Chapter 4

Sabrina's POV

The crushing pressure of a top-tier alpha slammed down on me like a physical thunderbolt. Lizzie let out a bloodcurdling shriek in my mind before instantly severing all connection with me.

My temples throbbed violently. The sudden, agonizing nerve pain sent a violent shudder through my body, as if my very bone marrow was freezing over.

"You don't know how to swim, so why the hell did you drag her into the water with you?!" The veins on Zander's forehead bulged dangerously.

He took a menacing step forward. His massive, towering frame loomed over me, and his furious alpha aura was so intense it made the crystal chandelier above our heads rattle.

"Dragging her in wasn't enough, you had to kick Wilda into the pool too? Sabrina, do you seriously have to act like a complete lunatic and make an enemy out of the entire world?"

"Have I spoiled you too much all these years? Is that why you've grown so arrogant that you completely disregard everyone and every rule in this pack?!"

I desperately clutched my head against the sudden, blinding pain. The biting cold of the marble floor seeped through my knees, chilling me to the bone.

There wasn't a single ounce of pity in his eyes. His bloodthirsty wolf gaze glowed menacingly in the dimly lit hall as he delivered the cruelest sentence, shoving me straight into hell.

"Listen, Sabrina! The only reason I let you stay in the Ironspike pack in the first place was out of pity. Your own mother abandoned you, and I couldn't bear to watch you wind up on the streets like a stray dog!"

"I took you in to keep you fed. I didn't do it so you could weaponize my pity to throw tantrums in front of me and my future luna!"

Pity...

Why was it that when Wilda called me pathetic, I felt absolutely nothing, but hearing Zander say he merely pitied me shattered my entire world into millions of pieces?

"Zander, I've always known you're a good man. Thank you for your pity all these years."

I desperately choked back the crushing, dead silence threatening to break the dam inside my heart.

In a voice that was incredibly faint yet terrifyingly calm, I softly asked him, "Then play the good guy one last time. Take pity on me again today, and just sit with me while I finish this cake... Please?"

After all, I might not live to see another birthday.

Those words lodged firmly in my throat. I couldn't bring myself to say them out loud.

But Zander simply shot a cold, dismissive glance at the smashed strawberry cupcake in my hands. His tone was completely flat. "I'm taking Melinda home. Your psychotic outburst terrified her today."

As I watched him turn his back on me with zero hesitation, it felt like my throat was packed with broken glass.

The tears I had been fighting back all night finally broke free, instantly spilling over and carving two freezing trails down my cheeks.

"Zander, I'm dying."

Perhaps because my despair in that moment was so agonizingly real, my voice trembled uncontrollably.

Hearing those words, the man who had already started walking away visibly stiffened.

But when he turned his head back, the furious flames of betrayal instantly ignited in his eyes once more. "Sabrina, every single time you want to keep me around, you spin a web of lies. A headache today, a stomachache tomorrow—you always find an excuse. And now you're stooping so low as to fake dying? Next time you want to play these manipulative games, at least find a better excuse!"

The heavy door was violently shut, the force instantly scattering whatever lingering trace of cedar scent remained in the air.

The massive packhouse lobby was left in a dead, suffocating silence.

I sat all alone on the freezing floor, numbly taking bite after bite of that pool-water-soaked cake until it was completely gone.

Then, I stood up and walked over to the window.

Bathed in the bright, hanging moonlight, I looked out into the courtyard. Zander was incredibly attentive, shrugging off his own coat to drape it gently over Melinda's soaked shoulders.

Then, he personally opened the door of his SUV for her, carefully escorting her inside.

The blinding headlights flicked on, and the car sped off into the night...

And just like that, the curtain fell on my cold, miserable twentieth birthday.

In the end, I never received the acknowledgment from my mate.

So, the only wish I made to the Moon Goddess on my twentieth birthday was...

"Zander, I give up on loving you."

I didn't sleep a wink that night.

By early morning, my weakening wolf felt like it was frantically gnawing at my nerves.

Dragging my exhausted, depleted body, I headed alone to the alpha family's villa within the Ironspikes.

Ever since I was ten, when my mother abandoned me here for her second-chance mate, Madison had been the only person besides Zander who treated me well.

But now, ninety-year-old Madison was terminally ill, and I was dying right alongside her.

The attending doctor had said it was only a matter of a month or two; there was no way I'd survive past autumn.

I had barely stepped one foot through the front door when I heard Evelyn's exasperated, shrill screaming all the way from the side parlor. "A dog raised in our own home actually dares to bite its master?! Call that she-wolf right now and tell her to get her ass over here immediately! I want to ask her if she wants to..."

Before Evelyn could finish her sentence, she looked up and locked eyes with me walking through the doorway.

The sheer disgust in her eyes instantly materialized into a nasty, piercing glare. "Well, look at that! I was just looking for you, and here you are delivering yourself to my doorstep! Tell me, Sabrina, have you completely lost your mind?! How dare you kick my precious granddaughter Wilda into the pool in broad daylight! Have you forgotten your damn place?"