I slowly pulled my gaze away from them.

I stared at Sarah. Her face was seventy percent identical to mine, but she always received so much more love.

"Are you sure? No matter what?"

Sarah gave our mother a comforting look. Then she answered me decisively.

"Absolutely not!"

"My health check for the Moon Goddess Festival is in three days. I have to be in perfect condition. I can't ruin my future because of you."

"Well said," I whispered. "Someone else's life certainly isn't as important as your exam."

My father finally lost all his patience.

"Leave our pack. And don't ever come back. Our pack has no place for a selfish, cold-blooded member like you."

He pointed to the door.

"If you upset your mother today, I swear I won't let you get away with it!"

Damien also walked over. He slipped the moonstone bracelet, our symbol of betrothal, from his wrist. He placed it on the table with a click.

"Ella, we're over."

"The way you are now... you're too extreme. You are too terrifying. We're not right for each other."

Then, his voice dropped. It became formal and sharp.

"I, Alpha Damien of the CrimsonMoon Pack, reject you, Ella of the Blackwood Pack, as my mate."

The words ripped through me.

An unimaginable pain tore at my soul. It felt as if my wolf was being physically ripped in half.

I staggered back. A gasp escaped my lips.

In that moment, I finally saw everything clearly.

Family. Love.

In their hearts, none of it was worth a single strand of Sarah's hair.

I had once begged so humbly. I tried so hard to please them.

I thought if I just worked hard enough, one day I could truly be part of this family.

Now I understood. I was wrong.

An extra person is always extra.

I looked at them calmly.

I watched them clear a path for me to the door.

They were waiting for me to leave. Like trash being taken out.

My heart was a barren wasteland.

I looked my father straight in the eye.

"If you wanted me gone so badly, why did you have me in the first place?"

"Did Mother not fight back? Or could you just not control yourself?"

My father's face turned beet red.

He swung his hand.

A sharp slap cracked across my cheek. The burning pain was instant.

I touched my face. My heart was numb.

I turned to my mother.

"And you. Stop crying."

"Your act of the pitiful victim is disgusting."

"When you were pregnant with me, did Father force you? With your personality, getting rid of me shouldn't have been too difficult."

My mother's crying stopped abruptly. She pointed at me. Her whole body was shaking.

"You monster!"

Damien rushed over and grabbed my wrist. His eyes blazed with fury.

"Ella! How can you speak to your elders like that?"

The hall erupted into chaos.

My father's second slap landed squarely on my face.

Warm liquid gushed from my nose.

"Get out!"

He pointed to the door. He roared like a beast.

"From this day on, I, Alpha Warren, will act as if I never had you as a daughter! We sever all ties!"

I instinctively covered my stomach.

For this little life I hadn't even met yet, I couldn't be weak anymore.

I wiped the blood from my nose. I stared him down.

"Fine."

"You said it."

"From this day forward, we have nothing to do with each other. No one is to contact the other."

Sarah shrieked through her tears.

"That's right! Whoever contacts the other first is cursed by the Moon Goddess to know no peace for eternity!"

A bleak smile touched my lips.

I took the real diagnosis report from my bag.

It was the corrected one the healer had just messaged me.

I threw it on the table, along with the bracelet.

"Very good, Sarah."

"Remember the oath you made today."

"You can keep these things."

"You might need to sell that bracelet to pay for your funeral."

I pointed at the paper.

"As for this, you can read it when you finally regret what you did to me."

After walking out of the pack house, I thought I would break down and cry.

But I didn't.

I just felt empty.

There was a huge hole in my chest. The cold night wind howled right through it.

The lingering agony from Damien's rejection was a constant, dull throb.

My phone vibrated.

It was a text from Damien.

"I have withdrawn the announcement of our mating ceremony. I informed everyone that we will not be mates due to incompatible personalities. From this day on, we are no longer connected in any way."

Immediately after, my father posted an announcement on the pack's internal app.

"My disowned daughter, Ella, is vicious and unfilial. From this day on, she is severed from the Blackwood Pack. All her actions hereafter are her own."

Then he kicked me out of the group chat.

So decisive.

I leaned against an old tree by the road. I stared at the cold words on my phone screen.

My heart felt like it was being shredded.

The tears finally fell.

If I had truly been the one with silver poisoning today, I would have died of despair seeing this.

Warren. Damien.

You are so cruel.

I dried my tears. I called a cab and went back to my small apartment.

That tiny place was completely mine.

For the next three days, I turned off my phone. I cut off all contact with the outside world.

I locked myself in my room like a wounded animal.

I replayed the last twenty years of my life over and over.

I thought about how my parents left me in the southern pack. They only visited once a year.

I thought about how Sarah basked in all their love while playing the innocent sister.

I thought about how Damien had promised me eternity. Yet he cared for my sister more than he cared for me, his actual mate.

I asked myself again and again. Why?

I was a pack healer. I had healed so many wolves. But I could never heal my own heart.

On the fourth day, I finally turned on my phone.

Countless missed calls and messages flooded in.

I ignored them.

On a strange impulse, I opened Sarah's social media account.

She loved to share her life. She posted updates almost daily.

Beautiful scenery from her trips. New limited-edition bags. Warm family photos. Exquisite desserts Damien made for her.

Her world was always so glamorous. So full of love.

But today, her feed was silent.

All her posts stopped exactly three days ago.

That was the day she went for her physical exam.