Chapter 3

Thorne saw the pain in my eyes, and his expression softened with reluctance. He walked over, trying to take my hand, but I dodged him.

He didn't get angry. Instead, he just shook his head with a hint of helplessness. "I didn't tell you because I was afraid you'd worry.

"I saved Willow. That means I'm responsible for her. Protecting her is what I should do. Can't you stop making such a big deal out of something so small?"

"Something small?" I murmured under my breath.

I still recalled how last year, when I'd nearly drained all my blood essence cultivating the Moonlight Flowers and passed out, I begged Thorne to share just a bit of his wolf's energy to help me pull through.

Thorne's eyes held pity when he found out, but he still refused.

"Cultivating Moonlight Flowers requires your own blood essence. It's a trial every Luna Queen throughout history has endured. You can't cheat."

So for me, it was all about being independent, strong, and patient. For Willow, it was endless indulgence, coddling, and protection.

The pathetic part was that back then, I actually believed he had my best interests at heart. Now, I finally understood that he was never incapable of helping me—he just didn't want to.

I forced down the stabbing pain in my chest and gave him one last chance. "If you're willing to drain your wolf's energy to suppress her wolfsbane poisoning, can't you help me just once?

"I don't want your energy. I just want to hold the bonding ceremony with you to stabilize my wolf. Even if it's just going through the motions, is that too much to ask?"

Thorne frowned as if I'd disappointed him.

"Sera! Since when did you start lying? Your wolf has always been stable, and your body's perfectly healthy. How could it possibly collapse?

"I know you're jealous, but don't use lies like this to get my attention. As for the bonding ceremony, I already told you that once the Moonlight Flowers are sufficient, I'll give you the grandest ceremony you can imagine."

He stopped looking at me. With his arm around Willow's waist, he turned to leave the flower garden. A metallic taste surged up my throat. I forced myself to swallow it down.

In Thorne's eyes, I was just a vain she-wolf who only cared about having a grand ceremony. But at the end of the day, I wanted to bond with him because I loved him.

"Alpha King," I said quietly, "if you don't want to bond with me, then let's just not…"

But before I could finish, Willow suddenly turned around and cut me off.

"Oh! Sera, I forgot to take the Moonlight Flowers with me."

I stepped forward, blocking her greedy gaze toward the flower garden, and frowned. "What do you mean?"

She tugged on Thorne's arm, her smile radiant. "Thanks to your Moonlight Flowers, my bloodline has improved. They've done so much to ease the pain from my wolfsbane poisoning.

"The Alpha King said once my bloodline rises another level, he'll give me a high-ranking position in the Bloodmoon pack."

Hearing this, my knees went weak, and I could barely stay standing.

Outsiders only saw the beauty of Moonlight Flowers in bloom. They didn't know that every single flower fed on me.

I had to cut open my wrist when the moon rose and let the blood drip through my fingers, drop by drop, into the soil. Before the blood cooled, I had to finish watering them all.

More than once, my vision had blurred before the flowers fully bloomed.

I'd felt dizzy, nauseous, with my heart racing. But the next day, I still had to get up and tend to the flowers.

Winter was the hardest. The cold made the flowers struggle to survive. I knelt in the snow until my knees went numb, just so the roots could absorb the freshest drop of blood.

Once, I passed out right there in the flower garden. When I woke up, dawn had already broken.

For years, every Moonlight Flower I grew went to Thorne. He said he would treasure them as proof of my love for him, so no one would suspect I was reusing old flowers to meet the count.

I believed him. But it turned out he'd been giving the Moonlight Flowers to Willow all along.

He was just using my life to extend hers.