The hunters, as if their mission was already complete, retreated into the shadows. I broke free from the warriors and stumbled toward my daughter's body, my legs giving way beneath me. I fell to my knees beside her, my hands trembling as I reached out to touch her cold, lifeless face.

"I'm so sorry, my sweet girl... I'm so sorry..." I whispered, my voice cracking with the weight of my grief.

I cradled Lyra in my arms, my heart shattering with every sob. The world around me faded into a blur of pain and loss as I rocked back and forth, clutching the only piece of her I had left.

The remaining warriors, bloodied and defeated, stood silently, their heads bowed in sorrow. They had failed to protect the most precious part of my life, and the weight of that failure hung heavy in the air.

"Luna, we need to leave. It's not safe here," one of the warriors said softly, placing a hand on my shoulder.

But I couldn't move. My soul was shattered, and all I could do was hold my daughter's lifeless body, my cries echoing through the silent forest—a mother mourning the unbearable loss of her child.

And there, I could feel my wolf howling at her grief.

While I mourned my daughter, Alpha Orion’s first love, Lilith, posted on her social media, “You always appear just when I need you. Grateful to have you around!” Accompanying her post was a photo of the two of them, looking content and intimately close.

My hands trembled as I took a screenshot and sent it to Orion, my mate. My message was laced with the anguish and betrayal I felt, "Is this why you didn’t bother to meet us at the border, despite knowing we were in danger?"

Days passed in a haze of grief. It wasn’t until after Lyra's cremation and burial that Orion finally responded. His words were a cruel knife to my already shattered heart. "You and Lyra can manage yourselves, but Lilith can't be without me!"

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. My mind swirled with disbelief and sorrow, but clarity pierced through my pain. "Alpha Orion, let’s break our mateship," I replied, my fingers trembling as I typed the words that would sever the bond I had cherished for so long. After sending that final message, I blocked him.

Orion had been my guiding light for so many years. We had grown up together since I was eighteen, fresh from leaving my previous pack. He had been my best friend, my confidant, and eventually, my love. From the beginning, everyone knew that I would always follow him, no matter where he led.

I stayed by his side through everything—supporting his pursuits, witnessing his heartbreaks when Lilith left to be with her true mate, and standing by as his faithful friend. During his relationship with Lilith, I silently endured the agony of unrequited love. I don’t remember when I started developing feelings for him, but I knew they deepened during his darkest times. When Lilith left, he was devastated, and it was then that I finally confessed my feelings. We decided to choose each other as mates, and for a while, it seemed like we had a future together.

Our life together unfolded with the passage of time. We had known each other since we were eighteen, began dating at twenty, married at twenty-six, and welcomed our daughter Lyra into the world when we were twenty-nine. Lyra was just six years old.

For years, I followed Orion with unwavering devotion. My gaze never left him, always burning with love. I spent my youth and the prime of my adulthood by his side, believing that one day I would hold a cherished place in his heart. But I was wrong. To him, I was never more than a second-best option. While he basked in the affection of others, I grew accustomed to being humble and making sacrifices.

Despite being mated and sharing a child, I never dared to ask too much of him. He was constantly busy leading the Blood Rose Pack, and I knew better than to disturb him. Whether it was dealing with illness, attending prenatal check-ups, or even giving birth, I bore everything alone, afraid that my needs would annoy him. I never wanted to be a burden.

The only time I had ever personally asked him to come for us was when I heard rumors of rogue sightings at the border. I feared for our safety, for Lyra's safety. But even then, because of Lilith, he abandoned me—his Luna—and our daughter. His decision led to Lyra’s death. She was only six, full of potential and dreams.

Does he even know how excruciating it was to watch our daughter die in front of me? Does he understand that a part of me died with her? Those mornings and nights lost their meaning after her death.

I knelt at Lyra’s grave, sobbing until there were no more tears left to shed. My body felt as empty as my heart. When I finally rose, I left with a heart that felt as though it had died.

Not long after, I saw Alpha Orion and Lilith approaching. He held her shoulders tenderly while she cradled an urn in her hands, her face haggard and grief-stricken. My mate looked at her with eyes full of pity and tenderness—a gaze he never spared me.

"The cemetery is beautiful, full of birds and flowers," Lilith said softly. "Farrow would have liked it, right?"

Farrow was Lilith’s poodle. I felt a bitter pang of irony at the thought.

Orion’s expression was one of deep concern as he looked at Lilith. But when his eyes met mine, his gaze hardened, the pity replaced by a cold indifference.

"Seraphina, you're never going to stop, are you?" He said, his voice filled with disdain. "First, you talk about ending our mateship, and now you're following me here. Do you have nothing better to do?"

He stepped toward me, frowning with irritation.

"Step aside," I replied coldly, my voice devoid of any emotion. I didn't want to exchange another word with him.

At that moment, I could feel my wolf's rage turning ice-cold.

Lilith stepped forward, her voice gentle but carrying sarcasm. "Seraphina, my dear Farrow died suddenly of illness. I was devastated, and I needed Alpha Orion’s support. Please don’t be angry," she said, her tone soft and soothing. Yet her eyes betrayed a different message, one of unspoken dominance. "He will always choose me. With me, he's always there."

I met her gaze, my expression impassive. "Oh, your Alpha is so good to you," I replied flatly, concealing the storm of emotions roiling inside me.

Upon hearing that, Orion’s frown deepened, irritation flaring in his eyes. "Look, can you be reasonable? Farrow's death has already made Lilith very upset, and here you are, being sarcastic?" His voice was sharp, cutting through the fragile peace of the cemetery.

His eagerness to defend Lilith stung, but I merely glanced at him, refusing to let him see how deeply his words wounded me. Without a word, I pushed past Orion’s shoulder and walked away, each step a battle to maintain my composure.

As I distanced myself from them, I could sense Orion’s confusion. This was the first time I had confronted him and Lilith without tears or accusations. I was calm. It was as if my grief had turned my heart into a rock.

Moments later, I heard footsteps behind me. Orion caught up to me, his voice a whisper of exasperation. "Isn’t this all because I didn’t meet you and Lyra at the border? Why are you so angry with me for so long? You're being petty!"

His words were a cruel twist of the knife as if I were to blame for the distance growing between us. "Well, it's all my fault," I replied, my voice cold and detached, not even bothering to look at him.

At that moment, Orion seemed taken aback by my indifference. For a moment, his frustration gave way to a softer tone as he tried to explain. "Farrow's death was a big blow to Lilith. I was worried she might do something drastic if she was left alone, so I went to her. Is Lyra upset with me? I'll make it up to her when I get back. She's such a good girl; she’ll forgive me, right?"

If he had cared at all for our family, he would have known the horror that had befallen our daughter. But his world revolved around Lilith, and he hadn’t even noticed our daughter's death. "You don’t have a chance anymore," I said quietly, resuming my walk, my heart heavy with the finality of my words.

Orion reached out, his hand gripping my arm in desperation. "Why is there no chance? Okay, okay, I promise I’ll never do that again. You don’t have to be so mad about this, alright?"

For the first time, he seemed willing to lower his pride, to make amends. But his promises were too little, too late. If Lyra had survived the ambush, perhaps I could have found it within myself to forgive him. But now, the possibility of forgiveness has died with her.

"Let’s find a time to end this miserable mateship as soon as possible," I said, shaking off his hand with finality. My voice was firm, my resolve unshakable. I walked away without looking back, the weight of my decision settling over me like a shroud.

As I left, I could feel Orion watching me, a sense of something lost dawning on him. He frowned as he called his Beta.

"Beta Herbert," he said, his voice tinged with urgency, "prepare the most beautiful doll you can find and have it delivered to the pack house for my daughter. Ask her to help persuade her mother not to be angry with me."

His words were hollow, a desperate attempt to mend what was broken. But I was done waiting for him to realize everything. There was no doll, no apology, that could ever bridge the brokenness that had formed between us.

Just as I was about to leave the cemetery, my phone buzzed with a call from the gatekeeper, an Omega whose voice trembled with urgency. "Luna, someone is digging up your daughter's grave!"

Those words hit me like a lightning bolt, sending shockwaves through my heart. Panic gripped me, and without a second thought, I spun around and sprinted back toward Lyra's grave, my pulse pounding in my ears.

Lyra was the light of my life, a radiant one who adored daisies—flowers that mirrored her sunny personality. She used to dream about planting daisies all over our pack house's backyard.

Her dream was left unfulfilled in life, so after her death, I planted countless daisies on her grave, each one a token of my enduring love and longing. There was no tombstone for her; just a sea of daisies symbolizing the innocence and brightness she brought into the world.

As I approached her grave, I saw something that made my heart drop into my stomach. Lilith, with an air of entitlement, had placed the urn she was holding into Lyra's grave. Two wolf warriors were busily refilling the soil, trampling the daisies I had so carefully planted.

“Alpha Orion, look at all these daisies. Farrow will definitely love resting here!” Lilith's voice was a dagger to my heart, her words slicing through the fog of grief that enveloped me.

The sight of Lyra's urn, carelessly tossed aside near a pile of dirt, brought me crashing back to reality.

My vision blurred with rage and sorrow. My wolf, usually dormant due to the prophecy of my rare Moonlight Wolf bloodline, roared to life within me. Her howls echoed my grief, amplifying my fury to a near-breaking point. For years, I had suppressed my true nature, but now, my grief threatened to unleash a power I had never fully embraced.

“What are you doing?!” I screamed, charging forward like a woman possessed. I shoved the two wolf warriors aside and glared at Lilith, my voice shaking with rage. “Who gave you the right to dig this up?”

Lilith acted shocked and scared, pressing into Orion’s arms, her expression a mask of feigned terror. "I didn’t see a tombstone. It looked like an abandoned grave with no one to care for it, just these beautiful daisies. I thought Farrow could rest here peacefully. I even asked the cemetery manager to contact the family of the deceased and offered compensation. Money is more valuable to the living than the dead. Why are you yelling? You're scaring me.”

Her voice and false innocence made my stomach churn. Without wasting another moment on her, I snatched the shovel from a nearby wolf warrior and began frantically digging up the soil they had just replaced.

This was Lyra’s resting place, a place I had created with love! I would not allow anyone to desecrate it.

“Seraphina, what are you doing? Stop this madness!” Orion’s voice thundered behind me as he grabbed the shovel from my hands.

"You—You’re a fucking monster!” I shouted, dropping to my knees. I clawed at the dirt with my bare hands, desperate to reach Lyra’s urn.

Seeing my efforts, Lilith’s calm facade cracked. Panic flashed in her eyes. “Why are you just standing there? Stop her! Don’t let her touch Farrow!”

At her command, the wolf warriors lunged forward, pulling me away from the grave. I struggled against their iron grip, my nails digging into the earth as I fought to free myself.

“Let me go!” I screamed, my voice breaking with anguish.

At that point, Orion approached, his face a mask of cold indifference. “Lilith is already devastated by Farrow’s death, and now you’re causing a scene by digging up his grave. You’ve gone too far, Seraphina. Apologize to Lilith immediately!”

His words cut deep, each one a fresh wound on my already shattered heart. The betrayal was complete, the man I had loved and trusted had turned against me for the sake of a dog and another woman. The world around me seemed to collapse, but clarity settled over my mind.

"I will never apologize for fighting for my daughter’s memory," I said, my voice a low, trembling whisper.