Chapter 2

"I will go there, Luna," I said quietly while staring at Justin.

My legs went numb. But I did not collapse; I bit my tongue, using the sharp sting of pain to find my strength.

Forcing my body to move, I struggled back onto my feet, standing tall even as my world fell apart.

When I turned away, Lydia pleaded with me with a desperate voice.

"Wait! Think again, Erica. Beg him. He will forgive you."

Justin shook his head and replied coldly, "No, Mother, I won't change my decision. The one who will regret this is her. Not me."

Although my steps halted, his crucial words stabbed me like thorns.

I lowered my head, desperately trying to hide my tears from his cold gaze.

‘Is this the price I pay for loving you, Justin?’ I thought, inhaling deeply, leaving my feelings there.

I turned, walking away from the cruel man. The guards came to me, locking up my wrists as if I were a criminal. They were assigned to escort me toward the Forbidden Mountain.

Nova approached me for the last blow. With a wicked grin, she leaned in my ear and whispered,

“You will die there. Goodbye.”

However, I ignore her and  promised myself,

"I will survive."

 I turned and walked away. I forced my shaking legs to move, burying my fear and pain of Justin's betrayal deep inside me.

If this was the end, if the man I loved was truly sending me to my grave, then I would face it. I would accept my fate, no matter how cruel or cold it turned out to be.

"Erica!"

My only close friend, Ruby, rushed over to me. She panicked and started begging me not to go.

"Please, don't go there. That's the mouth of death!"

I shook my head with tears. "There is no way out of this. I have to go, Ruby."

Ruby clenched her fists. "Then I will help you. I will keep an eye on them. I will look for evidence and clear your name."

I was deeply moved. I bit my bottom lip and pulled her into a hug.

"Thanks, Ruby. I don't want you getting hurt because of me."

Ruby was not an ordinary girl. She was the granddaughter of the pack's well known elder. Because of me, she had already been isolated by many members of the pack.

Even her parents tried to stop her from associating with me. I could not risk her life for me.

"But Erica..."

I broke the hug and cupped her cheeks with a painful smile. "Take care, Ruby."

I returned alone to my small room to pack my belongings. My whole body was in pain, but I could not cure it. No one would help me anyway.

The guards waited for me outside to kick me out of the pack.

Before leaving, I wanted to say goodbye to my adopted parents. I requested the guards and went to meet them in their house.

When I arrived at their house, I felt nervous and embarrassed.

The moment I stepped inside, my mother, Sally, slapped me hard across the face. She started cursing me viciously.

"You useless thing! You betrayed Alpha Justin and slept with rogues! You have disgraced our entire Gamma family!"

I tried to explain. "Mom, I swear! I didn't—"

My father, Marco, raised his hand to stop me. "Just don't show your face to us again. It will be better for you and us."

It hurt me. Although they adopted me, I gave them the place of my real parents in my heart.

"Dad..."

He sneered at me with a disappointed look, "We planned to offer you to the Lycan Second Prince if you can't marry Alpha Justin. But now, you don't even deserve that."

WHAT?

I was shocked.

The Lycan Second Prince? Wasn't he the most brutal prince?

How could my parents think about it? Did they have no sympathy for me?

Going to him is a death sentence.

"How can you plan that kind of thing, Dad? And Mom... don't you know every single woman sent to him has died?" I asked, demanding the answer.

The both of them gave me a strange look as if I had asked something wrong.

My father laughed coldly. "That was your value. We thought you would at least be useful. Now you are nothing but a disgrace. We regret adopting you!"

My mother's expression made me realize that she also thought the same as my father.

I stared at them for a while in silence. I used to love them a lot. But they never cared about me.

I was the fool who used to think one day they would show care for me.

My heart turned cold.

"If that's how you see it," I said in a low tone.

I took a long breath and decided to make a decision for my life. Then I continued,

"Then from this moment on, I am no longer your daughter."

I turned around and left their house.

When it was time to leave the pack, I took a deep breath and looked at it for the last time.

This was the end of my relationship with this pack and with the man I once loved, who decided to punish me for the crime I never committed.

-

SIX MONTHS LATER

The wind didn't just blow on the Forbidden Mountain, it pushed.

I was laboring under harsh conditions. My hands were covered in frostbite from the longtime exposure to the cold.

I swung an axe, the vibration traveling up my arms like an earthquake. My shoulders shook, but I did not stop because it became my daily work.

My joints felt like they were filled with crushed glass.

“Look at her. Still just as stubborn,” Mark, a captive, laughed at me as people were watching me working.

“Imagine being so despised that the moon goddess turns you into a whiff of dust so that we can walk all over you.” Zara followed, a lady supervisor who was not even assigned to me.

I closed my eyes, hitting the axe on the wood again so that their voices could not reach my ears.

Images of the last six months flashed through my mind like a nightmare.

The relentless bullying, the stage of humiliation, and the quiet abuses had become my everyday life now.

The first time I came here, they tripped me in the mud and mocked me as they learned I was Alpha Justin's mate.

“Look at the little Luna! Dreaming of the stars while she's buried in the mud!”

They started calling me names. They humiliated me, saying I was dreaming of someone who was out of my reach. They told me it was my real fate where I was right now.

Every day was a new day of getting hurt, working hard, falling down, and then rising up again.

For the very first month, I cried for Justin and still wanted him to come and take me with him. I cried every night, taking his names.

The nightmares haunted me every night, yet I woke up and took his name in cries.

But he never came here to take me away.

One month was painful, two months were compromising with pain, but from the third month I realized… I was in love with the wrong person. So I closed my heart for him completely.

So it had been a long time since I stopped thinking about him, who broke my heart, who never trusted me but punished me like I was a criminal.

I never wanted to see Justin again.

The rulers here behaved like they were getting money to give me more difficult work. They deliberately made my life harder. They treated me as less than human.

But I didn't die. I survived just like I swore before leaving Justin and my pack.

“Hurry up!”

Jamaica, a harsh supervisor, arrived. Her shadow fell over the wood I had finally cut into pieces.

Once again, I was assigned to a harsh supervisor.

She stood there with her arms crossed, her shadow long and cold.

My hands were raw, bleeding from the rough bark and the blunt axe I had been forced to use. I had spent hours in the freezing wind, my muscles screaming, just to finish a task that was designed to break my spirit.

“Are you done with this?” Jamaica asked when she saw I was done.

“Now go to fetch water,” she demanded, already looking for the next way to break me.

I could barely stand up straight. The cold sweat froze my hands with pain. I looked at Jamaica with a frown.

“Why is it always me these past two weeks? Isn't it supposed to rotate?” I tried to protest.

The supervisor snapped angrily, “How dare you talk back! Every time you wash clothes, they are dirty. And you still have the nerve to complain? Look at the pieces of wood. They are not even in the same line!”

I understood the real reason.

I hadn't bribed her like other people. That was why she targeted me relentlessly.

I had no money. My parents had never sent me anything. So I swallowed her resentment and headed toward the river.

On my way,

My steps suddenly halted.

I noticed two groups of wolves were fighting in the distance. The sounds of growlings rang out like thunderstorms.

The air vibrated with the sound of snapping jaws and heavy paws hitting the dirt.

​I had no idea who they were. I had never seen these wolves in this territory before. But I didn't need to know their names to understand what was happening. I knew the look of the hunters and the look of the hunted.

I ducked behind a massive tree, my heart racing. I held my breath and peeked around the bark.

​That’s when I saw him.

A mysterious man covered in blood, his clothes torn and his body wounded, yet he hadn't shifted into his wolf form.

Even wounded, there was something powerful about the way he stood his ground.

My whole body shivered when I stared at him.

I could not see his face, as it was covered in blood. But he was fighting like a warrior even after bleeding out.

His body was built of hard muscle and scarred skin as if he had been in many battles I couldn't imagine. It felt like I was standing too close to a lightning storm.

​I stayed frozen behind the tree, my own heart stopping. In this Forbidden Mountain, I had seen many things, but nothing as dangerous as him.