Chapter 1

Cheers swept across the plaza at the Red Moon Festival like a tidal wave.

Below the stage, the pack shouted their Alpha's name and praised the newly revealed fated mate, Chloe, who looked so pure and delicate.

In the werewolf world, nothing is more sacred than the bond between fated mates.

And I, the wife who'd stood by Lucas for five years, was the punch line.

I didn't storm the stage and grab Lucas by the collar. I didn't scream at him like some unhinged shrew either.

As the last heir of an ancient family, I'd been raised to carry myself with pride and never lose control.

I just looked coldly at the hypocrite on the stage.

He was tenderly kissing Chloe's forehead, while that five-year-old pup played with the Moonglow necklace that used to be mine.

Five years earlier, when he made me drink that black potion, had his eyes held this same tenderness?

That potion killed my unborn child. At the same time, it fed the bastard pup Chloe carried.

The mate mark on the side of my neck stung as if countless bloodthirsty ants were gnawing at my nerves.

I took a deep breath, turned, and slipped into the darkness. I headed for the innermost part of the pack house: my private domain, the Moon Goddess Temple.

I pushed open the heavy oak doors. Sarah Quill, my personal guard and witch, was waiting inside. She rushed over to meet me.

"Luna, what's going on out there..." Sarah broke off as her eyes locked on my neck and her expression changed.

"Your mark! Why is it leaking black blood?"

I walked to the full-length mirror. The mate mark should have had a soft silver sheen. Instead, black threads spread from it, as if something evil were feeding on my blood.

"Lock down the temple and the east wing of the pack house. Revoke all access for Lucas and Chloe." My voice was icy and steady.

"Sarah, get your lancet. I want to know exactly what Lucas did to my mark back then."

Sarah, the loyal guard my mother had left me, drew a silver-tipped lancet and carefully pierced the blackened edge of my mark.

When a drop of black blood fell into Sarah's spell vial, the clear liquid boiled and gave off a sharp, rotten stench. Then a strange dark red rune formed inside it.

Sarah's hands shook. She looked up at me in disbelief. "This... this isn't a mate mark. It's a one-way dark magic curse that's draining your blood! It's been pulling your life force and magic out of you nonstop and channeling them into another vessel!"

I closed my eyes. The strange exhaustion I'd felt for five years and the "heartbroken" look Lucas gave me whenever I was weak finally made cruel sense.

He never wanted my child. All he wants is my life, to keep his lowly Omega lover alive.

If Chloe and that bastard pup could handle the power of a true Alpha, he'd probably have drained me dry by now.

"Stop it." I opened my eyes, my gaze cold and deadly.

"From now on, they're not stealing one more drop of my life."