Chapter 2

"She’s just trying to save face," one of the she-wolves in the circle whispered loudly. "As if she'd ever give up the chance to be the Luna of the Eclipse Pack."

"Exactly," Jaxon chimed in, laughing. "We all know you’ve been trailing after Nyxen since we were kids, Lucy. You'd swallow broken glass before you let another woman have him. Nice try on the reverse psychology, though."

Nyxen took another step closer, leaning in so only I could hear him, his breath hot against my ear. "You think your pathetic act would earn my attention?" he whispered, his tone venomous. "You love me so much that you can even die for me, Lucy. You're incapable of walking away from me. Stop embarrassing yourself, accept that Aphra will be by my side, and perform your duties."

He pulled back, offering me a patronizing hand, waiting for me to take it and prove to the room that he had me tamed.

He wasn't wrong, though. In my previous life, I had believed all his pathetic lies; no one would just because he would offer me some comforting words and had been gentle to me ever since we mated.

I believed it was our mate bond that had changed his heart and he could finally see my efforts.

It was only when I was looking for a new villa on a hillside to secure a place for our old age that I witnessed him making a snowman with a little wolf who called him ‘Daddy’.

Not long after, a familiar figure appeared, wrapping her hands around his waist as she whispered, “Hubby, I’m cold.”

It was Aphra.

He kissed her passionately and said, “Go inside. After distracting our pup, I’m coming to warm you, sweetheart.”

That was when I realised Nyxen had never changed his heart. In his heart, it had always been Aphra. Ten years of my devotion meant nothing to him. He had built his own family, and I was just a puppet to show the world. That was why he never agreed to have kids with me. I was never meant to be.

That memory—was the last thing that clawed through my mind as I lay dying in the hospital, the poisoned blade I had taken for him still burning in my chest, while he and Aphra stood by, waiting excitedly for my death.

I looked at his outstretched hand, then looked up into his arrogant, reborn eyes. I didn't take it. Instead, I raised my glass to him in a mocking toast.

"Believe what you want," I said softly, the ice in my voice sending a visible shiver down the spines of the wolves closest to me.

I walked to the corner of the hall and sat alone while he openly flirted with Aphra, kissing and caressing her thighs. But watching me so relaxed and completely unaffected by the affection he was showing Aphra, he groaned in frustration.

Unable to bear it, he wrapped Aphra in his arms and walked up to me. “Lucy. Aphra and I are going to the southern cottage… to enjoy the night. You come with us. Now.”

My hands pause. The southern cottage was a secluded, luxurious guest lodge on the edge of the pack lands, built only for the Alpha couples of the pack.

“Why?” I replied coldly.If you need security, call the enforcers.”

A low, arrogant chuckle vibrated through his lips. “I don’t need security. I need the Lunar Lily extract from your family’s private greenhouse. Bring the scent-suppressing oil version. Bring it right now.”

The breath caught in my throat, a familiar, agonizing ache flaring up in my chest before I ruthlessly crushed it.

The Lunar Lily extract. It was a rare, highly guarded herb that my family cultivated. When refined into an oil. It had many benefits. Two of them were that, when applying to she- wolf’s private part, it acted as a powerful fertility block and comfort, ensuring a male wolf could spend the night with a female without any accidental shifting or hurting her.

In my previous life, he never used that oil on me. Once when I was sick, and his wolf was unstable, I requested him to let me apply on me. But he refused coldly, saying he liked it rough.

But now with Aphra, he chose her comfort over everything. And the audacity… he was asking his betrothed—to act as his personal courier so he could safely spend the night with another she-wolf.