Chapter 4

Barney swallowed and continued to report, "Luna Joyce and her pup are no longer breathing."

There was a trace of panic in Toby's voice, but just as I tried to listen more closely, his voice hardened again. "She's just pretending! I'd certainly like to see just how long she can keep up the act!

"She's survived harsher conditions in the wild! She's just holding her breath to scare all of you! Summon a healer, because I'm going to expose her tricks right in her face!"

Barney stared at him with wide eyes. "But Alpha Toby, Luna Joyce's pup isn't breathing anymore either."

Toby interrupted him impatiently. "I'm the Alpha here! Who exactly do you take orders from?"

"Yes, Alpha. I'll go get a healer to come over right now," Barney said quickly before sighing helplessly and leaving the room.

Cecilia leaned into him pliantly. "Don't be mad, Alpha. Anger is bad for health. Luna Joyce just wants you to pity her."

Toby's voice, sharp with defensiveness, cut in, "Joyce has a way of manipulating people. It's only been a few years, yet the entire pack seems to hang on her every word!"

His words were like a blow to my confidence. In just three years, he had already forgotten his previous promise to me.

On the day of our bonding, he looked at me with loving eyes and said, "This pack is your home, and from now on you'll be its only Luna."

My tears spilled out uncontrollably.

After my death, I had actually deluded myself into thinking that Toby might feel a shred of guilt and self-blame if he were to find out that my pup and I had died horrible deaths.

I now knew just how stupid and ridiculous that thought had been.

I actually really believed him when he told me that he would always love me.

Toby and Cecilia were childhood sweethearts, but when Toby's fated mate turned out to be me and Cecilia was diagnosed as infertile by a healer, she immediately broke up with him and went abroad.

She had said herself that as an Alpha, Toby needed an heir, and he needed to be with his fated mate. How could she bear to leave the pack without an heir?

In the end, Toby chose to be with me in order to forget the pain of his breakup with Cecilia.

When he later proposed to me, he told me that I was courageous, resolute, and the embodiment of all the good things in the world.

After forming a mate bond with him, I managed the pack alongside him as pack Luna, taking care of his everyday life while also keeping the pack orderly and functioning.

Finally, in the third year after our bonding, I successfully conceived a pup with him.

Toby was so ecstatic that he immediately declared that the pup would be the pack's sole heir.

However, Cecilia returned to the country just as I was about to give birth.

Upon her return, she announced, "I don't have the slightest interest in inheriting any authority within the pack. As long as I can be with Alpha Toby, I'll be very satisfied with my life."

From then on, Toby started staying out all night, and his shirts began to accumulate red lipstick marks that couldn't be washed out.

I decisively proposed that I abort the pup and we reject the bond, but Toby refused to let me go.

He insisted that the pup in my belly was the pack's heir, and so he would only reject me after I gave birth to them.

He even told me that he had allowed Cecilia to move into our house because she had fallen ill and needed someone to take care of her.

Furthermore, because she couldn't bear pups and could not stand the sight of them, he locked me and my newborn pup in an abandoned basement.

He really deserved death!

The healer, Ethan Brooks, soon arrived. As Toby's best friend, he had always been responsible for overseeing Toby's health.

Toby followed angrily after Ethan with his arms crossed over his chest. "I'd certainly like to see how much longer you can keep up your act, Joyce!"