Chapter 2

Once I got home, I began packing up the things Sampson had left behind.

For the past three months, I had spent most of my time tracing the route Sampson took to find any trace of him. I rarely returned home at all.

Other than the kitchen and the bed in our room, I barely touched anything else.

When I opened the safe, I froze.

More than half of the cash inside the safe was gone. Many of my expensive jewelry had disappeared too, including the Moonshell Necklace my late mother had given me.

I trembled—I understood everything now, and laughed tearfully.

For three months, I camped in the wild while trying to find Sampson by tracing his patrol route. I slept in caves and survived on forages together with the rescue party, to the point of losing my sanity. I tried to get some kind of response through our mind-link every moment I was awake, but there was nothing.

Yet, while I was on the verge of collapsing, Sampson came home to take the money from the safe.

I switched on our home's security system and began to review the footage from the past months.

On the third day of Sampson's disappearance, he walked into our bedroom with his arm around Desiree's shoulders. After a while, the two of them emerged with a large amount of cash.

Desiree put on my late mother's necklace, smirking.

"The Luna has plenty of valuables. She's such a gold digger—no wonder you wanted to get rid of her! She must have begged you to buy such an expensive necklace for her." She pretended to be angry and huffed, "You gave all your money to your Luna and forgot about your best friend!"

Sampson waved the cash in his hand and said, "I'll make it up to you. Just buy whatever you want today. I guarantee they'll be better than Bethany's jewelry."

The footage reached the night before yesterday. Sampson once again got into our bedroom with his arm around Desiree's waist and only left when it was dawn.

I watched everything, tears rolling down my cheeks.

Not for Sampson, but for myself—for all my efforts all these years.

As the only daughter of the Eastplain Pack's Alpha, I had worked hard to manage our pack and build trade relationships with the Eastplain Pack. Not only had I fulfilled my duty as Sampson's Luna, but I had also covered much of his work as the Alpha.

That was why he could fool around.

But now, he turned around and called me a gold-digger instead.

My chest thumped in pain.

The whole time, my soul and body had been in pain. I had once thought it was the pain of losing Sampson, but I didn't realize that it was our mate bond warning me of his betrayal.

While I was searching for Sampson all over the place like a lunatic, he and Desiree would spend the nights here at home. Desiree would wear my pajamas and sleep with my mate together on our bed.

Looking at how intimate they were, I bit my lip and did my best to hold the tears back. Already, blood trickled down.

He wasn't worth the tears.

Just then, my phone rang. I wasn't in the mood to answer, but the calls didn't cease. The caller kept on ringing me over and over.

I froze for a moment when I saw the caller's name, and answered.

"What is it, Lambert?"

"There's something I want you to know."

Lambert sent me a video. Sampson and Desiree were drinking from the same glass in a bar; their lips almost touching, their gazes sweet.

"Sampson is alive," Lambert said.

"I know he's alive," I said, my voice trembling.

"Then, you…" Lambert realized something midway and then burst into laughter.

Lambert was the youngest son of Sampson's grandfather—he was Sampson's uncle despite being around Sampson's age. He also carried the Alpha's blood. After Sampson had inherited the position as Alpha, he ventured out of the pack. I heard he had built his own pack later.

We had barely kept in contact since.

When Sampson was missing, I did seek Lambert. As we were once a family, he agreed to help me find Sampson. I owed him for that.

But now, he was also the first to expose the truth that Sampson was alive.

"Lambert," I said, "if you have the time, come to Sampson's funeral the day after tomorrow."

"I'll be there."