Ethan and I were rushed to the pack's medical wing.

My injuries were critical—double infiltration of silver toxin and wolfsbane. My wolf could collapse at any moment.

The senior healer's expression was grave. "We need to use the pack's last vial of moonlight essence immediately, or the Luna won't survive the night."

The healer turned to retrieve the medicine.

The door slammed open.

Cain burst in carrying Vivienne.

Vivienne had a few scrapes on her right hand. She was trembling and crying against his chest.

"There's rogue venom in my wounds!" She held up her injured hand, sobbing. "If we don't use the moonlight essence to purify it right now, the toxin will spread into the deeper tissue and I'll never be able to work as a healer again!"

She clutched Cain's collar. "Cain, if my hand is ruined, who's going to research how to save Iris? This is the only hope!"

Cain looked at me on the treatment table.

Then at Vivienne in his arms.

He called the Beta over. "Ask the healer if the moonlight essence can be split in half."

The healer shook his head. "Split, there won't be enough for either of them."

Cain closed his eyes.

"Give the moonlight essence to Vivienne." His voice was low. "Her hand can't be lost."

He paused. "Use standard silver-toxin purification on Wren for now. I'll send someone to buy moonlight essence from another pack immediately."

I lay on the treatment table and heard every word.

I didn't have the strength to speak.

Or to laugh.

Minutes crawled by.

Several times I felt my wolf on the verge of disappearing entirely.

But I couldn't die.

I held on, breath by agonizing breath.

After what felt like an eternity, the emergency supply of moonlight essence from a neighboring pack finally arrived.

The healer spent six hours pulling me back from the edge of death.

* * *

The moment I regained consciousness, I slid my hand under the pillow and found the phone I'd hidden there.

I sent Alaric a message: "I need to leave immediately after it's done."

Confirming the staged-death plan and the extraction route.

I was still typing when the door opened.

I shoved the phone back under the pillow.

Cain walked in. Seeing me awake, he let out a breath of relief.

He sat beside the bed and placed a rare piece of moonlight amber in my palm.

"Making you wait those extra hours was my fault." His tone was laced with guilt.

Then he said, "Vivienne's hand has been treated. The toxin was fully removed. Thank god we used the moonlight essence in time, or her hand really would have been destroyed."

I listened quietly.

"How much toxin did they end up clearing from her hand?"

Cain blinked.

"The healer said it was... minor infiltration."

Minor infiltration.

I nearly died.

And what it bought was a case of "minor infiltration."

I placed the moonlight amber back in Cain's hand.

"Cain, let's sever the Mate Bond."

Cain went completely rigid.

"I want to sever the Mate Bond." I looked into Cain's eyes and repeated it, word by word.

Cain's tall frame went stiff.

There was no anger on his face—only the raw, ugly look of someone who'd been struck deep.

The room was deathly silent. After a long time, he slowly rose from the chair.

"You're just lashing out, Wren." He deliberately kept his voice low.

I looked at him coldly. It was almost laughable.

"Once you've calmed down, you'll understand that the choice I made today was absolutely right." He continued in that tone of absolute certainty.

"Vivienne's hand could not be sacrificed. She's the key to whether your mother ever wakes up."

"I couldn't not save her. Do you understand?"

I stayed silent. I didn't want to say another word to him.

Cain took a piece of moonlight amber from his pocket and set it gently on my nightstand.

"Keep this. It'll help your damaged wolf recover."

He turned and walked toward the door.

His hand gripped the handle. His steps faltered for a moment, but he didn't look back.

"Heal well."

The door closed.

The day I was discharged, I didn't tell anyone.

I went straight to the critical care ward at the healing center to see Ethan and Iris.

The silver toxin had destroyed Ethan's nerves. He was completely paralyzed in all four limbs.

Iris remained in a deep coma.

They'd been placed in the same room.

I pushed open the door and stopped dead.

A woman in a healer's white robe stood with her back to me at Iris's bedside, doing something quickly with her hands.

Vivienne.

I glanced at the wolf-spirit monitor beside the bed. The machine had been switched to silent mode.

Vivienne was holding a syringe, forcing a dark purple liquid into Iris's IV line.

"What are you doing!" I shouted and lunged at her.

I seized Vivienne's wrist and wrenched her away.

The syringe shattered on the floor.

"What the hell are you injecting into my mother!" I glared at her.

Vivienne was startled, but the moment she realized it was me, the panic vanished from her eyes.

A cold, satisfied smile crept across her lips.

"Did you really think your mother couldn't wake up just because of the wolfsbane aftereffects?" she said in a low voice.

My blood turned to ice.

"I come give her a booster shot every week." She looked at me with contempt.

"As long as she's alive, I carry the reputation of being the healer who ruined someone."

"Only when she's dead and gone can this whole thing finally be put to rest."

I was shaking from head to toe. I raised my hand and slapped her across the face with every ounce of strength I had.

The crack echoed through the room.

Vivienne shrieked and crashed to the floor, clutching her face.

Rapid footsteps sounded at the door.

Cain appeared in the doorway.

He immediately saw Vivienne on the floor crying, and my clenched fist.

"She was injecting something into my mother! She's trying to kill her!" I pointed at Vivienne and shouted.

Cain's gaze dropped to the shattered glass on the floor, then snapped back to Vivienne with a deep frown.

"I didn't... I was just doing a routine check on Iris, adjusting her dosage..." Vivienne wept pitifully.

"The Luna came in and hit me without even asking..."

She crawled up and shrank into Cain's arms, trembling.

"My face hurts so much, Cain..." She pressed her swollen cheek against his chest.

"I know the Luna doesn't like me, but I was just trying to help... If you don't believe me, test that liquid. It's just standard wolf-spirit nutrient solution!"

Cain looked down at the shattered vial on the floor.

The dark liquid had already seeped into the cracks between the tiles. There was no way to identify it.

"Wren, you do this every single time." Cain raised his head and fixed me with a hard stare.

"Have you ever considered that maybe you're wrong about her again?"

I stared at him in disbelief.

"Vivienne comes every week to adjust your mother's medication. Instead of thanking her, you attack her on sight?" Cain's voice was thick with disappointment.

"I'm wrong about her? She just confessed to my face that she's been trying to kill Iris!" I shouted.

Cain turned to look at Vivienne in his arms.

Vivienne shook her head frantically, tears streaming harder.

"I never said that! I swear I never said anything like that!"

Cain closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he'd made his decision.

"Yesterday you were screaming about severing the Mate Bond. Today, the moment you're discharged, you come here and assault Vivienne." Cain looked at me coldly.

"Wren, I think your mental state has been extremely unstable lately."

He turned to Vivienne, his tone gentle. "Do you know a shaman who specializes in psychological trauma?"

Vivienne nestled obediently against him and nodded.

"I know a very good one. He can help the Luna."

"Arrange it immediately." Cain gave the order.

"I'm not insane! I don't need some goddamn shaman!" I backed away.

But Cain waved to the guards outside.

Two burly guards rushed in and locked their arms around mine.

"Let go of me! Cain, she's a murderer!" I fought with everything I had.

Cain didn't look at me again.

I was dragged from the room. The heavy iron door slammed shut in my face.

The person Vivienne brought wasn't a trauma shaman at all.

He was a dark shaman—permanently banished from the pack.

Vivienne had paid him a fortune.

For the next seven days, I was trapped in an absolute nightmare.

"Cast the soul-erosion hex." The dark shaman showed no mercy.

My wolf was torn apart by force. The agony made me scream without end.

"Inject a trace amount of wolfsbane extract." The dark shaman continued his orders.

The toxin suppressed all my self-healing ability.

The method was viciously precise—and it left no visible wounds on my skin.

I blacked out from the pain, only to be ripped back into consciousness by a new wave of agony.

Over and over. For seven straight days.

A week later, Cain finally opened the door of that dark room to collect me.

I'd wasted away beyond recognition. My eye sockets were hollow.

I stood there motionless, my limbs rigid, unresponsive.

Cain saw the state I was in and his brow knotted tightly.

"How did Wren lose so much weight?" He turned and demanded answers.

Vivienne popped her head out from behind him immediately.

"That's just how psychological treatment works." She smiled brightly.

"The shaman's program must have been a bit intense. It's a completely normal reaction."

Cain stared at my deathly pale face, his mouth opening.

"Did you actually—" He was about to ask something when his phone blared to life.

"Alpha, there are still many security details to confirm for Miss Vivienne's promotion ceremony tonight," said the voice on the other end.

During the week I'd spent in that room wishing for death, Cain had made a decision.

He'd forcibly promoted Vivienne to the pack's highest-ranked healer.

Countless pack members had protested fiercely in the meetings. Because Vivienne had killed someone with wolfsbane.

But Cain used his Alpha authority to silence every voice.

"You must attend tonight." Cain hung up and spoke to me in a tone that left no room for argument.

"Only with the Luna personally present to give her blessing will Vivienne's position be legitimate."

"Only then will the pack members truly accept her."

I looked at his matter-of-fact expression and offered no resistance.

"Fine. I'll go." I answered calmly.

I knew I'd been waiting for exactly this moment.

The staged-death plan that Cain's father Alaric had devised for me was fully in place.

Iris and Ethan had been secretly transferred out of Blackwood territory the night before.

Tonight's ceremony was the final step to my freedom.

The grand event was held at the edge of a cliff on the border of the territory.

I stood quietly in a corner, watching Vivienne on the elevated platform in her platinum healer's robe—the symbol of the highest honor.

Cain stood tall beside her, his face radiating undisguised pride.

"I present to the pack our most exceptional healer—Vivienne!" Cain announced into the microphone.

The hall erupted in applause.

My face showed nothing.

I walked up to the platform, one step at a time, and stood before them both.

Every eye in the room turned to me.

I took the microphone and looked into Vivienne's triumphant eyes.

"Congratulations, Healer Vivienne. I wish you a brilliant future." I said it loudly, for everyone to hear.

Then, without sparing Cain a glance, I turned and walked off the platform.

Cain watched my retreating back from the stage.

He was quite satisfied with my compliance. He gave a small, approving nod.

I left the banquet hall alone and stepped onto the terrace at the cliff's edge to get some air.

The click of high heels followed me out. Vivienne was right behind me.

Vivienne leaned casually against the low stone railing at the cliff's edge, her smugness no longer contained.

"Seven days in that room and you still haven't lost your mind?" She looked at me with disdain.

"I already told the dark shaman to increase the wolfsbane dosage. You really are hard to kill."

She moved closer.

"How did those poison needles feel going into your veins? The sensation of agony shredding every nerve—was it as exquisite as it sounds?"

She leaned in close to my ear, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Your mother goes through the same thing every week. Except she's a vegetable, so even when the pain is unbearable, she can't so much as scream."

I ignored her provocation completely.

I pulled out my phone and sent Alaric one final confirmation.

"Now. Execute the plan."

The moment it sent, I tucked the phone back into my dress pocket.

I lifted my head and looked calmly at Vivienne's twisted face.

"Vivienne, you don't actually think you've won, do you?" I said it slowly, every word deliberate.

Vivienne's smile froze.

"All this time, your scheming, your ruthless attacks on me." I looked at her coldly.

"But has Cain once suggested severing the Mate Bond?"

"Has he ever—even once—wanted to leave me for good?"

Vivienne bit down hard on her lower lip. Her eyes were starting to dart.

I paused deliberately and let out a mocking laugh.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you something important."

"Do you know what Cain says about you in private?"

Vivienne's breathing quickened.

"He says he's only grateful because you helped him when you were children. He says he just feels sorry for you." I took a step closer.

"He says once you've settled down emotionally, he'll have someone escort you out of Blackwood territory immediately."

"His heart was never with you."

Vivienne's face drained of color, inch by inch.

"In his eyes, you're just someone he owes a debt to. A nuisance he can send away whenever he wants. Nothing more."

"Shut up!" Vivienne screamed, her composure shattered.

"Do you know what a Fated Mate is?" I fired back without flinching.

"It means no matter how hard you scheme, no matter how many times you frame me—"

"His bond with me was sealed by the Moon Goddess herself!"

"You will never—not in this lifetime—take my place!"

"I am his one and only Luna. Forever."

Vivienne's eyes turned bloodshot, her lips trembling violently.

I watched her expression as it crumbled toward the breaking point. The moment had come.

"As long as I'm alive, you will never have him." I delivered the killing blow.

"Then die!" Vivienne snapped completely.

She lunged at me like a rabid animal, her hands clamping around my throat.

Her raw strength drove me backward, slamming me against the low stone railing at the cliff's edge.

The rough stone dug into my lower back.

More than half my body was already hanging over the void.

Below—nothing but the fathomless black sea.

But I didn't struggle.

I just stared straight into her unhinged face, and spoke three words, taunting.

"You wouldn't dare."

Vivienne let out a deranged scream.

Her hands shoved forward with all her might.

My body flipped over the low stone railing.

Weightlessness.

I plunged into the endless night.