Chapter 4

I wiped the blood from my cheek, letting the wound heal on its own, and rushed out of the center.

On the way home, my phone wouldn't stop buzzing.

A glance showed it was all notifications from the pack group chat. I opened it. It was full of messages condemning me.

"A disgrace like that has no right to be a healer!"

"The Alpha should just exile her!"

I switched off my phone, my face a mask of indifference.

I'd heard it all before in my past life.

I pushed open the door to my house. The living room was empty. My parents and Cora were probably still out, cleaning up the mess for their precious "victim."

I went straight upstairs to my room and checked the paper recipes I kept hidden in my drawer.

They were all there.

I couldn't understand it.

If the paper copies were still here, how did Cora know what I had just written?

Could she really read my thoughts?

My phone started vibrating violently again. This time it wasn't group messages. It was call after call from unknown numbers, spewing insults.

I turned it off and leaned back on my bed.

Images from my past life flooded my mind.

After I was exiled, I hid in a rundown apartment. My phone rang off the hook, but I was too afraid to answer. At night, Cora's fanatics would surround my apartment, throwing vile concoctions of wolfsbane and liquid silver at my windows. The stench was nauseating, and the seeping silver made my skin break out in sores.

I hid inside, too afraid to go out, surviving on what little food I had.

I hid for over a week.

When I finally worked up the courage to go to a convenience store for food late at night, they recognized me before I even reached the door. A few low-ranked wolves cornered me in an alley, throwing sharp rocks at my head. They spit on me, cursing me, telling me to die.

By then, my wolf was on the verge of shattering. My spirit was dead. This pack I was once so proud of... every breath of its air felt thick with a sickening stench.

The only thing I missed was Grandma Nora and her farm full of moon-grass.

But I never made it back.

As I was running for the station, a silver bullet, packed with high-concentration wolfsbane, shot clean through my heart. The searing pain of my blood boiling and my bones dissolving consumed me. In my last moments, I could hear the cheers of Cora's fanatical followers...

The memory cut off.

I opened my eyes and realized my face was wet with tears.

I was done.

Why should I have to prove my innocence to these brainless sheep? Why should I stay in this swamp of lies and play their sick games?

No. I would not repeat the tragedy of my past life.

Since these people believed Cora so much, since my parents wanted a "genius healer" daughter so badly...

Fine. I'll give them what they want.

She likes to steal? Then she can have the damn spotlight.

I stood up and started packing a bag.

I was quitting this circus.

I opened my laptop and wrote my resignation.

"Alpha Kellan,

I am resigning from the healing center. I am also withdrawing from the competition.

Effective immediately.

Freya"

Sent.

If I couldn't figure out how Cora was stealing the thoughts from my head, then I would simply stop thinking about it.

I just won't write anything.

Let's see what kind of potion she comes up with now.