Share

Chapter 4

Author: Crystal K
I stared at Sterling in disbelief.

Bring me home?

Back to the Crescent Moon pack? The pack he personally banished me from, where he let everyone trample all over me?

I couldn't understand what madness had seized this arrogant Alpha.

And I especially couldn’t understand why he had to follow me, shamelessly squeezing into my shabby apartment in this border town slum.

I tucked a fever-free Lily into the bed in my tiny bedroom.

Walking out into the narrow living room, I saw Sterling sitting on my old sofa. He looked completely out of place in the dilapidated surroundings. A wave of anxiety and panic washed over me.

I only had cheap tap water.

No special, energy-infused spring water that was good for a wolf’s soul.

I gritted my teeth, washed the single apple I had been saving for Lily, and placed it on a chipped plate.

“Alpha, this is all I have.” I kept my head down, not daring to look at him.

Sterling didn’t take it.

His gaze was fixed on my right wrist.

The sleeve had slipped down as I held the plate, revealing the mass of gnarled, uneven scar tissue from the burn.

“Your hand…” his voice was dry, a careful, probing question. “Has it recovered?”

CRASH.

The plate hit the table. The apple rolled away.

I yanked my hand back as if I’d been electrocuted, the blood draining from my face.

Recovered?

Four years ago, in the genetics lab. Morgana had cooed about wanting a tour.

The next second, she “accidentally” knocked over a vial of the highest concentration “Wolf-Toxin Stripper.”

The corrosive poison splashed precisely onto my right hand as I was performing a delicate procedure.

The agony was absolute. My flesh dissolved. My soul shattered.

And the result?

Morgana cried a few crocodile tears, pretended her guilt was so great her wolf soul was about to shatter, and suddenly I went from victim to perpetrator.

“You can’t even secure a high-concentration poison, and you have the nerve to blame Morgana? So you lost a hand. So what? You think the Crescent Moon pack can’t afford to feed one more useless mouth?!”

That’s what Sterling had said, right in front of all the elders, callously reprimanding me.

Kian had stood by, smirking. “You never should have been touching tech that advanced anyway. You’re just the fake princess. Losing that hand is just you giving back the glory that never belonged to you.”

The worst part—the thing that made me give up all hope—was when I hid outside the door and overheard the pack healer telling Sterling.

If they sent me to the Western Alliance for their top-tier bloodline regeneration therapy immediately, my hand could recover ninety percent of its function.

But Sterling refused.

Because if my hand healed, Morgana would still feel sad and insecure.

To soothe Morgana’s pathetic ego, he intentionally delayed my treatment.

From that moment on, I felt only one thing for him. Bone-deep terror.

“Cora?” Sterling saw me shaking and shot to his feet.

I scrambled backward, my back pressed hard against the peeling wall.

“I heard…” he took a step forward, his gaze burning into me, “that you’re at the border town wolf school, teaching newly awakened Omegas basic energy control and how to channel their genetic gifts?”

My mind exploded. Panic drowned me.

How did he know?

“No! I’m not!”

I screamed, frantically trying to explain, huge tears rolling down my face. “I just teach them the basics! I swear I haven’t touched genetics research! I would never do anything to hurt Morgana’s reputation as Luna!”

Desperate, I shoved up my sleeve. I thrust my ruined wrist in his face.

“Look! Look at it! My hand is useless! I can’t even hold a test tube without shaking! I can’t make any breakthroughs!”

I sobbed hysterically. “Please, Alpha… please let me go! Just give me a chance to live!”

Sterling’s face went white.

“No… it’s not like that…”

He rushed forward, pulling me into a panicked embrace.

“Cora, I’m sorry… I was wrong! I’ll protect you this time! Come home with me!”

“GET OFF ME!”

I thought of all the humiliation and pain of the last four years.

I thought of Jax giving his life to save me and Lily.

A wave of hatred I’d never felt before surged through me.

I pushed against his chest with every ounce of my being, struggling wildly.

“DON’T TOUCH ME! LET ME GO!”

I’d been up all night with Lily. My body and my wolf were already on the verge of collapse.

I struggled wildly. And then, everything went black.
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • Four Years Later They Came Crawling Back   Chapter 11

    My words were final. I had torn their pathetic masks to shreds.But those three men still clung to my life, refusing to leave.Having failed to get a rise out of me, Morgana directed her venom elsewhere.Soon, rumors spread through the Southern Alliance community. Lily was a “mutt of impure blood.” I was a “shameless lone wolf who slept her way to the top.”The neighbors who used to smile at me now avoided my gaze.I was so tired. Tired of the drama. Tired of them. It was time to leave.As I was packing, the old Alpha of the Crimson Maple pack contacted me.He'd heard about my work with unstable cubs. He offered me a job: head instructor at a new academy on the Storm Coast.It was a school for “problem” cubs—those whose bloodlines were too powerful or too mixed to be accepted by ordinary packs.I accepted without hesitation.The day before I left, a light rain began to fall.Sterling found me.He wasn't an Alpha giving orders anymore. He carefully held out a heavy box.It was filled wi

  • Four Years Later They Came Crawling Back   Chapter 10

    I stayed in the bedroom for a long time. I held Lily, humming a lullaby until she cried herself to sleep.I carefully tucked her in and went back to the living room.It was a wreck.My friends had all wisely left. Only the four people who had turned my life upside down remained.Morgana’s hair was a mess and her makeup was streaked with tears. She sat slumped on the sofa, looking pathetic.But the hatred burning in her eyes was more intense than ever.The moment she saw me, she jumped up.“You vicious fake! You still have the nerve to show your face!” she cursed.“Morgana, stop it. Let’s go.” Sterling and Blake tried to pull her away, one on each side, but she violently shook them off.“Don’t touch me!” she screamed, turning and throwing herself at Kian, sobbing. “Kian! Are you going to side with her too? Have you forgotten who grew up with you, who was always there for you? It was me!”Kian turned his head, avoiding her tear-stained face."I remember one night," Kian said, his voice l

  • Four Years Later They Came Crawling Back   Chapter 9

    My words didn’t make them back off.Instead, they wormed their way into my and Lily’s quiet life in even more frantic ways.They must have dug into my past. They must have found out about Jax. And then they started trying to be him. It was clumsy. Laughable.Kian used his “envoy inspection tour” as an excuse to show up every few days.He announced to the whole town that he was my brother and sent over piles of rare energy crystals from the north.He even tried to carve a lopsided wolf totem for Lily, just like Jax used to.Sterling was more direct. He sent a squad of Silver Moon guards and tried to force me to move into a lavish castle.And Blake? He just rented the building next to mine and watched my every move.I ignored it all.I sent back Kian’s crystals, told Sterling to recall his guards, and kept my curtains drawn tight to block out Blake’s suffocating gaze.If it weren’t for Lily’s fourth birthday party, I would have been long gone.That day, I baked her a blueberry cake and h

  • Four Years Later They Came Crawling Back   Chapter 8

    Blake gently took my hand.“I was blind back then. I was an idiot! I misunderstood you… It was Morgana. She orchestrated everything. I shouldn’t have doubted you. And I never should have… chosen her.”He pressed my hand tightly to his tear-filled eyes.“Cora, please. Give me another chance. We'll go back. We'll have our mating ceremony. I’ll announce to every wolf that you are my Luna, my only fated mate. I’ll give Lily a proper family, the most noble status!”He spoke with such passion.As if he were the tragic hero, betrayed for four years, who had finally found his true love.I just looked at him. And then I laughed.“Blake,” I said, pulling my hand away and shattering his illusion, “your political alliance with Morgana is falling apart, so now you’re crawling back to me, the ‘backup’ you threw away. Isn’t that right?”His face went pale.“How can you think that of me? I admit, Morgana and I have had… issues, but that’s not why I came back for you! I love you! We have a mate bond wi

  • Four Years Later They Came Crawling Back   Chapter 7

    I slowly opened my eyes.Blake was just sitting there, staring at me.His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked exhausted and haggard. A storm of pain and regret churned in their depths.Was he hurting for me?My wolf cried out. A sad, stupid reminder of how much I once loved him.I could never forget that night, four years ago.My wrist was a mess of agonizing pain from the wolf-toxin.But everyone else was busy comforting Morgana, the one who “accidentally” spilled the vial and was pretending to have a mental breakdown.My adoptive brother Sterling, my own brother Kian—they both blamed me for being careless and pitied her for feeling guilty.Only Blake, my fated mate, stayed by my side.He held my cold hand and promised, over and over, that he would always be there.That no matter what happened to me, he would never leave.And in that moment, I believed him.I foolishly thought that even if the whole world abandoned me, I would still have him.But later that night, the pain was too inte

  • Four Years Later They Came Crawling Back   Chapter 6

    I didn't want the dream to end. I savored the gentle look in Jax’s eyes.But reality violently dragged me from my sleep.The sound of a fierce, suppressed argument pierced my ears.“You found Cora, so why the hell did you hide it from me! What gives you the right!” That was Blake’s voice. Still so familiar, even after four years.Then Kian’s voice, sharp. “The right? Blake, you think too highly of yourself. You chose another she-wolf at your own mating ceremony. You have no right to question anyone.”“She’s my MATE! We have a cub together! This is a blood bond witnessed by the Moon Goddess! No one can change that!” Blake roared.I had to laugh. My mate?The mate who chose another woman when I needed him most?“Shut up, Blake.” Sterling’s command cut through the noise. “You are Morgana’s mate now. You should act like it. Cora is Silver Moon. Her business is our business. Stay out of it, outsider.”A member of the Silver Moon pack?Sterling, you were the one who banished me.“Outsider? S

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status