Chapter 2

I fled the party in disgrace.

That night, a blizzard raged outside. I lay awake, staring at the ceiling, before finally dozing off past midnight. After some time, I was jolted awake by the piercing sound of a phone ringing.

"Ms. Lincoln? Please come to the border hospital at once! Your mother was mauled by a Rogue. The healers are still trying to save her."

In an instant, all of my sleepiness vanished. My heart started pounding wildly.

"You're way better than her, babe. She just lies there like a dead fish…"

This explained why I felt the familiar burning sensation from our mate bond after I'd woken up.

As I swallowed back my bile, I hammered on the door. "Sebastian! Open up! Sebastian!"

Lately, Rogues had been sighted near the border of the werewolf territory. As the Alpha, Sebastian had given a strict order that no werewolves were to go near the border at night without his permission. Anyone caught would be executed on the spot.

This meant that I needed his approval to go to the hospital.

It felt like an entire century had passed before the door was finally opened.

Sebastian stood there in a loose robe, his chest covered in hickeys. Isabella was clinging to his waist like a koala bear.

"You'd better have an actual emergency," Sebastian snarled darkly.

"My mom was attacked by a Rogue at the border! Please let me go to the hospital!" I begged tearfully.

"It's not good to lie, Cassandra," Isabella remarked with a feigned syrupy smile. "It's 4:00 am, and there's a blizzard outside. Why would your mom go to the border?"

Sebastian sneered as well. "Are you doing this to get my attention? Or are you trying to get even with me? Either way, you're asking for it!"

He shoved me violently into the room and locked the door from the outside.

"Sebastian! I'm telling the truth! Please, I'm begging you! Let me out! My mom's life is in danger!"

I pounded my fists against the door in desperation, but all I got in response was the sound of Sebastian walking away.

Now drowning in despair, I slumped to the floor.

No. I couldn't give up like that.

My eyes flew around the room before landing on the window. After roughly wiping my tears away, I grabbed a heavy ornament and banged it against the bulletproof glass with all my strength. I kept doing it until my hands were covered in blood, but at last, the window cracked.

Sebastian's room was on the 7th floor. There was no way anyone could make a safe landing from that height, but I couldn't care about that right now. Unleashing my wolf strength, I leapt through the window.

The wind howled in my ears as I kept my eyes fixed on the ground, attempting to find a place to land that wouldn't kill me.

All of a sudden, a black silhouette streaked out. A massive black wolf lunged at me. His warm, large body shielded me completely. I fell safely on top of him, and we rolled in the snow.

After scrambling back onto my feet in a panic, I met a pair of familiar eyes. It was Damian Thorne, my best friend when I was young.

Damian placed me on his back before running straight to the border.

"Damian, why are you in Sebastian's territory?" I asked.

He was the Alpha of another pack. To my knowledge, there hadn't been any Alpha gatherings lately. What was he doing here, in the dead of night?

However, he stayed quiet. All I could do was stare at his solid back.

Damian had changed from the moment Sebastian and I got together.

Sometimes, I wondered if some witch had stolen away the gentle Damian I once knew.

We were almost at the hospital when he finally said, "The Cassandra Lincoln I knew was brave, proud, and loved to laugh. Look at what you've become."

I had no reply. He was right. As we passed by a frozen lake, I caught the reflection of my gaunt, haggard face. I felt like a stranger to myself, too.

"Once you've come back to your senses, you can come to me. I'll help you," Damian said before placing me down.

He'd turned back into the Damian I was familiar with. After dusting off the snow, he passed me a business card. My heart ached as I clutched the card that was still warm from his touch.

However, I had no time to dwell on my sorrow. I rushed into the hospital.

But before I could ask about my mother, a doctor came out, pushing a stretcher with a white sheet draped over it.

"Ms. Lincoln?" The healer's eyes brimmed with pity. "I'm so sorry. She was stabbed in the heart with a silver weapon… We tried our best."

The world seemed to have gone silent and started spinning. Although the healer's lips were still moving, I couldn't hear a thing.

I staggered forward, gasping for air as I stood before the stretcher. Eventually, I pulled back the white sheet with a trembling hand.

Mother's beautiful face was now covered in wounds. There was a frightening black hole in her chest.

I tried to speak, but my tears came first. A heart-wrenching agony consumed me. It hurt. This was too much pain for me to bear. It suffocated me. I felt like I was about to faint.

I once resented Mother deeply when I found out had tossed me naked onto Sebastian's bed. I'd assumed that if she hadn't interfered, Sebastian and I would've been able to live happily ever after.

But later on, I unearthed the cruel truth. The bankruptcy that befell Father's pack was merely an excuse. It turned out that since I was little, I'd been suffering from a bloodline curse. Only the mark of an Alpha could keep me alive.

Sebastian's father, Francis Garland, scorned me, for Father's pack was too weak to be of any use to him. Thus, he didn't allow Sebastian to mark me.

That was why Mother resorted to extreme measures.

It wasn't the Silver Moon disease that nearly took my life back then. It'd been the curse taking effect.

"Your mother waited as long as she could. She wanted to see you one last time. She asked me to give you this." The healer passed me a medicinal herb. "She said she crossed the border to bring this to you, saying, 'The time has come again, and we can't afford any delays.'"

The herb could ease the pain that came whenever the symptoms of the bloodline curse struck every three months.

My mother had gone through far too much just for the sake of her cursed daughter. She'd even sacrificed her life to help me one last time.

I clutched the herb as I crumpled onto the floor of the cold and empty hospital lobby, sobbing my heart out.

It felt like the hole in my heart could never be filled again. No amount of tears could wash away the pain.

My father died a year ago. And now, my mother, the only family I had left in this world, was gone as well.

If Sebastian had believed me and let me out, then maybe I could've seen Mother one last time.

But there were no maybes in life. He'd continued to waste away the chances I'd sworn to give him. I didn't know how much time was left before he used up the 99th chance, but I knew it wouldn't take much longer.