Chapter 3

Damian walked in from the doorway.

He was holding a thick stack of papers. "Are you done making a scene?"

He shoved the papers right in my face. "Sign it."

Pages strewn across the floor had bold letters. [Bone Marrow Donation Consent Form.]

"Lillian's condition has worsened," Damian said. "The surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning."

I stared at Damian's familiar face, but he suddenly felt like a total stranger. "I just lost my child, and now you want to take my bone marrow?"

"It was a bastard. Who cares if it's dead?" Damian said, flicking his sleeve with cold indifference. "Lillian's life is worth a hundred thousand times more than that bastard."

"Damian, I'm your mate!" I shouted.

The mating bond flared up again, making my whole body convulse in pain.

"Aren't you afraid of the wolf god's curse for doing this?" I asked.

"Curse?" Damian burst out laughing. "I am the god of the North!"

"Chloe, I'm not here to negotiate."

He strode over, yanked my hair, and forced me to look at him. "I own eighty percent of your father's shipping company now.

"I control the power to your mother's ventilator at the nursing home.

"If you don't sign, I'll have someone pull her tube out right now."

"You wouldn't dare!" I shouted, my eyes blazing with fury. I wanted to bite a chunk out of him.

"Go ahead and see if I dare," Damian said, letting go of my hair. He took a pen from the guard and shoved it into my hand. "Sign it."

I gripped the pen, my hand trembling.

I pressed the tip to the paper, ripping right through it.

"Damian, you'll regret this," I said.

"The biggest regret of my life is letting you save me five years ago," he said, his voice cold.

I signed my name.

Damian tucked the papers away, looking pleased.

"Get the operating room ready," he ordered the doctor beside him. "No anesthesia.

"Pure-blood wolves heal fast, but anesthesia will mess with the bone marrow's activity."

The doctor hesitated. "Alpha, if we do the puncture without anesthesia, she'll be in agony."

"Let her suffer to death if she must. She deserves it," Damian said, not sparing me a glance as he wrapped his arm around Lillian and walked out. "Make sure she doesn't die."

*****

The operating room lights flicked on.

I was strapped to the table.

A thick needle stabbed into my spine.

Without anesthesia, the raw pain of my bones being drilled into made me let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Hold her down!" the doctor shouted.

Four guards forced my arms and legs down, holding me in place.

The syringe slowly filled with my deep red bone marrow.

I passed out from the pain, only to be wrenched back to consciousness by the agony.

I had no idea how much time had passed before the surgery finally ended.

I was left on the table, limp and powerless.

Even breathing felt like a struggle.

Damian showed up again.

He walked in holding a tablet. "The bone marrow transplant went perfectly.

"Lillian's bouncing back fast."

He tossed the tablet right in front of me.

On the screen, Lillian was reclining in a plush hospital bed, sipping soup.

"Here's a little treat for you," Damian said, tapping on another video.

The video was shot inside my father's office.

Thugs dressed in black were smashing everything and ransacking the place.

They knocked my elderly father to the floor, and he clutched his chest in agony as a heart attack struck.

"What are you doing? This is our family's business!" my father shouted, his voice full of desperation.

"From now on, this place belongs to Damian," the leader of the thugs said, kicking my father's medicine bottle aside.

"Damian, you bastard!" I screamed with all my might.

My throat was shredded, my scream coming out as a hoarse rasp.

"Go on. Curse me all you want. The more you fight, the more it excites me," Damian sneered, pinching my cheek. "Tomorrow is the North's annual Full Moon Festival.

"I'll announce in front of all the wolves that you're no longer my Luna.

"You'd better pray you make it through the night."

He turned and walked out.

The operating room door slammed shut behind him.

I stared up at the overhead surgical lights, my vision slowly blurring.

Drops of blood fell from the table.

*****

The Full Moon Festival was held in the North's central square.

Tens of thousands of wolves gathered there.

Two guards dragged me up onto the altar.

My body was so weak after they took my bone marrow.

Every step sent a stabbing pain through my spine, as if a thousand needles were pricking me.

I was forced to drop my knees on the cold stone slab at the center of the altar.

Damian stood at the highest point, dressed in a magnificent Alpha robe.

Lillian stood beside him, wearing the Luna gown that was supposed to be mine.

"Today, I have an important announcement for the entire pack," Damian said, his voice echoing across the square through the loudspeakers. "Chloe, as my mate, has failed to fulfill her duties as Luna and tried to harm Lillian, the one who saved my life.

"She's twisted and cruel. She doesn't deserve to stand here."

The crowd erupted into chaos.

Someone shouted, "Strip her of her title!"

Others quickly joined in. "Kick her out of the North!"

I shot a cold glare at the pack elders who used to grovel at my feet.

Now they were raging, looking like they wanted to tear me apart.

"Chloe, got anything to say for yourself?" Damian towered over me.

"Me, harm Lillian?" I forced myself to meet his eyes. "You took my bone marrow to save her, and now you're blaming me?"

"Shut up!" Damian snapped, kicking me square in the shoulder.

I hit the ground hard. Blood gushed from my mouth as I coughed.

"Even now, you still dare to argue?" he sneered, whipping out a long silver whip from his side.

It was the kind used to punish wolves who stepped out of line.

The whip cracked against my back, tearing my skin and flesh wide open.

"This lash is for your vicious heart!" Damian snarled.

The whip cracked again.

"This one is for daring to disrespect your Alpha!" he barked.

I gritted my teeth, not letting a single cry escape.

Blood stained my white dress, turning it crimson.

Lillian walked up to me. "Chloe, admit you're wrong."

"If you get down on your knees and beg me, maybe Damian will let you live."

She leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper only I could hear. "Your father died in the hospital last night. They couldn't save him.

"They pulled the plug on your mother's ventilator half an hour ago.

"You've got nothing left now."

My mind went completely blank.

My father was gone? So was my mother?

I looked up at Lillian. "What did you say?"

"I said your whole family is dead!" Lillian giggled, covering her mouth. "You're nothing but a miserable orphan now."

A savage, uncontrollable power exploded inside me, raging through my body.

It was the bloodline of the Alpha King, locked away and suppressed for five long years.

At that moment, the mating bond shattered completely.

I felt no more pain but relentless bloodlust.

"Damian," I said, slowly rising to my feet.

Blood dripped from my dress onto the altar. "You think you rule the North?"

Damian hesitated for a split second and then sneered. "Still talking tough with death staring you in the face?

"Someone, carve out her claiming bite!"

Two guards stepped forward, one of them gripping a sharp silver knife.

Digging out the claiming bite would strip me of my place in the pack, turning me into a slave.

I didn't flinch.

I watched the silver knife get closer. "Damian, did you ever check which legal name is on the paperwork for those thirteen docks?"