Chapter 2

My soul continued to drift, watching my body grow stiffer in the cold wind.

With no one to talk to, I was getting terribly bored.

I suddenly thought back to our youth, to how brilliant Fenrir had been.

The entire werewolf world knew that the Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack was young, promising, and incredibly powerful.

He had a line of she-wolf admirers stretching from the northern to the southern borders.

Compared to him, I seemed almost insignificant.

It's laughable now, but I fought with everything I had to keep him.

I tried everything: crying, pouting, pleading. I found ways to drive away any she-wolf who got too close to Fenrir.

Everyone said I was a possessive lunatic.

Until my eighteenth birthday, on the night of the full moon, when the entire pack gathered in the temple square.

The silver light of the Moon Goddess shone down, creating a bridge of light between Fenrir and me that only fated mates could see.

"You are my one and only Mate," he had said, looking at me with a tenderness I had never seen before.

I felt it had all been worth it.

In getting Fenrir, I had gotten the entire world.

I naively believed it was because he loved me.

Looking back now, it was probably just the pride he felt in having a pure-blooded Luna.

And now, here was Fenrir, standing before the massive floor-to-ceiling window of the command center.

His tall frame cast a long shadow, blocking the sunlight that streamed in from outside.

He knew I could be willful, but the sudden weakening of our mate bond filled him with an unease he couldn't shake.

"Damn it!" he cursed to himself. "What the hell is Selene playing at? Is she trying to make me worry again?"

"Expand the search radius!" he commanded from the command center. "Leave no stone unturned! I want the Luna found and brought back to me within three days!"

He dispatched more search parties, mobilizing nearly all the pack's warriors.

Fenrir always was an Alpha who cared about his image, I knew that.

The whole pack was waiting for the Luna coronation to proceed as scheduled, and he wouldn't allow me to make a fool of him in front of everyone.

He was probably thinking that when I returned, he would finally have to teach me a lesson, to put me in my place.

Just then, Tessa came to his side, gently reminding him, "Fenrir, you haven't slept all night. You need to take care of yourself."

"Your Luna wouldn't want to see you run yourself into the ground."

Fenrir ignored her.

As he put on his coat, preparing to lead a team to the cliffs himself, Tessa suddenly collapsed.

"Ah!" she cried out in pain.

"What is it?" Fenrir immediately spun around to support her.

"My ankle... I think I twisted it..." Tessa's eyes welled with tears. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be causing you more trouble at a time like this."

"Don't be ridiculous." Fenrir frowned, examining her injury. "We need to treat this first."

"No, you have to find my sister! I'll be fine!" Tessa insisted through a grimace of pain.

"Your old injury hasn't even healed. How can you be fine like this?" Fenrir shook his head. "I'll leave the search to the others. I'm taking you to the pack infirmary first."

And just like that, Fenrir, who should have been heading for the cliffs, was successfully sidetracked by Tessa.

My soul watched it all, a deep sense of irony filling me.

I was lying at the bottom of a cliff waiting for him to find me, and yet he was tending to the very person who pushed me.

"Do you think... do you think something might have happened to my sister?" Tessa asked, her voice laced with "worry."

"What are you talking about?" Fenrir reassured her. "Selene has pulled this stunt too many times. I know her. She'll come back when she's tired of her games."

He thought this time was just like all the others, that I was having a little tantrum and would be back in a few days after making him worry.

That before long, I'd come crawling back like a dog, begging for his love.

What a fool.

Did the great Alpha not even feel the bond between us fading, bit by bit?

I thought of my bruised, purplish corpse, of the horrifying marks left by the wolfsbane's poison.

As my body decayed, our mate mark was gradually dimming.

Night fell, and the pack's search parties returned, exhausted.

"Alpha, we've searched the northern forest. Nothing."

"The western river valley has been searched as well. Still nothing."

Fenrir's expression grew darker, anxiety gnawing at him.

"Continue tomorrow!" he said through gritted teeth. "Let's see just how far she can run!"

And my soul, at the bottom of the cliff, watched it all in silence.

Another day passed. He still hadn't found me.