Chapter 3

Only for the pup's sake? How could he still claim innocence?

I felt it was sarcastic, and I heard him sigh in regret.

"If only I hadn't ingested the wolfsbane by accident, I would never be forced to touch another she-wolf, nor would my darling have had to suffer.

Besides you, I never wanted to touch any other she-wolf."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Rebecca's cry pierced the den from the floor below.

Terrence wrenched himself away from me with the speed of a startled wolf, bolting downstairs with frantic, single-minded urgency.

The force of his movement slammed me backward. My temple cracked sickeningly against the sharp edge of the door handle. The blood gushed out and streamed down my face, blurring my vision with a crimson haze.

After what felt like an eternity, the bleeding from my forehead finally stopped, leaving only a burning pain.

Minutes later, staggering upright through the pain, I froze at the top of the stairs.

Through the banister rails, I saw them. Terrence stood at the grand entrance, holding Rebecca.

Her eyes were theatrically red and brimming with tears. He was barking orders at a cluster of the pack warriors, "Rip them out! By the roots! Every last cursed-thorned weed! NOW!"

He had planted them himself the year he stood before the pack and claimed me as his Luna.

"They bloom as fiercely as my love for you, Lila," he'd vowed under the full moon, "it is eternal and unyielding. It is a testament until my last breath fades beneath the Moon Goddess's gaze."

Agony, sharper than any pain, lanced through my chest, stealing my breath. My heart shattered into pieces.

I stumbled down the stairs, but Terrence caught my arm in a grip like iron, his Alpha strength effortlessly halting me.

His golden eyes, when they met my pain-filled ones, held a flicker of something, perhaps it was because of my unmistakable pain.

But Rebecca's soft whimper swept away the flicker, and he became the cold and impatient Alpha.

"Useless thorns. They scratched Rebecca. Drew her precious blood. They're a hazard to my pups and their mother. Remove them. Every trace." His voice held the finality of an Alpha decree.

Eyes burning, I watched as the maids tore out the roses I'd tenderly cared for 8 years.

Roots tore with sickening cracks, and the blossoms, symbols of a dead promise, were crushed mercilessly under heavy boots, staining the soil like spilled lifeblood.

"NO!" The cry tore from my throat, raw and guttural.

Tears streamed down my face, mingling with the drying blood on my temple, as I couldn't hold back any longer and lunged forward.

Terrence yanked me back hard before I could reach them, his claws pricking my fur.

"ENOUGH, LILA!" he roared, the full force of his Alpha aura crashing over me like a physical wave, demanding submission. "Must you endanger Rebecca and my pup with your hysterics? Is your jealousy truly so venomous, so poisonous, that you'd risk their safety over mere weeds?" His eyes blazed with fury.

He stepped forward deliberately, grinding the trampled roses under his polished boot.

He warned me ruthlessly, "This is your only warning, Lila. If you try to harm Rebecca again, the consequences will make this seem like mercy."

I stared at him as if every breath was thick with the metallic tang of pain.

I could not help but cry.

He hadn't just crushed the flowers. He had ground 8 years of vows, of love, of shared moonlight, into the unforgiving dirt.

Seeing my tears, he could not bear to stab me in my heart. "Lila..."

Rebecca chose that exact moment to gasp dramatically, clutching her chest as if pierced. She held up a single finger adorned with a ridiculously tiny bandage.

"Terrence..." she wheezed, her voice breathy with weakness, collapsing even more heavily against him. "I can't... breathe... The scratch... perhaps it bled more within than we saw.

If Luna Lila loves the roses so deeply... perhaps... plant them back? I'll endure the pain. She is your Luna, after all..."

"Nonsense! You are the mother of my pups! No one will make you suffer!"

Then he bellowed, "Doctor! Attend the mother of my pups!"

Rebecca sighed weakly. "It's useless, I am weak, as you know. The pack witch said only a moonstone pendant, blessed beneath the stones of Moonstone Temple, can truly calm such a shock to the soul."

My blood ran cold, freezing the very marrow in my bones.

My hand flew instinctively to my neck, clutching the smooth, cool surface of the moonstone pendant hidden beneath my collar.

That was my mother's final gift, the last tangible piece of her soul.

After her death, Terrence found a master carver to weave moonlight and memory into stone. He had embedded a lock of her ashes within the sacred moonstone. He tried to comfort me in this way.

Now he frowned, conflict flashing in his eyes, but Rebecca began to weep theatrically.

Rebecca let out a pitiful, heart-wrenching sob. "Forget it, Terrence. Luna's treasures... aren't for someone like me... a mere vessel... just a tool for bearing pups. Our poor pup suffers because of my weakness... my unworthiness..."

The hesitation vanished from Terrence. And it was replaced by steely resolve.

"Lila, lend Rebecca the moonstone pendant till the pup is born safely beneath the moon." He held out his hand, palm up. "It was an order, not a request. She'll return it."

My eyes burned, and I could not help trembling. "Terrence... my mother's ashes are inside..."

He cut me off sharply. "She's been dusted for years, Lila! Stop clinging to the dust! If her spirit protects Rebecca and secures my pup's safe arrival, surely it brings you good fortune too."

"Give it to me, now. Don't make me take it from you." His claws flexed slightly at his sides.

I knew resistance was utterly futile.

He had razed my roses over Rebecca's phantom scratch.

Then he would shatter my mother's final resting place over a lie spun by her. My wolf lay broken within me.

Numbly, I removed the moonstone pendant.

Malice glittered openly, triumphantly, in Rebecca's eyes as she reached for it.

"Auntie's ashes are within this sacred pendant? Then I shall guard it with the utmost care, Luna Lila."

Crack!

Her fingers just brushed mine, and then, with calculated precision, she let go.

The pendant struck the hard stone floor with a sound like a breaking heart. The moonstone, the sacred vessel of my mother's remains, split cleanly into several pieces.

A fine, silvery-grey powder puffed into the air like ghostly breath.

"OH!" Rebecca gasped, feigning horror, her hand flying to her mouth.

She stumbled backward theatrically, her foot coming down hard on one fragment, grinding the delicate stone into glittering dust against the floor.

"Auntie's ashes! Moon Goddess, NO! They're... they're ruined!" Another clumsy, deliberate step crunched the second piece under her heel.