Chapter 2

Raul was mad. He refused to see me for three days straight.

For the past three days, I ate and slept alone without him. The space next to me was empty the entire time. Even the household staff kept their heads down, not daring to look me in the eyes.

I pretended to be fine, as though my heart was never broken in the first place.

Since I hadn't had the chance to ask Raul for permission to leave the pack, I buried myself in work, handling pack matters and other administrative tasks.

Over the past five years, I helped Raul check the ledgers, arrange patrol shifts, and handle border disputes.

The pack members were used to addressing me as "Luna Queen". I had also long considered myself a member of this pack, so much so that it was too difficult for me to leave.

I saw intelligence reports that the pack healers had recently developed a new wolfsbane antidote, specifically for warriors returning from wars and border battles.

I thought that I could help by making the concoction for Raul. I would just see it as the last thing I'd be doing for him before I left the pack.

The antidote prescription was extremely precise, requiring absolute accuracy. I spent the entire afternoon making it in the kitchen.

After I was done making the concoction and was just about to bottle it, a drop of scalding liquid splashed onto my hand, and it immediately swelled and turned red.

I barely had time to gasp in pain when Raul pushed the door wide open and walked in. Instinctively, I picked up the medicinal concoction and went to him with it, thinking things would be the same as they used to be in the past.

I thought he would look at me in worry, soften his tone toward me, and maybe even gently kiss the back of my knuckles and nag me for being careless.

"Raul, I made this specially for—"

Before I'd gotten my sentence out, he suddenly waved me off, and the bowl of concoction was sent crashing to the ground.

Something in my heart seemed to shatter along with the loud crash of the glass bottle against the floor.

I stared at the mess on the floor and felt my tears pouring out. Raul then stepped forward and grabbed me by the shoulders in a death grip.

Meanwhile, Eva was hiding behind him, grinning smugly and victoriously at me.

Raul was absolutely furious with me. "How could you tell the warriors to threaten Eva to leave the pack?"

This was the first thing he said to me in the past three days.

"What?" I blinked my eyes, blurry with tears, and replied, "I never did anything of the sort!"

"You were the one who gave out the orders to the warriors to throw Eva out of the pack!" he continued, roaring at me, his furious eyes burning into my head as he glared at me in disappointment.

"I may have given you the power and authority to mobilize the pack's resources, Kaia Raedwulf, because I trusted you in the past, but I never thought that you would abuse your power and use it to hurt others instead!

"How could you be so cruel and vicious?"

Vicious?

I felt dizzy when he used that word on me.

In the past, while tending to his wounds, I accidentally forgot to apply a numbing cream before stitching and bandaging him up. He gritted his teeth through the entire painful ordeal without saying a single word.

But when I realized what I had done, I broke down in inconsolable tears and begged him to punish me or take it out on me. Yet he only chuckled, pulling me into a tight embrace and playfully teasing me for being too kind and soft-hearted.

He had said, "You're so kind, Kaia. How could I ever bear to leave you?"

But now, he was calling me cruel and vicious.

I tried to hold back my tears, but it was of no use. My hot tears dripped onto the back of his hand, and it wasn't until then that he finally realized my eyes were rimmed red.

He instinctively pulled me into his arms and softened his tone with me.

"Give up the Luna Queen's crown to Eva," he said. "And hand over the authority to mobilize the troops and warriors to her. Then, I won't hold it against you."

The crown?

At that moment, I felt all the air sucked out of my lungs.

He was referring to the Moonstone Crown kept in the private chamber of Raul's room—a sacred relic of the Luna Queens that granted them authority over the pack.

He had personally crowned me with it four years ago, before the entire werewolf pack, and I rarely wore it again after the coronation, because I never truly felt it belonged to me. I believed it belonged to the pack.

But now, he was taking it back from me and putting it on another she-wolf's head.

"Okay," I answered hoarsely.

I was leaving soon anyway.

Raul's jaw tightened. He took a few steps back as he watched me closely, trying to catch my expressions. It seemed as though he was asking why I wasn't fighting back, why I wasn't defending myself, or why I wasn't begging him to let me keep it.

"Fine," he ultimately gritted through his teeth. "But don't you ever dare throw a fuss about this next time!"