I looked up.

It was Augusta.

For the past eighteen years, he had always believed that I would be his Luna.

When I was hurt, he bandaged my wounds himself.

When I came back from my first hunt, he hung a wolf fang necklace around my neck and told me he would always stand by my side.

So here and now, I still couldn't help but feel a flicker of hope when I looked at him.

Augusta walked up to me and raised his hand, signaling the guards to let go. "Let me see for myself."

The moment the words left his mouth, I seized his hand.

The instant our hands touched, Augusta's entire body went rigid.

His eyes blew wide, veins bulging along the backs of his hands, and his aura of a high-ranking Alpha surged outward uncontrollably, crushing down on everyone around us.

The pack members below the platform stumbled backward.

"His Highness's wolf is responding!"

"How is that possible?"

"Could Serena really be his mate?"

Augusta's gaze locked onto my face. His breathing had grown much heavier than before.

I could even feel the wolf inside him trying to get close to me.

This was the bond between wolves answering.

I hurriedly said, as if I had found my last hope. "You felt that, didn't you? Your wolf recognized me. If I truly had no wolf, why would he respond to me?"

Augusta's eyes flickered. He was wavering.

Just then, Elena gave a soft cough.

"Serena is right." She straightened up in our mother's arms. "Since His Highness's wolf responded to Serena, maybe the test earlier really did go wrong."

All eyes turned to her.

Elena bit her lip slightly. "Serena doesn't have to touch the Moonlight Stone again. If she can just turn into her wolf form in front of everyone, everything will be clear."

The crowd murmured in agreement, and their murmurs came from all sides.

I had no choice but to close my eyes and desperately call out to the wolf deep within my mind.

I begged her. "Come out. Please."

If she would just appear one more time, it would prove I wasn't lying.

But my wolf felt locked away somewhere impossibly deep within my mind.

No matter how hard I called, she didn't answer.

I clenched my jaw. My nails began to grow and sharpen, but they only held for a split second before snapping back to normal.

The crowd erupted in laughter.

"I knew she couldn't do it."

"His Highness was probably just protecting her out of habit."

I opened my eyes.

Elena was watching me.

Tears still glistened on her cheeks, but there was not a shred of surprise in her gaze, as if she had known from the very start that I would never be able to turn into my wolf form.

I knew she had done something to me.

I turned to the oracle. "Please give me a little more time. Before the ceremony, Elena gave me a glass of wine that tasted strange, and my body felt off ever since. Please examine my blood. If you find nothing, I will confess."

Elena's face went pale for a heartbeat, then her eyes welled up again. "Serena, that wine was prepared by Mother. I drank some too. Are you really willing to drag Mother into this just to save yourself?"

For a brief moment, a look of hesitation flickered across my mother's face.

But Elena only tugged gently on her sleeve, and my mother immediately said to defend her, "There is no need to put your sister through another humiliation over your speculation."

I stared at her. "So even if that wine really was spiked, it doesn't matter?"

My mother avoided my gaze. "You can't turn into wolf form, so you resort to slandering Elena. Serena, how much longer are you going to keep this up?"

I clenched my fists and looked up at Augusta.

I pinned my last shred of hope on him.

But he simply withdrew his hand, slowly, and his eyes turned cold. "What I need is a Luna chosen by the Moon Goddess."

I lowered my gaze to the wolf fang necklace hanging at my chest.

It was the token he had given me.

I asked in despair, "What about our betrothal?"

Augusta did not answer. He simply reached up and tore the necklace from my neck.

A deep gash opened across my throat, but he only looked down and gently wiped the blood from the fang of the necklace. "There is no betrothal between us anymore. I cannot risk my throne on someone with no wolf."

He turned to the pack members below the altar, his voice hardened and cold. "Serena questioned the judgment of the Moon Goddess's sacred relic, falsely claimed to be the fated Luna in the prophecy, and slandered her own sister at the coming-of-age ceremony. Under the law of the pack, anyone who desecrates the coming-of-age rite or falsely claims to be the future Luna prophesied by the Moon Goddess shall be exiled. Effective immediately."

No matter how fiercely I resisted, the chain was still fastened around my wrists.

The cheers on the altar had not stopped. Elena was about to take my place and receive the pack's blessing.

And all I could do was let two guards march me down the long street that had once been lined with flowers for me.

The rough edges of the chain scraped across the skin of my wrists, and I felt a sharp, burning pain.

The guard behind me gave me a hard shove. "Move faster!"

I barely kept my footing and couldn't help glancing back. "I'm not going to run. There's no need to shove me like that."

But the moment the words left my mouth, I froze.

At some point, the one holding the chain had been replaced by Ryan Lambert, someone whom I had once risked being surrounded by beasts to save.

I thought perhaps he might be my chance.

I felt slightly relieved.

"Ryan, the chain is too tight," I said, raising my hands to show him my wrists.

The chain had already rubbed my wrists raw.

I added, "Could you loosen it a little? I won't run, and I won't make things hard for you."

If he had only loosened the chain a little, my wounds wouldn't have been chafed open again with every step.

But Ryan only glanced down at my wrists. "Deal with it."

I figured he was worried about the other guard overhearing, so I dropped my voice. "You just need to loosen it a tiny bit. No one will notice."

"I said, deal with it." He said, his voice even colder.

I said, lowering my voice. "Ryan. Have you forgotten the stampede of wild animals three years ago? Everyone else was running away. I was the one who went back for you. If it hadn't been for me, you would be dead."

Ryan's lips curled into a sneer. "Ms. Mills, you don't actually think I should be grateful to you for the rest of my life over that, do you? You saved me once, and you expect me to betray the Alpha of our pack and the future Luna for you?"

I was stunned.

Ryan let out a scornful snort.

The other guard shoved me onto the prisoner's cart.

The cart slowly pulled away from the pack, and the trees around us grew thinner and thinner.

The air was thick with the stench of rotting leaves and blood.

I grabbed the wooden bars. "This isn't the road to the border. Where did my father order you to take me?"

No one answered.

Then the cart rolled into a desolate valley.

Animal bones were scattered across the ground, and the tree trunks were covered in deep claw marks.

This was the barren land, the territory of wild wolves.

I shot to my feet, and the chain on my wrists clattered wildly against the wooden bars. Ryan suddenly called out, "Stop!"

The cart came to a halt.

The other guard unlatched the door of the cart and dragged me out by the chain.

Ryan swung down from his horse as well.

That was when I noticed a brand-new silver badge on his chest.

On it was the insignia of a royal guard.

With his background, no amount of years spent grinding away could have made him a royal guard.

I couldn't help asking, "Elena gave you that?"

Ryan's hand went instinctively to the badge, and a look of smugness flickered across his eyes. "Ms. Elena Mills understands reward and punishment far better than you ever did. She knows who truly deserves to be promoted."

I stared at him. "So you traded my life for this position?"

"You don't have to put it like that." Ryan frowned, as though he were the one who had been insulted. "You're not the future Luna anymore. Someone without a wolf was never meant to stay in the pack and waste our food."

I felt my blood run cold. "I saved your life."

"Enough." He cut me off impatiently. "Even without you, the other guards would have come back for me. You insisted on playing the hero. And now you're using that to guilt-trip me into doing something for you to repay you? Don't you find that ridiculous?"

I looked down at the chain on my wrists.

Without the chain, my odds of survival would go up a bit.

I kept trying to reason with Ryan. "For the fact that I truly did save your life, at least take the chain off."

Ryan jingled the keys in his hand, a mocking smile on his face. "Haven't you insisted that you have a wolf? If you're so capable, then survive on your own."

I stared at him. "Aren't you afraid that one day, I'll actually make it back?"

Ryan laughed.

"You?" He swung up onto his horse, looking down at me condescendingly. "What makes you think a worthless waste who can't even turn into wolf form like you ever make it back? Even if you somehow don't get eaten by wild wolves, you'll just end up as a rogue werewolf on this barren land."

I stood in the desolate valley, watching them disappear into the darkness of the night.

Only then did I understand that once I lost the identity of the future Luna, everything I had ever been given became worthless.

The wind swept through the valley.

A rustling came from the bushes.

I whipped around, but all I saw were pairs of green eyes opening in the darkness.

Wild wolves emerged from around the valley, closing in on me from every side.

I looked down and picked up the length of chain trailing on the ground, winding it around my palms in loops.

The lead gray wolf bared its fangs, saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth.

Then it lunged at me.