Chapter 3

The laughter and chatter at the celebration came to an abrupt halt.

The physician's hands trembled as he tore open Rhaine's collar. Black veins had already spread all the way to his jaw.

His medicine chest slipped from his hands and crashed to the floor.

"It's the plague... the very same plague from 3 years ago! It's back!"

The elders who had been praising Rhaine only moments earlier stumbled backward in terror. Mara scooped up her pup and hurried away from the crowd.

That was when the pack members remembered me.

"Go get Selene! She cured it once. She can surely do it again!"

"Yes! Hurry and bring her here! She has to save the Alpha!"

Standing in the middle of the crowd, Vivian raised her voice.

"After what we did to deceive her last night, you expect her to save us today? She might not agree."

I turned to Vivian in utter disbelief, struggling to hold back a bitter laugh.

Whenever someone in the pack came to me for help, no matter how serious or minor their injuries were, I had always done everything in my power to save them.

I genuinely considered this place my home and these people my family.

Yet in Vivian's eyes, every kindness I ever showed them had become nothing more than a tool to hold the pack hostage.

As the plague poison ravaged his wolf spirit, Rhaine jolted awake in agony.

Sweat covered his forehead, and his brows drew tightly together as he turned to Vivian and barked an order.

"Tell Selene my beast plague has returned. Have her come to me at once!"

Vivian hesitated for a moment and frowned.

"But... she might still be upset."

"That's not possible! Nothing matters more to Selene than I do."

A flash of resentment crossed Vivian's face, plain as day.

She quickly agreed and disappeared around a distant corner. A short while later, she returned with a deeply troubled expression.

"She's awake, but she's throwing a fit. She's smashed everything in the bedroom. She even said that if you and the entire pack died, it would only be the punishment you deserved for deceiving her last night."

Rhaine forced himself upright. Black veins had already spread across nearly half his face.

"No... no, that's impossible! How could she do this to me?"

As I floated above them, I watched the very people I had spent years protecting begin to curse and condemn me.

They had already forgotten who used fake blood and the cries of innocent pups to trick me into sacrificing my life the night before.

They had also forgotten how many times I had saved them from the brink of disaster.

Rhaine shoved the physician aside, struggling to suppress his out-of-control wolf spirit.

"Doesn't she understand yet? Now that she's lost her divine power, she should simply accept her place as my Luna and devote herself entirely to me! I'm going to see her myself. I'll find out what she's still throwing a tantrum about."

Vivian hurriedly grabbed his arm.

"She always has another trick up her sleeve. I'm afraid she'll use the opportunity to hurt you and escape if you go to her now."

This time, Rhaine shook off her hand.

"She wouldn't dare."

With no way to stop him, Vivian could only watch helplessly as Rhaine strode toward my bedroom.

Nevertheless, when he pushed open the door, the sight that greeted him was my motionless body lying on the bed, utterly lifeless.

"Selene."

I did not answer.

He took a few steps closer, his anger mounting.

"Done throwing your tantrum? What game are you playing now? Are you pretending to be asleep?"

Losing patience, he bent down and tried to shake me awake.

That was when he noticed my arm had begun dissolving into golden light, shimmering fragments slowly drifting away.

"Is this some new trick to scare me? Where's the physician? Get the physician in here!"

His furious roar echoed through the doorway.

At that moment, my thoughts drifted back to the day, many years earlier, when the dragon had placed the three reverse scales in my hands.

It curled its tail around me protectively and explained that each time I burned a scale, the blood curse would claim one of my lives.

Once the final scale burned away, I would die.

My body, however, would remain in the mortal world for 2 more days, giving me time to say my final goodbye.

When the second day came to an end, the dragon's lingering spirit, sealed within the dragon fang, would come for me and guide my soul home.