"Mommy, look at this ugly necklace! The chain is broken!" Damien exclaimed, pointing to Violette's broken necklace.

"Damien, don't be naughty, Sweetie. That's Violette's precious necklace."

"This ugly necklace is useless. It breaks so easily!" Damien stuck out his tongue and threw the necklace carelessly, causing the diamond pendant to separate and shatter on the floor.

Irene chuckled, then looked at Violette with a satisfied smile. "Looks like you can't wear that dress and jewelry. If you want, I can lend you my old dress."

Violette's hands clenched and trembled as she tried to hold back her anger. "Irene, watch your attitude in my den. Don't try to provoke me if you don't want to regret it."

Irene flicked her hair back over her neck with a haughty attitude, the cloying sweetness of night-blooming jasmine and warm honey rolling off her in waves, that acrid chemical undertone barely masked beneath. "Still pretending to be the Luna of this pack? Tsk, did you know that Hans and I mated on your bed?" She showed the bite mark on her neck, the skin bruised and raw where teeth had broken through. "Look, he's so wild and can't stop. He said he was bored to death when he was with you. You can't make him excited because you're like..."

Before Irene could finish her sentence, Violette slapped her hard. Her expression was very dark.

"Irene, you're just Hans' kept she-wolf. Hans doesn't even dare to claim you before the pack and show you to everyone. Don't overstep your bounds. I've been patient enough with you! If you provoke me again, you'll suffer the consequences."

Violette didn't want to waste her energy dealing with a mistress, especially since she was going to sever her bond with Hans. But Irene repeatedly provoked her, causing her patience to run out.

Irene glared at Violette with red, hate-filled eyes. Her lips curled into a cynical smile as she glanced at the door, seeing Hans approaching from a distance.

"You evil woman! How dare you hit my mom!" Damien shouted and bit Violette's hand.

"Damien, let go!" Violette shouted, pushing Damien away, but he bumped into the ironing board.

Irene suddenly grabbed Damien and protected him, just as the iron fell on her shoulder.

"Akhhh..." Her cry was loud. She cried as she hugged Damien in her arms. "Violette, I know Damien isn't your biological pup, but you don't have to burn him with an iron! He's just a little boy! You'd better burn me instead!"

"Irene!" Hans rushed in and took the hot iron away. He stood up and slapped Violette very hard.

"Violette, this time you've gone too far in hurting Damien and Irene!"

The slap was so hard that it tore the corner of Violette's lip. This was the first time Hans had ever hit her. The scent of charred oak and black iron flooded the chamber as his Alpha aura flared, pressing down on her like a physical weight. Her wolf, already battered, went completely still inside her chest.

Violette smiled bitterly as she wiped the blood from the corner of her lip.

"I didn't mean to hurt Damien. But Irene started the fight by destroying my dress and jewelry."

The second slap struck Violette's face again.

"Just because of a dress and some jewelry, you had the heart to burn Damien and Irene with an iron. Your heart is so cruel," Hans snapped. "You have to apologize to Irene!"

Violette gritted her teeth. "Don't you dare tell me to apologize to that bitch!"

"You..." Hans was about to hit her again, but seeing Violette's face already bruised and the corner of her lip torn, he lowered his hand, feeling guilty. However, when he saw Irene crying protectively as she hugged Damien, her back injured, his heart hardened.

He lifted Irene into his arms, then ordered the guards.

"Lock Violette in her quarters and don't give her food or drink until she apologizes."

Violette stared coldly at his back. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She wiped them away roughly.

*Enough, Violette. Don't cry for him anymore!*

---

Violette was locked up without food or drink. Her mother reached out again through the mind-link stone, asking why she had let Hans take Irene to the Blackthorn pack gathering in her place.

Apparently, to calm Irene down, Hans had taken her to the Blackthorn pack gathering and given her the finest dress and jewelry. They had claimed that Violette was ill and had asked her sister-in-law to replace her.

Even though they were in another territory, the Ashwood Pack received a steady flow of information about what was happening here.

Violette wiped her forehead, then ended the mind-link with her mother. Her ears hurt from hearing her mother's accusations.

After that night, Hans didn't come back to the den and took Irene and Damien on a tour through the Italian coastal territories, the Eastern wolf sanctuaries, and the Greek island packs.

Irene showed off their trip in memory stone recordings that she sent nonstop to Violette's mind-link stone. Everything, without exception, including intimate images and recordings of them tangled together in bed, Hans's bite marks fresh on Irene's skin.

Meanwhile, Violette was still locked up. The pack servant gave her food and drink, kept asking if she had apologized, and then reported it to Hans.

Violette survived by drinking water from the basin in her bathing chamber.

Hans extended her confinement until they returned from the trip.

When Violette thought she was dying and starving to death, she woke up in her chamber with a healer's infusion tube attached to her hand. The faint scent of lavender and rain-washed stone, her own scent, had gone thin and sour, like something wilting.

Hans sat on the side of the bed with a stiff face and guilt covered by an angry gaze.

"If only you had admitted your mistake earlier, this wouldn't have happened."

Violette covered her face. She didn't want to see Hans's face. The man who had torn her heart apart. Her wolf lay flat and silent somewhere deep inside her, barely a flicker. It didn't even lift its head at the sound of his voice.

Hans sighed.

"Violette, stop being stubborn and just apologize to Irene."

Irene appeared behind Hans. The sickly-sweet scent of jasmine and honey drifted in with her, and beneath it, that wrongness that always made Violette's wolf pace. She smiled understandingly and said softly, "Hans, it's okay. Violette is the daughter of the Ashwood bloodline. Of course, her pride is so high that she won't apologize to me, who is nobody."

Hans glared at Violette angrily.

"Being the daughter of the Ashwood bloodline has made you so arrogant!"

Violette did not answer and closed her eyes.

"Are you going to keep your mouth shut? Fine, shut your mouth forever!" Hans rose from beside her bed, his Alpha aura flaring hot against the walls before he stormed out of the room.

He stopped outside the door and spoke to one of the pack servants, his voice flat and absolute. "From now on, Violette is not allowed to leave the estate. Her daily rations are bread and water. She needs to learn to live like a packless stray. Don't give her anything else."

In the days that followed, she ate only bread and water. Her body grew thinner, more fragile. The wolf inside her, already quiet, grew quieter still, curling into a tight knot somewhere beneath her ribs as if trying to make itself small enough to disappear.

This made Irene feel powerful in the den. She took the opportunity to torment Violette further, ordering the servants to give her stale bread, days old, sometimes spotted with mold. The scent of night-blooming jasmine and warm honey drifted through the halls more frequently now, layered over something acrid that no one else seemed to notice.

Violette consoled herself with the fact that her bond-severance was only five days away. She spent her time in her glass greenhouse at the edge of the estate grounds.

She heard the servants whispering just outside the greenhouse walls, thinking Violette couldn't hear them. But even starved, even diminished, a wolf's hearing was a wolf's hearing.

"Oh my... I've never seen Alpha Blackthorn so wild and reckless during a rut. He's never been like that with the Luna."

The servants giggled.

"I feel sorry for the Luna. She has no idea that while she's locked away, her mate is bedding another woman right next to her chamber."

"Shh, you don't know. The Luna is as cold as silver. She must be boring in bed, which is why the Alpha lost interest. Besides, we all know that five years ago, Alpha Blackthorn's first obsession was Irene. I'm sure the death of the second young master had something to do with the Alpha wanting to claim his brother's mate. Damien must be his biological pup. Otherwise, why would Alpha Blackthorn name him heir to the Blackthorn Pack?"

"That's for sure. Since Miss Thornveil moved into the den, the Alpha smiles more often. He treats her like a Luna. They go on retreats to different territories, just the three of them — the Alpha, Damien, and Miss Thornveil. They're the real family."

Violette's hand clenched around the watering can. She stayed still until the servants had gone.

She came out of the greenhouse and nearly collided with Damien, who was running down the corridor. He almost knocked her over.

Violette caught his hand before Damien fell.

"Damien, I've told you many times not to run. You'll get hurt," she said gently.

Although Damien was Irene's pup, Violette had raised him since he was a newborn. She still loved him.

"Stop pretending to care about me! You're not my mother! I hate you!" Damien snapped and shoved her away. His scent hit her — milk and grass and something faintly sour, like unripe fruit. Not a trace of Blackthorn iron or char.

"Damien," Violette looked at him, her expression heavy with sorrow. "Even though I'm not your birth mother, you shouldn't yell at me and be rude to me. I have raised and loved you all this time."

Damien grinned arrogantly.

"You're only pretending to be nice to me because you're afraid Daddy will leave you! You're a barren she-wolf who's jealous of my mommy! If you're nice and beg me, I might persuade Daddy not to throw you out of this pack, you barren she-wolf."

Violette stared at him in pain, her voice choked. "Damien, who taught you to say such cruel things?"

"Is that wrong? You're barren. My daddy only loves my mommy! You forced my mommy to go abroad and took me away from her. If it weren't for you, me, Daddy, and Mommy would have been living happily together for a long time!"

Damien pushed Violette roughly, hard, until she fell onto the stone floor.

A sharp pain tore through her stomach. Her face turned pale.

"Damien, don't be rough!" Hans appeared suddenly, Irene at his side.

He scolded Damien and pushed him back without thinking, then crouched beside Violette, his expression flickering with something that might have been worry. "Are you okay?"

"My stomach..."

Before Violette could finish, Damien's loud wailing filled the corridor.

"Daddy doesn't love me anymore! Mommy, it hurts!"

Hans's attention snapped to Damien, who was crying in Irene's arms. His small palms were scraped and bleeding.

"Hans, I'm sorry for Damien's behavior. Please don't hurt him like this. After all, Damien is small — how could he push someone as big as Violette to the ground?" Irene said. Her eyes were teary, tears streaming down her beautiful blue eyes as if her heart ached to see her pup hurt. The jasmine-and-honey scent around her thickened, cloying, pulling at something instinctive in Hans's wolf.

A guilty expression flashed across Hans's face, and he quickly gathered Damien into his arms. "I'm sorry, Daddy was wrong. Damien, don't cry anymore."

"Daddy, it hurts, my hands are bleeding..."

"Daddy will take you to the Healing Hall." Hans stood up, his voice tight with anxiety.

"Hans, my stomach hurts..." Violette tried to call out to him, her voice weak from the pain spreading through her body.

Hans turned without glancing at Violette and left.

Irene smiled triumphantly at Violette, then followed Hans out.

Violette lowered her eyes to the cold ground, her shoulders slumped as if she had lost all hope. She covered her face and laughed. Her hopes had soared for a moment when Hans showed concern for her, then those hopes fell cruelly in an instant.

The laughter turned into cries of pain.

Pain spread through her body. She curled up on the stone floor, feeling warm liquid flowing down her thigh. Violette's face paled as she saw blood flowing from her leg and pooling on the ground. Her wolf, that faint and starving thing inside her, let out a sound she had never heard it make — a low, thin keening, barely there, like something dying far away.

"Ah! Luna!" A groundskeeper passing by found her and shouted in panic as he rushed over. "I'll contact Alpha Blackthorn."

Violette immediately gripped his hand. "No need. Send for a healer's litter. Take me to the Healing Hall. And please tell them to keep my identity confidential."

They arrived at the Healing Hall. As Violette had requested, the healers kept her presence there confidential.

"Where is Alpha Blackthorn? We've tried reaching him through the mind-link stone, but he's not responding!" a healer's assistant said anxiously. "We need him to authorize the ritual."

"Luna, what should we do? Alpha Blackthorn isn't answering even though I've reached out twenty times using your signal," the groundskeeper said, his voice strained.

The head healer spoke gravely. "We can't wait. The situation could be dangerous for the Luna if we delay any longer. This pup cannot be saved because of the delay, and the Luna's body is severely malnourished..."

Violette turned to look at the healer's assistant and took the consent parchment. "Perform the ritual. This pup... I don't need it anymore."

She had waited for this pup for fifteen years. She found out about her pregnancy today and lost it on the same day.

Hans had always looked forward to a pup of their own coming into their lives. But he wasn't there when this pup needed him to save her.

Violette pulled the mating band from her finger and dropped it in the waste bin.

"Understood. We'll begin immediately, Luna."

Violette stared at the ceiling of the ritual chamber. Her face was pale, her lips colorless and marked with bite marks because she kept biting them.

The healers moved around her, preparing instruments and laying out herbs.

"Luna Blackthorn, we're about to begin. We'll administer a sleeping draught so you won't feel any pain."

"No need. Don't sedate me."

She needed a reminder of when the fully formed pup was taken from her womb and how Hans was not present.

"Very well. Begin the ritual."

"Yes, healer."

Violette felt something being pulled from her body, and the pain grew sharper. She tried not to cry, but her tears could no longer be held back. Somewhere inside her chest, the place where her wolf lived went completely silent. Not keening. Not whimpering. Silent, the way a room goes silent after someone has stopped breathing.

"It's over, Luna. The pup has been removed."

Violette felt her body go weak, and everything went dark.

Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes.

Violette woke to the sound of a healer talking beside her bed.

"... yes, that's what I heard. Alpha Blackthorn has been at the Healing Hall since this morning, but he doesn't know that his mate is being treated here. He's in a private den-suite with a woman. I heard he came because his nephew fell ill after a tumble. Alpha Blackthorn even summoned every senior healer in the Hall just to treat a pup who had only a scratch."

"I feel so sorry for Luna Blackthorn. While her mate was tending to another woman's pup, she was waiting for approval for her ritual, but Alpha Blackthorn didn't answer her mind-link messages. In the end, the pup in her womb couldn't be saved."

"It turns out that the bond between Luna and Alpha Blackthorn was just a fairy tale. I saw Alpha Blackthorn treat a woman named Irene as if she were the apple of his eye."

"Shh, let's go. We can't talk about this. No one can know about Luna Blackthorn's ritual."

"Yes, we have to leave before Luna Blackthorn wakes up."

The healers' voices finally faded away. They didn't notice Violette's clenched fist under the blanket.

She opened her eyes with a blank stare, then got out of bed and pulled the infusion tube out of her hand.

Her face was still pale. Barefoot, she walked out of her chamber. Her wolf was silent inside her, curled tight and unmoving, the way it had been since the ritual. Like something in it had gone quiet and refused to come back.

She stopped at the door of the private den-suite, hearing laughter and cheerful chatter from inside.

"Daddy, I'm sleepy. Read me a story."

Through the crack in the door, Violette saw Hans sitting back on the bed with Damien on his lap. Irene sat on the side of the bed, cutting fruit. The room smelled like night-blooming jasmine and warm honey, and beneath it that acrid chemical sweetness that always clung to Irene's skin. It had seeped into the linens, the air, the walls. As if this were her den.

Hans was dressed casually, showing that he wasn't attending to any pack duties.

Violette remembered that when she was sick, Hans had only sent a healer to check on her, but had still gone to oversee pack operations.

When he received the message that Irene had a fever, he immediately rushed to her quarters and stayed the whole night, his mind-link stone turned off.

It was very clear how differently Hans treated the people he loved.

Violette had had enough of all this. She was going to disappear from Hans's life.

She backed away and turned to run, but bumped into a healer carrying food for a patient, making a loud noise that drew attention.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry...."

Hans came out of the den-suite and was surprised to see Violette sitting on the floor.

Violette quickly wiped her tears and tried to smile.

"Vio?" He frowned and knelt to help her up. "Why are you here? Why are you wearing a healing gown?"

"I'm being treated here."

"Are you seriously injured?" His face turned panicked and anxious when he saw the blood flowing from Violette's wrist because she had forcibly pulled out her infusion tube. "Why didn't you tell me?! You're bleeding!"

Violette stared at her wrist. Only a single drop of blood had come out, but it was enough to make Hans's cold face turn fearful and panicked.

He was a man who never flinched when a rival pack bared their fangs at the border, who sneered when pushed to the brink of death. But now he was panicking and anxious just from seeing a single drop of blood on Violette's hand.

But all of that was just a facade.

Violette's heart was tired.

"I'm sorry, I was so focused on Damien that I forgot you were hurt."

"It's okay. I know Damien is more important because he is the heir to the Blackthorn Pack." Violette smiled widely. However, her heart was crying for the child she had lost.

Hans looked at Violette's smile, sensing that something was different about her, and it made him uncomfortable. Something in her scent had shifted. The lavender was there, the rain-washed stone, but the moonflower was gone. Just gone. As if the part of her that bloomed had closed itself off.

"I'm sorry..." That was all he could say, then he realized Violette wasn't wearing shoes.

"Why did you forget to wear your shoes? Who took care of you at the Healing Hall?"

"There is a groundskeeper. But I've already sent him home."

Without saying anything, Hans carried Violette bridal style.

"Hans..." Irene came out of Damien's chamber and froze when she saw Hans carrying Violette.

"Damien is looking for you. His wound hurts again and he scratched it until it bled. Please persuade him to stop scratching his wound."

"Sorry, Irene. I have to take Violette to her chamber first."

For the first time, Hans refused Irene's request and walked away.

Violette watched Irene's face darken behind Hans's back.

Hans put Violette to bed and called the healer to check on her.

Violette had already told all the healers and servants to keep quiet about her miscarriage.

"Luna Blackthorn fell, and on top of that, she's malnourished and very weak." As he said this, the healer looked at Hans strangely and muttered, "How can Luna Blackthorn be malnourished?"

A look of embarrassment flashed across Hans's eyes. "It's because she's on a restricted regimen. I've told her repeatedly to stop."

Violette stared at him expressionlessly, seeing the lie he was telling to cover up his embarrassment.

The healer nodded in understanding and left.

Hans held Violette's hand gently. "Vio, I'm sorry. My behavior was outrageous. If you had apologized to Irene, this wouldn't have happened." He was still blaming Violette for what had happened.

"Just forget it. Irene has forgiven you, as long as you are nice to her, she will forget about this problem."

"Then please thank her for me," Violette replied with a fake sweet smile. Inside, she was gritting her teeth.

Since she would be leaving soon, Violette knew it was better not to waste her energy arguing with him.

Hans smiled softly and stroked her cheek. "As long as you behave yourself, everything will go back to the way it was. You will always be Luna Blackthorn." Hans pulled the blanket up around Violette and kissed her forehead. Violette turned her face away, avoiding his kiss.

"Vio..." Before Hans could ask her anything, his attention was diverted by the pulse of his mind-link stone.

It was a message from Irene.

"Sorry, I have to go check on Damien," he said and walked out of the chamber.

He didn't even stay long to keep her company.

Violette lay in bed and closed her eyes. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. She cried until her eyes were puffy and her voice was hoarse. Her wolf lay flat inside her chest, not howling, not whimpering. Just breathing. Shallow and thin.

To make up for his mistake, Hans changed his attitude and treated Violette as he had before. He gave her many gifts and arranged for Violette's favorite dishes to be sent from the finest kitchens to her chamber at the Healing Hall every day until she recovered.

A few days later. While waiting for Hans to pick her up, Violette walked around the Healing Hall. She sighed enviously as she watched a pregnant she-wolf being taken for an examination by her mate, his hand resting on the small of her back, their bond-scent mingling in the corridor like something whole.

She rubbed her stomach, and the pain stabbed her again. Her child was gone. She still remembered the pain when the pup was removed from her body.

Violette took a deep breath and turned to return to her chamber, but bumped into someone who had just come out of the birthing chamber.

"Ouch!"

Violette froze when she saw who was coming out of the birthing chamber.

"What a coincidence to run into you, Violette!" Irene smiled. "Why are you here?"

Violette looked around for Hans, but only Irene was there. This was unusual because Hans was always by Irene's side.

"I should be the one asking why you're here alone and out of the birthing chamber..." Violette's breath caught slightly when she looked toward the birthing chamber.

Irene followed Violette's gaze and smiled proudly. "As you can see, I'm having my pregnancy examined."

Then she picked up the parchments that had fallen on the floor when Violette bumped into her.

"Look, these are my moon charts. I'm three moon cycles along." She pointed to the scrying imprint and stroked her stomach. "This is my pup with... Hans. Isn't it beautiful? Hans always wanted a cute little daughter. He hopes this pup is a little girl."

Violette's eyes were fixed on the scrying imprint in her hand. It was painful to see that, while she had just lost her pup.

Irene was very shameless. She was carrying the pup of the Blackthorn siblings. Violette looked at her with disgust.

Irene watched her, as if waiting for a devastated reaction on Violette's face.

But Violette was indifferent, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing her pain.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Irene followed Violette's words in disbelief. "You should be sensible and sever your bond with Hans!"

"Why don't you ask Hans to sever the bond with me?" Violette shook her head in derision. "If it's Hans's pup, he will definitely take responsibility for you," she continued indifferently, then walked past Irene.

Irene followed her quickly.

"Violette, don't be arrogant just because the packs praise you for Hans's devotion to the world. It's all fake and solely to maintain the alliance between the Ashwood and Blackthorn Packs because they have to keep a barren wolf like you." She then continued, smiling victoriously.

"Did you know that Damien is Hans's biological son?"

Violette didn't stop walking and considered Irene's words to be nothing more than the buzzing of insects.

It wasn't that she had never suspected it, but she was too afraid to request a scent-test on Damien and Hans.

But now she didn't care about that anymore because in two days she would leave everything behind and disappear from Hans Blackthorn's life.

"You don't believe me? I'll prove it to you at the Blackthorn pack gathering tomorrow. Oh, I forgot to tell you that Camila didn't invite you." After saying that, Irene bumped Violette's shoulder and walked past her with her chin raised.

Violette stared coldly at her back.