Chapter 3

The morning after the debt was settled, I changed into clean clothes and walked down the spiral staircase carrying a simple bag.

My parents were sitting at the long table having breakfast.

I stopped in my tracks and bowed deeply to them.

"Alpha. Luna. I no longer have the face to remain in this territory."

Before they could react, I turned and walked into the cold morning mist, leaving the Blood Moon Fortress behind for good.

I didn't wander off into the wilderness.

I went straight to the most luxurious hotel in the supernatural neutral zone—the Obsidian Continental.

I ordered the most expensive pureblood-grade red wine and soaked in the finest moonstone spa treatments.

Every single gold coin Elara had saved up over the years, I spent down to the last penny.

Three days later, in the hotel's top-floor suite.

The doorbell rang, and Elara strutted in on her high heels, chin held high.

Her gaze swept over the shopping bags littering the floor, and jealousy twisted her features—features that had once belonged to me.

"You're carrying a vampire's blood pact, and you still dare to squander money like this?"

I raised my wine glass and took a sip.

"Isn't the whole point of minting gold coins to hear them hit the ground?"

She let out a cold laugh, pulling a gilded invitation from her limited-edition handbag and slamming it down onto the black crystal coffee table.

Two names were written on it in the ancient Elven script.

Astoria Rathmore. Caius Whitlock.

The Full Moon Bonding Ceremony.

"You'd better show up." She leaned over the table, staring me down. "I want you to watch with your own eyes exactly who everything you once had—your power, your man—now belongs to."

Seeing Caius's name, my fingers still tightened around the wineglass for a fraction of a second.

My parents, the pack—I had long since let the ice of that past-life dungeon crush any expectations I held for them.

But Caius was different.

He was, I had believed, the one redemption in this cold family.

On the thirteenth day, the night of the full moon.

The Bonding Ceremony was held in the grandest banquet hall on the entire continent.

Elara wore the couture gown that had hung in my own closet—the one the Elven tailor had spent half a year sewing—standing at the center like a queen, surrounded by nobility from every corner.

Caius stood beside her in a crisp formal suit.

When an Elder offered a toast, he gently intercepted it for her.

When she stumbled on her hem, he bent down naturally to fix it, then straightened and murmured against her ear, asking if she was tired.

I stood in the most inconspicuous corner of the hall, watching this unfold, an ache in my chest that refused to be pressed down.

These protective gestures. This exclusive tenderness.

He used to treat me the exact same way.

The bonding ritual began.

The magic array at the center of the hall was supposed to project a romantic montage of the couple's past.

Instead, the image flickered violently, and several extremely explicit recordings of soul-link communications were forcibly projected into the air.

The recorded soul signatures were crystal clear.

Elara. Caius.

I snapped my head up, my gaze pinning itself to those dates like a blade.

That day—I hadn't been cursed with the Moonshadow spell yet.

That night, I had cancelled all my combat training and personally roasted his favorite game to wait for him.

He had gently soothed me through the communication stone, saying there was a rogue wolf uprising at the Silverpine border that needed handling, telling me not to wait up and to rest early.

But in the light-projected text hanging in the air, every single word stabbed like a blade.

[Elara: Isn't that foolish greenhouse rose waiting for your bonding tonight?]

[Caius: I told her there's a border uprising I need to handle.]

[Elara: What time can you shake her off?]

[Caius: Midnight. The border cabin, our usual spot. Wear the white dress I gave you and wait for me.]

Every drop of blood in my body dropped to freezing point in an instant.

So this was it. While I had trusted him like an idiot, worrying over his safety with my whole heart—

They had already been rolling around together right under my nose, like beasts in heat.

The whole hall erupted into an uproar.

Caius's face went ghost-white. He suddenly unleashed a burst of Alpha's aura, smashing the magic array with a single strike.

"This is fabricated! This is malicious dark magic! I have never had any impropriety with this lowly Omega!"

Elara reacted instantly, walking to his side with reddened eyes, turning her accusation straight toward me in the shadows.

"Elara!" she cried, tears streaming, pointing at me. "I know you've always been jealous of purebloods, that you've secretly loved Caius, but today is my bonding ceremony!"

"Even if you hate me, you can't use such filthy dark magic to fabricate memories and destroy us like this!"

Hundreds of contemptuous stares pierced through me all at once.

A lowly thief. A washout expelled from the Temple. A filthy Omega scheming to seduce the future Alpha.

The name "Elara" had, in their mouths, been permanently nailed to the pillar of shame.

Watching that perfect couple standing on the high platform, I suddenly felt an urge to burst out laughing.

Caius had personally cast her into the dirt for the sake of power.

Elara had personally declared that this ironclad evidence was all fabricated by her "lowly self."

To save face and exit gracefully, they had shattered every future public escape route for each other with their own hands.

But I couldn't manage even a hint of a laugh.

The crowd was roughly shoved apart.

Luna Genevieve, her eyes bloodshot, rushed up to me and struck me across the face with a resounding slap.

The instant my face snapped sideways, the thick taste of blood flooded my mouth.

I told myself, over and over, in my mind.

It was Elara that Mother struck.

But the one who actually bore this tearing pain was me.

At eight years old, when I had my first failed transformation and burned with fever, it was this very hand that had wiped my forehead again and again with cool spring water.

Now, that same hand struck across my face without mercy.

Mother's voice trembled violently.

"Elara, in what way has the Blood Moon Pack ever wronged you all these years? Astoria treated you like a sister. We gave you shelter. Why did you have to turn on her like a venomous snake?!"

Father stood behind her, his face ashen.

"From this night forward, the Blood Moon Pack revokes your protection mark. If you dare come within an inch of Astoria again, you will be killed without mercy."

I swallowed the blood in my mouth.

"Understood."

I turned and walked toward the doors.

The moment I stepped outside the estate, Elara came chasing after me, lifting her hem.

She blocked my path, every trace of her earlier grievance gone from her face.

"No more Temple qualifications, and now you're bound by a vampire's death pact. Now even the Alpha who took you in wants you dead."

She glanced back at Caius, who was still desperately explaining himself in the hall, then leaned in close, venomous.

"Even the man you loved most, the one you cared about most—he finds you utterly disgusting."

Finally, she pressed her lips against my ear, her voice trembling with excitement.

"Astoria, your life—I've destroyed it, piece by piece, completely."

I felt no anger. I simply lowered my head and glanced at the pocket watch on my wrist.

23:50.

Overhead, the full moon had turned blood red.

Ten minutes left.

Back at the hotel, Elara's ordinary face reflected in the floor-to-ceiling window.

Her left cheek was swollen, marked clearly with my mother's fingerprints.

The second hand on the pocket watch ticked forward, in time with my accelerating heartbeat.

Elara's words still echoed in my ears—your life, I've destroyed it completely.

23:58.

23:59.

The full moon rose to its zenith, blazing with blood-red light.

Then, a tearing, soul-splitting pain and a wave of dizziness crashed over me with violent force.