Serena POV

Maya's tears stopped the moment Silas insulted me.

Her eyes flashed back to those wild, golden wolf slits.

She lunged forward, her tiny fists hitting Silas's expensive suit pants.

"You are a bad Alpha!" Maya screamed, her voice cracking. "I will not go to your house! I hate your smell!"

Silas did not so much as flinch; his body became a rigid statue of tailored wool, the only movement a slow, dangerous tightening of the muscles along his jaw. He looked down at the angry pup with cold, unreadable eyes.

I felt a sharp pain in my bones. Another wave of the silver poison was spreading through my veins.

I knew I was dying. I had no time left.

If Maya kept fighting him, she would have no one to protect her when I was gone. She had to rely on her father. She had to let me go.

I stood up. I forced my weak Omega aura outward, trying to mimic a harsh authority.

I raised my hand and slapped Maya's cheek.

It was not hard, but the sound echoed like thunder in the small room.

"Stop it!" I yelled, my voice shaking. "You are acting like a wild Rogue! You will go with the Alpha, and you will obey him!"

Maya froze.

She touched her red cheek. The golden wolf slits melted away, leaving only the wide, heartbroken eyes of a little girl.

She did not growl anymore. She just covered her face and began to cry silently.

Each of her tears was a hot coal against my own skin, a searing brand of guilt.

I turned away quickly so they would not see my own tears. I walked into her small bedroom.

I grabbed her backpack. I stuffed it with her favorite blanket and the soft sweaters she loved.

I made sure to pack the things that carried my scent. A pup needed their mother's scent to feel safe, to soothe their Inner Wolf.

When I walked back out, Silas was staring at me.

His dark eyebrows were pulled together. He was watching the rapid, shallow rise and fall of my chest.

He noticed my breathing was wrong.

He opened his mouth to speak, but his phone rang.

The loud ringtone broke the heavy silence. Silas answered it immediately.

"Silas," Sonia's voice drifted from the speaker, soft and sweet like honey. "Are you almost done? Milo is asking for you. We made your favorite dinner."

Silas's hard expression softened instantly.

"I'm on my way," he said gently.

He hung up the phone. The slight concern he had for me vanished, replaced by his rush to return to his new family.

He walked over and took the heavy backpack from my hands.

"Let's go," he said to Maya.

He walked to the open door. Maya followed him slowly, her head down, her small shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

At the door, Silas paused and looked back at me.

"When are you picking her up?" he asked.

I gripped the edge of the table to keep myself from collapsing.

"Three months," I said. My voice was completely flat.

Silas's brow furrowed. A muscle in his cheek gave a slight, irritated twitch, as if he were chewing on a question he had no intention of voicing.

I could see the slight shift in his posture. His Inner Wolf was sensing something unnatural in my answer. An Omega mother would never willingly abandon her pup for three months.

"Three months," he repeated slowly, his eyes narrowing. "That is a long time, Serena."

I said nothing.

But he did not ask questions. He just nodded and led Maya away.

The door clicked shut.

The apartment was suddenly empty. The silence was deafening.

I fell to my knees. The scent of my pup was already fading from the air.

I curled into a ball on the floor, gasping for breath as the sorrow threatened to drown me.

An hour passed, the silence in the room becoming a physical weight I could no longer bear.

I stumbled out of the apartment, hailed another taxi, and gave the driver the address of the Silver Moon Packhouse.

I just needed to know she was safe.

I stood behind a large oak tree outside the massive iron gates of the Packhouse.

The villa was a towering mansion of glass and stone, glowing with warm light against the night sky.

The Maybach's engine died with a low hum, and a moment later Silas emerged. He moved with an unhurried grace, first opening the rear door to unbuckle Maya, then leaning across the seat to assist Milo from the other side.

Silas scooped the boy up, laughing.

The heavy front doors opened. Sonia stepped out, wearing a beautiful silk dress. She looked like the perfect Luna, the spiritual mother of the Pack.

She walked over to Maya, kneeling down with a warm, welcoming smile. She gently took Maya's hand and led her inside.

They looked like a complete, flawless family.

I placed my hand over my mouth to quiet my breathing. Maya was safe. She was in a warm house with plenty of food and protection.

That was all that mattered.

I turned around, wrapping my thin coat tighter around my body, ready to walk back to the dark edge of the territory.

"You must be very brave to leave her here."

A voice spoke from the shadows behind me.

I stopped and turned.

Sonia was standing a few feet away. She had followed my scent out to the gates.

Her sweet smile was still in place, but her eyes held a cold, calculating gleam I had never seen before.

"But then," Sonia added, her voice dropping to a whisper, "you've always been brave, haven't you? Even now, with the silver eating you from the inside." She tilted her head. "I can smell it, you know. Beneath all that Omega weakness. The moon's own metal, running through your veins. How poetic."

My blood turned to ice. No one knew. No one.

Sonia smiled, and it was the smile of something ancient and hungry. "Run along now, Serena. Enjoy what little time you have left."

Serena POV

Sonia stepped out from the shadows of the tall iron gates.

The moonlight caught the expensive diamonds around her neck. She smelled strongly of sweet vanilla and chemical floral perfume. Up close, I caught it—a faint, wild undertone beneath the artificial sweetness, something feral and wrong that her perfume was desperately trying to smother.

And now, beneath that cloying sweetness, I detected something else. Something old. Something that made my Omega instincts scream a warning I had ignored for five years.

"Leaving your pup here for three months," Sonia said softly, tilting her head. "Run into a Rogue? Or are you in some kind of trouble?"

I kept my back straight. I refused to show weakness in front of the woman who took my place.

"For five years, she has known only my care," I answered, my voice a carefully constructed wall against the wind. "It is past time her Sire acknowledged his duty. That's all."

Sonia let out a small, elegant laugh.

"Are you trying to use the pup to win his attention back?" she asked. Her sweet tone was gone, replaced by a sharp edge.

She took a step closer to me.

"Do not forget, Serena," Sonia whispered. "Five years ago, Silas stood in front of the Elders. He fought the oldest, most powerful wolves in our Pack just to strip you of your Luna title."

The Luna was the spiritual heart of the Pack. To remove a Luna was a massive scandal.

"He risked everything for me," Sonia smiled proudly. "A pup won't change his mind."

"My conscience is clear," I replied evenly. "Take good care of Maya. That is my only concern."

I turned my back on her and walked away into the dark street.

I only made it two blocks before the pressure in my head became unbearable.

A warm liquid dripped down my upper lip.

I wiped my face with the back of my hand. In the dim light of the streetlamp, my blood was shining.

It was a thick, metallic silver, but deep within the sluggish liquid, a faint, pulsing white luminescence flickered—something I had never seen before.

I leaned against a brick wall, breathing heavily. The silver was eating away at my red blood cells.

I managed to drag myself back to my empty apartment.

I collapsed onto my small bed. The pain in my bones was like being crushed slowly under a frozen lake.

I stared at the ceiling, my mind drifting to the past.

Sonia was right about one thing. Silas had gone against all our werewolf instincts for her.

Our kind had highly sensitive noses. We hated artificial, chemical scents. They burned our senses.

But five years ago, Silas allowed Sonia to fill his car, his clothes, and his office with her suffocating perfume.

He forced his Inner Wolf to endure the pain, just to keep her happy.

That was the moment I knew our marriage was over. An Alpha would only suppress his primal nature for his true obsession.

I swallowed two strong human painkillers and closed my eyes.

The drugs pulled me into a deep, heavy sleep.

I dreamed of the past. Maya was only nine months old.

We were sitting in the sunlit garden of the Packhouse. Maya lifted her tiny head and let out her very first, clumsy wolf howl.

Silas had laughed. It was a deep, joyful sound. He wrapped his strong arms around both of us.

"We're a Pack, Serena," he whispered in my dream. "We'll always be together."

The dream shattered like glass.

I woke up gasping. The morning light was shining weakly through my dusty window.

I turned my head and coughed violently.

Silver blood splattered across my white pillowcase. It shimmered horribly in the sunlight. And there it was again—that faint white glow threading through the silver, pulsing like a trapped star.

My time was almost gone. The Moon Goddess was calling my spirit home.

I forced myself out of bed. I washed my face, brushed my hair, and put on my best black dress.

I walked out of the territory and found a small human photo studio.

I sat straight in the chair and looked at the camera. I did not smile.

I paid the photographer in cash and took the large, black-and-white portrait with me. It was for my future memorial service.

Next, I took a bus to the towering glass building of the Pack Corporation.

I went straight to the Legal Department. I signed the final papers to officially resign from my job.

I walked down the hall and knocked on a frosted glass door.

"Come in," a calm voice answered.

I opened the door and saw Caleb.

He was the Chief Legal Counsel of our Pack. He was a Beta, the second highest rank in werewolf society.

He was also my closest friend.

Caleb looked up from his paperwork. His sharp brown eyes immediately noticed how pale I was.

"Serena," Caleb stood up, his scent of fresh rain and parchment filling the room. "What is wrong?"

I walked over to his desk and placed a sealed brown envelope in front of him.

"Caleb," I said softly. "This is my will. I am leaving this territory and everything I own to Maya."

Caleb stared at the envelope, his jaw dropping.

"And," I took a deep breath. "I need you to handle my afterlife arrangements."

Caleb's hand trembled as he reached for the envelope, but he did not open it. Instead, he looked at me with an intensity that made my breath catch.

"Serena," he said quietly. "Tell me everything. From the beginning."

I met his eyes, and for the first time since the diagnosis, I let the mask slip. "There's something I need you to investigate, too," I whispered. "Sonia. She knew about the silver before anyone else. She knew, Caleb. And I don't think she's just an Omega."