“Richard, if Lynn and I were hit by a car at the same time, who would you save first?” I once asked, curled up in his arms, teasing like a spoiled pup.

He just scoffed, ruffling my hair. “That kind of situation doesn’t exist.”

But when blinding headlights tore through the rain—

He didn’t hesitate. He shielded Lynn in his embrace, and I was thrown into the blood-soaked street.

Through the agony, I heard my phone buzz. A message from him:

[What tantrum are you throwing now? Why didn’t you come to Moonstone today?]

While the machines beeped beside me, I caught the sound of his gentle voice drifting from the next room—comforting her.

“Don’t be afraid. I just reacted to the person closest to me.”

That was the moment I wiped away bloody tears with a smile.

Fine, Richard.

Then you’ll watch with your own eyes—ten days from now, when I put on a wedding dress, it won’t be for you. It’ll be for your sworn enemy, the Alpha of Bloodmoon.

On the eve of the ceremony, a helicopter thundered down onto the estate balcony.

He kicked open my door, yanked my wrist with his tie.

“Come with me.”

I was still gasping for breath when I heard the shower running in the bathroom. My hand shook as I unlocked my phone and dialed my father’s number.

“I’ll marry William,” I whispered, my voice steady despite the storm in my chest. “The dying Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack. But I have one condition.”

On the other end, my father’s voice shot up in excitement. “Name it! Anything, Ann. As long as you agree, I’ll promise you anything.”

The Bloodmoon Curse had doomed William—without completing his destined Bonding before the next blood moon, he wouldn’t just die, his entire pack’s bloodline would weaken. The catch? The Bonding had to be with an Alpha’s daughter. And if she wasn’t strong enough… the female could die instead.

“I’ll tell you when I get back,” I said quietly, my chest tight and cold.

As I hung up, my gaze flicked to Richard’s laptop on the desk. The screen glowed, a notification flashing across it.

[Richard, I hear thunder. I’m scared…] —Lynn

My heart was clenched.

Inside me, Lily, my wolf, growled low. “Fake. It reeks of pretense.”

I forced her anger down, swallowing my own.

The bathroom door opened. Richard stepped out, a towel slung low on his hips. His Alpha aura pressed into the room, heavy and suffocating.

“Something came up with the pack. I need to leave.” His voice was flat, indifferent.

I didn’t turn to face him. My eyes lingered on the rain-streaked window, the trees outside bending in the storm. “Is it a pack matter… or the one you really love?”

His brow furrowed. “What?”

“Nothing,” I murmured, rubbing my temple.

He walked closer, fingers brushing over my swollen lips as if nothing between us was broken. “Be good, Ann. Be submissive. Don’t cause trouble.”

Then he left.

The door clicked shut.

I was exhaled, shaky and uneven. But the moment he was gone, I grabbed my phone and ordered an Uber. I couldn’t stop myself.

Half an hour later, I sat in the back seat as the car rolled to a stop outside a hotel. Through the curtain of rain, I saw her.

Lynn.

She rushed out into the downpour, her dress clinging to her curves. Richard was already there, waiting. He shrugged off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders, lifting her as if she were something fragile, precious.

“It’s freezing. Why would you come out without a cloak?” His voice was soft, tender, the kind of tone he’d never once used with me.

My nails bit into my palms.

Lily’s voice cut through me, sharp and merciless. “Do you see now? We’ve never been the one he protects.”

The sight pierced me, pulling me back to the beginning—the day I first met Richard.

Back then, I was forced into training with the Moonstone Pack.

He sat in his glass-walled office, cold and untouchable. His Alpha aura pressed down on me until I could barely breathe.

On the first day, I spilled coffee on him.

“I’ll bill your father,” he said coolly.

On the second, I deleted meeting files, hoping to throw him off.

He recited every word of them flawlessly in front of his executives.

On the third, I tried to drug him—just to see an Alpha stripped of his control.

Instead, that night, under the full moon, his wolf snapped free. And I… I became his cure.

I was sore, furious, and humiliated.

But he pinned me against the window, his voice low, dangerous, breaking into my soul.

“Ann. Be good. Be submissive.”

And God help me… I broke.

I gave in to him. I gave him everything.

On his birthday, I covered the villa in roses and candles. I even bought a ring. I—his Luna in everything but name—was going to propose.

But I waited all night. The candles burned out, the roses wilted, and he never came home.

At 3 a.m., my phone buzzed.

#Alpha Richard at LAX with his White Moon

The photo showed him tenderly guiding Lynn into a car, his eyes soft, glowing with a love he had never once spared me.

The comments flooded in:

“The Alpha and his fated Luna! Finally!”

“They’re high school sweethearts!”

“He only ever smiles for Lynn.”

My phone slipped from my hand.

Lily’s laugh was bitter, icy. “See the truth. You’re just a replacement.”

I staggered into his study, tears burning my vision. A photo lay tucked under his laptop. I flipped it over.

Her. Always her.

My throat closed. I laughed, a jagged, broken sound that scraped like an injured wolf’s howl.

By morning, when Richard came back, he only glanced at the trashed study before turning to the butler.

“Clean this up.”

He didn’t even look at me.

I watched the butler sweep my ring box—my proposal—into a trash bag. He never even knew what was inside. He never knew I’d been ready to give him the rest of my life.

And at that moment, I knew. I would never love him again.

---

“Ann, where to?” The driver’s voice snapped me back to the present.

“Home,” I said coldly. “Back to the Silver Fang Pack.”

When I walked into the main hall, my father, Alpha David, was already there. His eyes lit up. “Ann, have you really agreed to marry into the Bloodmoon Pack?”

On the staircase, Julie—my stepmother—smiled knowingly. Her daughter, Lynn, from her first marriage, stood beside her.

“Yes,” I said, my voice hollow.

The moment the door closed behind me, the weight hit. I crumbled onto the floor, burying my face in my knees.

Lily growled, soft and pained. “Don’t cry, Ann. A she-wolf should never cry over garbage.”

But her trembling tail betrayed her. She hurt just as much as I did.

The next morning, laughter echoed downstairs. A woman’s laughter.

I yanked my door open. “What’s going on?”

The butler hesitated. “She’s moved in.”

And then I saw her.

Lynn.

Blonde hair. Blue eyes. That same mole under her eye as in the photo. Smiling sweetly, like a wolf pretending to be harmless.

My blood froze.

Lily roared inside me, barring her fangs. I fought to hold her back, but my own fury trembled just as violently.

I never imagined the girl who was supposedly “recovering from an illness in Europe” would turn out to be Richard’s fated mate.

Lynn.

Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Every curve dripping with confidence. She was fate’s cruelest joke.

She clicked across the floor in stilettos, that saccharine smile fixed on her lips. “Ann, I’m sorry… did I bother you?”

Bang!

I slammed the door in her face.

From the hall, my father’s roar shook the walls. “Ann! Do you have no manners? Get out of that room. Lynn likes it, so it’s hers from now on!”

I laughed bitterly and yanked my closet open, pulling clothes down in sharp, frantic motions.

The voices outside carried through the wood, clear as day.

“Uncle David, is Ann… angry?” Lynn’s tone was sweet as honey.

“Ignore her. She’s been spoiled since childhood.”

“But—”

“She’ll be marrying into the Bloodmoon Pack soon. This will be your and your mother’s home from now on.”

My hands stilled for a moment before I smiled. Cold. Sharper than a blade.

Within minutes, I’d booked a flight. End of the month.

Bloodmoon Pack.

Where a cursed Alpha prince waited to claim me… or kill me.

That gave me two weeks. Fifteen days until I either stood at the Bloodmoon altar—or disappeared overseas and left this toxic place behind forever.

By the time I dragged my luggage downstairs, no one even tried to stop me.

I headed straight for the city’s most luxurious hotel and swiped for the presidential suite.

For the first time that night, my throat tightened. My phone buzzed.

A message from Richard lit the screen.

[What kind of tantrum are you throwing now? Why didn’t you come to Moonstone today?]

I stared at it until the words blurred.

For a year, he’d forced me into Moonstone, under the excuse of “disciplining” me. He always said I was spoiled, unfocused, incompetent. A girl who needed to be reshaped—or she’d ruin herself.

He never saw that I bent myself into pieces just to survive him.

But I wasn’t bending anymore.

Fifteen days from now, I could be a ghost of Bloodmoon… or I could be gone forever.

When I returned to the hotel after grabbing bags of essentials, I froze. My luggage was stacked neatly in the lobby.

“What’s going on?” My voice was ice.

The receptionist winced. “Miss Ann… we tried charging your card. It declined. Policy requires—”

My phone buzzed.

A message from my father.

[Since you want to cut ties, don’t spend my money anymore. All your accounts are frozen.]

My chest tightened. I stared at the glowing screen until my eyes burned, then typed two words back.

[Fine by me.]

Dragging my luggage across the streets, I tried not to crumble. My suitcase was stuffed with wedding dresses and gifts meant for a home that would never be mine. None of it I could sell.

Borrow money? Never. I’d sleep on the street before I begged those wolves waiting to laugh at me.

I’d worked beside Richard for years, never taking a salary. I’d lived on his card, or my father’s. Every profit went straight into the two packs.

I’d thought I didn’t need money.

I knew better.

By midnight, I dropped my suitcase beside a park bench. I was about to lay my head down when footsteps staggered closer.

A drunk wolf. His eyes were glassy, his grin wide.

“Hey, pretty girl. All alone?”

“Go away.”

“Don’t be like that. Come keep me company…”

His hand brushed my shoulder.

The next second—

“Ahhh!”

His scream split the night.

Richard.

He appeared like a shadow, twisting the man’s wrist until bones cracked. His eyes were black with fury.

Before I could react, he yanked me—and my suitcase—into his car.

“Let me go!” I thrashed against him, rage and shame clawing up my throat.

His hand clamped around my wrist, unrelenting. His Alpha aura crashed over me, heavily and suffocating.

“What the hell are you doing, Ann?” His voice was sharp steel. “Homeless—and you don’t come to me?”

For one fleeting moment, his anger looked like concern, and something traitorous in my chest softened.

But then I remembered the words I’d written in my diary. God will keep giving you the same test until you choose differently.

I wasn’t going to make excuses for him this time.

Not for a rescue. Not for a scrap of attention.

I yanked at his grip, my voice trembling with fury. “Let. Me. Go.”

In the past, whenever I ran away after a fight with my father, Richard would hunt me down. He’d drive through the night, find me no matter where I hid, and carry me home on his back.

“What’s the tantrum about this time?” he’d always mutter, half annoyed, half amused.

Back then, as I clung to him, breathing in the crisp cedar on his skin, I used to think maybe—just maybe—he liked me.

How naïve I was.

Because now I know. No one could be crueler than him.

After touching me with that same body, after holding me, after making me believe I mattered—he would go back to his study, sit in front of Lynn’s picture, and look at her with a tenderness that made me sick.

And of all people… it had to be her.

“Let go!” I hissed, eyes burning. I sank my teeth into his hand.

He only frowned, silent, and started the car.

By the time we reached the villa, his expression was carved from stone. He carried my suitcase inside and spoke with that cold finality of his.

“Stay here, like always, until you decide to stop this nonsense.”

I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms. “I’ll only stay two weeks. After that, I’m gone. I’ll pay you rent if you want. But I won’t bother you again.”

Slowly, Richard lifted his gaze. His green-brown eyes were bottomless, like a deep pit I’d never climb out of.

“Stop bothering me?” His lips were curled, cruel. “Ann, do you really think you’re capable of that?”

The words sliced straight through me. Because he was right. He saw it all.

From the first day I hated him, to now—when I loved him to the point of self-destruction.

And him? He let me drown while keeping another woman in his heart.

“Lynn…” My voice shook. “She’s my stepmother’s daughter. Did you know?”

Richard was stilled for only half a second as he loosened his tie. “I found out today.”

I bit down hard on my lip, but the question still clawed its way out. “And… what is she to you?”

His answer was effortless, rehearsed. “A junior from school. We went to the same academy. She once saved me in a car accident. Later, her health failed, so she was sent abroad.”

Then he looked straight at me, his gaze sharp and warning. “I know you hate your stepmother. But Lynn has nothing to do with that. Don’t take it out on her.”

My chest caved. I wanted to scream Do you love her?!

But what was the point? His protection of her said it all.

I turned on my heel and slammed the guest room door.

That night, he didn’t come after me. Not once.

I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling until my vision blurred. One thought circled in my mind like a countdown.

Thirteen days left.

Thirteen days until Bloodmoon claimed me—or until I vanished overseas. Either way, I’d escape this torment.

The next day, I slept late, hoping he’d already gone.

But when I opened my door, he was still there. Sitting casually on the sofa, flipping through a magazine, his aura calm and suffocating at once.

He glanced up lazily. “Awake?”

I hesitated. “Aren’t you busy with pack affairs?”

“It’s the weekend,” he said simply.

I muttered something under my breath, grabbed a slice of cheesecake from the fridge, and made for my room.

“Change,” he said suddenly, not even looking up. “You’re coming with me to a party.”

Every instinct in me wanted to refuse. But being trapped in the villa with him was worse. At least outside, I could breathe.

So, I changed and followed.

When we arrived, my stomach dropped.

It wasn’t just a party. It was her party.

A grand welcome celebration—for Lynn.

I turned to leave immediately, but Lynn’s hand snaked around my arm. Her smile was sweet, almost angelic, her blonde hair glowing under the lights.

“It’s so good you came,” she cooed. “Don’t fight with Daddy anymore. He was so worried about you leaving—he didn’t eat all day.”

My laugh was sharp, humorless. I yanked my arm free and strode into the private room.

From the corner of my eye, I saw her lower lip tremble. Her eyes glistened with tears as she looked helplessly at Richard.

His jaw tightened. He shot me a look so cold it froze me in place. Then, without hesitation, he turned to her.

His hand threaded gently through her blonde hair. His voice dropped to something only she could hear—soft, tender words that pulled a shy laugh from her.

The sound gutted me.

I grabbed the nearest glass of champagne, tipped my head back, and swallowed until the burn drowned out the ache in my chest.