No wonder he married Lila. She does look a bit like his ex. But Helena is in better shape.”

I turned and walked to the balcony to catch my breath.

How much longer until I could be free of this so-called family?

Then I heard the click of high heels. I turned to find Helena standing across from me.

“You know you’re just a replacement, don’t you? Why won’t you leave? I’m back to be with Ethan. Do the smart thing and go.”

I looked at her face and suddenly felt no urge to back down.

“If you want to be his Luna so badly, try to drive me out.”

I knew Ethan, and I knew the elders in the pack.

Their word meant a lot. They would never let Ethan marry someone from an enemy pack.

Helena stepped closer.

“Don’t think having those brats secures your position. You’re only a substitute!”

She tore off her necklace, waved it at me and tossed it into the lake below.

Suddenly, she raised her voice.

“How could you do that? You’re the pack’s Luna! Even if you don’t believe Ethan and I are just friends, you shouldn’t have thrown my necklace away!”

A crowd quickly gathered around, including Ethan.

“What necklace?” he asked. “Whatever it is, I’ll buy you another.”

Helena burst into tears.

“It’s not the same! The one she threw was the one you gave me before I left!”

Ethan looked angry.

I knew what she meant. I had seen it in their chats. It was purple crystal necklace with their photo engraved on the back.

“I didn’t do it. Helena threw it herself.”

Helena showed Ethan a red mark on her neck. “She tore it from me! Look what you did. Can you even afford something that precious?”

“There’s security footage,” I said, pointing to a camera in the corner. “Check it.”

Helena’s eyes widened in panic. She hadn’t expected that.

This was my home, of course I had installed cameras everywhere.

Ethan noticed Helena’s reaction.

“Maybe it was a misunderstanding…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Joe and Eva stepped protectively in front of Helena.

“Bad mommy!” Joe pointed at me. “We saw you do it!”

“Mommy did it! We saw from far away.”

The ballroom fell silent right away. Everyone stared at me.

The entire ballroom fell completely silent in a second.

I looked at the twin pups, thinking I must have misheard.

Joe pointed at me and said, “We saw it. It was mommy who threw it away.”

Eva held Helena’s hand.

“Yes, mommy is so bad! It was her! Mommy wants to hurt Helena!”

They spoke the cruelest lies in the sweetest voices. And they spread their arms to protect Helena behind them, as if I were their enemy.

There wouldn’t be a trace of love for them in my heart anymore.

I glanced at Ethan and said, “You can see what’s going on, can’t you? I didn’t do it.”

Before I could finish, Ethan interrupted me.

“Lila. Enough! How old are Joe and Eva? How could they even lie? Besides, what reason would Helena have to frame you? That necklace was a gift from me. She cherishes that necklace a lot! It’s your problem. You did something wrong and refused to apologize. You should pay for what you did.”

Ethan looked at me as if I were the worst werewolf in the world.

“Now, go into that lake and find that necklace. Don’t come home if you can’t find it.”

It was freezing cold at night.

The lake water was icy, and my injuries hadn’t healed yet. How could Ethan do this to me?

But he actually wanted me to find the necklace for Helena. As the Alpha, his words were orders.

I was dragged downstairs by the bodyguards and pushed into the lake. The lake was full of gravel. The wounds on my leg were not healed, and I even saw blood in the water.

The pain made me tremble all over.

I didn’t know how many hours had passed.

My hands were swollen when I finally found the necklace.

When I took it to Ethan, my legs could barely hold me up, but he didn’t even notice. He ran straight to Helena to hand it to her.

I didn’t even have the strength to walk to a chair. I sat down, then lay on the floor, with water plants still stuck in my hair.

Suddenly, I heard Joe and Eva’s voices, but I was too weak to open my eyes.

Eva said, “Joe, mommy looks so painful. Do you think we are wrong?”

Joe replied in a childish voice, “No. Because daddy said we needed to help Helena. Daddy is the Alpha.”

“Okay. No matter what we do, mommy will always forgive us anyway. Let’s go play with Helena now.”

Their voices faded away. My vision blurred, and I fainted.

When I woke up again, I was in a healing room. Only two nurses and I were there. They were cleaning my wounds.

“They say choosing a mate is extremely important. It’s so true. Look at this she-wolf. She is covered in wounds. The wounds on her leg are all infected, and she has such a high fever, but no one has come to see her.”

The other nurse added, “Yeah. Just now, Alpha Ethan came to our healing center with a she-wolf named Helena, I heard. She must be his Luna. I heard that just because her necklace fell into the lake and she cried so hard, her eyes were swollen. He booked an entire floor of VIP healing rooms for her and had our chief healer treat her. Her twin pups were so worried. This kind of mate choice is wiser."

Listening to their words, I finally realized that Ethan had also brought Helena to this healing center.

How ridiculous!

Suddenly, my phone rang. It was a message from Ethan.

“Don’t come home. Stay in healing center and think about what you did wrong.”

It was so obvious who Ethan loved and who he didn’t love.

Even though I was his Luna, his heart wasn’t with me. But I didn’t feel sad at all, not even a bit angry.

My heart was just empty.

All I wanted was to escape this so-called family.

Ethan didn’t come to pick me up even on the day I recovered. He only sent a car to wait at the door.

After I got in, the driver took me to a private club. He said, “Luna, the Alpha is waiting for you inside.”

I felt it was a little strange. Why would Ethan ask me to meet him alone in such a place?

I went in anyway.

When I reached the private room inside, I heard strange sounds. I opened the door and saw Helena with another werewolf.

The werewolf tore off his shirt, while Helena calmly messed up her own hair. She grabbed the werewolf’s claws, and left several scratches on her shoulder.

They drew closer.

Suddenly, the werewolf saw me through the crack of the door. I realized something was wrong and tried to leave.

It was too late. This was a trap.