Chapter 3

The sharp smell of antiseptic stung my nose. I slowly opened my eyes to a world of sterile, freezing white.

"You're awake? Then stop playing dead."

A cold, familiar voice echoed by the bed.

I turned my head and saw Julian in his white healer's coat.

He was the pack's lead healer, and one of my former targets.

Once, when I was spiraling into severe depression from Caleb's emotional abuse—terrified of failing my mission and on the verge of a breakdown—Julian had saved me.

He listened to my secrets. He took me on midnight drives by the ocean. He stayed up all night with me on mountain peaks looking at the stars, and when I cried from nightmares, he would pull me into a gentle hug and whisper, "Don't be afraid, I'm here."

He even broke his own rules, bringing me into his private lab where no one else was allowed, letting me handle his most prized medicinal herbs.

Back then, his love meter hit eighty. I really thought I could win him over.

But when Chloe cried about the rogue attack, Julian's warmth turned to biting frost.

In front of the whole pack, he threw my depression medical records right in my face. The paper gave me a paper cut on my cheek, drawing blood.

"Freya, how can you do something so vicious and still have the nerve to fake an illness for sympathy? You make me sick!"

That day, his love meter plummeted to zero.

"Healer Julian," I croaked. I didn't look sad at his coldness like I used to. "Why am I here? Who brought me in?"

Julian frowned, a flash of irritation in his eyes.

"You don't know? Didn't you fake passing out just to end up in my clinic, trying to get my attention?"

I didn't even have the energy to explain.

I was just so tired. Even breathing felt like it was draining the little life I had left.

Seeing that I wasn't frantically defending myself or crying like before, Julian's frown deepened.

My silence—and the heavy aura of death clinging to me—made him inexplicably anxious and irritated.

"Don't look at me with that half-dead expression!" Julian ripped off his gloves roughly. "This is a clinic. I don't want anyone seeing you with me. Come back to my apartment. I already called Caleb."

I didn't have the strength to fight him, so I let him drag me back to his private apartment.

Not long after, the door flew open.

Caleb strode in, followed closely by Victor—who had just finished his bonding ceremony—and Chloe, who was carefully tucked against Victor's side.

The moment Chloe saw me, she flinched, shrinking into Victor's arms like a terrified little rabbit.

"Victor... I'm scared..." Her voice shook, her eyes instantly welling with tears.

Victor's face turned terrifyingly dark. His Alpha warrior eyes locked onto me like daggers.

"Freya, are you hellbent on making everything about you?!" Victor suppressed his roar. "Today is my bonding ceremony. First you harass Caleb, now Julian. Have you no shame?!"

"Wasn't hurting her enough for you?" Caleb sneered. "Freya, are you done with your little games? Apologize to Chloe immediately!"

I gazed at the three men standing before me. The men I once thought were the most important people in my life, who now wished I was dead. Then I glanced at Chloe hiding behind them, a faint, hidden smirk on her lips.

Suddenly, I started to laugh.

The laughter grew louder, sounding harsh and manic in the empty apartment.

"What are you laughing at, you psycho?!" Victor snapped in disgust.

I stopped laughing, wiping a tear from the corner of my eye, and slowly scanned each of them.

Since I only had less than seven days to live, and the mission was already a failure, why should I keep carrying the blame for things I never did?

"What if I told you... she was the one who hired those rogues to attack me?"