Chapter 3

That night, the backlash hit without warning.

When fated mates refused to soothe each other's spirits, the Moon Goddess exacted her punishment.

Agony exploded from somewhere deep in my soul and tore through every nerve.

My bones shattered inch by inch, then fused back together by force.

I curled up on the hard cot in the side wing, cold sweat soaking through my clothes.

"Arcas..." I tried to reach him through the faint thread of our bond, sending a desperate plea for help.

If he would release the smallest trace of his scent to calm me, the pain would ease.

But there was nothing.

There was absolutely nothing.

The other end of the bond was silent.

He had severed our mental link by force.

He didn't want to be disturbed by a "waste" like me.

"Ngh... aah..." I writhed on the bed, nails clawing streaks of blood into the wooden frame.

Only when the first pale light crept over the horizon did the agony finally recede.

I dragged my wrecked body upright, face white as ash.

The woman in the mirror had hollow eyes and bloodless lips.

I had to find him.

If tonight was a repeat of this, I would die.

I staggered to the main hall, only to be stopped cold by the guards. "The Alpha King is meeting with Lady Isabella. No one is to disturb them."

Through the half-open door, I saw them.

Arcas sat behind his desk, brow furrowed, looking drained.

Isabella, nothing like the vicious woman from yesterday, was gently offering him a steaming mug of herbal tonic.

She said, "Arcas, you've been exhausting yourself fighting the Council. I went up the mountain last night and picked moonlace myself to brew this tonic. Drink it because you need it."

She looked soft, attentive, caring.

Arcas took the bowl. His eyes held a softness I had never seen before.

"Thank you, Isabella," he replied.

I stood frozen, as if plunged into ice water.

Moonlace?

Yesterday I had spent the entire day in the archives, then dragged myself up a cliff face in the dark with my injured hand, breaking nails until I finally harvested that moonlace.

Arcas had severed our bond by force. The splitting headache was his own doing, yet I was soft-hearted enough to want to save him from it.

Now the herb I'd risked my life for sat in Isabella's bowl, rebranded as something she'd "picked last night on the mountain."

I couldn't hold back any longer. I shoved the door open and burst inside.

"I was the one who found that herb." I stared at Isabella, my voice shaking.

A flash of panic crossed Isabella's eyes, but she steadied herself almost instantly.

She turned to Arcas, bit her lip, and let her eyes go red with unshed tears. "Arcas, I don't know what she's talking about. I picked it myself from the mountain.

"I saw how exhausted you were and wanted to do something for you. Why is she accusing me like this?"

Arcas set the bowl down. His expression darkened.

He looked at me, irritation plain on his face. "Selene, are you done making a scene?"

"I'm not making a scene." I pointed urgently at the herbal residue on the desk, "There's a crescent-shaped scratch on the root. I made it with my fingernail when I picked it."

Arcas didn't even glance at the residue.

"Enough," he shot to his feet and closed the distance in three strides. His sharp, cold pine scent crashed over me with so much dominance that my knees nearly buckled.

He added, "I know Isabella far better than you. She would never stoop to something so petty."

He leaned down, his voice dropping to a whisper only I could hear, cold as ice. "You can't even shift. How could a weakling like you possibly climb the cliff where moonlace grows? Use your head before you lie to me."

"You know she's lying," I raised my chin and stared straight into his eyes.

A cruel smirk tugged at his lips. "So what?

"Isabella's family is useful to me. I need their support.

"And you?

"You're a tool I can throw away whenever I please.

"A tool should know its place."

He straightened and issued a cold command to the guards outside, "The interim Luna has behaved disgracefully and insulted a noblewoman. Effective immediately, revoke all her access to the main hall.

"Tomorrow, send her to the edge of the Forbidden Zone to collect moonstones for the ritual.

"She doesn't come back until she has one hundred.

"Let her learn what it means to stay in line."

The edge of the Forbidden Zone!

That place was crawling with high-ranked beasts. Even seasoned wolf guards didn't dare go near it, let alone someone like me.

He was sending a wolfless girl to collect a hundred moonstones there.

This wasn't a lesson. It was a death sentence.

I stared at his cold retreating back, and something inside me went numb.

So in his eyes, the truth and my very life were worth less than a single lie from Isabella's lips.