Cerita Pendek & Novel After Death Werewolf

The ninety-ninth time my mate, Valeria, the pack's Alpha Female, blocked our mind-link, I dragged myself, ravaged by Soul-Decay, into the Hall of Covenants. The cold marble steps bit at my bare feet, each one sending a lancing pain through my chest. In the final stages of Soul-Decay, I'd lost my healing abilities. Even the simple act of walking was agony. "I'm here to request a severance of my mate bond." The covenant official took in my pale, gaunt frame, his gaze softening with pity. "Sir," he asked quietly, "don't you have a pack to support you?" I've been invisible to my parents ever since my father brought home my adoptive brother, Silas, when I was ten. And while Valeria was my mate, it was in name only. We had never held a public marking ceremony. She rarely brought me to pack gatherings. Most of the pack wouldn't even recognize me. I wiped away the blood welling at the corner of my mouth. "That doesn't matter anymore," I told the official. "A dying wolf needs no pack."

I have been dead for seven years. For seven years, a rare plague had ravaged the Silver Moon Kingdom. The new Luna, Lilith, wasn't immune either. She coughed up blood daily, her old wounds weeping anew with every full moon. Even in death, to the wolf packs, I was still the jinx. The false Luna who had beguiled the Alpha King. The cursed one destined to bring ruin to the kingdom. The entire kingdom begged Alpha King Kaelan to banish my vengeful spirit. My former mate was in the royal palace, softly consoling his current Luna, my sister. "Lilith, don't be afraid. If she insists on tormenting you with her curse even after death, then I will tear her inner wolf to shreds. You'll never be threatened by her again." But when they set foot in the Rogue Lands where I had been exiled, they found no wandering spirit of mine. Before them knelt the corpses of dozens of she-wolves, arranged neatly before my crude grave. They had all been exiled as "sinners", yet now, in death, they offered their final act of devotion. There was no trace of any spirit. There was only a small girl, about six years old, sitting beside the tombstone and clutching a photograph of me from when I was alive. Her ice-blue eyes were a perfect reflection of Kaelan's. "You're too late," she said. "Her inner wolf returned to the Moon Goddess long ago." "I've only been waiting here to get justice for my mother."

When the Blackridge Pack invaded, I hid inside a closet with my daughter in my arms. The first rescue mech to break through the encircling wolves and leap into the building was piloted by my own brother, Kyle. But after opening the closet and taking one look at us, he simply turned around and headed for the room next door, where our adopted sister, Layla, was hiding. "Wren, you're the Luna. You're supposed to put the pack first. I'll take Layla out first. I'll come back for you and Mia on the second trip." We waited for an hour, and the second trip never came. I contacted my mate, Damian, and asked if he could send someone to get us out. His response was ice-cold. "Stop being so difficult, Wren. There are only so many rescue slots available. Kyle said you two were well hidden, so just hang in there a little longer. I'm the Alpha of the pack. You can't expect me to play favorites just because you're my mate." When I tried contacting him again, I discovered that Damian had already blocked our mate bond. Ten minutes later, wolf claws tore through the building's load-bearing walls. Half of the exterior wall came crashing inward, and the air quickly filled with wolfsbane. I used my own body to shield my daughter and preserve the last bit of space where she could survive, but there was nothing I could do as the wolfsbane slowly spread deeper through her body. I did not know how much time had passed before the next search-and-rescue mech finally arrived. They pulled Mia from the wreckage, barely clinging to life. But no one saw me, already buried beneath the ruins. My soul drifted above them. When I saw Mia being carried out, I thought at least my daughter had survived. Then they tossed her onto a metal cart. Her wolf soul was already being poisoned by the venom. Still, no one seemed concerned. The physician on duty had just picked up an antidote syringe when my biological mother, Elara, reached out and stopped him. "It's fine. That little bit of wolfsbane isn't enough to put Mia's life at risk. Save the Moondew for Layla first." Elara gently pressed down on the physician's wrist. "If Wren chose to run away by herself and abandon her daughter, then Mia should learn exactly what her mother's selfishness costs." As it turned out, they all thought I had abandoned my daughter and escaped on my own. None of them knew that I had already been left behind forever beneath those ruins.

The Rogue King disguises himself as a food delivery person to assassinate my mate—Lucas Wolfgang, the Alpha of Moonbane pack. It's Valentine's day, but Lucas is spending it with his childhood sweetheart. When the Rogue King's assassination fails, he threatens me with my daughter Tina and forces me to ingest wolfsbane. I speak to him to drag things out while contacting Lucas through our mind-link. "Lucas, Tina and I need you…" However, Lucas has cut off our mind-link. He doesn't respond, and I have no choice but to take the wolfsbane. Before the Rogue King leaves, he mocks me for being a failure. I'm the Luna of Moonbane pack, yet I don't have my husband's heart. Tina calls Lucas. "Come home, Daddy! Mommy's bleeding everywhere!" He merely says coldly, "I've told you this many times, Tina. Stop being a liar like your mother!" I've never lied to him, and neither has Tina. Ultimately, he kneels before my grave in tears, looking like a poor little puppy. He begs me not to abandon him.

My future mate, Alpha Ethan Steele, wants to exact justice for my adoptive sister, Alicia Mason. So, despite my two-month pregnancy, he has locked me away in a mountain cave to reflect on my actions. Some time later, the cave wall suddenly collapses, and debris crashes down upon me. I curl up in a crevice for safety. Feeling intermittent cramps in my lower abdomen, I tremble as I dial the pack communicator to call for help. "Help! The walls just caved in! I'm going to be crushed!" The pack members' cold voices ring out from the other end of the communicator. "The Alpha already told us beforehand that you'd lie about suffering just to escape punishment. He wants you to properly reflect on yourself!" The communication ends. Gritting my teeth, I dial my parents' number instead. However, I only hear disappointed voices reprimanding me through the speaker. "How could you lock Alicia in the basement? She was in there for so long, and she was all alone! She's almost breaking down in fear! She's your sister, for goodness' sake. How could you be so heartless? "Ethan punished you by locking you up in the mountain cave to reflect on your actions. He's doing this so that you'd get a taste of the despair and helplessness Alicia felt when she was trapped by you!" With the last shred of strength in my body, I dial Ethan's number. His voice is cold and stern. "Stop playing the victim and reflect on what you've done." The rubble keeps piling up, and I can't even move an inch. As my blood seeps into the dirt, my vision slowly blurs. Through the haze, I see Ethan shielding Alicia as they slowly approach the entrance of the cave.

I'm cursed with the most deadly spell of the werewolf pack—leaving me with only a month left to live. However, no one in my family knows about this. Ever since they'd adopted Natali Fisher, an orphan who greatly resembles my older sister, they've poured all their love and attention into her—and stopped caring about me. And at that very moment, I'm curled up in a corner of the woodshed, with blood steadily dripping from the corners of my lips. Dad, Mom, and my older brother, Kent Greene, probably think that I'm throwing another tantrum and am deliberately hiding from them. But that isn't the case this time. They are currently outside cooking Natali's favorite mushroom soup in the courtyard. Their happy laughter fills the air, painting the picture of a warm, loving family. Maybe I could even believe this is a happy family if I weren't about to die soon.

It was year four of my arranged marriage to Lucas. Then Roderick invaded our land. He was the most powerful Alpha on the West Coast. One look was all it took. The Moon Goddess snapped our mate bond into place. Right in front of everyone, he stole me away and dragged me to his packhouse. For three years, he spoiled me rotten. Every wolf pack in North America burned with envy. He gave me free rein over the best medical labs. My inner wolf was weak from old scars, so he held me tight every single full moon. When wolfsbane nearly killed me, this ruthless Alpha dropped a ten-billion-dollar merger. He sat by my hospital bed for days and never closed his eyes once. His devotion was loud and shameless. I fell for it. I truly believed I was finally home. Then came the eve of our Luna ceremony. Chloe, the woman he never truly let go, was brought back in secret. It was all a lie. My fairy tale was just a decoy for his enemies across the border. That was the only way to keep them from torturing Chloe in their cells. Now his real girl is safe. My job as his decoy shield is officially over. The night before, he slides an exile contract across the table. His face is cold. "Drink this concentrated inhibitor. Step onto the stage tomorrow and reject the mate bond." "Once the bond snaps, the drug will fake your death. Everyone will think the backlash killed you. My men will sneak you out to the East Coast before sunrise." I let out a bitter laugh. Before he wiped my existence clean, I asked for one final visit to my home pack. Lucas and my parents circled around me. Their faces were full of panic, pleading with me to play nice. "Be a good girl. Go live as a rogue. The whole pack will thank you for this." They all forgot one small detail. Ripping the bond apart will shatter my broken inner wolf completely. I raise the glass. I swallow every single drop. If this land has no room for me, and they all want me gone. I will commit suicide and give them the corpse they want.

Three years ago, on a full moon night, my mother jolted awake at midnight, claiming the Moon Goddess had delivered a prophecy: On the day of my twentieth birthday, the feral gene inside me would spiral out of control. I would shift into a wolf and kill my sister. At first, my parents were skeptical. But after I awakened my wolf at eighteen, my sister would seize up whenever she was near me, clutching her chest and collapsing to the ground in violent fits of gasping. To protect her and force my wolf into dormancy, my parents resorted to every harsh measure they could devise. They poured suppression potions down my throat that ate away at my organs, and clamped a restraining collar around my neck so my sister could keep me on a leash. Eventually, my wolf vanished completely. And somehow, I survived to my twentieth birthday. A flash of joy hit me, and I reached for the cake on the table. My father backhanded me so hard I went flying. "That feral gene in your blood really is impossible to tame! "If anyone eats first, it's your sister. What makes you think you can touch it?" Clara stepped forward as if to soothe things over, but my mother pulled her behind her back, eyes full of wariness as she edged away from me. Then my father dragged me up to the attic and bolted the door shut. Through the door, they said, "Stay put and get through tonight. The prophecy will be broken. "After this, we'll give you half the love we've shown your sister." I sank my teeth into my lip, not daring to make a sound. Years of the suppression potion had already hollowed out my body. My consciousness was fading, piece by piece. Mom, Dad, in that dream the Moon Goddess sent you, did she happen to mention this part? That the one dying today might be me?

I collapsed during my shift at the diner. That was how I found out I was pregnant. The doctor said my pup was dying. Five thousand dollars for the medicine to save him. But my Alpha mate only had fifty bucks to his name. He fought in underground rings to rebuild his pack. Came home bruised and broken, and the money was barely enough. His Beta friend, shoved a packet of pills into my hand. Her voice was pure ice. "If it wasn't for you, you pathetic rogue Omega, he wouldn't be in this mess. No money? Use this. That weak little pup will just… disappear." I looked at my Alpha. He looked back at me… and nodded. "Alina, just this one last time. When I get my pack back, I'll give you the world." I didn't blame him. This past year, his pack went bankrupt. Kicked out of the Alliance. Buried in debt. I stayed. Washed dishes sixteen hours a day. I gave him every penny. He was going through enough. While he was out, I poured the pills down the drain. Then I drank the vial of liquid silver I'd hidden under the bed. The fastest poison. A second later, my mate walked in—wearing the black uniform of a supreme Alpha. "Congratulations, Alina. You passed my test. My pack was never bankrupt. And you… you're about to become the Luna of Crestmoon. The most powerful pack in North America." He pulled me into a tight hug, voice trembling with excitement. "I knew you didn't love me for my money! Marry me. Our pup will be the noblest heir." So that was it. Everything I fought for was all just a test. As the silver burned through my veins, my consciousness faded. I smiled and shook my head. "No. I won't marry you. This time, the pup and I… we won't be your burden anymore."

During the pack's wilderness training, my adopted sister, Tessa, shoved me from a cliffside thick with wolfsbane. My Alpha, Fenrir, turned and left with Tessa feigning injury in his arms, leaving me for dead at the bottom of the ravine. I died instantly, but my soul lingered, watching everything with cold detachment. I watched as Tessa's tearful complaints swayed him into blaming me for my own disappearance. "Will Selene ever stop causing me trouble?" "She's weak and always looking for trouble. How could she possibly be fit to be our Luna?" He had no idea I was already dead at the bottom of that cliff choked with wolfsbane. Five whole days. The poison hit my bloodstream like liquid fire, racing through my veins with merciless speed. As my body decayed under the moonlight, my love for him faded with it. The title of Luna, the magnificent coronation I had dreamed of, everything I once cherished was now meaningless. The Selene who loved him was well and truly dead.

Three years after my Alpha brother banished me from Blackwood Pack, he donated one dollar to my PackAid fundraiser. His public message read: [Let me know when you actually die. I’ll pop the champagne.] Three years earlier, Serena—the orphan Adrian had brought home from the border—accused me of stealing her silver-purification protocol that had earned Blackwood’s only nomination to the Royal Healer Academy. Adrian never let me explain. He revoked my nomination, cut off my Pack sponsorship, and ordered me out of Blackwood territory before sunrise. [Admit what you did. Apologize to Serena. Then I’ll let you come home.] Then he sealed me out of the Pack mindlink. Overnight, I went from protected Alpha blood to a rogue no Pack dared accept. Three years later, Serena slept in my old room at the Alpha House, wore my mother’s jewelry, and smiled whenever Pack members called her the Alpha’s sister. I dug through trash outside the territory and scavenged scrap in an abandoned industrial district until silver dust poisoned my lungs. By then, my wolf was fading and the healer called it terminal Silver Lung. After reading Adrian’s comment, I called Moonrest Memorial Park. “Hold the cheapest grave you have.” His one-dollar donation had pushed my fundraiser to PackAid’s minimum withdrawal amount. I decided to give him exactly what he wanted.

I'd been with Leo Blackwood for five years. But we'd never once made it through a mating ceremony. Every time we were about to seal the bond, something would happen with Linda—his adopted sister. And every single time, Leo would leave me behind. This time, he swore he'd planned everything down to the last detail. Promised he wouldn't miss it. I waited five days and five nights—because I wanted to tell him I was pregnant. He never showed. Instead, I got attacked by rogues. Got infected with wolfsbane because of it. At the very last moment, I called Leo. It was Linda who picked up. She put the video on, and that's when I saw it—Leo and Linda, right in the middle of some celebration. "Freya." Her voice dripped with mock sympathy. "A mating ceremony? That little thing has failed so many times already—don't you ever give up? Today is my big day. Leo said nothing—absolutely nothing—can compare to what I have going on." Then she hung up. My hand went to my stomach. My body was growing cold. Sorry, little one. I never got the chance to give you a happy home.

When I was diagnosed with terminal Inner Wolf Decay, a System found me. It told me that if I could win the wholehearted romantic or familial love of just one out of four specific werewolves, I would get a healthy body and live. But for five years, I failed to win over a single one. Because they all fell for the same Omega—the fragile, hypocritical Chloe. Just because she framed me, claiming I ordered rogues to attack her, my targets glared at me with nothing but absolute disgust. My biological brother, Caleb, told me, "I don't have a sister as vicious as you." My pack healer, Julian, didn't believe I suffered from depression. He glared at me with revulsion and said, "Chloe is the one who got hurt. Stop playing the victim." My childhood friend, Victor, stared at me coldly. "You're so toxic. I really wish you'd just die." Later, just as they wished, my mission failed, and my inner wolf was actually going to die. But then, they were the ones crying and begging me not to go.

The woman in Eden's arms should have been me — but I died on the marking ceremony night. The life that I had planned properly since childhood was ripped away without mercy. My supposed mate and twin sister danced around in glee, looking very happy. If only they knew I was standing before them right now as a ghost — watching every smile, every touch, every stolen moment. Quietly waiting to watch them fall from their high pedestal.

The enemies of my adopted sister's parents mistook me for her and kidnapped me. Before the rogues killed me, they gave me three phone calls for help. If anyone was willing to give me three hundred dollars, I could live. For the first call, I dialed my father. Father didn't listen to a word I said. He immediately unleashed a torrent of curses. "Where the hell are you? Get your ass back home right now for your sister's birthday!" For the second call, I dialed my brother. My brother listened silently to my plea for help, then hung up with a cold snort. "You're never around when the pack needs you. Who's going to fall for this act now?" For the third call, I dialed my fiancé. He didn't even answer. When I called again, I'd been blocked. The rogue wolf laughed at me. "Looks like being the eldest daughter of the Ashwood family doesn't mean much, does it?" After he tortured me to death, he stuffed my body into a suitcase and threw it in the river.

At the Silverpine Pack's annual winter market, Dad bought a Christmas chocolate bar for Chloe and one for me. I accepted mine happily, but Chloe burst into tears. "Why does she get the same thing as me? Ever since she came along, I haven't been your only baby anymore!" Mom immediately took the chocolate bar from my hand. "Chloe can have this one too. You can eat something else later." But I wanted a chocolate bar too. Dad had bought that one for me. I started crying, and Mom suddenly lost her temper. "You've already taken half of your sister's love away from her. Now you can't even let her have one chocolate bar? You're already competing with her for attention at your age. Who knows how selfish you'll become when you grow up?" Frightened, I stopped crying and grabbed the hem of her coat. "Please don't be mad, Mommy. Ella won't eat it." Mom stared at me for a few seconds, but her expression only grew darker. She returned to the stall, bought an entire box of chocolate bars, and shoved it into my arms. "You wanted chocolate, didn't you? Sit here and finish every one of them. You're not allowed to leave until the box is empty." With that, she took Chloe's hand and walked away. Dad did not follow them immediately. He crouched in front of me and stroked my hair, looking uncomfortable. "Stay right here and be good, Ella. Once Mommy calms down, Daddy will come back for you." I unwrapped one bar, then another. The chocolate was so sweet that it began to taste bitter. I had just picked up the fifth chocolate bar when a piercing fire alarm rang through the mall. People screamed and rushed toward the exits. I stayed on the bench. Instead of running with them, I ate faster. Mom had told me I could not leave until I finished everything. I could not make her angry again.

The first thing Alpha Kieran Voss did upon his return from the Northern Front was announcing Celeste as his chosen mate. However, my pack had signed a treaty with the Frostfang Pack, and the deal was for the Frostfang Pack’s Alpha to take a she-wolf from the Graymoon Pack as his mate. To honor the treaty, Kieran chose to form a mate bond with me. Nevertheless, he declared to his pack that Celeste was his Luna, while I was nothing more than a mate chosen for political convenience. For the next seven years, I carried on with life as freely and recklessly as I always had. Kieran treated me right as well. Be it pearls from the Southern Seas, or gemstones from the Northern Territories, I could expect any little thing that caught my eye to show up in my chambers the very next day. Spoiled and willful as I was, I didn’t restrain myself before the pack elders. Kieran always cleaned up after me with a smile, then showered me with precious stones and jewelry to put a grin back on my face. I mistook that as his feelings for me. With a pup in the picture, I believed that our bond would only grow stronger. Still, seven years passed. Celeste had given him three pups, while I struggled to bear his pups. One day, I knocked over a potion sent by Celeste, only to discover the truth. The potion wasn’t meant to restore my health, but to keep me from ever bearing Kieran’s pup. The pack healer examined me and stayed silent for a while. “Long-term aconite poisoning has pretty much weakened your wolf. You have lost your ability to heal. Even if you stop taking the poison now, you have no more than three months left.” I kept the evidence, petitioned to the council to sever our mate bond, and got ready to return to the Graymoon Pack. Somehow, Celeste managed to frame my departure as an act of treason. Taking Celeste’s words for it, Kieran locked me up in a silver-plated cell, despite how ill I was. Once he finally got the bottom of everything and rushed to the tables to find me, I was already dead, lying next to my old, faithful companion.

Rogues suddenly attacked the werewolf hospital. My husband, the captain of the rescue team, rushed over. Everyone thought he had come to protect me. But he rushed straight to his teammate Ayla, completely oblivious to the rogue behind him raising a dagger. Without thinking, I lunged forward and pushed him out of the way. But to my surprise, he grabbed me and held me in front of his childhood friend. The dagger pierced my abdomen, killing our pup. When my colleagues tried to save me, my mate, Paolo Greco, pulled them away. “Save Ayla first! If anything happens to her, I’ll sue your hospital in the werewolf court!” My colleagues looked at him in shock. “But your mate is bleeding heavily! She can’t even stand up now! Ayla only has a cut on her arm; her condition isn’t critical.” I clutched my bleeding abdomen. Heartbroken, I told my colleagues to save her first. “Forget it. Save her first.” Paolo, you saved my life once. I am returning the favor. From that moment, we owe each other nothing. We should never meet again.

Everyone in my family could see the countdown floating above my sister's head. The pack priest said it was the Moon-Debt Curse, branded into her bloodline. When the countdown reached zero, the Moon Goddess would take one daughter of the Calder family. Everyone assumed that daughter would be my sister. From then on, she became the most precious child in our home. The best food belonged to her. The prettiest dresses belonged to her. Even our parents' bedtime stories belonged to her alone. I loved my sister, but I envied her for receiving every ounce of their love. On the night before her sixteenth birthday, I developed a raging fever after being poisoned by wolfsbane. Afraid I would cause trouble, our parents locked me in the basement storage room. I pounded on the door in terror. "Mom, let me out. I think I've been poisoned. My head hurts so much." Mom gritted her teeth. "Enough! Your sister may die before this night is over. Can't you let her have this one last day?" "But I really don't feel well." The sounds beyond the door gradually faded. Then my consciousness sank, little by little, into darkness.

Lucien sent me onto the transplant table with his own hands to save the foster sister he treasured most. “Elara, this is what you owe Sylvie.” “Give her your kidney, and I’ll let you remain the Luna of this pack.” He did not know that five years ago, when the northern wolf keep caught fire, the one who carried him out of the flames had never been Sylvie. It had been me. He knew even less that I had long since reached the final stage of soul-wolf collapse. I had only forty-eight hours left. This kidney was the last thing keeping me alive. On the day of the operation, he stood outside Sylvie’s healing chamber, speaking to her softly and refusing to leave her side. Meanwhile, in the transplant room next door, my heart stopped. When news of my death reached him, he only sneered and called it another one of my tricks. Not until much later did he unfold the blood-soaked rescue record from the northern fire and see the photograph attached to it. Mine. Alpha, your Luna left one final message before she died. “She says this life is returned to you.” “In the next one, may you never meet again.” So why are you losing your mind now, Lucien? Isn’t this exactly the ending you wanted?