Chapter 5

Back at his villa, Fenrir replayed the Great Elder's words in his mind.

He felt that the most respected elder in the pack had no reason to lie about this.

Moreover, the complete lack of any sensation from me for days was truly abnormal.

"Selene, you're always making your presence known, but now there's just... silence. It's really as if..."

He murmured to himself, trailing off.

I floated beside him, wanting to tell him that even in death, I was still by his side.

But it was no use. I could scream my lungs out and no one would hear.

When I was alive, I was always bogged down with trivial matters.

Now that I was dead, I finally had time to really look at the bedroom Fenrir and I shared.

The nightstand was empty, save for one thing: our only photo together.

It was taken after the Moon Goddess had declared us mates.

In the picture, we were holding each other tightly, our faces beaming with happiness.

The light of the Moon Goddess shone down on us, a witness to our sacred union.

Back then, I believed with all my heart that we would be happy forever, just like in that photo.

I reached out a spectral hand, wanting to touch it.

My fingers passed right through the glass, brushing over the innocent, smiling face that was once mine.

That girl believed in love, in fate, in an Alpha who would protect her forever.

My soul gazed at the faded photograph and smiled bitterly.

Then I slowly passed through it, a silent farewell to the girl I used to be.

On the vanity was a small wooden carving, now covered in a thick layer of dust.

I had given it to Fenrir for his coming-of-age ceremony.

My parents had just died, and the Great Elder had taken me in.

Everything felt so new and strange.

When the Elder was busy with pack affairs, Fenrir would keep me company, training with me, helping me get used to pack life.

That wolf-shaped carving had taken me a full month to make.

My own wolf was unstable even then, but to be worthy of a powerful Alpha like him, I trained relentlessly.

I would wake up at four every morning to practice combat skills.

I wouldn't stop even when I had a high fever.

"Selene, you don't have to push yourself so hard," he used to say, back when he still cared.

"Your body is naturally weak. Just do what you can."

But I wouldn't listen.

I saw the way the stronger she-warriors looked at him.

I knew what they were thinking.

They were questioning why such an outstanding Alpha had been fated to a weak Luna like me.

So I worked twice as hard.

Until one day, I collapsed during training and woke up three days later in the medical bay.

My body was never the same after that.

And in the end, all it earned me was his disdainful glare.

"With a body like that, how can you protect the pack?"

"You can't even manage a basic shift. What kind of Luna are you?"

Those words were like silver daggers, cutting into my heart one by one.

It's all so laughable now.

I watched Fenrir toss and turn, unable to sleep all night.

Early the next morning, Tessa came over to prepare his breakfast.

"I'm not in the mood to eat," Fenrir waved her away. "I'm going to the cliffs myself today."

"But Fenrir, the search parties have been there for days. Sister is definitely not there..."

"Since when do you have the right to question my decisions?"

The force of his Alpha command silenced Tessa. She didn't know what had gone wrong.

When Fenrir finally reached the bottom of the ravine, carrion birds were already circling overhead. My body had started to rot.

I watched him press a hand to his chest again and again. The closer he got to my corpse, the deeper his brow furrowed.

My own soul throbbed with a tearing pain.

This damned mate bond. It wouldn't let me go, even in death.

Finally, at the edge of Moonridge Cliffs, Fenrir caught a familiar scent.

And... and the smell of blood.

He carefully peered over the edge, looking behind the massive stone monument.

My corpse was slumped against the rock wall, eyes shut, with barely any skin left intact.

The wolfsbane toxin had left gruesome marks all over me, and my blood had long since clotted into dark red patches.

On the fifth day, he finally found me. And I knew it was time to go.

My soul began to glow, transforming into a soft light.

As my soul began to dissipate, I heard the final thought from my own heart:

"Goodbye, Fenrir."

"The Selene who loved you is gone forever."

The light grew brighter.

I felt my consciousness being gently pulled away.

The very instant my soul vanished, every breeze in the pack fell still.

An eerie silence descended upon the air.

Fenrir's heart suddenly felt hollow, as if a piece of his soul had been violently ripped away.

The next second, an agonizing, soul-tearing pain exploded from the depths of his being!

The wolf tattoo on his arm, the symbol of our mate bond, shattered in an instant, turning to black ash.

The once-shimmering silver crescent mark vanished completely.

The agony of the severed mate bond struck him like lightning, a sharp blade piercing his chest, a pain beyond endurance.

Even more terrifying, all the pain I had ever endured—the despair of being pushed from the cliff, the torment of the wolfsbane's poison, the anguish of being misunderstood, the loneliness of being ignored.

All of it flooded his senses in that one moment.

"Selene... Selene..." His eyes were bloodshot. He trembled, trying to feel for our bond, but all he found was a dead, empty void.

His wolf took over completely, and under the psychic shock, he collapsed into unconsciousness.

Fenrir didn't know how long he was out.

In his dreams, I was standing on the cliff's edge, telling him over and over, "Goodbye, Fenrir."

Then I would leap into the abyss.

"Selene!" He shot up in bed.

He was drenched in a cold sweat, the searing pain still echoing from the depths of his soul.

"You're awake," Tessa said, sitting by his bed while holding a bowl of medicinal broth.

"Drink this. It will help."

But Fenrir didn't hear a word she said.

He threw back the covers and staggered out of bed.

"Where is Selene? I have to see Selene!"

Seeing she couldn't stop him, Tessa bit her lip, her voice thick with false sympathy as she said,

"Calm down!"

"Selene... she's dead!"

Fenrir looked up, his face a mask of disbelief. "What did you say?"