The scent was faint, but it sent my stomach churning all over again.

I shoved Erick away and spun around, gripping the edge of the stone table and beginning to dry heave.

"Lillian?" He rushed over, putting his hand on my back, his voice strained with worry. "Is it because of your old injury again? I'll have Misha come take a look at you."

At the mention of Misha, my stomach churned even harder.

"No need." I wiped my mouth and sidestepped his hand. "The celebration is tomorrow. I don't want to alarm anyone."

Erick still looked worried, but in the end he said nothing more. "Don't overthink it. Get some sleep. There are still a few things left for me to handle at Priests' Temple. I'll come back to keep you company later."

I watched the soft smile tugging at his lips and instinctively clenched my fists.

"All right." I forced down the revulsion and stepped forward to kiss his cheek. "Come back soon. I'll miss you."

The moment Erick left, I shut the door and scrubbed at every spot of my body he had touched.

I didn't stop until my skin was raw and red.

Just then, the faintest sound of footsteps came from outside the door.

Noah stood in the doorway, clutching his pillow, his head with messy hair peeking out.

"Mother." He called out softly, his eyes red-rimmed.

I looked at him and felt my heart lurch.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" I bit back the bitter feelings that rose within me and held out my hand to him.

Noah ran straight over and burrowed into my embrace.

"Mother, after the celebration tomorrow, will I not be allowed to call you Mother anymore?"

My body froze. "Who told you that?"

Noah pressed his lips together and whispered, "Ms. Acosta."

He looked at me uneasily and went on. "She said that after the celebration, I'll have a new mother. She also said you don't need me anymore and that you're going to send me to Priests' Temple."

I hadn't expected Misha to have already said all of this to Noah. She couldn't even wait one last night.

I held Noah tighter, pressing his face against my shoulder. "No. No matter what happens tomorrow, I will never give you up."

Noah sniffled and finally went quiet.

I carried him back to bed. As I was about to tuck him in, his sleeve slid up, revealing a few bruises on his arm.

Noah yanked his arm back at once, frantically tugging his sleeve down.

"Noah, tell me. Who did this?" I took his wrist gently, softening my voice.

Noah's tears fell at once. "It was Ms. Acosta. She made me memorize some things. I kept getting them wrong, and she pinched me."

My fingers hovered over the bruises. I didn't touch them.

I asked, "What did she make you memorize?"

Noah glanced nervously at the door, making sure no one was outside, and then leaned close to my ear. "She wants me to tell the elders tomorrow that you hit me all the time and force bitter medicine down my throat. Father told me to listen to her, too."

After that last sentence, he buried his face against my chest. "But you've never hit me. I don't want to lie."

I hadn't realized just how vicious Erick and Misha could be.

Not only did they plan to expose tomorrow that I wasn't Noah's biological mother, but they also wanted Noah to publicly accuse me of abusing him.

They wanted to paint me as a madwoman with no wolf, unable to bear children, who abused a child.

"Noah, don't tell anyone about tonight." I took a deep breath and wiped his tears away. "Tomorrow, no matter what Misha tells you to say, just agree with her. Don't fight back, and don't let her know you told me about that."

Noah shook his head at once. "I can't slander you, Mother."

I cupped his face in my hands and made him look at me. "You're doing that to protect yourself."

Noah nodded, not quite understanding why but choosing to trust me.

I lay down beside him and waited until his breathing evened out before slipping quietly out of the room.

Before my father passed away, he had been secretly investigating a group of rogue werewolves of unknown origin.

Erick and Misha had joined Silverbeam Pack during that very period.

Later, my father died on a hunt. None of the guards who accompanied him survived. Everyone said he had encountered a stampede of wild animals.

Now it seemed to me that the hunt might not have been an accident at all.

I changed into a short tunic that allowed free movement, strapped a dagger to the side of my leg, slipped past the guards outside the door, and climbed out through the back window.

After my father's death, the place where he had lived was sealed shut. In all these years, I had never once stepped inside.

It was the dead of night. I made my way along the trail behind the mountain and pushed open the dust-caked wooden door.

Everything inside was exactly as it had been when my father was alive.

I didn't linger. I walked straight to his bedchamber.

My father had a habit of hiding important things in a secret compartment behind the bed.

I fumbled around for what felt like forever before I finally heard a click.

The compartment sprang open, but all that remained inside was a pile of ash, which meant someone had been here before me and burned everything.

I reached in and sifted through the ash, finding a few scraps of hide that hadn't been completely consumed.

I could faintly make out from the remaining letters on them that they were hunting records, but the rest was beyond recognition.

The record from the day my father died should have been kept here.

Whoever destroyed it clearly didn't want me to know what had happened that day.

Beneath the ash, a bloodstained wolf fang lay.

Before I could examine it more closely, a row of torches flared to life outside the courtyard.

Heavy footsteps closed in fast.

I shoved the fang into my sleeve. I had barely shut the compartment when the door was pushed open from outside.

Erick stood in the doorway, a dozen fully armed guards behind him.

"Lillian," he said, his gaze sweeping past me and landing on the disturbed compartment. "What are you doing in your father's house at this hour?"

I looked up at Erick. My voice was perfectly calm, betraying nothing. "I couldn't sleep with tomorrow's succession ceremony on my mind, so I came to pay my respects to my father."

Erick's gaze swept over the secret compartment I had opened, then fell on my ash-stained hands. "Lillian, you have a ceremony to preside over tomorrow. Don't let your thoughts spiral."

His words were ambiguous, but I knew he was suspicious of me.

I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my face against his chest. I whispered, "I just miss Father. After tomorrow, I'll be the true leader of the Silverbeam Pack. But he's dead. He can't even offer me a single blessing."

I could feel Erick's body gradually relax. He raised his hand and stroked my hair, his voice gentle. "If our great former leader were still alive, he would be so proud of you."

Hearing him refer to my father that way made my stomach churn.

"Still, you shouldn't sneak out of your home tonight. It was too dangerous. The borders have been in chaos lately, and rogue werewolves have been spotted in the Black Woods again. I need to make sure you're safe before the ceremony tomorrow."

He reached out and tried to take the leader badge hanging around my neck.

I immediately grabbed his hand to stop him. "What are you doing?"

Erick looked down at me. His expression hadn't changed at all, but a look of worry was evidently in his eyes. "I'll keep it for you."

"Without the badge, I can't command the guards," I said.

"Everything for tomorrow's ceremony is already prepared. All you need to do tonight is go back and rest." As he spoke, he used a little more force to pry my fingers off the badge one by one. "Lillian, be good."

He took my badge.

"Fine." I didn't argue further. I simply turned and walked toward the door.

As I passed Erick, he suddenly grabbed my wrist.

The tip of the wolf fang pierced through the fabric and sank into my skin. The pain made my fingers go numb, but I didn't dare let anything show on my face.

"Lillian." Erick stared into my eyes. "You seem a little... different tonight."

My heart skipped a beat, but I raised my other hand and touched the side of his face where I had kissed earlier. "I'll be the leader tomorrow. Of course I'm nervous. Erick, you said that no matter what happened, you would be there for me. You won't go back on your word, will you?"

Erick clearly hadn't expected me to say that. He froze for a moment, then leaned in and kissed me affectionately. "Never."

…

Before dawn broke, the horn of the ceremony sounded ahead of schedule.

I hadn't even finished getting dressed when screams erupted from outside. "Something's happened to Mr. Noah Lawson!"

I rushed to the altar and found Noah collapsed at the base of the stone steps.

Misha knelt beside him, cradling him in her arms.

Beside her lay a shattered bowl.

I recognized it at once. It was used to hold the tonic Noah took every day to fortify his body.

"Noah!"

I rushed forward, but two priests stopped me.

"Move!" I shoved them aside, but Misha yanked Noah behind her.

"Don't touch him!" She glared at me, her eyes red and swollen. "Lillian, how much longer are you going to keep hurting him?"

The pack members around us froze, staring over with shock and suspicion.

I forced down the unease rising in my chest. "What are you talking about?"

Misha picked up a shard of the bowl, still stained with the medicine. "There's a chronic toxin in Noah's body. Based on the dosage, he's been poisoned for at least six months. In this entire pack, you're the only one who made him drink that tonic every single day!"

The crowd immediately broke into loud, stunned discussion.

"Mr. Noah Lawson was poisoned?"

"Isn't Lillian his mother? Why would she hurt him?"

"Could it be that she knew all along Noah wasn't her biological son?"

I ignored what they said and knelt down to check on Noah.

He struggled to open his eyes, and the moment he saw me, tears spilled out of his eyes. "Mother..."

Before he could finish, Misha clamped her hand over his mouth. "Don't be afraid, Noah. No one will ever force you to drink poison again."

Noah kept shaking his head, reaching out his hands desperately toward me.

"Your word alone doesn't prove the tonic was poisonous." I stood up and looked toward the healers from the apothecary. "Have someone else re-examine the medicine and check Noah's body."

The healers exchanged uneasy glances, and not a single one dared step forward to do what I had just told them to.

Misha sneered. "Did you think I wouldn't come prepared with evidence?"

The apothecary manager stepped out from behind Misha and dropped to her knees with a thud, holding up a record book with both hands. "Ma'am, for the past six months, your attendant has come to the apothecary every seven days to get some Bloodvine Powder. Bloodvine Powder on its own can strengthen the bones and muscles, but when brewed together with Shadoweeds, it produces a chronic toxin. The tonic Mr. Noah Lawson took daily contained both of these materials."

I snatched the record book from her.

Every entry for the Bloodvine Powder bore my seal, even with my signature right beside it.

But I had never sent anyone to collect Bloodvine Powder.

"These are forged!" I closed the book and looked up at Erick.

He stood at the very front of the crowd, the leader badge he had taken from me last night hanging around his neck.

"Erick." I stared straight at him. "You know I wasn't the one who collected that medicine."

Before Erick could speak, Misha raised Noah's arm, showing everyone the large patches of bruises on his skin.

"Then what about these?" She cried out in tears, turning to the pack members. "Noah told me himself last night. Lillian beat him regularly and forced him to drink the poisonous medicine. Because she has no wolf, she was afraid Noah would look down on her when he grew up, so she tried to destroy his wolf with poison!"