The betrayal.

        Ravena forced a smile, bowing her head, but her chest burned. All her life, she had been told she deserved to shine brighter than Liora. Now, standing in the Alpha’s hall, she wondered if even the Moon Goddess herself had conspired to deny her.

It’s always him. Always his choice.

Her nails dug into her palms as the Alpha’s words echoed in her mind. It is Kaelen who must choose.

Why must everything rest in his hands? Why should she, Ravena, who had worked tirelessly to be perfect, have to wait on whether Kaelen deemed her worthy? She was the Beta’s daughter, powerful, beautiful, already wolfed into a strong she-wolf. She deserved to be Luna.

And yet… there was Liora.

The thought of her sister’s face flashed before her eyes, unbidden, and bile rose in her throat. Even without a wolf, even rejected, Liora somehow managed to draw every gaze, every whisper, every ounce of sympathy. The Alpha’s son himself could not take his eyes off her.

Her teeth clenched, her smile tightening as she forced herself not to snap in front of the Alpha and Luna. But in her heart, a seed of bitterness rooted deeper. If Kaelen’s choice stood between her and Liora, then Ravena already knew what he would decide,and that was something she could never allow.

I must look for a way to get rid of Liora for good, “she thought to herself”.

She bowed again, her voice sugar-sweet. “Thank you for your kindness, Alpha, Luna. I will await Kaelen’s decision with patience.”

But as she straightened, her eyes glinted with unspoken promise. She would not simply wait.

      Kaelen sat in the courtyard, his elbows resting on his knees, eyes fixed on the silver-washed horizon. That scent… it still haunted him. Sweet, distant, intoxicating, and unlike anything he had ever encountered. He had first caught it at the shifting ceremony, subtle yet unforgettable, like wild honey threaded with moonlight and rain.

He frowned, dragging in a breath as if the air itself might carry it again. Was it Liora?

The thought refused to leave his mind. Could the wolfless girl, the one everyone mocked and rejected, truly be his mate? It didn’t make sense. The bond should have been immediate, undeniable. And yet…

Why did it feel so far away, like a whisper beyond reach?

His chest tightened. Was the distance because she hadn’t shifted, because her wolf lay hidden, chained beneath the surface?

Questions clawed at his thoughts, one after the other, until his temples throbbed. If it was true,if Liora was the source of that divine scent, then she was far more than anyone believed. And far too dangerous to be left in the hands of others.

A slow, hungry smile curved his lips.

If she is mine, then no one else will ever have her.

He imagined pulling her into his arms, claiming her lips before she could even protest. He pictured her trembling under his touch, not from fear, but from surrender. His heart quickened at the thought of Liora bound only to him, too vulnerable to resist, too soft to ever escape.

In his mind, she wasn’t wolfless or broken. She was his to protect, his to mold, his to ruin if he chose. The idea of her innocence, untouched and unguarded, made his pulse thunder with want.

     A hunger darker than love coiled in him, a hunger to mark her, to bind her soul to his before fate or the Moon Goddess could intervene. He wanted to see her eyes filled with nothing but him, wanted to be the reason she smiled, the reason she cried, the reason she lived.

A sharp breath escaped him, his nails digging into his palms.

No one else. Not even her sister. Liora belongs to me.

     Since the night Ravena’s wolf had been unleashed, her cruelty only deepened. She no longer needed sharp words alone, her claws did the talking. Every chance she got, she would corner Liora, hurling insults laced with envy before dragging her claws across her skin. Ravena’s strikes were always deliberate, cruelly aimed at Liora’s face.

“Let’s see if anyone still calls you beautiful after this,” Ravena snarled one evening, pinning her against the wooden wall of the barn. The flash of her golden wolf eyes burned with hatred as her claws ripped across Liora’s cheek. Pain seared through her skin, warm blood dripping, and her scream echoed into the night.

Ravena laughed darkly. “Beauty fades, sister. But scars? They last forever.”

      Liora pressed a trembling hand to her bleeding cheek, staring at her sister with wide, disbelieving eyes. Her voice cracked as the words tumbled out, heavy with pain but laced with desperation.

“Why, Ravena? Why would you do this to me? To go this far? I’ve never wronged you… I’ve never wished you harm.”

For a moment, silence hung heavy between them, broken only by Liora’s shallow breaths and the dripping of her blood onto the floor. Ravena’s lips curled, her wolf eyes still glowing faintly, filled not with guilt but with rage.

She took a step closer, claws still glistening.

“You want to know why?” Ravena spat, her voice sharp as broken glass. “Because every time someone looks at you, I see it. That light in their eyes. That longing. That… worship.” Her teeth clenched as she glared at her sister. “It should have been me, Liora. It was always supposed to be me.”

Liora’s lips quivered, her tears spilling freely now. “But I never asked for it! I never wanted to take anything from you”

Ravena’s laughter cut her off, bitter and broken.

“That’s the problem! You don’t even have to ask. You don’t even have to try. The world just gives you everything. friends, smiles, even Kaelen’s attention. And me? I have to fight for scraps!”

   By the time Ravena left her there trembling, broken, and bleeding, Liora thought the world had ended, she had earlier planned to run away but the thought of leaving Kaelen behind was her major concern.

Aside from Kaelen, she also feared she might be caught and killed by other rival packs searching for the girl the moon goddess had demanded.

As she whimpers in pain, she knew Kaelen would arrive soon as he always finds her whenever she's in trouble. When he arrived,  his hands were on her, glowing faintly with his wolf’s healing power. His touch closed the wounds Ravena left behind, restoring her skin as though the cruelty had never happened.

“Liora,” he whispered, brushing a thumb across her cheek as the last mark faded, “don’t you see? You’re not weak. You’re not worthless. You are mine to protect.”

And though Liora pulled back, whispering a soft “thank you,” she never realized Kaelen wasn’t just healing her wounds, he was binding her closer to him, piece by piece, each scar he erased deepening his claim.

     

     Kaelen leaned lazily against the carved stone bench in the beta’s garden, twirling the stem of a small wildflower between his fingers. The moonlight bathed the petals in silver, and he smirked faintly at the thought of Liora’s smile when he tucked it behind her ear.

He could already picture her sneaking out, her soft laughter echoing in the night as they met in secret.

But before the quiet fantasy could settle, something hit him. A scent.

Sweet. Potent. Overwhelming. It rolled over his senses like a tidal wave, stealing his breath and sending his wolf clawing violently at the edges of his control. His heart thudded against his ribs. That scent—this was it, the same alluring fragrance from the shifting ceremony.

At the same moment, Ravena, who had been strolling idly down the corridor, stopped dead in her tracks. Her wolf bristled under her skin, nose twitching, chest heaving as the very same intoxicating smell flooded her.

Her legs moved on their own, carrying her toward the source, each step fueled by something primal and undeniable.

The garden seemed to grow smaller, the world itself tightening until only the scent guided them.

And then….

Their eyes locked.

Kaelen’s grip on the flower faltered, the delicate petals trembling between his fingers. Ravena’s lips parted, disbelief shining in her eyes as her wolf howled inside her.

The air between them pulsed with a force older than both of them, sacred and inescapable.

Their voices overlapped, raw and trembling, filled with shock.

“Mate…”

      

     Liora witnessed this and was broken, her relationship with Kaelen was definitely under a test as her sister is fully involved. She ran into her small room and wept bitterly.

Two days later and Kaelen had not come to see her, she became tense and afraid, asking herself a series of questions.

“Is he doing alright”?

“Could he be thinking of a solution to approach me with”?

“ Is he worried”?

All these questions remained unanswered. When Liora could not wait any longer, she took the risk and went to the alpha's house in search of Kaelen.

Just when she was about to enter the main building, she heard her sister's laughter from the lawn, she traced her way there and hid to know if she would see Kaelen too and right there, she heard Kaelen confessing love to her sister while admitting that he doesn't love her but was with her for her beauty.

   “ Now that I have found you, my love and mate, Liora would always be the second option. I am obsessed with her but aside from her beauty, she's worthless and useless to me” Kaelen stated.

Liora's heart shattered …