Chapter 2

I slowly pulled my gaze away from them.

I stared at Sarah. Her face was seventy percent identical to mine, but she always received so much more love.

"Are you sure? No matter what?"

Sarah gave our mother a comforting look. Then she answered me decisively.

"Absolutely not!"

"My health check for the Moon Goddess Festival is in three days. I have to be in perfect condition. I can't ruin my future because of you."

"Well said," I whispered. "Someone else's life certainly isn't as important as your exam."

My father finally lost all his patience.

"Leave our pack. And don't ever come back. Our pack has no place for a selfish, cold-blooded member like you."

He pointed to the door.

"If you upset your mother today, I swear I won't let you get away with it!"

Damien also walked over. He slipped the moonstone bracelet, our symbol of betrothal, from his wrist. He placed it on the table with a click.

"Ella, we're over."

"The way you are now... you're too extreme. You are too terrifying. We're not right for each other."

Then, his voice dropped. It became formal and sharp.

"I, Alpha Damien of the CrimsonMoon Pack, reject you, Ella of the Blackwood Pack, as my mate."

The words ripped through me.

An unimaginable pain tore at my soul. It felt as if my wolf was being physically ripped in half.

I staggered back. A gasp escaped my lips.

In that moment, I finally saw everything clearly.

Family. Love.

In their hearts, none of it was worth a single strand of Sarah's hair.

I had once begged so humbly. I tried so hard to please them.

I thought if I just worked hard enough, one day I could truly be part of this family.

Now I understood. I was wrong.

An extra person is always extra.

I looked at them calmly.

I watched them clear a path for me to the door.

They were waiting for me to leave. Like trash being taken out.

My heart was a barren wasteland.

I looked my father straight in the eye.

"If you wanted me gone so badly, why did you have me in the first place?"

"Did Mother not fight back? Or could you just not control yourself?"

My father's face turned beet red.

He swung his hand.

A sharp slap cracked across my cheek. The burning pain was instant.

I touched my face. My heart was numb.

I turned to my mother.

"And you. Stop crying."

"Your act of the pitiful victim is disgusting."

"When you were pregnant with me, did Father force you? With your personality, getting rid of me shouldn't have been too difficult."

My mother's crying stopped abruptly. She pointed at me. Her whole body was shaking.

"You monster!"

Damien rushed over and grabbed my wrist. His eyes blazed with fury.

"Ella! How can you speak to your elders like that?"

The hall erupted into chaos.

My father's second slap landed squarely on my face.

Warm liquid gushed from my nose.

"Get out!"

He pointed to the door. He roared like a beast.

"From this day on, I, Alpha Warren, will act as if I never had you as a daughter! We sever all ties!"

I instinctively covered my stomach.

For this little life I hadn't even met yet, I couldn't be weak anymore.

I wiped the blood from my nose. I stared him down.

"Fine."

"You said it."

"From this day forward, we have nothing to do with each other. No one is to contact the other."

Sarah shrieked through her tears.

"That's right! Whoever contacts the other first is cursed by the Moon Goddess to know no peace for eternity!"

A bleak smile touched my lips.

I took the real diagnosis report from my bag.

It was the corrected one the healer had just messaged me.

I threw it on the table, along with the bracelet.

"Very good, Sarah."

"Remember the oath you made today."

"You can keep these things."

"You might need to sell that bracelet to pay for your funeral."

I pointed at the paper.

"The healer mixed up the names on the first report. I'm not sick."

"You are."