Chapter 2

“Throw her at the border. She’s no longer of any use.”

Kyle’s voice, emotionless and cruel, was a distant echo in my ears as darkness consumed me. Then a gasp suddenly spread across the crowd, followed by a faint feminine voice. 

“Kyle, something’s wrong… I feel wrong.”

No doubt, that must be Selene’s voice. A second before my consciousness left me, there was a thud, as if someone had fallen right beside me. 

…

I opened my eyes to distant noises in the background. White walls, white ceilings, and tranparent grey curtains hanging over the glass windows. 

I was supposed to find myself at the border, tossed back into the circle of those morally-deprived rogues. Instead, I’m in the Nightfang Pack’s infirmary.

What had happened?

A whimper beside me caught my attention. 

A second bed in the room. Resting on it was a slender, delicate girl with a skin as white as snow, her long hair as dark as the night. 

I blinked… Selene?

This scene felt familiar. Was I pulled back into the night of the life-span transfter ritual? But the ritual took place in an ancestral temple hidden underground in Kyle’s Villa. 

“She is awake, Alpha!” A desperate voice interrupted my train of thoughts.

The doors opened. Alpha Kyle stepped in, his mere presence in the room transforming the light atmosphere into a tensed magnetic air, radiating his Alpha aura. 

My heart raced for a moment, before reality sank in. 

Without sparing a glance my way, Kyle strode to Selene’s bed, his expression a mix of anxiousness and relief, his voice calm and deep with a hint of fear… a hint of compassion. “Will she be fine?”

“I am not certain, Alpha–”

Before the Pack’s Doctor finished answering his question, the air thickened, a murderous aura engulfing the room.

A flash.

Kyle’s claws were soon digging into the man’s neck, his low growls rumbling. “What the hell do you mean you’re not certain? Selene must live! Do everything to make this stop!”

“I’ll do everything, Alpha!” Gasping, the Pack’s Doctor coughed frantically as Kyle released and tossed him across the floor. “B-But… But, there seems to be a mysterious connection between her and Aria. If you need clear answers, the Pack’s spiritual leader–”

“If the Pack’s spiritual leader were around, would I be wasting time here with an incompetent?”

Kyle softened his voice, returning his gaze to Selene, whose eyes were open but seemingly too weak to speak. “The spiritual leader only appear once in a full moon. Do I need to wait that long to cure my mate and end her torment?”

“Alpha…” The Pack’s Doctor staggered from the floor. “I can only treat the Luna’s injuries. To keep her safe before the spiritual leader appears, Aria must not get hurt.”

That was when my presence in the room finally mattered. 

However, Kyle stared at me not with confusion but disgust and hatred that made my nerves coil. “If I knew there would be side-effect, I would have avoided any mistakes… at all cost.”

 He emphasized the word ‘mistake,’ the hatred in his eyes deepening. As if whatever had happened was entirely my fault. 

Turned out the life-span transfer ritual didn’t go as they wanted. My weakness must have caused Selene’s collapse.

Was that the side-effect?

That explained why I didn’t wake up at the border. It explained why I was still alive, receiving treatment in the Pack’s infirmary, in fact. 

My body was still weak, totally drained of energy, but the excruciating pain was gone. Although remnants of the pain lingered in my heart. 

Kyle scooped Selene up in his arms. 

He walked out without turning back, leaving a cold emotionless command. “Lock her up. She’s not allowed to escape.”

His bodygaurds, the enforcers he had single-handedly trained. With a single grab, one of them pulled me off the bed. 

They tossed me inside a cell in the basement of the Villa, harsh enough to show their disgust, but soft enough to prevent any injuries as my body hit the floor.

The metal doors closed with a bang. 

I sat, leaning against the wall, gasping for breathe. Kyle’s image, holding Selene like a fragile vessel, flashed in my mind, the deep feeling of heartbreak surfacing.

I wiped my tears furiously before they fell.

The cell was dark with only little light streaming inside from the cracked wall surface. The stench in the room, moist and damp, suffocated the air, making my breathing difficult. 

Someone or something must have rotted here. 

Spending another minute here might cost me my life. I can’t let that happen. 

“Let me out! Kyle, you asshole!” Summoning up all my energy, I screamed at the top of my voice. “You’re such a coward monster! Luring a weak girl into your selfish schemes! Do you call yourself an Alpha, the ruler of a Pack!?”

My screams echoed. 

Rushed footsteps were approaching. 

“Alpha Kyle!” I didn’t stop. “If you’re not coward, face me and repeat those things you said! I was weak, desperate and naive, well I was only being generous and caring. The real weak person is you who had to put on a facade to get what he wants! You deserve to be cursed by the Moon Goddess!”

“Are you tired of your life!?” 

The enforcers’ voices echoed down the dark hallway before they appeared. They kicked the metal doors open, barged into the cell, pinning me to the floor. 

Cursing the Alpha was like a death sentence. One could neither do it in public or private. A single curse could cause the entire family of that person to be wiped out. 

The enforcers kicked, grabbed my hair, pressed my face to the wall. They scratched my skin, ripped off my clothes, their sinister chuckles resounding. 

“You will regret speaking ill of the Alpha!”

“But before we kill you, let us show you how it feels to be wanted by every man in the Pack!”

“You were just a worthless banished girl who no longer has a wolf! You should be begging for mercy instead of insulting the Alpha!”

Their laughter echoed. 

Holding myself together despite the pain, I bit hard on my lips, tasting blood to avoid passing out.

“Look at those curves.”

“It’s no wonder the Alpha found it easy to use her.”

“We only wondered how the Alpha felt, marking her. Now we’ll get to experience it.”

The Enforcers closed in, eyes glinting with mischief, radiating pheromones, a deep lust that suffocated the air. 

Pressed against the wall, fear clawed my heart for a moment. One of them stretched his hand forward, however, the metal doors were kicked open again, the startling sound freezing them. 

Kyle stood there, his eyes boiling with rage. A murderous energy followed as he stepped in, and the Enforcers trembled in their spots.