Chapter 2

The next evening, I returned to my stone hut with my broken necklace, only to find a crowd gathered at my door.

In the center of the crowd, Ingrid was seated on the ground, clutching her calf while sobbing quietly.

There was a shallow wound on her calf that was oozing black blood. Meanwhile, Darius was down on one knee next to her, his face as dark as thunder.

"It's not Talia's fault, Alpha," Ingrid said, her tears suddenly streaming even more fiercely down her face as she looked up at me. "I should have been more careful. I shouldn't have come to find her today. I just wanted to apologize."

Darius looked up, his furious gaze landing on me.

"Ingrid purposely came here looking for you, but she tripped on the rocks outside your place that had been smothered in wolfsbane poison! She cut herself because of that!"

I looked back straight into his eyes.

"I never saw her. I only just came back from the back of the mountains."

When Darius heard me talk back, he grew even more furious with me. "So? Are you saying that Ingrid is a liar?"

I didn't answer him this time.

Ingrid spoke up in an aggrieved tone just then.

"It's not Talia's fault, Darius. I must've been too clumsy and didn't see where I was going, and those rocks in front of Talia's place… I never should have come here in the first place."

Darius firmly shielded her behind him, his icy gaze piercing into me.

"Do you know what the punishment is for werewolves who harm other pack members on purpose? Do you?"

Of course I did.

They would be exiled from the pack.

However, I never did anything to her.

"I did not harm her, Alpha."

"Then how do you explain the wound on her leg?" Darius demanded, his voice loud and clear. "You know very well that our mating ceremony is in just three days! Ingrid only thought of making amends with you this time and inviting you to the ceremony! How could you be so cruel and vicious to her?"

I looked at Ingrid.

She kept her head hung low, her shoulders trembling. But I saw her lightly clenching the hem of her dress with her fingers.

That gesture was all too familiar for me.

In my past life, she would always subconsciously do this every time she successfully framed me for something.

I averted my gaze and stressed again, saying, "I did not harm her, Alpha."

Darius flung a rock onto the ground in a burst of fury, smashing it into pieces.

"This is the last time I'm asking you, Talia Whiteclaw! Did you or did you not plant the wolfsbane poison here?"

I looked up, meeting his eyes.

Everything that happened in my past life seemed to immediately play out in my mind in quick succession—how he'd held a bowl of wolfsbane poison while I lay sprawled on the ground, heavily pregnant.

He had said, "Ingrid will never feel peace as long as you're alive."

Then, he'd forced me to swallow every drop of the poison.

I snapped back to the present.

"I was not the one who put it there," I said softly but determinedly.

Darius narrowed his eyes at me.

"Fine."

He nodded and said, "From today onward, you will be locked up in Silvermist Prison for three days, and you will not be allowed out until I say so."

Everyone around us burst into low murmurs.

Getting locked up in Silvermist Prison was the cruelest and most frightening punishment in the entire pack.

The entrance to the prison was sealed off with a large boulder, and there was no food, no water, and no light inside—only the frigid cold and the chilling, silvery mist.

The longest time someone was imprisoned there was seven days, and the werewolf had gone insane by the time he was let back out again.

Ingrid looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes.

"Alpha! Please don't do this to Talia! I don't blame her for it. She's just jealous because we're about to hold our mating ceremony soon."

Darius bent down and gently wiped her tears away. "You're just too gentle and kind for your own good."

Then, he straightened himself and looked at me with pure disgust.

"Take her away."

Two pack members immediately approached me and grabbed me by my arms.

I stared at Darius incredulously.

He knew that I was the most afraid of the dark. Grandma had passed away on a pitch-black night, and ever since then, I could never be anywhere without a source of light. I even kept the lights on when I went to sleep at night.

But now, Darius was locking me up in solitary confinement in the prison as "punishment" over such a small matter that I wasn't even responsible for.

As I was dragged past Ingrid, she looked up at me for a second, and I could see the smug, victorious look in her eyes.

…

Silvermist Prison was located at the bottom of a canyon.

The massive boulder at the entrance was rolled slightly to the side to reveal a tiny opening. Then, I was roughly shoved inside, followed by a loud, muffled thud behind me.

Darkness instantly engulfed me.

I groped my way against the rock wall. It was as cold as ice, and I could feel the silvery mist seeping into my very being, my heart, and my soul.

It was cold.

Freezing.

I closed my eyes and clutched the deformed pendant in my hands, holding it to my chest.

"Just a while more, Grandma."

I'd finally be able to leave the pack as soon as I got out of here.