Chapter 2

He thought I would react the same way I did in my past life—panicked, desperate, begging, doing everything I could to make him stay.

After all, back then, I loved him so much that I lost myself. I loved him so much that I humbled myself into the dirt.

However, he didn’t know that I had already died once.

I looked at him, my gaze calm and still.

"Fine. Then cancel it."

Kael froze. He clearly hadn’t expected that response. The threats and accusations he had prepared all caught in his throat, his face filled with shock.

In his eyes, I had liked him since I was young. I would do anything for him. How could I possibly agree to cancel the mating ceremony so easily?

He must have thought I was playing games and that I was pretending to pull away just to draw him closer. He assumed I was trying to get his attention.

"Don’t think a stunt like this will make me go soft," Kael snapped, his expression darkening. "Talia, I’m not falling for it."

I looked at him, at the way he was so certain of himself.

There wasn’t even a ripple in my chest, only something faintly ridiculous.

I didn’t want to waste another second entangled with him. I turned to leave.

"Stop right there!" Kael strode forward and grabbed my wrist. "You still haven’t apologized!"

I wrenched my hand free. In the movement, the moonstone I had always worn close to my chest suddenly slipped loose, hitting the floor with a sharp clatter.

That was my mother’s keepsake, the most precious thing I had in this life.

In my past life, inside that sealed room, it stayed with me through every moment of agony. Even as I died, I had clutched it tightly in my hand.

The moment I saw it fall, my heart seized. I immediately crouched down to pick it up.

However, just then, Mira let out a startled cry. As if by accident, the heel of her shoe came down hard on the moonstone.

Crack!

Something shattered.

I froze.

I stared at the fragments of the moonstone, broken into pieces, and in that instant, it felt as though the blood in my body had turned to ice.

"I’m sorry, Talia, I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t mean to…"

Mira quickly pulled her foot back, her face full of panic, her eyes brimming with tears. She looked utterly innocent.

Kael saw it too. His gaze flickered for a moment, but all he did was frown.

"It’s just an ordinary moonstone. You can get another one. Do you really need to make such a big deal out of it?"

Slowly, I lifted my head and looked at his cold, indifferent face. He would never understand what that moonstone meant to me.

He would never know how much I had wanted to leave it to our pup, how much I had hoped it would protect our pup.

I remembered the time he was ambushed by rogue wolves and was gravely injured. I had risked everything, gone alone into enemy territory to bring him back.

I recalled how, on the verge of death, he held my hand and promised he would treat me well for the rest of his life.

We had vowed to be each other’s most loyal mates, and I had held him tightly and cried tears of happiness.

But ever since Mira appeared, everything changed.

In his eyes, there was only her, the one who knew how to act fragile and cry.

As for me…

I slowly crouched down. With trembling fingers, I picked up the shattered pieces one by one, carefully, pressing them tightly into my palm.

The shards cut into my skin. Blood seeped out, yet I felt nothing. Compared to the pain of my past life, this was nothing.

I stood up, walked past them, and left step by step without ever looking back.