Chapter 1

Nilah's POV

“Ack! Ack!” A cough hacked through my body, making me tremble from weakness. A tired breath escaped my lips as I looked around, feeling weaker than ever. The hospital room I was in smelled of antiseptic and the slow, creeping scent of my own body which was gradually decaying. For six months, this rare sickness I had, had been stripping the life from my bones. They said it only hit one in a hundred werewolves. I used to think I was just unlucky. One thing I also knew was that I was dying.

One of the symptoms of my sickness was bleeding from three or more orifices. It was the last stage of the sickness, and a few minutes ago, I had bled from my mouth, eyes, nose and ears. Even till now, I could barely see, but it was still enough for me to see Kendrick, my mate and Alex, my son, one last time.

I reached for my phone, my fingers trembling so violently I almost dropped it. It took me almost everything I had to control my fingers to move to the direction I wanted them to move, then once I got a little bit of control, I dialed Kendrick's number. The line was busy at first, then it rang twice.

Then the call was suddenly picked up. I didn't waste any time speaking. “Kendrick?" I rasped, my voice dry and hoarse. "Kendrick, where are you? I… I really want to see you. I… I don't have much time, can you come to the hospital to see me? Please?” I begged, my voice getting smaller the more I spoke.

But there was no response. At first, I thought he had picked up accidentally, but then I heard a soft moan through the speaker, followed by a louder moan and the sounds of… sex?

The owner of the moan had a voice that sounded so familiar. It was light and familiar, I immediately recognised it. Stephanie, the Beta’s daughter. 

I was about to scold her when another familiar voice echoed from the phone. "You’re incredible, Steph.” It was Kendrick and his voice was thick with a satisfaction he hadn't shown me in years. "Best performance yet. Gods, I’ve missed this."

“What are you talking about?” Stephanie said coquettishly. “Don't forget that Nilah is still in the hospital. If she hears that her husband and friend are both having sex on her bed while she's in the hospital, isn't she going to spit out blood and die?” she said teasingly.

“Oh don't sound so innocent. We've been having sex for a very long time, even before I proposed to that bitch. She won't find out. But if she would die earlier, she could save us all the trouble of having to pretend around her and walk on eggshells.” Kendrick admitted, clicking his tongue. Stephanie and Kendrick let out a bout of laughter and then the call disconnected.

My phone slipped from my hand, clattering onto the ground. My heart rate monitor began to spike, and loud beep, beep, noises filled the hospital room.

Ping.

A message notification. With the last of my strength, I looked at the screen. It was a video. I didn't have to hit play for long to see the sweat-slicked skin, the tangled limbs and the way Stephanie and Kendrick were all over each other. The beep noises got louder and I lost control all over my body, my nose and ears had started bleeding once more and before I knew it, painful spasms threw me to the ground. Darkness rushed in, I couldn't see any longer.

"We’re losing her!!"

"Nilah, stay with us! Breathe!"

“Take her to the ER!!”

“Oh no! She's going cold rapidly!”

“We're going to lose her!”

Gradually, I lost all sense of hearing, only a faint ringing echoed in my ears. I knew that I was dead. I really died.

All those nights I stayed in the lab, all those remedies I perfected just so he wouldn’t regret choosing a wolfless Luna—

For this?

For him to betray me…and wait for me to die like it was an inconvenience finally being cleared away.

I refused to accept it! If I have a second chance, I will keep my eyes wide open and never make the same mistake again.

Then something happened. The frantic voices of nurses and doctors dimmed, then suddenly, everything became sharp again. I could see again. Below me lay a body on the hospital bed, pale and horrifyingly still. Tubes ran from its arms, its nose, its mouth. Dried blood crusted around its features like a grotesque mask. The once-strong shoulders that had carried research files through sleepless nights now looked fragile, almost skeletal.

It took me a few seconds to realise that stranger was me.

A hollow laugh rose within me, I wanted to scream, to shake myself awake, to demand that the Moon Goddess reverse whatever cruel joke she was playing, yet nothing happened. My spirit lingered helplessly in the room. The door burst open and more medical staff rushed in. They worked around my body with professional urgency, their expressions tight with defeat. One of them finally stepped back and pulled down his mask.

He let out a heavy sigh. “We did everything we could. She eventually died.”

Gone. The word echoed inside me. Minutes later, the police arrived. They asked questions, scribbled notes, and examined the lifeless body. I drifted near them, desperate to be heard, desperate to make them understand that I was still right there. I waved my hands in front of their faces. I screamed until my throat burned. None of them reacted, they couldn't see me.

“Call her mate and tell him the news.”

“Okay.”

Immediately, the scent changed and I was pushed into the house Kendrick and I shared. Then Kendrick appeared. Hope flared inside me so suddenly that it hurt. Even after everything I had heard on that call, some foolish part of me still believed he would feel regret, that he would at least mourn the woman who had stood beside him for years. He was holding his phone with an expression I could decipher.

“Mr Kendrick, your wife didn’t make it.”

For a brief second, Kendrick’s face remained blank. Then his lips curved into a smile. “Well, that took long enough,” he muttered under his breath, though not quietly enough for me to miss it. “I thought she’d cling on forever.”

I froze.

He did not even pretend to look devastated. Instead, he thanked the doctor with casual politeness and turned away. I felt something inside me crack. But then, Stephanie stepped out, adjusting her hair with a satisfied smile.

“Good riddance,” she said lightly.

Kendrick chuckled, the sound warm and affectionate. “Honestly, if she hadn’t died tonight, we would have had to move forward with the plan. The Council was already getting suspicious about the drug’s authorship. Once she published her name as the primary researcher, it would have complicated things. This is better. I didn’t even have to dirty my hands.”

My mind reeled. What the hell was he talking about?

Stephanie burst into laughter, the sound sharp and cruel. “Stop lying to yourself, Kendrick. You’ve been dirty for a long time. Did you forget who suggested this slow poisoning in the first place?”

He stiffened and unease flickered across his features. “We had no choice,” he replied after a pause. “She was too capable. If she had remained healthy, she would have outshone both of us so it was necessary.”

Poison. So that was it. That was why a woman who had trained daily, who had eaten carefully, who had never once fallen seriously ill, had suddenly begun coughing blood six months ago. That was why every treatment had failed. Why my strength had drained away no matter how hard I fought. They had been killing me slowly and patiently. Shock flooded me first, then rage so intense it felt like fire. I wanted to claw their faces, to tear their hearts out, to make them feel even a fraction of the agony they had inflicted on me. But before I could even process it all, a powerful force tugged at me again.

The next moment, I found myself standing at the gathering hall of the Silver Moon Pack. Time passed quickly and within three days of my death, Kendrick stood before the Werewolf Council, presenting research papers that had taken me years to perfect. He spoke confidently about the anti–silver poisoning drug, about its revolutionary potential, about his dedication to the pack’s future. They praised him.

I screamed at them to stop.

A grand ceremony followed almost immediately. Stephanie walked towards Kendrick, her smile radiant with triumph. When he marked her before everyone, cheers erupted into the night. 

And then—a figure I knew too well ran forward. Alex. My son. The child I had loved, protected, and comforted with everything I had.

He threw himself into Stephanie’s arms. “Mom!”

What? My chest twisted painfully.

Why was he calling ‘her’

Mom?

She hugged him back, tears of joy glittering in her eyes. “Finally,” she said softly. “After all these years, our family can be together openly. And that woman pretending to be your mother is finally gone, aren't you happy?”

Alex hesitated for a second before raising his head. “I… I was getting tired of her nagging anyway,” he muttered.

Stephenie stroked his hair gently. “You don’t have to pretend anymore.”

His expression relaxed. “It’s good that she’s gone,” he said, more firmly this time. “Only you can be my real mother.”

“Ha… hahahaha…” The sound tore out of my throat, raw and broken, my body shaking uncontrollably. I couldn’t believe it. “All those years… everything I gave…” My voice cracked. “Even Alex, the child I raised wasn’t mine… it was all a lie.”

Once again, I was pulled back by the same force and found myself back in the hospital. A group of people wearing uniforms had surrounded my body, wearing clothes on me and packing me into a bag. They murmured a few words to each other and before I could even wonder who they were, or even try to find out, darkness swallowed everything. I fell unconscious.