Chapter 3

After Raul left, I remained frozen in my spot for a long time. The medicinal concoction on the ground gradually cooled, leaving only a pungent, bitter, earthy smell hanging in the air.

Eva walked up to me, crushing the glass shards under her shoes as she grinned smugly.

"See that? You don't mean anything to Raul anymore."

I didn't reply to her. Arguing with her was pointless anyway.

That night, the pack suddenly descended into chaos.

A dozen warriors returning from the borders all suffered terribly from wolfsbane poisoning simultaneously as they convulsed and threw up blood.

They had all taken the batch of antidote that I'd brewed that afternoon.

With all the evidence pointing to me, the pack elders were furious. They found a large quantity of contaminated wolfsbane in the medicine vault, and there were even witnesses claiming I had swapped the herbs in the middle of the night.

Even the wolf guarding the medicine vault sank to his knees before the elders, accusing me of giving out the orders for the switch.

When I was arrested and brought before the elders, everyone in the pack was also there. Those who used to affectionately call me "Luna Queen" were now only looking at me with fear and suspicion.

Raul sat on his throne, his black cloak draped over the steps, as dark as the night.

His gaze was terrifyingly cold.

"Kaia Raedwulf," he said slowly. "What else do you have to say for yourself?"

I stared at him blankly.

"It wasn't me. I never harmed them. I just—"

"That's enough!"

Raul suddenly stood, his Alpha King's presence suppressing everybody in the hall.

"Did you know Eva also nearly drank the concoction in the bottle? If she hadn't realized something was wrong with it, she would have ended up in the healing center as well, fighting for her life!"

A cold shiver went down my spine. I understood everything clearly now.

This was nothing more than a setup Eva had prepared for me. She wasn't just trying to get me kicked out of the pack—she also wanted Raul to hate me and resent me with all his heart.

She was about to succeed very soon.

I instinctively glanced at Eva. She stood behind the crowd with a lavish cloak around her shoulders, her eyes rimmed red as though she'd suffered a great injustice. However, when she looked at me, I saw the corner of her lips curling ever so slightly.

It was a sinister, gloating grin.

I felt exhausted all of a sudden.

"Raul," I said softly. "If I said that I never did anything of the sort, would you believe me?"

The hall fell silent. Raul stared at me for a long time.

His eyes, which once held nothing but love and affection for me, were now filled with cold judgment.

A long while later, he said, "I want to, but how can you expect me to believe you?"

That sentence shattered my heart completely. As it turned out, what hurt more than his not believing me was his wanting to believe me but not daring to.

I chuckled all of a sudden as tears fell from my eyes.

"If that's the case, then just go ahead and punish me however you will."

Raul's eyes turned dark. It was as though my calm demeanor was angering him more instead.

Seconds later, he gave out his order.

"Lock Kaia up in the North Prison. Nobody is allowed to let her out without my explicit permission."

The North Prison was cold and chilly all year-round. It was a place where the most devious traitors and most dangerous criminals were locked up.

When the heavy iron doors closed behind me, I realized for the first time that I really didn't belong here anymore.

…

Three days later, I was down with a high fever. Werewolves were usually much stronger than this, but my health had been deteriorating ever since I was locked up in the North Prison. My chest was painful and stuffy, and it got hard for me to breathe. I couldn't even stand properly anymore.

Sometime in the night, I heard the guards outside the prison discussing among themselves.

"It's the mating ceremony tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Finally, the Alpha King has found his true fated mate."

"I heard that they're already done with the decorations at the Moon Palace, too."

I curled up on the cold bunk bed, shivering all over.

Had time really passed so quickly after all?

So five years of love and companionship had ended up being so easily replaced by someone else.

When I closed my eyes in despair, I suddenly felt a pain in my abdomen. I was stunned for a bit as I instinctively reached for my belly.

Seconds later, I felt a new, foreign life force gently responding to me.

My breath caught in my throat, and my mind went completely blank.

A pup? I was carrying a pup?

A wave of shock and bitterness washed over me at the same time.

At that moment, I heard footsteps outside the door. I scrambled over in my disheveled state and cried out, "Raul… I need to see Raul…"

My voice was terribly hoarse as I continued to cry out, "Please, ask him to come here. I have something very important to tell him!"

There was a long silence at the door. Then, the guards replied coldly, "Alpha King has said that he will never be coming over just to watch you act pitifully with him. He won't fall for your tricks anymore.

"He's already sent a healer on the way. Stop thinking of trying to bother him again."

I slowly slid down the iron door beside me in a weak, helpless motion, feeling my heart sink to the pit of my stomach.

They were right. Raul was busy preparing for the mating ceremony with Eva now—how could he possibly have time to see me?

Half an hour later, an old woman in a healer's robe pushed the door open and walked in.

"You're burning up too much. You need treatment," she said in a low voice. "Come with me. We've run out of moontwine in the medicine vault. We have to get some more by the cliffside."

I was in such a daze from the fever that I had to hold myself up against the walls while leaving with her.

The night wind was cold and biting, and I shivered violently. The healer led me over several hills to the edge of a cliff overlooking the woods below.

She said that the moontwine patch was just up ahead. She pointed at the cliff and said, "The moontwine patch is right there. Wait here for a moment while I go and fetch the tools."

I nodded. However, as she walked past me, I caught a glimpse of a sinister grin at the corner of her lips.

Something was off.

I instinctively backed away, but I accidentally stepped on some loose gravel and lost my balance, falling toward the cliff.

"No!"

The old woman then shoved me hard by the shoulders, and I completely lost my balance as I plunged straight down the cliff.

Wind howled in my ears, and the old woman's face grew farther and farther from me.

"You can't remain here anymore, Kaia, if Eva were to take your place and impersonate you as the Alpha King's fated mate.

"You would have been allowed to live if you were fake. So, you've got no one else to blame but yourself for being the real one."