With his support, I moved forward step by step. Evan was clearly losing patience.

Another communication came through.

“Alfred, hurry up. Karen needs to rest.”

When the call ended, Alfred glanced at me, hesitation written on his face.

I said nothing. I simply endured the pain and quickened my pace.

If I displeased Evan, the punishment would ultimately fall on Alfred. He had always taken care of me. I could not drag him down with me.

We were led into the stone chamber where Evan and I had once slept together.

Now, Karen lay on that bed.

He smiled as he played with the moon pearl taken from my body, violet light flowing between his fingers.

The pearl itself was not rare. It was merely a gift Evan had exchanged for his first hunt in his youth.

Before Karen went abroad, he had lost it. Evan later retrieved it and kept it ever since, waiting for the right moment.

He wanted to surprise him.

No one had expected that I would swallow it by mistake.

Evan stood by the bed, his gaze so gentle it bordered on reverence. He lightly pinched his cheek, the one that bore a seventy percent resemblance to mine.

No.

It was not that he looked like me.

It was that I had been shaped to look like him.

They were immersed in their own world, as if no one else existed in the room.

Alfred and I stood quietly in the shadows. After a moment, Alfred cleared his throat softly, reminding them of our presence.

Only then did they turn back.

The first time Karen saw me, a flicker of disgust crossed his eyes. It vanished almost instantly, replaced by a smile whose meaning was difficult to discern.

Evan’s expression returned to the impatience I knew so well.

He frowned, his tone leaving no room for refusal.

“Apologize to Karen immediately.”

I bit my lip, endured the tearing pain in my abdomen, and spoke in a low voice.

“I am sorry.”

I knew very well that if I did not apologize, he would not let me go.

A werewolf who could cut open his mate for the sake of a moon pearl was no longer someone familiar to me.

Karen forced a polite smile in response, his lips gentle and proper.

But his eyes did not smile.

That was the gaze of a victor, calm, confident, and carrying a trace of pity. He had nothing to prove. He was already standing at the end point.

Seeing me lower my head and submit, Evan no longer paid me any attention. His focus returned to Karen, as if I had merely completed a required procedure.

Alfred led me out of the stone chamber and settled me in a guest room in the side courtyard. It was far from the main house and the ritual fires, filled only with the scent of herbs and cold stone.

He laid out the animal hides for me, then spoke softly, saying he would fetch a clan physician skilled in healing to tend to my wounds.

Before leaving, he seemed to recall something and stopped, his voice hesitant.

Tomorrow is your birthday.

Then he added another sentence, his tone turning cautious and serious.

From now on, anything Evan prepares with his own hands, you must not touch. Remember that.

I nodded.

At that moment, there was no anger in my heart. Only a belated, bitter clarity.

If Evan had not once cared for me with such attentiveness before Karen reappeared, how could I have believed that his devotion was meant for me.

I had always been a substitute, chosen from the start.

The first time we met was at a healing camp on the tribal border.

I had been standing by a sickbed, changing herbs for my dying grandmother, feeding her water, praying to the Moon God. Evan passed by that place, and the moment he saw me, he stopped.

He froze, then softly called out a name.

Karen.

Only later did I learn that it was the name of his long lost betrothed.

At that time, my grandmother was gravely ill. He had raised me through scavenging and trading for scraps of food, just enough to keep us alive until I completed my coming of age trial. Fate never granted him the chance to enjoy his later years.

His life was like a lamp about to go out. Only by constantly consuming precious medicine and rituals could its faint flame be prolonged.

I could not afford such a cost.

I lay awake night after night, keeping watch over him, listening as his breathing grew shallower.

The turning point came on the second day after I met Evan.

He proposed a mate bond to me, his tone calm and straightforward, as if negotiating a transaction.

He would provide everything my grandmother needed, medicine, priests, and protection.

In exchange, I would become his mate, stand by his side, and take Karen’s place.

I understood exactly what that meant.

But I did not want my grandmother to die in pain.

So I agreed.

After the bond was formed, he did treat me well.

Because of my lowly origins, his parents did not approve of me. He simply excluded them from the ceremony.

When people within the tribe whispered, he made his stance public and suppressed all disrespect.

He never deprived me of material things or resources. Furs, ornaments, moonstones, as long as I asked, he would give.

Through these things, he compensated for my barren childhood.

If even the smallest mark appeared on my face, he would become unusually tense, as if that face itself mattered more than I did.

Those details once made me believe that he loved me.

That illusion shattered the day I discovered the room he never allowed me to enter.

That time, a small beast I had raised was kicked to death by Diana. I confronted him in fury, even threatening to tell Evan.

Diana only smiled.

The smile was cold and cruel.

You think he truly loves you.

Before I could react, he seized my collar and dragged me into the forbidden room.

It was a carefully arranged chamber, bright as a dream.

The most blinding sight was an entire stone wall covered densely with portraits.

The girl in the paintings, from childhood to adulthood, from innocent smiles to gentle eyes.

She looked almost exactly like me.

I stood there, barely able to breathe.

Behind me, Diana spoke coldly.

Do you see clearly now. This is the woman my brother loves. You stand beside him only because you look like her. And you still dare to dream of becoming his true mate. I am telling you, you are not worthy.

From that day on, I began to distance myself from Evan.

He noticed, but did not ask.

In his eyes, there was no need to explain anything to someone who was not loved.

A year ago, the clan physician said my grandmother could live for another three years.

But he left quietly one night.

There was no pain, no struggle.

As I watched over his body, I realized for the first time that I no longer had a reason to stay.

I asked Evan to let me leave.

He refused.

He said to wait until Karen returned.

He said that before I left, I had to give the position back to him.

I knew I owed him my life, and far too much in resources and protection.

So I stayed.

Now, Karen had returned.

And I had finally repaid everything that needed to be repaid.

That night, I began to run a fever.

At first, it was only heat beneath my skin. Soon after, chills and burning alternated, trapping me between fire and ice. A dull ache rose from deep within the wound, as if something were corroding my flesh and blood from the inside.

My consciousness was fading, yet I instinctively activated the communication sigil Evan had left me.

The runes lit up and were answered quickly.

His voice came through, edged with clear impatience.

“Do not contact me again. You are already an adult she wolf. Can you not even handle your own problems.”

Breathing became difficult. My throat felt clogged with hot mist, my chest rising and falling with painful effort.

“Evan, I… I feel terrible. Something is wrong. Could you…”

Before I could finish, another voice slipped in gently.

It was Karen.

“Diana, please stop bothering him.” His tone was soft, carrying a faint hint of complaint. “He has been taking care of me all day and is very tired. Since you are still his mate, you should be more considerate of him.”

The communication sigil went dark at once.

In that instant, it felt as if cold water had been poured over me from head to toe, and my mind cleared for a brief moment.

I immediately activated Alfred’s sigil.

He arrived quickly.

When he pushed open the stone door to the guest room, I was already soaked in cold sweat, the animal hides beneath me damp as if pulled from a river.

His expression changed instantly, and his first instinct was to contact Evan.

I reached out and stopped him, my voice faint.

“I already tried.”

A shadow passed through Alfred’s eyes, a mixture of pain and helplessness. He said nothing, only lifted me carefully.

He took me away from the Chandler family territory.

Along the way, I lay in the beast cart, barely able to stay conscious, and softly asked him to take me to another healing camp.

Alfred hesitated.

“The distance is far,” he said. “With your condition, you may not hold on. The nearest healing point is in the main clan territory. It is only a quarter hour away.”

“Do not go there.” I shook my head, my tone unusually firm. “Take me where I said.”

He was silent for a moment, then nodded.

“Alright. But you must hold on. I will go as fast as I can.”

He urged the beast cart to speed up, the night wind carrying a biting chill as it rushed in.

The Chandler family healing camp was the most powerful on this land.

The priests, apothecaries, and guards there all answered to the main clan.

If I collapsed there, or was quietly disposed of, no one would speak for me.

I was just a she wolf with no backing.

And now I knew clearly that for Karen’s sake, Evan was capable of anything.

It was indeed because of a wound infection that I was admitted to the healing camp.

The apothecary later told me that if it had been any later, the decay would have spread to my organs, with unimaginable consequences.

In the days that followed, Evan did not appear.

Perhaps he had already forgotten me.

Alfred, however, came every day, bringing herbs and clean water.

He tried more than once to mention my condition to Evan, but each time he was cut off coldly.

Evan did not want to hear it.

A week later, he finally remembered me.

He had originally come to discuss dissolving the mate bond, but when he learned that I was in the healing camp, he clearly froze for a moment.

Karen came with him that day.

By then, my condition had stabilized, and I would soon be able to leave the altar.

“Diana,” he said. “I did not know you were in the healing camp.”

A flicker of guilt passed through his eyes, brief and sharp, as if he had been unexpectedly pricked.

Karen immediately hooked his arm and gave me a gentle smile.

“I am sorry,” he said softly. “He has been with me these days, so he could not come see you.”

He paused, then added as if casually.

“But you know, we grew up together. We are used to relying on each other.”

As he spoke, he raised the hand interlaced with Evan’s fingers, the gesture natural and intimate.