Chapter 1

Christmas carols echoed from the banquet hall, but their melodies couldn't pass through the stone walls of the detention center.

I was curled up in a corner of the silver cage. My diamond-studded dress that cost millions of dollars was torn up, and the burns on my skin that were caused by silver weapons were throbbing lightly.

Three hours ago, I was still at the Silvermane pack's Christmas ball.

Damien Londo, the strongest Alpha in the world, and the wolf whom I had loved for five years, dragged me out of the banquet hall in front of all the other wolves as if I were nothing but trash. He then threw me into the detention center.

Just last night, he had pulled me into his arms, pressing his hot lips all over my nape.

"My darling, Vivian Lunaris. My most passionate lover. I belong only to you tonight," he had murmured as he carded his fingers through my golden hair.

The sound of the cage door unlocking snapped me out of my memories.

Damien strode in, his silver eyes glinting coldly in the dim light. He carried himself with his usual oppressive Alpha demeanor, the intimidating sensation freezing the air around us.

"Did you hurt her?" he asked, frowning slightly when he noticed the bloodstains on my cheek.

"She refused to tell us where Ms. Candice is," the guard exclaimed angrily.

Damien slowly removed his black leather glove as he approached me. He kneeled down, grasping my chin with his cold fingers, forcing me to look up and meet his gaze.

"Someone saw you slap Candice right before she disappeared," he said in a frighteningly calm voice. "Where is she? I'll take you away from here if you tell me."

I stared at the face that I had once loved so ardently, feeling as if the excruciating pain in my chest was tearing me apart.

Just a few hours ago, I had been filled with joyous anticipation as I waited to dance with Damien during the first song of the ball. Sharing the first dance with him also meant that I could openly stand by his side and bask in the attention of the other wolves in the pack.

However, when the music started playing, the she-wolf who stepped into the center of the dance floor was none other than my younger stepsister, Candice Lunaris.

Damien's eyes had been overflowing with gentleness as he placed his hands on her slender waist.

Candice wore a pure white dress, while he wore a black suit. They looked like a match made in heaven as they danced under the crystal chandelier.

"Damien will announce Candice as his Luna when the clock strikes midnight," my stepmother, Freya Hill, had whispered into my ear, sounding immensely pleased.

That was impossible! After all, Damien had promised to mark me and complete our mating ritual tonight.

I refused to believe Freya's words until I saw Damien hold Candice's hand and lead her onto the stage. He gazed at her as if she were a precious treasure, completely ignoring how I was shaking violently as I teetered on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

"Candice is noble and pure," Damien had said, his voice echoing clearly throughout the hall. "I've decided to make her my Luna. We'll have our mating ritual soon."

I felt as if I had been plunged into a pool of freezing water at that moment.

I had been Damien's secret lover for five whole years.

When he had fought for the position of Alpha in the Silvermane pack, I had done everything I could to eliminate his obstacles and clear a path to victory for him.

But now that he had achieved the status of Alpha, I had become expendable to him.

I spat out a mouthful of blood at the thought.

"You told everyone that Candice is going to be your Luna," I said hoarsely. "What about me? You humiliated me, Damien."

Damien tightened his grip on my chin to the point that it hurt, but his expression remained as cold as ice.

"Do you think that you deserve to be humiliated by me?" he asked with a scoff. "Candice is the daughter of an Alpha and a Luna. She'll also be the Alpha Female of the Moon pack in the future. How will you challenge her? By using your filthy, mixed heritage? Or…"

A mocking glint appeared in his eyes as he swept his gaze across my naked skin under my torn dress. "Or will you use this body of yours that I've ravaged countless times?"

I felt as if a silver dagger had been plunged into my heart.

Damien had exposed the truth that I had been desperately trying to escape.

Candice was a Pureblood, a prestigious status granted to her by being born to an Alpha father and a Luna mother.

As for me, I was simply a product of my father, Mason Lunaris, losing his senses and spending a night with a human.

I was a lowly, mixed-blood Lycan that every wolf looked down upon.

I twisted my head to the side to free myself from Damien's grasp. The metallic taste of blood spread across my tongue when I spat, "So, you're the one who ordered them to burn me with their silver swords and numb my senses with their suppressants?"

"You're the one who did this to yourself," Damien said calmly as if he was just talking about the weather.

He then rose to his feet and stared down at me from the tip of his nose, looking as if he was examining a cheap item.

"I've seen how fierce you get when you're fighting your enemies," he said as a murderous glint flickered in his silver eyes. "Candice is a kind wolf. She would be no match for you. This is just the beginning of your suffering if you refuse to tell us where she is. This, I can guarantee you."

The last traces of hope that I had been clinging to were extinguished when I heard his words.

I looked at Damien, the wolf I had loved for the last five years, and thought about vows he had whispered into my ears—thought about the warmth of his fingers as he roamed them across my body when it was late at night.

Everything had been a lie.

I was nothing more than a useful tool to him. Not only did he use me to fight his way to the top of the food chain, but he also used me to fulfill his carnal desires.

My heart was no longer throbbing in pain. I simply felt cold and numb to the core.

I stopped lying to myself at that moment.

I could vaguely hear the sounds of Christmas carols coming from outside the cage. The melodies were light and joyous.

Meanwhile, the cold glint of silver weapons shone on the wounds that littered my body.

Damien was still waiting for my answer—waiting for me to concede and return to my obedient self from five years ago.

However, he didn't know that some things would never return to life after death.

The Vivian of the past, the one who loved him with all her heart to the point that she forgot herself, was gone.