During the pack's wilderness training, my adopted sister, Tessa, shoved me from a cliffside thick with wolfsbane.

My Alpha, Fenrir, turned and left with Tessa feigning injury in his arms, leaving me for dead at the bottom of the ravine.

I died instantly, but my soul lingered, watching everything with cold detachment.

I watched as Tessa's tearful complaints swayed him into blaming me for my own disappearance.

"Will Selene ever stop causing me trouble?"

"She's weak and always looking for trouble. How could she possibly be fit to be our Luna?"

He had no idea I was already dead at the bottom of that cliff choked with wolfsbane.

Five whole days.

The poison hit my bloodstream like liquid fire, racing through my veins with merciless speed.

As my body decayed under the moonlight, my love for him faded with it.

The title of Luna, the magnificent coronation I had dreamed of, everything I once cherished was now meaningless.

The Selene who loved him was well and truly dead.

My soul drifted in the air, the wolf within me long since fallen silent.

I was pushed from a cliff by the sister I grew up with, dying instantly as the wolfsbane below delivered its poison.

Perhaps the Moon Goddess pitied me, leaving a sliver of my soul behind to witness the end of my old life.

The moments before my death were still so vivid, the memory alone sent a chill through me.

"Sister, you're being so careless." My adopted sister, Tessa, steadied me at the cliff's edge, her voice laced with concern.

"We grew up together. Why would I ever hurt you?"

Her hand gently stroked my back, an intimate, comforting gesture between sisters, right before she shoved me hard.

In an instant, the thorny stems of the wolfsbane below pierced my skin.

The wolfsbane burned through my body, each breath becoming a struggle as my lungs seized.

I tried to scream, but only strangled gasps escaped my throat.

My wolf whimpered once before falling completely silent, severed from me forever.

Every nerve felt like it was being torn apart, the agony so intense that I welcomed the approaching darkness.

I could felt my life slipping away.

Soon, everything fell silent.

My body lay at the base of Moonridge Cliffs, hidden behind a massive stone monument.

No one even noticed the gash a sharp rock had torn in my hand, the blood a stark stain against the grayish white cliff face.

The crimson stain spread across the rock like a grim, beautiful flower.

Every so often, I saw a group of shifted wolves race down from the mountaintop, their claws clattering against the stone.

"Alpha, there's no sign of the Luna here." They were reporting to Fenrir.

It was laughable. I was so obviously dead, yet no one had found me.

But even in death, I still cared about Fenrir's reaction.

One of the perks of being a spirit was hearing everyone's mind-link.

When Fenrir heard there was still no news of me, he launched into a tirade.

"Where has she run off to now, forcing me to deploy the entire guard to search the mountain!"

"Why couldn't she just stay put? Does she enjoy making me waste days searching for her!"

"Is she that unaware of her own weakness? Can't she go one day without causing a scene?"

Deep in the autumn mountains, the freezing night was filled with the howls of wolves.

At first, my spirit didn't dare stray far from my body.

I lingered by my corpse, enduring the loneliness of death while clinging to the fantasy that Fenrir would come for me.

He's my Alpha, I thought, he wouldn't really just leave me here.

But as night fell, darkness enveloped everything.

Pairs of glowing wolf eyes flickered in the gloom, and threatening growls from wild beasts echoed in the distance.

My soul trembled as I could only watch the beasts circle and sniff at my corpse.

My body began to reek of decay, though thankfully the cold mountain air slowed the process.

I was used to it. Fenrir had always seen me as delicate, a burden, useless.

Whenever a problem arose, no matter how I explained, his response was always the same:

"Are you faking it for sympathy again? What trick are you playing now?"

Whatever. I didn't want to argue anymore. Let him think what he wanted.

I floated back to the pack.

A young Omega in the search party couldn't help but mutter as he reported back:

"Alpha, the Luna should have returned by now... Have you felt anything wrong through your mate bond?"

Fenrir's brow suddenly furrowed. His heart stuttered, and he was about to say something when Tessa, at his side, cut in.

She covered her mouth with a shocked expression. "Are you a close friend of my sister's?"

The warrior she questioned shook his head, bewildered. "No, I don't know the Luna at all."

It was his first day on the search team. He didn't even know all his teammates, let alone me.

Tears instantly welled in Tessa's eyes, her voice choked with emotion.

"Oh, I see... I thought you were a friend of my sister's, showing your concern for her."

"I suppose I read too much into it. It's just... when you defended her so strongly, I worried people might get the wrong impression..."

"I don't want my sister's reputation to be damaged. After all, she is the Luna of our pack."

As she spoke, she looked at Fenrir, her eyes welling with innocent, aggrieved tears.

Just as she'd planned, Fenrir's expression instantly darkened like a sky before a storm.

His Alpha's power radiated through the area.

He turned to the warrior who had just spoken, his voice as cold as frost.

"You. You're demoted to omega duties, effective immediately."

"Let me make something clear. I am your Alpha. The mate bond is none of your business."

"If anyone else dares to forget their place, their fate will be far worse!"

At his words, everyone flinched and stepped back, terrified they would be next.

Only Tessa stepped forward, tears still glistening on her cheeks.

"I just don't know where sister could have run off to."

"Alpha, sister didn't mean it. She was spoiled growing up, a bit willful. Pushing me must have just been a fit of temper."

"She probably just ran off to play. Please don't be angry with her..."

Tessa played her part perfectly.

She had effortlessly convinced Fenrir that I was the one who pushed her, and that my disappearance was just me running off in a huff.

Hearing this, Fenrir's rage flared.

"Selene should be grateful your arm isn't seriously injured. Otherwise, I'll have her confined the moment she returns."

"The way she is now, she is in no way fit to be a Luna."

A hollow, soundless laugh escaped me. Just as he wished, I could never be his Luna again.

My soul continued to drift, watching my body grow stiffer in the cold wind.

With no one to talk to, I was getting terribly bored.

I suddenly thought back to our youth, to how brilliant Fenrir had been.

The entire werewolf world knew that the Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack was young, promising, and incredibly powerful.

He had a line of she-wolf admirers stretching from the northern to the southern borders.

Compared to him, I seemed almost insignificant.

It's laughable now, but I fought with everything I had to keep him.

I tried everything: crying, pouting, pleading. I found ways to drive away any she-wolf who got too close to Fenrir.

Everyone said I was a possessive lunatic.

Until my eighteenth birthday, on the night of the full moon, when the entire pack gathered in the temple square.

The silver light of the Moon Goddess shone down, creating a bridge of light between Fenrir and me that only fated mates could see.

"You are my one and only Mate," he had said, looking at me with a tenderness I had never seen before.

I felt it had all been worth it.

In getting Fenrir, I had gotten the entire world.

I naively believed it was because he loved me.

Looking back now, it was probably just the pride he felt in having a pure-blooded Luna.

And now, here was Fenrir, standing before the massive floor-to-ceiling window of the command center.

His tall frame cast a long shadow, blocking the sunlight that streamed in from outside.

He knew I could be willful, but the sudden weakening of our mate bond filled him with an unease he couldn't shake.

"Damn it!" he cursed to himself. "What the hell is Selene playing at? Is she trying to make me worry again?"

"Expand the search radius!" he commanded from the command center. "Leave no stone unturned! I want the Luna found and brought back to me within three days!"

He dispatched more search parties, mobilizing nearly all the pack's warriors.

Fenrir always was an Alpha who cared about his image, I knew that.

The whole pack was waiting for the Luna coronation to proceed as scheduled, and he wouldn't allow me to make a fool of him in front of everyone.

He was probably thinking that when I returned, he would finally have to teach me a lesson, to put me in my place.

Just then, Tessa came to his side, gently reminding him, "Fenrir, you haven't slept all night. You need to take care of yourself."

"Your Luna wouldn't want to see you run yourself into the ground."

Fenrir ignored her.

As he put on his coat, preparing to lead a team to the cliffs himself, Tessa suddenly collapsed.

"Ah!" she cried out in pain.

"What is it?" Fenrir immediately spun around to support her.

"My ankle... I think I twisted it..." Tessa's eyes welled with tears. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be causing you more trouble at a time like this."

"Don't be ridiculous." Fenrir frowned, examining her injury. "We need to treat this first."

"No, you have to find my sister! I'll be fine!" Tessa insisted through a grimace of pain.

"Your old injury hasn't even healed. How can you be fine like this?" Fenrir shook his head. "I'll leave the search to the others. I'm taking you to the pack infirmary first."

And just like that, Fenrir, who should have been heading for the cliffs, was successfully sidetracked by Tessa.

My soul watched it all, a deep sense of irony filling me.

I was lying at the bottom of a cliff waiting for him to find me, and yet he was tending to the very person who pushed me.

"Do you think... do you think something might have happened to my sister?" Tessa asked, her voice laced with "worry."

"What are you talking about?" Fenrir reassured her. "Selene has pulled this stunt too many times. I know her. She'll come back when she's tired of her games."

He thought this time was just like all the others, that I was having a little tantrum and would be back in a few days after making him worry.

That before long, I'd come crawling back like a dog, begging for his love.

What a fool.

Did the great Alpha not even feel the bond between us fading, bit by bit?

I thought of my bruised, purplish corpse, of the horrifying marks left by the wolfsbane's poison.

As my body decayed, our mate mark was gradually dimming.

Night fell, and the pack's search parties returned, exhausted.

"Alpha, we've searched the northern forest. Nothing."

"The western river valley has been searched as well. Still nothing."

Fenrir's expression grew darker, anxiety gnawing at him.

"Continue tomorrow!" he said through gritted teeth. "Let's see just how far she can run!"

And my soul, at the bottom of the cliff, watched it all in silence.

Another day passed. He still hadn't found me.

My body had begun to show obvious signs of decay.

I watched as wild dogs tore at my body, my arms and legs a bloody, mangled mess.

To think I, who had always prized beauty, once cared so much about my appearance.

I had even personally helped design the gown for the Luna coronation.

I had to be the most beautiful one, to ensure Fenrir's eyes were only for me.

I just never imagined I would die in such an ugly way.

Today, Fenrir's search order was for the southern valley.

But suddenly, the command center had a visitor. It was Tessa's brother, Sean.

I didn't understand how a waste of space like him could even set foot in the pack's command center.

After all, even I knew that Tessa's long-lost biological brother was a notorious rogue who had done nothing but cause trouble.

His presence here meant trouble.

But I had to admire Tessa's cleverness. For three days, she had used every trick in the book to keep Fenrir from searching the site himself.

She knew that if his mate bond got too close to me, he would surely sense that something was wrong.

"I hear Selene is missing?" Sean asked, feigning concern.

"I was traveling outside and ran into some rogues. They said they saw a she-wolf near the abandoned mines to the east."

"Could it be Selene?"

The news clearly caught Fenrir's attention. He shot his head up.

"The east? Are you sure?"

"Not entirely, but it's a lead. It's worth checking out," Sean nodded.

And so, the search party that should have been scouring the cliffs was diverted in the opposite direction by Sean's false intel.

My soul could only watch helplessly as they moved farther and farther away.

I silently cursed his stupidity, but no one could hear me.

Tessa whispered in Sean's ear, "Well done, brother."

"Keep distracting them. We can't let them find that bitch's body."

Sean gave a sinister smile. "Don't worry. I have my ways."

He was being played, and he couldn't even see it.

It was only just before I fell that I learned how much Tessa hated me.

"My sister, you're so careless."

Her voice was as gentle as a spring breeze, her hand stroking my back.

An intimate, comforting gesture between sisters.

The moment I let my guard down, her lips drew close to my ear.

Her voice suddenly turned venomous and cruel.

"Just die. The pack doesn't need a weak Luna."

That push, she'd put all her strength into it.

I had no time to react before I was plunging into the abyss.

And her voice still echoed in my ears:

"You'd better just die here... The place by Fenrir's side was always meant to be mine."

So from the very beginning, she had wanted me dead.

While spouting words of sisterly affection, she had viciously pushed me off the cliff. Then, she found a suitable spot on the training grounds to lie down.

After making sure no one was around, she quickly drew a small dagger from her boot.

Without a moment's hesitation, she carved a deep gash in her own arm.

Blood gushed out instantly.

She gritted her teeth, enduring the pain, and squeezed the wound to make it bleed even more.

Then, she threw the dagger off the cliff, destroying the evidence.

She tore her clothes, smeared dirt on her face, and messed up her hair.

Once everything was ready, she began to scream for help.

By the time Fenrir rushed over via mind-link, Tessa was lying there weakly, and I was already dead at the bottom of the cliff, poisoned by wolfsbane.

Tessa told Fenrir she didn't know where I'd gone, that we had gotten separated during training.

And just like that, Fenrir was lured back to the pack to tend to her, leaving my body to lie alone at the base of the cliff.

I was silently consumed by the lethal poison until every last breath of life was gone.

What was I thinking, in those last moments before death?

I thought of the day my father first brought Tessa home, telling me that from then on, I had a sister.

I thought of the many happy times Tessa and I had shared.

I also thought of that terrible war, where Fenrir held me tightly, telling me not to be afraid.

But back then, what I feared most wasn't losing someone I loved, but being alone.

Ever since I watched my parents die in the pack war, I'd had an indescribable fear of being alone.

But at that time, Fenrir was still there for me.

From that day on, he became the person I trusted most in the world, aside from my parents. My mate.

That was why I had joined them for this wilderness training.

I wanted to be by Fenrir's side as much as possible.

Even with Tessa there, I wanted to try to connect with him.

I never thought I would lose my life in the depths of a ravine.

Remembering the despair of my final moments, my soul couldn't help but tremble.

The physical agony and mental torment rushed back all at once.

For a full day, the search party scoured the eastern mines, coming up with nothing.

Fenrir's mood grew agitated. The faintness of the mate bond made him restless.

"Why? Why can't they find her?" he paced anxiously in the command center.

"Where in the world did she go?"

Three days. It was longer than any of my previous tantrums had ever lasted. He was done waiting for me to come back.

Tessa gently handed him a cup of hot tea. "Fenrir, you haven't rested properly in three days."

"If you keep this up, even if you find my sister, you won't have the strength to care for her."

"I'm not tired," Fenrir waved her off. "Selene might have run off to another pack this time. She still isn't back."

At this point, my corpse was barely intact. Where could I have possibly run to?

But that hardly mattered anymore. When the mate bond finally severed, he would find out sooner or later.

I suddenly found myself wondering: if he knew the truth, how would he react?

Would he feel any regret?