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?"

"Is that you, Nyra? Have you awakened?" I asked, my voice trembling.

But no answer came.

At that moment, the door to the shed was kicked open.

I looked up in alarm. Several unfamiliar werewolves stood at the doorway.

Their scent was chaotic and savage, their eyes filled with undisguised greed.

My heart sank instantly.

They weren't from the Silvermoon Pack. They were rogue wolves.

The one in front licked his lips. "That's her?"

Another wolf chuckled. "She does look good."

"Get out," I said under my breath.

They burst into laughter as if I had said something ridiculous.

"Relax, pretty thing."

One of them stepped toward me slowly, his gaze sizing me up like prey.

"We heard you and your little one have been lonely. We're just here to keep you company."

I backed away in panic, clutching my child tightly.

Suddenly, another wolf lunged at me from the side.

I struggled desperately, but my broken body had little strength left.

He pinned me down, his heavy breath hot against my face.

"Stop struggling." He let out a low laugh. "No one's coming to save a slave."

My clothes were torn apart. In the chaos, they snatched my child away and tossed him carelessly onto the hay in the corner.

I cried out desperately for help.

Then a familiar female voice rang out—one that sent a chill down my spine.

"Kieran." Elara's voice came from the doorway, laced with barely concealed satisfaction. "I told you—you should come see this for yourself."

The rogue wolves froze. I turned toward the door as well.

Kieran stood there.

Moonlight poured in behind him, leaving his face hidden in shadow.

His gaze fell on my torn, disheveled clothes.

Before anyone could react, a terrifying wave of Alpha pressure erupted.

"Get out." His eyes turned crimson—the sign that his wolf was close to losing control.

The rogue wolves fled immediately in fear.

Silence fell over the shed.

Kieran walked in step by step, his eyes locked onto me.

There was no anger in them—only pure disgust.

"I see." He spoke in a low voice. "So you really couldn't stay faithful?"

I tried to speak, but he grabbed me by the collar and dragged me out of the shed.

The night air was biting cold, and my exposed skin scraped raw against the rough gravel.

He dragged me all the way to the riverbank.

The river glimmered coldly under the moonlight.

"Kieran, what are you doing?" Panic took over me.

Kieran's expression didn't waver. He threw me straight into the river.

The freezing water swallowed me whole.

I struggled desperately, trying to climb back up.

Kieran stood at the bank, his voice colder than the river itself. "Clean your filthy body. Without my command, no one is to pull her out."

After Kieran left, the werewolves remained on the bank, none of them daring to move.

Time passed—I didn't know how long. The water grew colder, and my body heavier.

My consciousness began to fade.

A small figure flashed through my mind.

My child…

Just as I was about to sink into darkness, a sharp pain struck my chest.

In an instant, a brilliant silver-white light burst from within me.

Those on the bank raised their hands, shielding their eyes from the blinding light.

At the same time, in the Royal Court of the White Wolf Tribe in the Northern Wilds, three figures suddenly stopped mid-discussion.

A familiar and powerful bloodline aura surged through the air.

The middle-aged man rose to his feet in excitement. "It's Audra!"

The woman's eyes turned red instantly. "Her wolf… has awakened."

Meanwhile, the younger man had already rushed out of the hall.

His voice carried barely restrained killing intent.

"The Silvermoon Pack… is asking for death!"