Chapter 2

The two guards marched me back to the penthouse suite.

They tossed me onto the living room sofa without a word.

The pack healer spoke cautiously, "Alpha, Miss Sinclair isn't seriously injured. It's just a superficial scratch, there's no need..."

"No need?" Cain cut her off, his voice glacial. "I need to be absolutely certain. The shards of the Heart of the Moon are tainted with Lupita's scent. Only her purest Luna blood can cleanse this contamination. Now, draw her blood."

His command left no room for argument.

The healer's face tightened. She tried to reason with him. "But, Alpha, the Luna is already very weak. Forcibly drawing a large amount of blood could cause irreversible damage to her wolf."

“Then draw until you reach her limit,” Cain insisted. “This is the price she pays for destroying a family heirloom and harming Elias.”

Cain sneered. “She wouldn’t dare leave the wealth and status of the Knight family. This is just a bit of bloodletting. She won’t actually leave over something so trivial.”

One of the guards chimed in quietly, “The Alpha is right. The Luna has been a homemaker for years. Where else could she go?”

The other guard nodded. “Exactly. The Luna is so dependent on the Alpha. Even if she’s truly angry, she’ll come back on her own in a couple of days.”

I closed my eyes. I didn't argue or beg. I simply extended my arm, exposing my wrist to the light.

"Do it," I said numbly. "After you're finished, can I go?"

Cain didn't answer.

The cold needle pierced my vein. I closed my eyes, my mind drifting back to how the Cain who once loved me more than life itself had twisted into this monster.

*

It was five years ago, at the wolf academy.

I was supposed to have my mating ceremony with my childhood friend, an Alpha named Ryder. It was an alliance arranged by our families.

I didn’t love Ryder, but I’d never considered defying my family. Just as I’d accepted a quiet life of duty, fate threw Cain Knight in my path.

He was the brightest star at the academy—powerful family, immense strength—and he fell for me at first sight. His pursuit was blunt and overwhelming—he did everything he could to get my attention.

He’d wait for me on my way to class, book the entire library just so we could be alone, and even went straight to Ryder, using a mix of business deals and threats to make him back off.

I resisted, telling him I was already betrothed. He didn’t care. His pursuit only became more aggressive, forcing his way into every corner of my life.

But long before he showed any sign of backing down, my own heart began to betray me.

The balance was shattered during the border war.

A rival pack attacked the academy, and I was trapped in the ruins. It was Cain who fought his way to me, using his own body to shield me from a collapsing beam.

When I saw him lying over me, covered in blood and barely breathing, my heart was his completely.

“Don’t you die…” I sobbed, clutching him. “Cain, you can’t die…”

He gave a weak smile, his hand stroking my face. “Worth it… as long as you’re alive…”

From that day on, I loved him.

We had our mating ceremony soon after, becoming true mates. The Cain from that time was gentle and attentive, with eyes only for me.

But the good times didn’t last.

Just three months after we were mated, Ryder was heading abroad to study. He came to see me one last time to say goodbye.

I didn’t refuse—we had grown up together, and I didn’t want our friendship to be completely severed because of my choice.

We just sat in a coffee shop for an hour, catching up. Ryder wished me well in my marriage, and I wished him the best for his future.As a parting gift, Ryder gave me a moonstone bracelet.

But I have no idea who took pictures of the entire meeting. In the photos, we were chatting happily and hugged each other when we said goodbye. However, the angle of the photos made it look like we were very intimate, just like a couple in love about to part.

That night, Cain came home with the pictures, the tenderness in his eyes completely gone.

“So that’s how it is,” he sneered, throwing the photos down. “And here I was, naive enough to believe you truly loved me.”

“Cain, let me explain—”

“Explain what? How you two planned it?” He advanced on me, his Alpha presence suffocating. “First, make me fall for you, then use my feelings to let Ryder infiltrate my business empire, and finally, destroy the Knight family from the inside?”

“No!” I shook my head desperately. “Ryder and I are just friends, we were just saying goodbye—”

“Friends?” he scoffed.

Cain seized my wrist, his grip tightening over the bracelet. “Lupita, do you take me for a fool? Did you think I didn’t know about your betrothal? That I didn’t know Ryder’s family has been salivating over the Knight corporation?”

He ripped the bracelet from my arm, its moonstones shattering on the floor.

From that day on, the gentle lover I knew became a stranger, a demon. He began to torture and humiliate me, doing everything he could to prove that I was nothing more than a traitor, a spy, an enemy unworthy of his trust.

*

"Alpha! She's going into shock!" The healer's cry pulled me from my memories.

I felt someone roughly yank the needle from my arm. I struggled to open my eyes and saw Cain's cold, indifferent face.

The suite was silent until a delicate cough sounded from the master bedroom.

Cain's brow creased instantly. He asked the healer, "Is the dosage enough?"

"It's enough, it's more than enough, Alpha!"

He ignored her and turned toward the bedroom. I watched his retreating back, using my last ounce of strength to speak. "Cain."

He paused but didn't turn around.

"Now... can I go?"

He was silent for a long moment before walking into the room without a backward glance.

I slipped back into unconsciousness.

When I woke, I struggled to sit up, grabbed my phone, and dialed a number I knew by heart.

The call was answered on the first ring.

"Lupita? Are you okay? What happened?" The voice on the other end was frantic.

"I'm fine," I said quietly. "There was a small incident. The plan is delayed a few days."

"I don't care about the plan! You have to leave that place now! Did Cain do something to you?"

"No," I reassured him. "Just give me a little more time. Trust me, I'll handle it."

After hanging up, I deleted the call log.

Cain didn't appear for the next few days.

He and Elias were all over social media, hailed by the press as the new "power couple of the business world."

In one photo, Elias was cradling her stomach while Cain gazed at her with adoration.

It reminded me of how, not long after Cain came to believe I’d betrayed him, I discovered I was pregnant with his cub.

I thought it was the perfect chance to clear up the misunderstanding. Once the cub was born, he would know where my heart truly lay.

But when I told him I was pregnant, Cain was silent for a long moment before a cold sneer twisted his lips. “Lupita, you and your accomplice have played this whole game, and now you expect to cement your position with a bastard? Dream on. Even if you give birth to it, the Knight family will never accept a traitor’s cub as an heir!”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “Cain, this is your child! Our child! How could you say that?”

“Mine?” He laughed, but the smile never reached his eyes. “Lupita, do you think I’d believe you’d carry my cub for any reason other than your scheme?”

After that, Cain grew even colder. I was heartbroken, and my health deteriorated. Even with all the supplements the healer prescribed, I couldn’t save our cub.

The day I miscarried, I cried in despair, begging Cain through our mate bond to come back to me, even just for an embrace.

It was a long time before he deigned to give me a single sentence: “The cub is gone, so be it. No one wanted it here anyway.”

Pulling myself from the memory, I wiped away my tears, planning to slip out of this prison while the guards were absent.

But as I was leaving, I saw Cain and Elias in the lobby.

My first instinct was to hide, but it was too late.

Cain stopped me, his brow creased with his usual mix of scrutiny and impatience.

"Stop."

I reflexively lowered my head and stammered, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be here, I'll go back now..."

His frown deepened. "Lupita, the healer said you haven't been taking your medicinal herbs. Are you now daring to disobey a direct command from your Alpha?"

Elias, clinging to his arm, wore a triumphant smirk that seemed to falter ever so slightly.