Chapter 3

Before dawn, under the faint light of a dying moon, I stopped heaving. I stopped crying.

I got up. I walked into the kitchen like I always did and started preparing their breakfast of raw venison.

Footsteps sounded behind me.

Selene walked in. She was wearing Stanley’s oversized white shirt, the hem barely covering her thighs.

She deliberately swept her hair back, showing off the fresh, angry bite marks covering her neck and collarbones.

“Millie, make me a latte. The human kind,” she ordered, leaning against the doorframe.

I ignored her and kept slicing the meat.

Stanley, fresh from a shower, walked in just then.

He didn't even look at me. He shoved aside the raw meat platter I’d just finished.

“Who eats this raw crap? It’s disgusting.” The plate clattered on the counter, splashing blood everywhere. He turned to the basket of expensive exotic berries Selene had brought. “See, Selene? You get me. This is real food.”

Later that morning, the house grew even louder.

Zane and his wife, Ivy, strolled in with the twins.

They directed workers to install a massive digital photo wall on the most prominent wall in the living room.

The screen lit up. It began looping a family portrait from last night’s Moon Festival.

Stanley, Selene, and Zane’s family of four.

They were all smiling, like the perfect family.

And I, the supposed lady of this house, was completely erased from every single picture.

“Oh, we really should have invited Millie yesterday,” Selene sighed with fake pity. She picked up a wrinkled old jacket and tossed it at my feet. “It’s getting cold. You should wear this. We can’t have you getting sick. Then who would do the work around here?”

“Don’t bother with her. She belongs in the kitchen, wearing rags. Taking her out would just ruin my mood,” Stanley said, glancing at me with an air of absolute control.

My back was to them. I kept wiping the counter. Again, and again.

Night fell. The house was finally quiet.

I stood alone in front of the giant digital wall, numbly staring at the family portrait that didn't include me.

Stanley approached, a glass of wine in his hand. My silent, dead-eyed defiance finally snapped his patience.

“What’s with that look on your face?”

His Alpha Command hit me like a physical blow.

My knees buckled. A crushing, invisible force slammed me to the cold floor.

“Wipe that dead look off your face,” he snarled, looming over me. “Just be obedient and stay in your place, and you’ll always have a home in Darkhollow. Don’t try to get my attention with this pathetic attitude.”

Just then, his phone rang.

The moment he saw the caller ID, the rage vanished from his face.

He answered, his voice turning soft and tender, as if speaking to a priceless treasure.

“Baby, it’s all arranged.” He murmured into the phone to Selene. “The private reservation for the sacred Moon Pool at Starfall Valley. And the ancestral Luna moonstone ring. They’ll all be yours tomorrow.”

Kneeling on the floor, I slowly closed my eyes.

I couldn’t breathe.

After hanging up, Stanley shot me a cold look.

“Go pack my bags. I’m leaving tomorrow. Don’t waste my time.”

He ordered me like a dog, then turned and left.

The pressure lifted.

I slowly got to my feet. I was a puppet with its strings cut. I walked into the closet.

As I was choosing his cufflinks for the trip, a file folder fell from a high shelf.

The papers inside scattered across the floor. They were the reservation documents and ownership deeds for the Starfall Valley sacred Moon Pool.

At the bottom, on the beneficiary line, a list of names was clearly printed:

Stanley, Selene, Zane, Ivy, Jax, Jace.

The entire family was on the list. Except for me.

The sacred place I had dreamed of for over twenty years, the love I had nearly died for, was now a party ticket for his mistress and their family.

My hands didn’t even shake. I numbly shoved the papers back into the folder.

I mechanically continued folding his clothes.

The next second, the door was thrown open.

Zane burst in.

He unapologetically dumped two large bags of snacks and dirty toys for the twins at my feet.

“Pack these, too. If it’s not done right, you don’t eat tomorrow.” He spat the words and left without a second glance.

Late that night, I sat on the edge of the bed in my cramped guest room.

My mind drifted back to a snowy night, when I was eighteen.

Gideon, the most powerful Alpha on the continent, had roared with a force that shook the valleys.

“A lone wolf who leaves her pack will be torn apart by rogues!”

He had pointed at my face and sworn a blood oath: “If you take one step out of this territory today, you can never come back!”

Back then, I had been so naive, holding Stanley’s hand.

I thought the warmth in his palm was my salvation. I never imagined it was a hell that would grind my bones to dust.

I finally saw the truth.

I couldn’t hold it back anymore.

I dropped to the floor and pulled out the old suitcase. From its very depths, I dug out a burner phone.

My fingers were trembling violently.

But without hesitation, I dialed the number seared into my memory.

A voice answered, deeper and more commanding than I remembered.

“Gideon Silvermane.”

The moment I heard that name, a painful lump formed in my throat. The numb shell I had wrapped around myself shattered.

Tears fell, silent and hot.

I opened my mouth, my voice a raw, broken whisper.

“…Father. It’s me. Millie…”