Kieran's pupils contracted sharply, but his expression quickly returned to calm.

"If you've done something wrong, then admit it, Audra." He looked down at me. "There's no need to tell such a ridiculous lie."

It wasn't the first time I had seen that look.

Many years ago, in the Royal Court of the White Wolf Tribe, my father had looked at me with the same disappointment.

Back then, I had been the only Queen of the tribe, and everyone knew I was destined to inherit the White Wolf Tribe.

Until the year I turned eighteen, when I met Kieran in the Borderpine Forest, wounded and alone, and the Moon Goddess led me to recognize him as my mate.

I slipped away from the tribe again and again to see him, until everything was exposed.

When my parents looked at me, there was no anger—only profound disappointment.

My father, Alaric Frost's voice had been low. "If you choose that Alpha… Then you will give up your White Wolf, everything you have. From that moment on, you will no longer belong here."

I had known that choosing Kieran meant abandoning everything tied to the White Wolf, yet I still said, "I'm willing."

That night, I was cast out of the tribe.

The memory faded, and I looked once more into the eyes that had once captivated me.

Now, there was nothing left in them but disgust.

A faint smile tugged at my lips, though my heart felt hollow. "So… my choice back then was truly wrong."

Kieran's brows drew together instantly.

To him, those words sounded no different from a confession of betrayal.

"So you did cheat," he said quietly. "I should have known."

At that moment, Elara suddenly rushed forward.

She snatched the child from my arms, so fast I didn't even have time to react.

"If it's a bastard, then it shouldn't be allowed to live."

My heart dropped, my blood seeming to freeze in an instant.

The next second, she hurled the child hard onto the stone floor.

"No!" I screamed, lunging forward.

The two soldiers beside me immediately blocked me, grabbing my arms and restraining me.

A dull thud echoed as the child hit the stone, his cries weakening at once.

The hall fell into dead silence.

Everyone thought the child had been killed.

My body collapsed to the floor.

Suddenly, a faint cry sounded again, and the tiny body stirred slightly on the stone floor.

The White Wolf Mark on his forehead flickered softly under the moonlight.

Elara narrowed her eyes. "As expected of a White Wolf… that bloodline really is strong."

She took a dagger from a nearby Beta.

The blade gleamed with a cold, pale light.

I recognized it at once—it was a silver-plated dagger.

For werewolves, nothing was more lethal than silver.

And now, it was aimed at my child.

Elara raised the dagger high, her movement almost graceful.

Terror swallowed me whole.

"Stop!" I struggled violently. Caught off guard, the soldier restraining me staggered a step.

I broke free from his grip and stumbled toward my child.

But Elara's dagger had already come down.

With a sound like tearing fabric, the blade sank into flesh.

A searing pain tore through my back.

The taste of blood surged into my throat, and I spat out a mouthful.

The silver dagger was buried in my body, and blood kept pouring from the wound, yet I barely seemed to feel the pain. All I did was shield the child in my arms.

Elara wrapped her hand around the hilt and slowly pulled the dagger out of my body.

In that instant, darkness swam before my eyes and I nearly lost my footing, but my arms never loosened around him.

Every werewolf watched the scene in silence.

"Enough." Kieran finally spoke. His eyes flicked to the blood at the corner of my mouth, and a trace of reluctance flashed through them. "Audra, I'm giving you one last chance. If you kill this child with your own hands, I can pretend none of this ever happened. You can still be my Luna."

My breathing stopped for a beat.

He wanted me to kill my own child?

"And if I refuse?" I shot back through clenched teeth.

"Then we sever the mate bond." Kieran paused, and his voice turned even colder. "From this day on, you'll be fit for nothing but life as the pack's slave."

It felt as though my heart had been ripped wide open.

Just then, Elara walked up to me with a soft laugh and pressed the bloodstained silver dagger into my hand.

"It's actually very simple, Audra." She bent down to look at me, her voice gentle. "As long as you kill this child yourself, you'll still be Luna, and Kieran will forgive you too."

The child in my arms stirred faintly, and the hand holding the dagger began to tremble at once.

Kieran stood there watching me. The chill in his eyes seemed to lessen, as if everything could go back to the way it was the moment I did it.

Slowly, I raised the dagger.

The smile on Elara's face deepened.

The next second, the silver blade slashed through the air.

Blood splattered.

Elara let out a shrill, agonized scream.

The dagger ripped across her arm, and blood instantly soaked through her dress.

I opened my eyes and cried out hoarsely, "No one is going to make me harm my own child!"

Kieran's face changed at once. "Elara!"

Then he turned to me, his eyes full of hatred. "Seize her!"

Several werewolves rushed forward immediately.

Kieran picked up the silver dagger from the ground, his voice colder than ice. "Since you insist on protecting this bastard… Then I'll send him to his death myself."

As I watched him come toward me step by step, my heart pounded violently in my chest. "Don't come any closer!" I screamed.

A sharp pain suddenly tore through my chest.

At that moment, a silver-white light suddenly appeared across my body.

Everyone present froze in shock, and even Kieran came to a stop.

Stunned murmurs broke out. "What was that just now?"

"Was that the White Wolf Mark?"

"Was she telling the truth? Is she really a White Wolf?"

"But doesn't she not have a wolf?"

I lowered my head and looked at my body.

The mark had only appeared for a moment, but I knew it had come from my White Wolf.

Under the weight of unbearable grief, the seal placed on me all those years ago seemed to have loosened, if only slightly.

Kieran strode over to me, grabbed my wrist, and for the first time, uncertainty appeared in his eyes.

"What was that just now? Are you from the White Wolf Tribe?"

I said nothing.

The vow I had made back then tightened around my throat like chains.

Elara immediately clutched her wound and leaned toward Kieran. "Kieran, you actually believed her? How could someone without a wolf possibly belong to the White Wolf Tribe?"

"Then again… maybe it's not impossible." She spoke again at an unhurried pace. "Some mongrel wolves are born with a trace of White Wolf bloodline in them."

That faint trace of hope in Kieran's eyes died away little by little.

"So you really did go mate with some mongrel wolf, and that's how you ended up giving birth to this thing?"

As I listened to those filthy accusations, my nails dug deep into my palms, yet I couldn't force out a single word.

Kieran suddenly let out a self-mocking laugh. "I was a fool. I almost believed you again."

Elara clearly sensed the shift in Kieran's mood. A flicker of panic crossed her eyes, but it was quickly replaced by venom.

She suddenly grabbed Kieran by the collar, rose onto her toes, and kissed him with fierce passion.

Kieran seemed stunned for a brief second, but when his eyes landed on me, whatever hesitation remained was quickly smothered by anger.

The next second, he reached up, gripped the back of Elara's head, and kissed her back even harder.

In that moment, physical agony and emotional devastation crashed over me at once.

I closed my eyes in pain.

At last, I understood that the Kieran I had once loved was long gone.

When I opened my eyes again, there was nothing left in me to hold on to.

"Kieran. I willingly sever the mate bond between us."

The moment those words left my mouth, Kieran's expression changed abruptly.

Emotions surged in his eyes, and the Alpha aura in the air grew unstable.

I stared at him and spoke, word by word. "I, Audra Frost, reject the Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack—"

"Shut up!" Kieran roared, cutting me off.

He stepped closer, unleashing his Alpha pressure without restraint, crushing down on me.

My chest tightened, and my knees nearly buckled beneath the weight.

The child in my arms let out a faint cry.

Kieran stood before me, looking down from above, his eyes burning with barely restrained fury.

"Sever the bond?" he let out a cold laugh. "Audra, do you really think you have the right to decide something like that?"

I said nothing.

Kieran stared at me for a long moment, as if suppressing something within himself.

At last, he slowly turned away.

"From this day forward," his voice echoed through the hall. "Audra is no longer the Luna of the Silvermoon Pack."

Every werewolf present held their breath.

Kieran continued coldly, "She will be reduced to a slave of the pack until her sins are repaid."

Kieran cast me one final glance, his gaze as cold as if he were looking at a stranger.

Then he turned and left the hall, his footsteps fading into the distance.

But the atmosphere in the hall didn't ease—it grew even more unsettling.

All of them were watching me.

The shock in their eyes was gone, replaced by undisguised contempt and malice.

Just then, Elara walked slowly up to me.

She looked down at me, the corner of her lips curling upward.

"Did you hear that?" Her voice was soft, yet chilling. "From now on, you're nothing but a slave."

She turned to the others in the hall. "Since she's a slave, she should start doing what slaves do, shouldn't she?"

Voices of agreement immediately rose from the crowd.

"That's right."

"If she's a slave, she should work."

Elara smiled in satisfaction.

She pointed at me. "Start by washing the entire pack's clothes."

I held my child and didn't move.

The smile on Elara's face slowly faded.

The next second—a whip lashed brutally across my back.

The wound tore open instantly, the pain so intense it nearly stole my breath.

The child in my arms burst into frightened cries.

Laughter erupted around me.

Someone dumped a pile of filthy clothes in front of me, while another deliberately kicked over a bucket of water.

"Slave, make sure they're clean."

"If they're not clean enough, you'll be whipped again."

I lowered my head and said nothing, slowly bending down to pick up the clothes one by one.

Cold water seeped into my wounds, the pain nearly numbing me senseless.

But I didn't stop.

Because I had to live—for my child.

Time passed, little by little.

The sun set, then rose again.

I washed clothes, cooked meals, and cleaned up the pack's filth.

Every day, someone found a reason to make things harder for me.

Someone dumped an entire bucket of dirty clothes at my feet.

"Slave, clean them properly."

Just as I finished washing them, he laughed and threw them back into the muddy water.

"Not clean enough. Wash them again."

Laughter broke out around me.

And almost every day, Elara would come, standing off to the side, watching me work—watching me get humiliated.

Sometimes, when she was in a bad mood, she would do it herself.

The whip came down again and again, leaving more and more wounds across my body.

My body grew weaker with each passing day.

Once, as the whip came down, I suddenly heard a low wolf's howl in the distance.

I looked up and saw Kieran standing on a distant platform.

He stood there, watching everything.

At the moment the whip struck, his brows seemed to knit ever so slightly.

But he still turned away, as if he had seen nothing at all.

A few days later, I could barely stand.

Even so, I clenched my teeth and held on.

As long as the child in my arms was alive, I couldn't fall.

That night, I dragged my exhausted body back to the shed, cold wind pouring in through the broken window.

Holding my child, I curled up in the hay, my body trembling uncontrollably.

Just then, a faint tremor stirred in my chest.

It felt like something long asleep had shifted slightly in the depths of darkness.

I froze.

A weak yet familiar voice echoed in my mind.

"Audra…"

That voice—it was my wolf.

I shot upright, hardly daring to believe what I had heard.

"Nyra?"