Chapter 6

After saying my piece, I didn't look at Felix's furrowed brows again. I turned around and walked toward the door.

I had barely taken one step when Serena blocked my path.

"Nova, it's just a resort. I'll give it back to you. Why do you have to make things so hard for Felix?"

Her big, round eyes were brimming with tears. She looked so fragile, as if she could be crushed at any moment.

But I felt absolutely no sympathy.

I looked at her coldly. "Move. When you begged for this land, you didn't care about putting him in a tough spot. Why act so considerate now?"

Serena's face drained of color.

I knew I had hit a nerve. If she hadn't purposely asked for it, Felix wouldn't have gone out of his way to process the transfer.

Her tears spilled over instantly.

The next second, my wrist was clamped by a tight grip.

I tried to forcefully break free, but Felix violently yanked me aside.

An Alpha's furious strength was terrifying. I stumbled backward several steps. My lower back crashed hard into a massive ceramic vase, knocking it over.

Pain shot up my leg as broken porcelain shards sliced into my calf. I gasped.

Before I could even process the pain, Felix's angry voice crashed down on me.

"Nova, when did you become so bitter? Why are you speaking to her so horribly?"

"You signed the deed transfer yourself. It's just a change of name. It's not like she is stopping you from going there for vacation. Just because of the bonding ceremony, how long are you going to keep targeting her?"

He immediately turned around and reached out to wipe Serena's tears. The way he treated her was a complete contrast to how he treated me seconds ago.

Being comforted, Serena's tears fell even harder. She sobbed, "I'm sorry, Felix. I was never your biological sister to begin with. Since Nova hates me, I'll just leave the pack. I don't want to put you in a difficult position."

She turned to grab the door handle, but Felix violently pulled her back into his arms.

"Serena, do you have to stab a knife into my heart? You're never allowed to say such stupid things again. The one who should leave is someone else, not you."

Those words were piercing to the extreme. Even without him naming names, I knew he was talking about me.

Sure enough, the very next second, the hand that had just thrown me aside grabbed my arm tightly, shoving me toward the door.

"Nova, you have truly crossed the line this time. I have to give Serena an explanation."

He looked at me with zero warmth. Those amber eyes that used to overflow with love now held nothing but freezing disappointment.

But strangely, my heart didn't hurt anymore. Only a dead pool of silence remained.

I smiled, propping up my bleeding leg to stand straight. I didn't want to spare him another glance.

But just as I was about to turn around, the crisp click of a tranquilizer gun sounded by my ear.

I instinctively turned my head. Before I could even see who it was, a tranquilizer dart laced with diluted wolfsbane slammed into my back.

The excruciating pain of the toxin suppressing my wolf swept through my body, followed by intense paralysis. A voice came from above. I struggled to lift my eyes and recognized the guard who always followed Serena.

"Apologies, Alpha, for interrupting you. I was afraid the Luna might lose control and hurt Serena. I'll escort her out right now."

Felix's eyes darkened.

Even knowing it was complete treason for a guard to shoot the future Luna, he didn't utter a single word of reprimand. "There is no Luna here at headquarters. Right now, she's just a trespasser. If you make a rookie mistake like this again, you can pack your bags and go become a rogue."

Terrified, the guard nodded repeatedly and roughly dragged me toward the elevators.

My bleeding calf dragged against the freezing marble floor, leaving a trail of blood. All I could hear were the hushed whispers of the pack elites.

So this was his so-called explanation. He was publicly trampling my dignity to give her peace of mind.

I really wanted to laugh, but the corners of my mouth wouldn't move.

In a daze, I thought I saw a flash of regret in Felix's eyes. But the heavy wooden door closing shut immediately told me it was just an illusion.

The guard did exactly as told. Even though cold rain was pouring outside, he still threw me onto the street behind the building.

I didn't know when I passed out. When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the stark white ceiling of the pack hospital.

Someone was holding my right hand, which rested on the edge of the bed.

"You're awake, Nova?"

I turned my head. Felix's exhausted face entered my vision.

He had a layer of dark stubble on his chin, and his eyes were bloodshot. I didn't know how long he had been keeping watch.

If this had been in the past, I would have cupped his face with an aching heart. I would have scolded him for not resting because it was bad for his wolf, and pushed him to go catch up on sleep.

Now, I didn't even blink. I coldly pulled my hand back and looked out the window.

Felix stared at his empty palm and froze for a few seconds. He actually forced out a smile.

"Still angry? Don't worry, I already talked to Serena. She moved back to the annex building, and the paperwork to liquidate the resort transfer is being processed. You should be satisfied now, right?"

His deliberately lowered stance seemed like a compromise, but his light tone felt like an accusation that I was being unreasonable.

I gave a bitter smile. Every ounce of desire to even get angry had vanished. I just gave a soft "Hmm."

But Felix didn't look happy. Instead, he frowned in displeasure.

He vaguely felt that something was wrong. But before he could dig deeper, the hospital room door was gently pushed open by a nurse.

"Alpha, your mate's fertility check is complete. You can head to the testing room to prepare for the mate compatibility exam."

The nurse's polite, business-like reminder froze the air in the entire room.

Even though my feelings for Felix had long turned to ice, my fingers still dug fiercely into the bedsheets the second I heard the words mate and fertility.

They were just standard medical terms. But put together right now, they felt so absurd I thought I was listening to a fantasy.

I slowly raised my eyes to look at Felix. He avoided my gaze.

It wasn't until he awkwardly coughed and dismissed the nurse that he lunged forward again, grabbing my hand. He looked incredibly sincere.

"Nova, listen to my explanation. Don't get mad just yet."

"Serena just wanted to check early if her body could bear pups. She was too scared to face it alone, so she dragged me along to do a compatibility exam together."

"I rarely bring you to public events. The nurses don't know you, and they certainly don't know she's my sister. Calling her my mate was just them guessing blindly. Don't take it seriously."

Felix was genuinely trying to explain, and he truly believed from the bottom of his heart that this was just a trivial matter.

I stared at him blankly. I thought my heart was completely dead, but it actually managed to hurt one last time.

And I never expected that every worst-case scenario I had imagined over the last seven years was slowly turning out to be true.

Everything I had repressed for so long exploded in that moment. I raised my hand and slapped Felix hard across the face.

"Why?"

Felix's head snapped to the side from the slap. He was stunned for a full two seconds. He had just opened his mouth to speak when the hospital door was pushed open again.

It was Serena.

Felix swallowed his rebuke instantly. With a tense jaw, he subconsciously stood up and started walking toward her.

When he reached the door, he finally stopped. "Nova, calm down first. Once you have calmed down, we'll talk."

With a bang, the door shut.

And with it, the very last bit of warmth in my heart died.

Actually, I wasn't angry at all. I just felt sorrow and endless despair.

So Felix, you'll never see the day I calm down.

My tears didn't stop falling until the moon rose high outside my window.

After I finished the discharge procedures and returned to the Packhouse to pack my last bit of luggage, I still took the check for 880,000 dollars sitting on the desk. He had originally prepared it as funding for our upcoming Luna ceremony.

I treated it as selling that completely rotten resort back to him at a depreciated price.

Just as I was about to close the drawer, something clattered out from the hidden compartment.

A leather-bound diary.

The cover was Serena's favorite milky white color.

I hesitated, but flipped open the title page. The more I read, the more bone-chilling it got. But by the time I reached the end, I actually laughed, feeling like a heavy fog had finally lifted.

I didn't put it back where I found it. Instead, I placed it neatly dead center on the coffee table in the living room.

Consider it a grand parting gift from me to the great Alpha before I leave.

From this moment on, I was done with this pack, with Felix, and with the sister he treasured so much.