Chapter 1

Alex and I have been married for 3 years.

I have long known that he has a secret lover on the side, Victoria.

Victoria was a young and beautiful she-wolf. She was wild but sweet to Alex same time, a perfect match for Alex’s taste.

She was just like a younger version of me.

Alex slept with all those she-wolves, but Victoria was different.

He wanted to take care of her. He bought her an apartment, with the money from our joint trust fund.

Victoria had a unique werewolf scent, like a special perfume.

Every time Alex stayed out all night, when he came back, I could smell her all over him.

Other wolves in the pack warned me more than once about her.

“They could fool around, it’s probably nothing. But if Alex falls in love with her, one day, he might choose her as the new Luna Queen.”

I said nothing.

The first time I met Victoria was at the Spring hunt party.

When I woke up that day, I already felt a bit unwell. My heart ached so bad.

I went to see the Healer in our pack alone.

Her hands moved gently over my body and rested over my heart.

I felt something cold inside.

She sighed and looked at me.

“The wolf venom is already near your heart. You will be lucky if you can make it to the next spring. Does our Alpha King know about your situation?”

I shook my head.

“Please promise me, you will not tell Alex.”

Honestly, I am not afraid of dying. I am only afraid of the pain.

The Healer replied, “There is a very rare antidote for this wolf venom that might work. But there was a curse on the antidote. Your mate needs to be the one to find it on the cliff of Black Could mountain, using the power of his true heart to you. And the treatment also needs a lot of money to buy other herbs.”

That meant Alex had to truly love me to get me the antidote.

I seriously doubted it.

I still went to Alex’s company to find him. I thought at least this would be a solution.

But by the time I reached Alex’s company, I changed my mind.

Victoria was there.

Victoria was assigned as Alex’s special secretary. I even heard he wanted to let her be the Gamma of our pack, but the Alpha Council rejected him.

So he kept her around, under a different title.

Alex was in a meeting, so I waited outside.

I could feel that Victoria kept staring at me. She even whispered to a colleague. But I figured she would have known I could also hear her voice as a werewolf.

“Is that Alex’s mate? She looks so ugly. I wouldn’t believe that Alex said I look like her! She looks like she is dying.”

I looked at my reflection in the crystal stone on the table.

I did look like I am dying. And I was, for real.

My hair was also messy. With how poorly I have felt these days, my eyes looked exhausted.

The colleague said in a lower voice, “That’s only because she is not dressed up. Back in the day, she was the most beautiful one among these packs in town.”

He added, “Don’t mess with her. Who knows what the Alpha King will do to protect her!”

Victoria seemed to be unhappy with what her colleague had said.

She rolled her eyes at me and then pretended to smile. She brought me a cup of herbal tea and looked at the time on purpose.

“Oh, you know what, how could Alex make you wait this long if he truly cares for you?”

She went on, “How strange! Every time I came here, he would just let me go in to see him right away. I thought his Luna Queen would be different. It turned out he cared about me more than you”

She smiled.

I noticed that she did look a bit like me when I was that young.

But sure, Alex did treat her better.

All these years, his lovers were merely tools for him to test my reaction. He would only date them for at most a week.

He only offered Victoria an apartment to live in.

I also knew that he had bought her a lot of gifts.

Because I often got notifications when he used the card to buy her things. That card was linked to our joint account.

I suppose Victoria might be the right one for him. And I was probably just a leftover obsession from a love he once couldn’t have.

I didn’t know why, but I stood up to confront her.

“If Alex loves you so much, why hasn’t he made you his Luna Queen? Why does he only let you live in a suburban apartment?”

I took a step closer and whispered.

“If you can persuade Alex to break the mate bond with me, I will step down from the Luna Queen’s position right away. I promise you.”

Victoria’s face turned red immediately.

“You know what! You are not the real Luna Queen to Alex! You are only the one who is not loved. You are the extra one in our bond!”

I said nothing.

“You were just lucky enough to meet Alex a few years earlier than I did! Look at yourself. You are old and ugly now! Alex is too good for you!”

Her colleague came over and tried to stop her from saying more.

I didn’t care.

I have already let go of all this drama.

I won’t even feel sad for anyone, let alone Victoria or Alex.

Even if I am dying, I am not the kind of mate who fights with others over a wolf.