Three months after the mysterious disappearance of my Alpha mate during his patrol, I found him in a bar near the border. He was cuddling his childhood friend, a she-wolf, laughing smugly.

"I wanted to get rid of Bethany for ages! Thanks for giving me the idea to enjoy the freedom I've been looking forward to for a long time."

The she-wolf nestled delicately against his chest, feeding him wine with her mouth.

She asked him when he was planning to return—his answer was nonchalant. "I'll enjoy myself for another week and go back once Bethany's gone mad. That'll teach her not to be such a micromanager!"

His close friends all praised them.

"Great move! After this, the Luna will obey your every word."

"The witch's disguise potion is so useful. No one recognized you all this time!"

No one noticed me hiding in the shadows, watching how carefree he was.

I called the pack's elder; using my position as the Luna, I announced that the Alpha was dead and that it was time to prepare for the election of the next Alpha.

Three months after my Alpha mate disappeared, I searched the entire world desperately for him.

I found him in a bar, his childhood friend in his arms, feeding him wine mouth to mouth.

"The Alpha is confirmed dead. We will now begin preparations for the Alpha Election."

"Luna, are we truly giving up?" asked the elder on the other end of the line, his tone laced with disbelief.

I looked into the private room through the door crack, where my Alpha was caressing Desiree's cheek indulgently.

My heart stung with pain.

With a choked voice, I replied, "It has been three months. The rescue party we sent out all came back with nothing. No matter how much it hurts me, I must accept that he's dead. Not to mention, our pack must have an Alpha."

What use was an Alpha who abandoned both his pack and his Luna, even if he was found?

After arranging the process for appointing the next Alpha, I hung up and returned to my private room.

When my friend saw my red eyes, she passed me a glass of wine. "Bethany, I know you're hurting, but Sampson has gone missing for three months now. It's time for you to accept reality."

My hands trembled as I took the wine from her. I swallowed the entire glass despite the hurt I felt inside.

The drink was bitter, but it wasn't as bitter as what I was feeling. I held back my tears as I asked, "Would anyone fake their disappearance just to deceive their Luna?"

Thinking I was rambling because I missed Sampson too much, my friend sighed. "Stop thinking about it. No one could be so shameless. If that were true, then they would be better off dead."

I nodded blankly and stood up. "You're right. Let's consider him dead."

I left without looking back and returned home.

There were traces of Sampson and me in every corner of the empty house.

Two sets of tableware remained on the table. Just a day before his disappearance, Sampson had excitedly discussed the Full Moon Festival with me. We would become one under the light from the Moon Goddess and have a great night together.

But the very next day, I received news that Sampson had gone missing.

I stared at the empty room and sat on the couch, next to the doll that he had made for me. He had stitched it using the fur he had shed, and told me the doll could keep me company whenever I missed him.

As Sampson's irritated words rang in my ears again, those tender memories mixed with the impatient tone he had today.

"Bethany was such a gentle she-wolf before marriage, but she got more and more controlling after we married. She got even more clingy, too. I made her Luna so she could manage the pack, not me! She-wolves forget their place after getting a bit of power. I'm going to teach her a lesson with my disappearance. She'll know what she should and shouldn't control!"

Desiree lay in his arms, passing the wine in her mouth into Sampson's. He didn't hesitate to accept her gesture.

Grinning, she said, "Friends are so much better, right? I never try to limit you. You can do whatever you want. I even got the disguise potions from the witch for you."

"Of course! You're my best friend. Still, the potion's duration is too short. I'm back to my original appearance after a short time."

"I have more than enough—enough for you to have fun for a few more days."

They kept calling each other best friends, as if it were completely normal, even as their bodies were wrapped in each other's embrace.

Just thinking about it was enough to make me feel nauseous.

I tore the doll apart and tossed it in the trash.

I couldn't understand it. If Sampson was unhappy with me, he could simply sever our mate bond. Why did he have to fake an accident and go missing during patrol?

The next day, I called for a meeting. Using my status as the Luna, I announced that the Alpha had died and that I would be preparing for his funeral. We would choose the pack's next Alpha from among those who had the blood of an Alpha.

The moment I made the announcement, Sampson's close friends couldn't remain calm anymore and started questioning me.

"How could you hold Sampson's funeral without confirming he's truly dead?"

"Bethany, have you gone mad? Sampson isn't dead!"

"How could you strip Sampson's title as the Alpha? Aren't you worried he'll return furious?"

Facing their outbursts, I merely chuckled coldly.

"He's already dead. Can he feel anger at all?"

I ignored their objections without a care in the world.

"I'm the Alpha's mate," I said calmly, "so of course I can judge if he's dead or alive. From now on, the Luna will manage the pack's official matters. On the day of Sampson's funeral, I'll discuss choosing the next Alpha with the elders."

Once the meeting ended, I left Sampson's angry friends. The wolves started whispering heatedly, but it didn't concern me.

Once I got home, I began packing up the things Sampson had left behind.

For the past three months, I had spent most of my time tracing the route Sampson took to find any trace of him. I rarely returned home at all.

Other than the kitchen and the bed in our room, I barely touched anything else.

When I opened the safe, I froze.

More than half of the cash inside the safe was gone. Many of my expensive jewelry had disappeared too, including the Moonshell Necklace my late mother had given me.

I trembled—I understood everything now, and laughed tearfully.

For three months, I camped in the wild while trying to find Sampson by tracing his patrol route. I slept in caves and survived on forages together with the rescue party, to the point of losing my sanity. I tried to get some kind of response through our mind-link every moment I was awake, but there was nothing.

Yet, while I was on the verge of collapsing, Sampson came home to take the money from the safe.

I switched on our home's security system and began to review the footage from the past months.

On the third day of Sampson's disappearance, he walked into our bedroom with his arm around Desiree's shoulders. After a while, the two of them emerged with a large amount of cash.

Desiree put on my late mother's necklace, smirking.

"The Luna has plenty of valuables. She's such a gold digger—no wonder you wanted to get rid of her! She must have begged you to buy such an expensive necklace for her." She pretended to be angry and huffed, "You gave all your money to your Luna and forgot about your best friend!"

Sampson waved the cash in his hand and said, "I'll make it up to you. Just buy whatever you want today. I guarantee they'll be better than Bethany's jewelry."

The footage reached the night before yesterday. Sampson once again got into our bedroom with his arm around Desiree's waist and only left when it was dawn.

I watched everything, tears rolling down my cheeks.

Not for Sampson, but for myself—for all my efforts all these years.

As the only daughter of the Eastplain Pack's Alpha, I had worked hard to manage our pack and build trade relationships with the Eastplain Pack. Not only had I fulfilled my duty as Sampson's Luna, but I had also covered much of his work as the Alpha.

That was why he could fool around.

But now, he turned around and called me a gold-digger instead.

My chest thumped in pain.

The whole time, my soul and body had been in pain. I had once thought it was the pain of losing Sampson, but I didn't realize that it was our mate bond warning me of his betrayal.

While I was searching for Sampson all over the place like a lunatic, he and Desiree would spend the nights here at home. Desiree would wear my pajamas and sleep with my mate together on our bed.

Looking at how intimate they were, I bit my lip and did my best to hold the tears back. Already, blood trickled down.

He wasn't worth the tears.

Just then, my phone rang. I wasn't in the mood to answer, but the calls didn't cease. The caller kept on ringing me over and over.

I froze for a moment when I saw the caller's name, and answered.

"What is it, Lambert?"

"There's something I want you to know."

Lambert sent me a video. Sampson and Desiree were drinking from the same glass in a bar; their lips almost touching, their gazes sweet.

"Sampson is alive," Lambert said.

"I know he's alive," I said, my voice trembling.

"Then, you…" Lambert realized something midway and then burst into laughter.

Lambert was the youngest son of Sampson's grandfather—he was Sampson's uncle despite being around Sampson's age. He also carried the Alpha's blood. After Sampson had inherited the position as Alpha, he ventured out of the pack. I heard he had built his own pack later.

We had barely kept in contact since.

When Sampson was missing, I did seek Lambert. As we were once a family, he agreed to help me find Sampson. I owed him for that.

But now, he was also the first to expose the truth that Sampson was alive.

"Lambert," I said, "if you have the time, come to Sampson's funeral the day after tomorrow."

"I'll be there."

After I hung up, Lambert sent me another video.

In the video, Sampson's friends grew agitated as they spoke to Sampson. Furious, Sampson hurled his glass to the ground and it smashed into pieces. The surrounding people tried to calm him down. Desiree said something, and he began to laugh before kissing her lips.

I knew Sampson must have found out that the Elders had been informing everyone about his funeral. He might have been blocking the mind-link, but his friends could still receive the news.

What surprised me was how easily Desiree could change his mood with just a few words. In the past, when he was angry, I had to be extremely careful. One wrong word, and he would throw me out of our home to reflect on it.

The contrast was enough to make me feel even colder inside.

I could see that Sampson wasn't worried in the slightest. In the past, no matter how bad his tantrums got, I would always be the first to apologize and beg for his forgiveness.

I saved the video of Sampson and Desiree cozying up with each other at the bar.

Just as I was about to turn my phone off, Desiree's call came in. I answered, but the club music from the other side almost deafened me.

Desiree screamed, "Are you mad, Bethany? Sampson isn't dead yet, and you're already preparing his funeral and beginning to elect the next Alpha? Aren't you afraid he'll be furious when he finds out?! You better call everything off! Call a meeting to admit that you've simply missed him too much and made a mistake!"

I hung up before she even finished and turned the phone off.

Then, I lay on my bed—I had the best sleep I'd had in three months.

The next morning, I received a list of names of those who carried Alpha blood in them. All of them were eager to participate in the election.

I smiled, satisfied.

Once the funeral and election arrangements were finalized, I went to Desiree's home.

Her door was shut. I knocked repeatedly, and finally heard the door open.

Desiree was wearing a lace camisole as she stood there, love marks trailing from her neck down to beneath the fabric.

My eyes locked onto my mother's Moonshell Necklace around her neck. My expression darkened as I moved my eyes to her face and met her indifferent gaze.

"I hope you can attend Sampson's funeral. You're his best friend, after all."

Desiree glared at me. "Are you mad, Bethany? There's no proof he's dead, and you're already confirming his death and going to prepare for his funeral? What if he's still alive? You're practically cursing him! What kind of Luna are you?"

I took out the Alpha Election's notice from my bag and tossed it at her.

"It has been three months. He's either killed by a Rogue, or he's already picked clean by vultures. The Pack needs an Alpha. I've already arranged the election. Have you forgotten what you told me to help me get out of my sadness before?"

Back then, when I heard that something had happened to Sampson, I almost blacked out. Sampson's friends took me to the hospital.

"Bethany, there are plenty of Rogues in that area. There's been no word from his bodyguards. I'm afraid there isn't much hope for him."

"That's right! It's too dangerous. You really shouldn't go."

But I got up anyway, and began searching along the route Sampson patrolled together with the rescue party day and night.

I didn't get to have even one restful sleep for three months.

Why hadn't I noticed back then? Sampson's friends weren't worried at all! Instead, they simply toyed with me like a fool.

As soon as I finished speaking, I could hear a loud noise from Desiree's room.

When she saw the unanimous approval of all the elders on the notice, her expression changed. She thought that I was simply bluffing about the Alpha Election, and didn't expect me to be completely serious.

"Bethany, you better stop whatever you're doing! Otherwise, Sampson won't show you any mercy once he's back," she warned.

To that, I merely gave her an indifferent chuckle.

Desiree glared at me and slammed the door shut.