Chapter 2

I froze for a few seconds before realizing the memory potion was taking effect, making me forget what had just happened.

But Damon thought I had forgotten everything.

I watched the joy flickering in Damon's eyes, and sharp pain spread through me again. It was clearer and more suffocating than the physical pain the potion had brought moments before.

Yet on the surface, I slowly curved my lips into a perfectly polite, distant smile. Since he wanted to act, I would play along. Consider it my final farewell to all these years of feelings.

"Congratulations, Alpha. I wish you and your future Luna a hundred years of happiness."

Just then, Serena came running over and wrapped her arms around Damon's. She positioned herself between us, her eyes reddening with manufactured hurt.

"Sister, what are you doing? Why haven't you brought the Alpha to find me yet? I've been waiting forever!"

"I've been looking forward to this day for so long. Surely you don't have feelings for the Alpha too? Don't you want me to have a good future?" Her voice turned sharper. "The Alpha and I are about to hold our mating ceremony, yet you're still meeting with him privately. If the pack members found out, that wouldn't look good, would it?"

Damon's face darkened immediately. "Don't talk nonsense! Your sister and I just happened to run into each other and exchanged a few words. You're about to become the pack's Luna. You can't speak so carelessly anymore."

His instinctive defense of me made Serena burst into tears, crying pitifully.

She looked at me through her tears. "I know you've always been prejudiced against me, sister. You don't like me. But I'm cursed and dying! Damon is the person I love most, and only he can save me. I will never give him up to you."

"He loves me most too. We're holding our mating ceremony soon, so please have some self-awareness. From now on... don't meet with him alone anymore. Not destroying mate relationships is the iron law of werewolves."

Damon pressed his lips together, apparently moved by her tears. He reached up to wipe them away, his tone softening.

"You misunderstood. I was the one who stopped your sister to chat. You don't need to be so nervous. I'll be more careful about boundaries in the future. I won't make you sad again."

"Didn't you say you wanted to look at Luna gowns today? Let me take you."

Listening to Damon's tender words and watching the two of them looking so perfect together, I couldn't help thinking.

Perhaps Damon hoped I would stay lost in memory forever.

Perhaps I had been holding him back all these years. Maybe from the beginning, he had wanted to marry Serena.

So he fed me the forbidden potion, giving him a legitimate reason to marry her and protect her.

If he had feelings for her, then what did all my years mean? Why did he have to keep deceiving me?

Damon looked down at me again, his voice gentle.

"I'll take Serena to try on the Luna gown for the mating ceremony first. If you're not feeling well, go see the pack healer. Don't delay treatment."

I laughed softly, my gaze indifferent.

"Brother-in-law, you're worrying about the wrong person. I don't need your concern."

Damon froze for a moment, seeming surprised by my coldness.

But then he remembered that someone who drank the memory potion would forget the person they loved most.

His brow relaxed halfway.

He turned and walked away with Serena.

Serena clung tightly to his arm, her whole body pressed against him. He just smiled indulgently and didn't push her away.

My face went pale. I pressed my hand against my heart, which felt like it might shatter, comforting myself.

"I just finally saw his true nature. Better to hurt now than regret later."

Soon after, my best friend Harper came bursting in. She was a beta wolf who was like a sister to me. When she learned I had drunk the memory potion for Damon and Serena, she cried hysterically.

"Aria! The Alpha used to love you so much, he would have died for you! How could he suddenly... how could he suddenly decide to hold a bonding ceremony with that little bitch Serena?! And what's this nonsense about breaking a curse? You actually believed that garbage?!"

I wiped away her tears, speaking with calm composure.

"I can live without him."

I explained the whole memory potion situation to her.

"How could the Alpha do this to you?!"

"Serena's worthless life - if she dies, she dies! How could he treat you this way? Actually making you drink a forbidden potion?! I'm definitely reporting him to the Alpha Council!"

"It's fine. Let it be. The memory potion... forgetting might be better."

"But what will you do now?"

"I'll leave Red Stone pack. The Alpha Council arranged for me to serve as a Healer advisor at Dark Moon pack before, but I refused because I thought Damon needed me more. Now it's perfect timing."

"There's nothing worth staying for here anyway. This time I'll go see what Dark Moon pack is like."

"This place looks like my home, but really... there's been no place for me here for a long time."

Within seven days, all memories of him would be completely erased. Then I could start my own new life.