Chapter 3

Lyra's POV

I thought Damian was going to let me go.

"I don't remember a single thing from the past," he said coldly. "Whether you want to save her or not, you're going to do it."

The words had just left his mouth when he reached out. A crushing wave of power pierced my body—he was forcefully draining my life force and channeling it straight into Clara.

A scream ripped from my lips. It felt like my very soul was being torn in half.

Tears blurred my vision. I stared at Damian, but he wouldn't even spare me a glance. All his attention was consumed by Clara.

In that single instant, every last shred of hope I had left shattered.

Damian was holding my hand, but it was only to drain my life force bit by bit and use it to sustain another she-wolf. He claimed he had amnesia, yet he knew exactly how to use my ability.

His eyes held nothing but worry—worry for Clara, not for me.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at him anymore.

I didn't know how much time had passed before Clara slowly woke up. The toxins had been transferred into me, seeping into my bloodstream like countless needles piercing through my veins all at once.

It wouldn't kill me, but the pain was very much real. And I knew that a toxin of this caliber would leave permanent damage. Within three days, my body functions would begin to deteriorate. In one month, I would no longer be able to shift into my wolf form.

By then, I would only be half a wolf—a broken werewolf.

However, that would actually be a blessing in disguise for me. A werewolf who could no longer shift would be much harder to track in the human world, as there would be no wolf scent for others to lock onto and no energy signature from my wolf for them to trace.

This poison was, in a way, helping me.

"You brought this on yourself," Damian said emotionlessly as he looked down at my deathly pale face. "This is what you get for poisoning Clara."

Then, he turned away and gently pulled Clara into his arms, comforting her in a low voice. She leaned against his shoulders, a shy, timid smile playing on her lips.

"Alpha, I have some good news… I'm with pup."

My heart dropped, but my expression didn't change.

The memory of that day surfaced in my mind—the day Damian had his guards pin me down, prying my mouth open as they shoved that bowl of poison down my throat drop by drop.

"Only Clara is worthy of carrying the next Alpha. You? You're nothing."

Those words still echoed in my ears. I lowered my eyes and forced the emotions back down into the deepest recesses of my heart.

I remembered how Damian had once placed his palm over my stomach and whispered that he wanted a pup with my eyes and his dark hair.

I quickly crushed that memory.

The mating ceremony was in two days. When that day came, I would leave. The answers I once wanted no longer mattered.

"That's wonderful, Clara!"

Damian was ecstatic. He immediately transferred ownership of Moonshadow Estate in the eastern territory over to her name and reassigned his most elite guards to protect her.

I had no intention of watching any further. I turned around, but Clara stopped me. She bit her lower lip, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

"Why did you want to hurt me, Lyra? Can you really not tolerate my existence at all?"

I looked at her coldly, not answering her. I was in too much pain to play along with her little performance.

Sure enough, the moment she finished speaking, she let out a sharp cry and suddenly collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach.

"My stomach! My stomach hurts so much! Why did you push me, Lyra?"

I stood right where I was, completely motionless.

Damian didn't even look at me. He rushed over, scooped Clara into his arms, and then shot me a look of pure, unadulterated disgust.

"Enough, Lyra. You're nothing but a jealous, vicious, low-class bitch. Amnesia or not—there is absolutely no way I could ever fall in love with someone like you."

I listened to every word in silence. My heart was still throbbing, the silver still burning through my veins, while the newly transferred toxin continued to systematically gnaw away at my nerves bit by bit.

Yet, when I heard those words, I didn't feel any greater pain. It was like a glass filled to the brim—one more drop wouldn't make any difference.

It did, however, confirm one thing to me. He had never truly known me.

In the past, no matter how much I acted out, Damian would always call me adorable. He'd patiently coax me, telling me I was his moon-kissed lover and that he'd protect me for the rest of my life.

But that was all a lie. He'd grown tired of me long ago, and he had just been waiting for an excuse to get rid of me. And Clara was the excuse.

"Okay, Damian. Then, I reject you. I reject you as my mate," I said calmly.

He visibly froze, his eyelashes fluttering in shock. "What game are you playing? Do you really think you can threaten me by rejecting me?"

"Don't you want to mark Clara?" I asked. "I'm stepping aside. I'll stay far away from you. What else could you possibly be unsatisfied with?"

Damian stared dead into my eyes for a very long time. In our five years together, he'd never heard me say such words, especially not in such a calm, certain manner.

For a brief moment, I seemed to detect a trace of unease crossing his expression.

He was just about to say something when Clara, clutching her stomach, started crying. "Alpha, my stomach hurts so bad… I think something's happened to the pup… It'll be okay, right?"

Damian instantly suppressed the small flicker of panic and pointed at me. "You want to leave, Lyra? Not before you go to the silver dungeon first and reflect on what you've done. This is the price you pay for poisoning Clara and endangering our pup."

The silver dungeon was a place deep within the bowels of the pack headquarters, where silver-infused iron chains lined the walls, and the floor was paved with bricks compressed from silver powder.

Every breath inside would bring one's skin into contact with silver. The skin would burn and blister, but it wouldn't bleed—wounds caused by silver never bled. It simply left the flesh to be slowly tortured by the burning pain.

The Damian who once couldn't bear seeing me get even a tiny scratch was now sending me to a place like that.

"Damian, let me ask you one last time. Have you really forgotten me?"

I looked straight into his eyes.

…

Third-Person POV

Damian fell silent for a long time. In those few seconds of silence, a strange, inexplicable panic flared deep within him, as if he knew that if he nodded right now, he'd permanently lose something he could never recover.

But things had already come this far. If he didn't keep up the act, wouldn't everything he'd done before have been for nothing?

Once the ceremony was completed, he'd apologize to Lyra and explain everything properly. Lyra would forgive him. She always had. She had nowhere else to go, after all.

"Don't think you can escape it by playing on my feelings," he said, sneering. "Guards! Take her to the silver dungeon!"

…

Lyra's POV

The last trace of hope inside me silently shattered.

A scoff escaped my lips, and I allowed the guards to escort me away.

Might as well. At least in the silver dungeon, I wouldn't have to watch their act.

I just needed to wait for two more days. Once the ceremony began, the border patrols would have blind spots. And then, not even the silver dungeon would be able to hold me.