Chapter One

Tracy Xander’s POV 

“Luna Xander, the results confirm Lunar Decay, and it has already spread through your body. Are you certain you do not wish to inform your family?” 

“It is not necessary,” I replied, my voice calm, almost detached, as though I were speaking about someone else’s fate instead of my own. 

By the time I stepped out of the pack clinic, a harsh wave of heat slammed against my face, dry and suffocating, stealing the breath from my lungs. For a brief moment, I stood there, unmoving, as though the world around me had quietly shifted into something unfamiliar. 

I slipped the medical report into my bag with slow, deliberate movements. My fingers felt cold despite the heat, and I knew without looking that my face must have been pale, almost translucent, like something fragile that could shatter at the slightest touch. 

Three years. 

Three years since I completed the mating ceremony with Alpha Chandler Gaunt. 

Three years of loyalty to a bond that had already been broken. 

He betrayed me. And now, I was dying. 

A faint, humorless smile touched my lips as I forced in a breath that did not come easily. If my life were written into a story, no one would believe it, because even tragedy should have limits, and yet mine seemed endless. 

I had always feared death, feared the cold uncertainty of it, the way it erased everything without mercy, but standing here now, holding the truth of my own ending in my hands, something within me finally gave way. 

Perhaps it was exhaustion. Perhaps it was disappointment. 

Or perhaps it was the quiet realization that I had wasted too much of myself on someone who had never truly seen me. 

Like sand slipping through my fingers, everything I had tried so desperately to hold onto no longer felt worth keeping. 

So I let it go. 

After steadying my thoughts, I returned to my car and drove back to the pack territory. The pack house stood tall beneath the afternoon sun, its structure grand and imposing, a symbol of power and dominance, yet to me, it had never felt like home. 

Inside, everything remained as it always was, polished to perfection, controlled, and cold. Wolves moved with purpose, their expressions disciplined, their presence a constant reminder of hierarchy and order. 

I walked through the corridors without drawing attention, returned to my desk, and gathered the documents that required the Alpha’s approval. This had always been my role, assisting him, easing his burdens, fulfilling duties that a Luna should never have needed to reduce herself to. 

Still, I had done it without complaint. Until now. 

When I reached his office, I paused briefly before knocking, more out of habit than hesitation. 

“Come in.” 

I pushed the door open and stepped inside. 

“What is it?” 

Alpha Chandler Gaunt lifted his head, his gaze sharp and unwavering as it settled on me. There was no warmth in it, no trace of the bond that was meant to exist between us, only impatience and quiet authority. 

He was the kind of Alpha others envied, powerful, composed, and undeniably commanding. His presence alone was enough to silence a room, and over the years, he had proven his strength in countless battles, securing both his dominance and reputation among the packs. 

He stood at the top, and he knew it. 

I stepped forward and placed the documents in front of him. 

“These are the reports from last week’s border inspections,” I said softly. “The pack doctor delivered them earlier. They require your seal.” 

I uncapped a pen and placed it in his hand with practiced ease. 

Chandler rubbed his temple, his impatience evident. Without sparing the documents a single glance, he signed them quickly, his movements careless, as though nothing within those pages held any real importance. 

“Next time,” he said, his voice low with irritation, “do not bring trivial matters to me.” 

“Alright.” 

I accepted it without resistance, without emotion, as though his words no longer had the power to affect me. 

Gathering the signed documents, I turned to leave. 

But then, just as I reached the door, something caught my attention. 

A scent. Faint, yet unmistakable. Another mateless she-wolf. 

Even in my weakened state, my senses had not completely abandoned me. The unfamiliar sweetness lingered in the air, out of place, yet bold enough to reveal its presence. 

My steps slowed. Almost unconsciously, my gaze shifted toward the desk. And there, just beneath its edge, I caught sight of it. 

The hem of a skirt. I did not need to look further to know who it belonged to. 

Yvonne Xander. My half-sister. 

For a brief moment, something flickered in my eyes, something cold, something quietly mocking, but it vanished just as quickly as it came. 

I lowered my gaze, as though I had seen nothing at all. Then I walked out. 

 

A few seconds later Click. The door behind me locked, and the thought drifted quietly through my mind, bitter and sharp: so eager, huh. My heart sank, falling straight down, heavy as a stone dropped into a frozen lake, the cold water wrapping around it layer by layer until even breathing felt like a labor. 

 I lowered my head and slowly pulled out the last two sheets from the stack in my hands. 

 If Alpha Chandler had bothered to look even for a single second he would have seen it. Buried among the other documents was not just my diagnosis. Mid-stage Lunar Decay. And on the very last page, a bond dissolution agreement, cold and final. 

I had known Alpha Chandler since I was five years old. That was the year everything in my life began to unravel.  

My father had betrayed my mother, shattering the family with a single choice, and my mother had filed for divorce.  

My two older brothers chose to follow our father, leaving me and my mother behind to face the ruins of what had once been our home. Soon after, the other woman had moved in, bringing her daughter Yvonne who took over the house, taking over everything that had once been mine.  

My mother and I had no choice but to leave, to rebuild our lives elsewhere, carrying the shadow of what we had lost. 

It was then that I met him, Alpha Chandler, the boy next door. We grew up side by side, and back then he had been fierce, reckless even, protective in a way that made the world feel safe.  

He had fought for me once so hard that he had broken three ribs, and when I had been sick, he had stayed by my side, his worry as relentless as the wind across the pack lands.  

His world revolved around me, his social media filled with images of my smile, my laughter, my life, as though I were the only light he needed to follow. He had sworn countless times that he would love me for the rest of his life, and yet he had also been the one to betray me first, breaking the bond we had sworn to honor and protect.