LOGINSince that day, Simon never left the bathroom doorway again. He had a chair brought over and just sat there, hour after hour, day after day.When pack members came to report, he waved them away. Meals left by his side went cold, untouched.I hovered beside him, watching him grow thinner with each passing day. His once-handsome face had hollowed cheekbones and sunken eyes. Even his rarely-seen beard became unkept and rough.He clutched my sweater, pressing his face into it and taking deep, shuddering breaths.Sometimes, he would suddenly lift his head and look toward where I floated. He would call out my name hoarsely, his eyes searching the air with a desperate hope.I knew he couldn't sense me. He simply missed me so much that his mind created illusions.One night, he fell asleep leaning against the doorframe. I heard him calling me in his dreams with the softest, almost delicately excited voice. "Slow down, Juliette… Wait for me…" I floated closer to look at his sleeping face
Simon didn't take his last breath. A tree halfway down the cliff had caught him, and the pack ultimately rescued him.Gracie and her ex-husband's family were hunted across the city, finally fleeing deep into the mountains. Still, the pack never forgave traitors who harmed their Alpha.Two weeks later, Gracie and the others were cornered in a cave.I hovered in the air, watching the once-gentle Omega become wild-haired and mad-eyed. Simon stood outside the cave, his voice calm. "Come out, Gracie."There was no movement inside.He waved, and a few werewolves stormed in. Moments later, Gracie was dragged out, struggling and shouting the vilest curses.Simon watched her for a long time. Then, he turned to the pack elders and instructed, "Brand her with the mark of a traitor. Destroy her wolf, exile her from the pack, and never allow her to return."It was a punishment harsher than death.For an Omega like Gracie, losing her wolf meant losing everything. She could never shift again,
Gracie stayed alive. Simon locked her in the dungeon, making her existence even more unbearable than any punishment. Meanwhile, he stopped being himself.He paid no heed to the pack's affairs. Dust covered the Alpha's meeting room, and anyone who came to report was turned away.Every day, he did nothing but lock himself in his room, replaying the footage over and over again, looking at my photos, and reading my prenatal report.Sometimes, he even went to the back of the estate, sitting in the places we used to spend time together, and stayed there for hours on end.One day, he opened my wardrobe and took out each piece of clothing, pressing it to his face to breathe in my scent. Finally, he found a sweater I wore often. Clutching it, he curled up on the bed and fell asleep like a child.I watched his sleeping face. Dark circles burrowed under his eyes, while his face was marred with dried streaks of tears. I knew he deserved it, but deep down, my heart still ached.In the end, Gr
Three days later, Gracie was captured. Simon didn't lock her in the estate. Instead, he took her to the dungeon at the back, the place for punishing traitors.I hovered in the air, watching everything unfold.Gracie was tied to an iron chair, hair disheveled, her carefully applied makeup long since ruined. The moment she saw Simon, her eyes welled with tears. "Simon, why did you take me? I did nothing wrong!"He stayed silent, simply holding up his phone in front of her. The surveillance footage of my last moments played.Gracie's expression shifted from pity to horror, then to frenzy. She screamed, "She deserved it! Why did she get to bond with you, but I don't? I met you first! I should've been your Luna!"Simon put away his phone, his voice eerily calm. "So, that time on the stairs, it was your own doing?""Yeah. What about it?"She laughed in a twisted, bitter manner. "She was such an idiot that she couldn't even defend herself. She deserved to be framed!"He closed his eye
I hovered at the bathroom doorway, watching Simon freeze in place. His face went from pale to ashen gray, his lips parting and pursing without making a single sound.The once unstoppable Alpha now seemed drained of every ounce of strength as he leaned against the doorframe just to stay upright.Connor's voice pulled him back to reality. "Alpha…"Simon staggered forward, one step after another, until he finally sank to his knees by the bathtub. He reached into the murky water, then drew out a fragment of white bone.A moonstone ring still clung to the finger bone. I watched him cradle it in his hands, tracing the ring with his thumb, his shoulders trembling uncontrollably."Juliette…" he uttered, his voice too hoarse to be heard. "Juliette, wake up."There was no response.He reached into the tub again, and this time, what he pulled stunned him completely. A tiny, curled cluster of bones, smaller than a fist, rested silently in his palm.I instinctively pressed my hands against
Outside, thunder cracked, and lightning split the sky. My soul cowered in a corner, trembling. I, too, had always been afraid of storms.Once, Simon would hold me, soothe me, and read me stories. Now, the stories he told weren't for me anymore.Late into the night, after Gracie was finally asleep, he left. In the darkness, she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, chuckling victoriously. "Oh, Simon… From now on, you belong only to me."My soul froze. Why would she say that? Could she have been the one behind the silver solution that mysteriously appeared in the bathroom?I wanted to stay and hear what she would say next, but the same invisible force yanked me back to Simon's side.In the study, he traced his fingers over our bonding ceremony photo. "The marking ceremony is around the corner, Juliette. Why won't you just give in? When will you grow up and understand accountability?"He sighed deeply, then stood by the window to light a cigarette.I was fuming. Why did he wan







