Chapter 1

As my body was pulled from the desolate marsh, Kian, the Alpha I had been mated to for ten years, was in the middle of his Mating Ceremony with his Beta, Sienna.

My rotting corpse was mangled beyond recognition by layers of different wolfsbane poisons, my very bones stained black by the toxin's deep penetration.

Even the pack's eldest healer retched at the sight of it.

But, Kian, seemingly unfazed by the gruesome discovery, exchanged vows with Sienna before the Moon Altar.

They received the blessings of the entire pack, while no one remembered me, even though I had only been missing for three months.

It wasn't until my brother Ronan, the pack's Head Enforcer, began his investigation and found a shattered moonstone deep within my skeletal remains.

"Ronan... if anyone can hear this... the Rogue Alpha has infiltrated..."

The fragmented, static-laced voice that emanated from it made my brother freeze.

When the truth was finally revealed, I was proven to be not the traitor who eloped with a Rogue Alpha, but the hero who died protecting the pack.

And as for that Alpha who always looked down on me? He completely lost his mind.

...

Ronan's body trembled violently at the sound of that familiar voice.

A hardened enforcer whose hands were made for guns and blades, he now found he couldn't even grip the tiny moonstone.

He desperately searched the fragmented message for more clues.

The moonstone flickered with a faint, pale light, but the voice was garbled and indistinct.

There was nothing else.

"No, it can't be her."

Ronan stared fixedly at the indescribable mass of rotten flesh on the autopsy table.

Her once slender, long fingers were now just ten bloody stumps.

The nails, along with the bones beneath, had been ripped out.

The body was swollen and deformed, the flesh completely putrefied.

My soul hovered in the air, watching his panic-stricken expression, my heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand.

Back then, to avoid exposing the pack's secrets, I hadn't even had time to cry out his name one last time.

The healer beside him broke the silence, his voice cautious.

"Enforcer, are you alright? Do you suspect... this is Miss Wren?"

Before Ronan could answer, an elder pointed to the faintly glowing moonstone. "Calm yourself! A werewolf's form can change after death, and many voices sound alike."

"We can't determine her identity based on this alone!"

But Ronan rushed out of the autopsy room, frantically dialing the number he had despised for three months.

"Kian, what you said three months ago... that Wren betrayed the pack and ran off with the Rogue Alpha... was it a lie?!"

Hearing his name again, my soul jolted, and a sharp pain shot through me.

The agony of our severed Mate Bond was more excruciating than death itself.

The sound of boisterous cheers and clinking glasses came from the other end of the line.

Kian's voice was lazy yet cold, laced with an Alpha's inherent arrogance.

"Enforcer Ronan, today is my union ceremony. Did you bring up that bitch just to piss me off?"

He paused, the sarcasm in his voice was practically dripping through the phone.

"What, you're questioning me now? Trying to clear your promiscuous sister's name?"

"Weren't you the one who personally reviewed all the evidence back then?"

Ronan suddenly remembered the date on the invitation.

Today was Kian and Sienna's mating ceremony.

He apologized, his voice hoarse. "I'm sorry, Alpha. I just suspect that Wren never really left, but was..."

Before he could finish, Kian cut him off impatiently.

"But was what? The evidence was solid! Are you going to spin some story about her being abducted by rogues?"

"Ronan, face reality. Your sister was a restless she-wolf. Moon Goddess knows what bewitched her, but she ran off with that Rogue Alpha!"

The line went dead.

Immediately after, two videos were sent to Ronan's phone.

In the first video, I stood in a dimly lit room, looking pale and emotionless, reciting lines like a puppet.

"Stop looking for me. The pack's rules suffocate me. I've found true freedom here."

He didn't know that just out of the frame, a rogue was holding a syringe filled with liquid wolfsbane to my neck.

Every word was a forced confession. My stiffness wasn't indifference, but the paralysis setting in from the toxin injected earlier to keep me compliant.

Watching the video, Ronan's tense shoulders relaxed for just a moment, cold sweat soaking his uniform.

"As long as she's alive... even if she's fallen from grace, as long as that body isn't hers..."

Then, he opened the second video.

It was a live stream of the mating ceremony.

On screen, Kian, dressed in a traditional Alpha's ceremonial garb, walked slowly toward the Moon Altar with Sienna on his arm.

His eyes were filled with adoration.

Sienna, wearing the long gown symbolizing the status of a Luna, smiled shyly.

They looked so perfect together.

Even as a soul, the heartache of that moment nearly tore me apart.

Kian and I were childhood sweethearts. I was his fated mate.

He had marked me when he turned eighteen, and I had imagined him in his ceremonial suit countless times.

I even dreamed we would have the strongest wolf pups, his future heirs.

I never imagined that when this scene finally played out, the leading lady would be someone else.

The cheers from the video overlapped with the cruel laughter of the rogues in the dark dungeon of my memory.

I fell to my knees in mid-air, my soul trembling uncontrollably.

When I refused to leak a single scrap of information about the pack, the Rogue Alpha locked me in a cage filled with vaporized wolfsbane mist.

Every time they tore out one of my fingernails, the brutes below would howl and jeer.

Not until all ten of my fingers were mangled and the tendons in my limbs were severed did my inner wolf finally fall silent.

Only then did they toss me into the pool of corrupting wolfsbane like a piece of trash.

A tearing pain shot through the depths of my mind.

An ethereal, commanding voice pierced the veil of my thoughts.

"Wren, your soul is tethered to this world by obsession. Only when your body is claimed by your pack with the highest honors can you return to the stars."

"If your body is not claimed within forty-eight hours of its discovery, your soul will scatter and fade into nothingness."

It was the Moon Goddess.

Forty-eight hours.

Before I could even process this cruel countdown, a sudden shout came from the autopsy room.

"Enforcer Ronan, come quick! We've found something!"