Serena POV:

Julian folded his arms across his chest, his posture radiating a contempt so profound it seemed to lower the temperature of the room.

"Do you have any conception of the pack resources we just squandered on your pathetic life?" he growled.

I lay there, my throat too raw and swollen to form a reply.

"You are a low-level Omega," he continued, each word a stone thrown at me. "You bring nothing but shame to this family with your histrionics."

Tears, hot and useless, welled in my eyes.

I remembered a time when I was a child, my fingers stained with paint as I tried to capture the forest and the moon. The pack had forced me to abandon my canvases for ledgers on territory management, desperate to make me useful. They had even stripped my room of its light colors to suit Tanya's gothic sensibilities.

"I have dragged you back from the brink more times than you deserve," Julian said, his voice dropping to something colder. "If your death could somehow restore what was lost, I would not lift a finger to stop it." He glanced toward the window, his jaw set in a hard line. "The rooftop is thirty stories high. If you want to make a point, at least have the decency to do it cleanly."

I stared into his eyes, searching for the boy who had held me through the agony of my first shift.

There was nothing left of him. No warmth. No love.

A cold, heavy thing settled in my chest, where a heart used to be.

My hand shot out, my fingers closing around the silver IV needle embedded in my arm.

I tore it free with a single, violent jerk.

Blood arced across the white bedsheets—a sudden slash of crimson—but I felt nothing.

I grabbed the heavy metal IV stand and, with a desperate surge of adrenaline, shoved it sideways. It crashed to the floor between us with a loud clang, a momentary obstacle. He flinched back, surprised not by my strength, but by my sudden, feral defiance.

I scrambled past Julian and ran from the room on bare, silent feet.

"Hey! What are you doing?" a young Omega nurse shouted.

She planted herself in front of Julian, blocking his path.

"How can you say such things to her?" the nurse scolded my brother. "She just survived a poisoning!"

Julian's face contorted with rage, and he shoved the nurse aside to give chase.

But I was already a fleeing shape down the sterile white corridor.

My shoulder slammed against the heavy steel door to the rooftop, forcing it open.

A blast of wind whipped my hair across my face, stinging my eyes.

I stood on the edge of the gravel-strewn roof.

I looked down at the insignificant specks of cars and people below.

I would destroy this broken body so Tanya could have it back in pieces.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the void.

The wind roared in my ears.

But gravity was not granted its swift, clean victory. My thirty-story fall was brutally cut short—a jarring screech of metal on metal as my spine slammed into the suspended platform of a window-washing crane.

A sickening crack echoed in the air as my legs and ribs shattered on impact.

I lay on the cold metal grid, coughing up blood.

An old human cleaner, who was on the platform, rushed to my side.

"Oh my god, child!" the old man cried, his hands trembling as he gently cradled my head. "Hold on, help is coming!"

He stripped off his worn, warm jacket and wrapped it around my shivering body.

His simple human kindness caused hot tears to finally spill down my cheeks. I had endured so much from my own family, only to be shown mercy by a complete stranger.

The platform was quickly winched back toward the hospital window.

Julian climbed out onto it.

He seized my arm, his grip careless of my broken bones.

He crouched down, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and yanked my head back, ignoring my cry of pain. Then he slapped me hard across the face.

My head snapped to the side, and blood trickled from my lip.

"Your acting improves," Julian hissed. "You even calculated the crane's position to ensure you wouldn't die."

Serena POV:

They dragged me back to the pack mansion as if I were a common criminal.

The livid, red imprint of a hand still burned on my cheek.

My parents were in the living room, sipping wine.

They observed my broken state without a flicker of emotion.

"Julian was right to strike you," my father, the former Alpha, said, his voice flat. "We have been far too indulgent with you."

My second brother, Silas, descended the grand staircase.

The man walking down the stairs wore the bespoke suit of a human celebrity, but the latticework of scars visible at his collar betrayed his true nature as the pack's lead warrior. He was an acclaimed actor in their world, but the look he gave my shattered legs was one of a critic watching a poorly staged play.

"You timed that jump with the crane perfectly," Silas mocked. "Such a performance. You ought to go to the human world and win an Oscar."

Before I could form a defense, the front door crashed open.

A massive wave of power—an oppressive, suffocating force—flooded the room.

It was Caleb, the current Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack, CEO of our billion-dollar corporate empire.

He was also my fated mate.

His scent, once the clean fragrance of pine after a storm, was now soured with a terrible rage.

Caleb's eyes were glowing with a feral, red light.

He lunged toward me and his massive hand clamped around my throat.

He lifted me from the floor, my broken legs dangling like a puppet's.

"Where is the amethyst necklace?" Caleb roared, his face inches from mine. "Its magical signature last pulsed from your chambers. No one else could have taken it."

That necklace held a shard of the Moon Goddess's divine power. Its magic was ancient and capricious—it could conceal itself from even an Alpha's senses when it chose to. But Caleb had forgotten that in his grief.

"You lowly Omega!" Caleb spat. "So consumed with jealousy for Tanya that you would erase every trace of her!"

He unleashed his Alpha's Command.

The invisible, crushing weight of his aura bore down, forcing my inner wolf into submission. My bones groaned under the pressure.

His hand tightened around my windpipe.

His eyes held only a fanatical devotion to Tanya and a chilling disgust for me. His hand was a vice—an iron clamp devoid of the slightest hint of a mate's mercy.

I looked into his furious eyes.

I remembered being a small girl, kidnapped by rogues and thrown into a dark cave. Caleb had tracked my scent and pulled me from the darkness, promising he would protect me forever.

Three years with Tanya had burned that promise to ash.

I closed my eyes and let my arms fall limp at my sides.

I stopped struggling for air.

I was ready for him to end it.

Suddenly, a pair of hands seized Caleb's arm, pulling him back.

It was Ezra, my third brother.

He was a Beta and the pack's genius botanist.

I collapsed to the floor, gasping and coughing violently.

"Do not kill her, Caleb," Ezra said, adjusting his spectacles. "She requires a lesson."

My family formed a circle around me, their faces hard and unforgiving.

"Throw her in the Silver Dungeon for three days," my father commanded.

My eyes widened in pure terror.

The Silver Dungeon was a place of absolute darkness, thick with the smell of rust and old blood.

I began to crawl toward Caleb, the sound of my shattered bones dragging against the floor a dry, scraping horror. My trembling fingers caught the hem of his expensive suit trousers.

"Please, Caleb," I cried, casting away the last remnants of my pride. "I didn't take the necklace. Please do not put me in the dark."

Caleb looked down at me with absolute revulsion.

He kicked his leg out, sending me sliding across the polished floor.

The pack guards dragged me down into the basement.

They forced me into a heavy wooden chair.

They wrapped thick chains around my arms and legs, each link laced with silver wire.

Every slight movement sent a searing, sizzling agony deep into my flesh.

The heavy metal door slammed shut, plunging me into a total, suffocating blackness.

Then, a sound began that turned my blood to ice.

Squeak. Squeak.

Hundreds of wild rats, their blood tainted with the madness of rogues, began to crawl from the walls.