6

"Give me back my charm!"

"Give it back to you? Why should I? Your Alpha has already given it to me. He said this charm symbolizes loyalty, and a person who has defiled the tribe doesn't deserve to have it. Its best destiny is for me to purify it."

Lyra nimbly avoided my outstretched claws, her eyes full of victorious smugness and mockery.

"That's my mother's blessing! Karen made it for me with his own hands! Give it back!"

Everything else I could give up, could stop caring about, but not this!

I lunged at her like a mad woman, but she always managed to dodge gracefully.

After I missed again and crashed pathetically into the cold stone wall, she let out a beautiful but cruel laugh.

"Elara, once the brightest star of the Silver Moon tribe, how ironic. Now you're just a stray dog with its claws and fangs pulled out. What right do you have to return to the tribe?"

As I struggled to get up, she elegantly stretched out her foot and pressed her jewel-encrusted boot tip onto my injured paw, grinding it slowly.

"Look at you, clinging to life like this—what's the difference between this and being completely gone? Elara, your Alpha has completely rejected you. You're the most unnecessary existence in this tribe!"

She played with the wolf tooth charm in her hand, walking slowly to the ice cellar's only air vent, which connected to a bottomless ice crevice. She slowly released her grip, and the charm traced a beautiful but tragic arc through the air: "You care so much about this little thing? Hahaha, I'm going to make you watch it disappear right before your eyes."

"No!" I let out a desperate cry, rushing toward her without thinking. I used all my strength to push her aside, trying to grab the falling charm.

"Lyra! You've already taken Karen's trust! You've taken my place in the tribe! Why won't you leave even this last memento alone?"

I don't know what happened next. When I came back to my senses, Lyra was clutching her abdomen, groaning in pain on the ground, with blood seeping through her magnificent fur coat.

"Lyra!"

Karen suddenly appeared at the ice cellar door, his eyes blazing with anger, his voice hoarse with rage.

"My... my belly..."

Lyra lifted her pale face, tearfully pointing at me: "Elara, why did you... attack me so violently... my child... our child..."

Karen's iron fist, carrying the thousand-pound force of an Alpha, smashed into my side.

I flew like a broken kite, crashing hard into the solid ice wall, feeling like all my internal organs had shattered.

"Elara! You hopeless, vicious woman! You dare hurt Lyra and our cub! I sent you to the Cliff of Sinful Wolves to reflect, but you've only gotten worse! I never want to see your evil face again!"

Karen carefully picked up Lyra and rushed outside. In my blurring vision's last moment, I saw Lyra's hateful and triumphant look directed at me.

Her lips moved silently, clearly forming the words: "You've lost, completely lost."

"I've lost..."

Just like when Lyra accused me of stealing the Moon Soul Flower.

Karen only believed her, never me.

The scene from my judgment and Karen's current look at me strangely overlapped.

A sense of hopelessness that couldn't be erased suddenly surged from the deepest part of my wolf spirit.

I was condemned again, this time for the serious crime of harming the Alpha's mate and unborn cub! Karen would never believe me again!

No! I can't let them manipulate me anymore!

I struggled to get up, staggered after them, grabbed Karen's leg, and controlled my trembling voice to try to explain: "I didn't hurt her! Karen! That's not your cub! Believe me!"

"Get away! Lyra carries the future hope of the Silver Moon tribe! You dare to harm it! You're destroying the entire tribe's future! I should have let you freeze to death on the Cliff of Sinful Wolves! Elara, how could I ever have had a mate bond with a monster like you! How dare you still show your face in this world!"

He violently shook off my paw, his movement decisive and disgusted, identical to when he banished me before, disappearing into the blizzard without looking back.

Sharp pain kept coming from my abdomen, but it was nothing compared to his words: "How dare you still show your face in this world."

Those words gradually blended with the curses that the starving, desperate criminals on the Cliff of Sinful Wolves had shouted in my ears day and night.

"Karen, you don't know, I've thought countless times about burying myself forever in this snow and ice..."

I pulled back the worn animal hide, revealing the crisscrossing scars of varying depths on my arm.

Those were the evidence of countless times I wanted to end myself on the Cliff but instinctively struggled to survive.

I stumbled to the edge of the bottomless ice crevice.

My wolf tooth charm, the last connection between Karen and me, had disappeared into that dark frozen abyss.

One last time, I used the remaining power in my wolf spirit to send a weak, lingering howl toward the direction Karen had gone.

"Karen, if... if I swear on my soul that I never betrayed you, never wanted to hurt you or the tribe... would you, even for a moment, be willing to believe me?"

Only the howling of the blizzard answered me.

Karen ignored me.

Right now, he must be by Lyra's side, constantly comforting her, right?

Just as tenderly as he once comforted me when I was hurt.

All my strength seemed to be drained in this moment.

After a smile, I closed my eyes and let myself fall backward, plunging into endless darkness and cold.