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.

"I said apologize to Lilith," Orion's voice was laced with contempt as he commanded me to apologize to Lilith, the very woman who had disrespected my daughter’s grave. The demand struck me like a physical blow, a surge of overwhelming sadness threatening to drown me.

I squared my shoulders and met his gaze with unwavering resolve. “Never!” I spat, my voice trembling with emotion.

Lilith, ever the manipulator, seized the moment to deepen the rift between us. She turned to Orion with a soft smile that barely concealed her malice. “Alpha, you always praised your mate for being generous, but look at her now. She’s behaving like a madwoman. Imagine the humiliation you’ll face when people find out about this. They’ll laugh at you for having such a mate.”

The moment he heard what Lilith had said, Orion's eyes filled with disgust as he glared at me. “Do you hear that, Seraphina? Don’t embarrass me. Go home and stay with Lyra. How could you leave her alone at the pack house?”

His words were a bitter irony. I stared at him, my teeth clenched in anger. “Do you even care about Lyra anymore?” I demanded, my voice cracking.

Since Lyra’s death, Orion had been absent. He hadn't shown his face at the pack house, hadn't been there to support me or to mourn our daughter. Even as the pack's leader, he had failed to acknowledge the losses suffered by his own wolves.

My wolf, always simmering beneath the surface, growled with a rage that mirrored my own. The thought of him deserving to die rather than Lyra gnawed at me.

Orion, oblivious to the depth of my anguish, replied with an air of self-assurance. “What are you talking about? Of course, I care about Lyra. I may be busy, but everything I do, I do for her. She’s my only daughter. One day, when she’s mated, I’ll give her the grandest gift imaginable. I want her to be proud of having an Alpha as her father.”

His words struck a nerve, igniting a firestorm of emotions within me. “Stop pretending, Orion!” I shouted, unable to contain my fury. “If you truly cared about Lyra, you wouldn’t have abandoned us at the border for Lilith. She was only six years old. Did you ever consider how terrified she was?”

Orion’s patience snapped. His face twisted in anger. “Why do you keep harping on about this? It was a minor issue. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Why can’t you just let it go?”

As if to punctuate his words, he kicked the urn that lay near the disturbed grave. It tumbled across the ground, spilling its contents—ashes that had once been Lyra—into the dirt.

The sight of her ashes scattering sent me into a state of shock. My mind went blank, and my wolf’s anguished howls filled the void. The grief I felt as I watched Lyra cornered by wolves was nothing compared to the pain of seeing her remains disrespected by her own father. The world around me darkened, and I barely noticed my own transformation. My heart turned black, mirroring the darkening of my wolf’s fur.

A gust of wind whipped through the cemetery, carrying Lyra’s ashes into the air. “No, don’t!” I cried, struggling against the wolf warriors who held me back. I reached out, desperate to grasp the fleeting particles, but they slipped through my fingers, disappearing like my daughter’s life.

"No..."

The last connection to Lyra was gone. I collapsed to the ground, trying to gather what little remained of her from the soil. Tears of despair streamed down my face, each one a silent testament to my overwhelming guilt and pain.

Lilith stepped forward, her voice dripping with false concern as she ground her heel into the scattered ashes. “Seraphina, it’s just a stranger’s ashes. Why are you putting on such a pitiful show? If you wanted to prevent Farrow from being buried here, you didn’t need to go to such lengths.”

Her words snapped something inside me. I surged to my feet, shoving her away with all the strength I could muster. She staggered back and fell, but the satisfaction was fleeting.

Orion’s face twisted with rage as he marched toward me. Without a word, he slapped me hard across the face. It was the first time he had ever hit me, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the torment in my heart.

“You left Lyra at home alone just to come here and bully Lilith out of petty jealousy. You’ve disappointed me beyond measure, Seraphina! How did Lyra end up with such a pathetic mother?”

His words were daggers, each one plunging deeper into my soul. Orion’s face was a mask of fury as he continued, “You like crying over strangers’ ashes? Fine, cry all you want! From now on, Lyra will be with me. You’re not fit to be her mother. I won’t let you poison her with your bitterness.”

Through the mind link, the Alpha gave an order. “Beta Herbert, take Lyra from the pack house and bring her to my private residence. Seraphina is no longer allowed to see her without my permission.”

There was a long pause before Beta Herbert replied hesitantly, “Alpha, Lyra... Lyra died in an ambush the day you were supposed to fetch her and the Luna at the border.”

Herbert’s voice broke slightly as he continued, “And Alpha, the grave Lilith chose for Farrow is where Lyra’s ashes were buried.”