Chapter 2

Within days, Selene launched a pity campaign on social media.

The first photo showed the back of her hand hooked up to an IV drip. The caption read: "Alpha, please don't worry about me. I'm just too weak."

The second was a deliberate shot of a gruesome scar on her thigh—the one she'd gotten years ago when she threw herself in front of a blade meant for Damien. The caption was calculated to provoke: "This scar is my proudest badge of honor."

The third post was a photo of a lone wolf running under the moonlight. Her caption: "A wolf with no pack gets used to being abandoned."

The comments overflowed with sympathy and support. Young pack members rallied around her, and some even implied that I was a petty, jealous Luna.

I screenshot every single post, bundled them together, and sent them straight to Damien.

Five minutes later, he kicked open my bedroom door, radiating fury.

His expression was murderous. He pulled out his phone right in front of me and posted a top-priority announcement in the pack-wide group chat.

"Effective immediately, Selene's official pack membership is revoked."

"She is demoted to the lowest rank of outcast wolf, stripped of all territorial resource rights."

The group chat went dead silent the instant the message appeared.

Damien set down his phone and gripped my hand tightly. He was making a public stand before the entire pack—declaring without ambiguity that he stood with his Luna.

That evening, I was in the healing room taking inventory of medicine when Selene burst through the door like a woman possessed.

She ripped open her collar, baring the raw, oozing rash that covered her neck and chest. Sleeping in the swamp at the edge of the territory after her demotion had triggered a severe allergic reaction. No one had brought her medicine. No one dared go near her.

Her eyes were bloodshot, tears streaming down her face as she glared at me.

"You win! You drove me out! Are you satisfied now?" she screamed.

I set down the glass vial in my hand and walked up to her.

I raised my hand without a second of hesitation and slapped her across the face.

The crack echoed through the healing room. Her cheek swelled immediately.

"You're the one who shamelessly pursued another woman's husband," I said, staring her down.

That was when Damien burst in.

He pulled me behind him, shielding me with his body, Alpha dominance rolling off him in waves.

"Get out. Who gave you permission to set foot in the Luna's healing room?" he snarled.

Selene didn't back down. Instead, she stepped forward into the crushing weight of his aura.

She rose on her toes and pressed her lips against Damien's.

He froze for one heartbeat. His body went rigid for just a second.

Selene pulled back immediately and lifted her red, swollen face toward him.

She looked at him and let out a shrill, broken laugh.

"Alpha, when I nearly died saving your life, is this how you treated me too?"

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you feel nothing for me. I dare you."

Damien finally snapped out of it, a flash of panic and rage crossing his eyes.

He seized Selene's arm and hurled her out the door without mercy.

She cried out as her temple smashed against the hard stone floor of the corridor. Blood poured from the gash instantly.

I stood where I was, watching the spectacle with cold detachment, waiting for Damien to take me and leave.

But he didn't come to me.

He stared at the blood on Selene's forehead, his brow furrowing deeply.

He strode over, crouched beside her, and examined the wound.

"Get the first aid kit!" he barked at the Beta medic standing frozen nearby.

Then he looked back at me, something unreadable in his eyes.

"She saved my life once. She's bleeding—I can't just ignore that."

"Go rest. I'll handle this." His tone was practically a command.

I didn't look at him. I didn't look at Selene on the ground.

Without a word, I stepped past them both and walked out of the healing room without looking back.

That night, word spread through the pack like wildfire.

After being demoted and thrown to the ground, Selene had refused all help. She'd dragged herself to an old hollow tree at the edge of the territory and built a flimsy lean-to from scraps. She lay shivering under a moldy blanket, burning with fever.

The guards who checked on her said she was delirious, muttering over and over: "The Alpha doesn't want me anymore. I deserve to be a rogue."

Several pack members who visited her came back with pity written all over their faces.

Damien sat on the living room sofa all evening without saying a word.

Late that night, he suddenly stood and walked out the front door in silence.

I stood behind the second-floor window and watched him shift into a massive black wolf.

Without a moment's hesitation, he sprinted toward the border—toward Selene's hollow tree.

I sat alone in the dark and waited.

It wasn't until three in the morning that the bedroom door finally opened.

Damien walked in carrying the cold of the night on his skin. His scent was a mix of icy dew, damp earth, and something faint but unmistakable—an Omega's scent.

Selene's scent.

I kept my eyes closed, pretending to sleep. I didn't ask a single question.

The next morning, I pulled out my phone and scrolled to a number buried at the bottom of my contacts.

I sent a message to Adrian, Alpha of Nightfall Pack.

"Alpha Adrian, you once said your pack needed a Chief Healer. Is that offer still open?"

In the days that followed, Damien and I still lived under the same roof, but things between us had gone sub-zero.

Our conversations grew fewer and further apart. The silence in the house was suffocating.

Every time Damien tried to bring up that night at the border, I cut him off.

"I have medicines to prepare," I'd say flatly. Then I'd shut the healing room door in his face without a shred of mercy.

This went on until the annual Full Moon Ceremony arrived.

On the night of the ceremony, every member of the pack gathered at the great stone plaza in the center of the territory.

Tradition dictated that the Alpha and Luna shift first. Together, we were to leap from the top of the great stone and lead the entire pack in a moonlit run.

It was the pack's grandest and most sacred ritual.

Everyone was watching, eager to see the couple known as "the perfect mates" put on their show of devotion.