Sang Pemilik Takdir Langit dan Tujuh Wanitanya yang Cantik

I was still staggering when I left the freezer. Eliana's friends kept streaming.

The camera tracked me. Every face wore a smirk; every laugh cut.

"Is our Luna really this weak? Half an hour in the cold and she's already done? How will she survive the marking ceremony?"

"She might as well give the title to Eliana!"

Photos of me raced across the pack forum.

Both knees on the ice, my head resting against the door, my fingertips frozen blue.

The headline read, "Westridge Alpha and His Secretary Break Their Luna."

Rumors spread until someone finally pointed out, "The Luna is from the Meadowland pack. It's spring there year-round. I heard she has some kind of medical condition..."

Theodore dismissed the warning.

"Doctors always give you the worst-case scenario. She's a wolf. There's no way a little cold could hurt her!"

He did not stop the spectacle. He even sent the photo to the wolf officiating the next day's marking ceremony.

"Put this on display at the venue before the ceremony."

I pulled off the oxygen mask the doctor had fitted over my face and stared at him.

"Delete it!"

He had not expected me to talk back.

"What did you say?"

"I said, delete it!"

Theodore opened the photo right in front of me.

"Lyra Bennett, if you can't handle it, don't pick a fight with me."

"Everyone saw you today. You put on that half-dead act to make us feel sorry for you, didn't you?"

The pack doctor cut my sleeve open, and the skin underneath had gone purple with cold.

"She's experiencing acute hemolysis. Call hematology now."

Theodore frowned.

"She loves to perform. It isn't nearly that serious."

The pack doctor looked up, his voice tight.

"Alpha! The Luna's lips are turning blue-black, and her blood pressure is dropping. Any longer and she could die."

That finally scared Theodore. He moved toward me.

Then Eliana made a show of fainting, careful to make enough noise.

When Theodore turned, he saw a cut less than half an inch long on Eliana's arm. No one had noticed when it happened.

He hurried over and took her hand, his voice full of concern. "Why is it bleeding?"

He lowered his head and blew gently on the cut, then snapped at the staff.

"What's wrong with all of you? The door is broken, and no one noticed?"

I spent half an hour locked in a freezer, and he called me ungrateful.

Eliana shed a few drops of blood, and he was ready to put the entire pack on trial.

I motioned for the paramedics to take me to the hospital. Then Theodore seemed to remember something.

He stopped them and warned me not to be late for the ceremony the next day.

The doctor tried to explain, panic in his voice. "Alpha! We need to run tests first. If her condition is severe, she may need to be admitted."