“Please… please, come get me,” I sobbed, clutching the phone tightly. “I have to leave this place. I’ll agree to any condition.” A sharp, worried voice answered instantly. “What happened, Wendy? Are you hurt?” I wiped my tears and cleared my throat. “I’m fine. I’ve just had enough of this fake place.” “When should I come for you?” the voice asked. “In seven days,” I replied. “This is the last time, Wendy. Don’t disappoint me again.” The call ended. I slowly got up from the floor. But another voice echoed coldly in my mind—tinged with disdain. “Only now you want to leave? What were you waiting for?” I closed my eyes. It was her—Miranda, my wolf soul. “Wendy, you’re free to go,” the nurse said kindly. I nodded and smiled at her, then limped out of the pack hospital. In my heart, I wished for a message or a call—but there was nothing. The phone stayed silent, and oddly, that silence brought me relief—no more lies to fabricate. In the living room, the holographic TV was broadcasting the pack’s celebration. My mother didn’t even glance up. She was feeding peeled grapes to Penny. “Our sweet Penny, always so good. Not like someone else who can’t even serve tea without breaking a cup.” My fingers tightened around the tray, the cracked rim digging into my palm. Three days ago, Penny had “accidentally” knocked the tray from my hands. Now my mother was smiling at her, eyes full of affection. “Look at you, so graceful. Not clumsy like Wendy.” Penny bit into a grape, her gaze flicking toward me. “Mom, Wendy’s just tired. She stayed up late helping me organize council documents,” she said with a syrupy smile. “Right, sis?” Alpha John lounged on the sofa, idly toying with the emerald bracelet Penny had given him. “Organizing? More like creating chaos. Last time it was the clan’s financial report—if Penny hadn’t stayed up to fix it, who knows what kind of mess we’d be in.” Miranda: “Page seven of that report had Penny’s lipstick mark. She used correction fluid to hide the right figures.” That error was deliberate—Penny’s fault. But I was the one who took the fall. My mother patted Penny’s hand. “Teach her? Don’t waste your time. You should just focus on learning from Alpha John. Someday, you’ll make a fine Luna for the Blackthorn Pack.” John pulled Penny closer by the shoulder. “Of course. Unlike someone else, who wasn’t even worthy of a proper bonding ceremony. Just a secret wife, hidden in the shadows.” Then my mother snapped. “Why don’t you go die with that useless father of yours?” It wasn’t the first time she said she wished I’d died with my father. My brother’s death anniversary had only passed a week ago. How could she... Penny quickly grabbed her hand. “Mom, don’t be mad. Wendy didn’t mean to upset you…” She paused, her voice dripping with honey. “But John’s right. If Wendy learned more from me, maybe she wouldn’t be such a disappointment.” I looked at Alpha John, and my heart shattered again. Alpha John, Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack. The man I had loved for ten years. He never looked at me—until five years ago. Penny had run away from her own bonding ceremony. I found him by the cliffs in a storm, about to jump. That night, he was drunk beyond recognition and whispered in my arms, “Wendy, don’t leave me.” That night, he slept with me—and I let him. The next morning, he said he’d marry me. I thought it was finally my turn to be happy. I said yes without hesitation. But a year later, Penny returned in tears—and he forgot all about me. He swore he’d never look at her again. Told me I didn’t need to worry. But he was lying. He took her back. They betrayed me—right under my nose. He treated me coldly, kept our bond a secret, while parading her around. Two months ago, I was forced to lure in a stalker who had been secretly filming Penny. While I was running for my life, Penny sent me ninety-nine videos of her and Alpha John having sex—all in one night. Even in the hospital, my knees torn open from the chase, my phone kept buzzing—one clip after another. “Did you die or what?” John’s voice cut through, cold and impatient. He snapped his fingers in front of my face. I blinked, then smiled. “What’s wrong, darling?” “There’s a council banquet tonight. Don’t go.” “Why not?” He sneered. “Penny said you spilled wine on Elder Lady last time. It embarrassed the pack.” It had been Penny who knocked my elbow. But now it was my ‘clumsiness’ again. He glanced at my bare collarbone. “If Penny hadn’t fled the ceremony that year, I never would’ve…” “Some people just aren’t cut out for public events,” my mother added mockingly. They all laughed and walked away. I sighed and sat on the couch. Then I heard Penny’s giggles by the door. She held up a pregnancy report. “John, the pack doctor says the pup is healthy.” “Three months along—just in time with our wedding date.” John rushed over to take the paper, his fingers brushing the ultrasound image tenderly. “You’ve worked so hard.” He bent to kiss her belly. “Baby, Daddy will give you the world.” So while I was in an operating room, they had already gotten married—and were expecting a child. And I remained the secret he refused to acknowledge. Miranda: “You’ve always known what they were. What are you still hoping for? John’s pity? Penny’s guilt? Your grape-feeding mother to say ‘I’m sorry’?” “I just… feel so defeated,” I whispered. “Of course you do. You waited for him ten years, and he gave the ring to someone else.” Miranda scoffed. “But now, finally—you’re choosing to run.” “I’m not running,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’m ending it.” No tears. I contacted the elder. “This is Wendy,” I said. “I’m ready to sever the bond.” “Are you sure, Wendy? You insisted on marrying him in the first place,” the elder asked. I nodded. “Yes. This is my final decision.” “Alright, I’ll send the documents. Both of you must sign and return them within six days for the process to be complete.” “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll make sure Alpha John signs.” Suddenly, the front door slammed open. Alpha John stormed in, brows furrowed. “Sign what?!” he roared.
“What are you trying to get me to sign, Wendy?” My grip on the phone tightened instantly, the elder’s words — “must be signed within six days” — still reverberating in my ears. “It’s nothing,” I said quickly, shoving the phone into my clothes. “Just a follow-up confirmation from the doctor.” “You’re lying.” Miranda’s voice slithered through my mind like ice over a frozen lake, sharp and merciless. “You really think you can hide it from him? What does he even see you as? Less than a dog.” He suddenly seized my wrist, the pressure nearly enough to shatter bone. “Unlock it.” “The password’s my birthday.” He typed in 0617. The screen stayed black. On the second attempt, a vein on his temple began to pulse. “You told me your birthday was June 17!” Miranda cackled. “Five years of marriage and the only date he remembers belongs to a dog.” “That’s the birthday of the Pomeranian you gave Penny.” “Five years of marriage, and you remember a dog’s birth, not mine.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Wendy, I...” “Enough!” I wrenched my arm from his grasp, my nails raking a red line across his wrist. “You remember the day she fled her wedding vow for word, but last year, when I was burning with fever ironing your moon-crest embroidered suit, you took Penny out to her favorite restaurant.” “Enough!” Alpha John snapped coldly. Behind him, his wolf shadow flared, baring its fangs. “Penny already swore before the Moon Goddess. It’s you who refuses to move on.” I didn’t respond. I walked past him and headed upstairs. Just as I reached the top, Penny’s saccharine voice chased after me. “John, look at the gift I picked for Wendy…” She swung the shopping bag into my room. She saw me in the room, holding my late brother Ronald’s backpack, grieving in silence. “You’re still keeping Ronald’s stuff? So morbid. Dead people’s things bring bad luck.” My hand froze on the drawer handle. Inside lay Ronald’s heart transplant consent form — the signature line still blank. “Don’t touch that.” “I’ll be gone soon,” I said softly. “Then you’ll finally have everything you’ve always wanted.” “Oh no,” she stepped closer, her voice venomous, “I haven’t taken everything yet.” Then, she screamed and fell to the ground, red marks “appearing” on her wrist. “Wendy, I just wanted to look at your dad’s ring…” The ring wasn’t worth much — but it was the last thing I had of him. The only thing that hadn’t yet been stolen. She held up her bare hand, nails secretly digging into her flesh. “Why did you hit me?” Alpha John stormed in as Penny pointed at me, trembling. “She said… said she hated me for stealing Ronald’s heart!” “You’re insane!” He gripped my jaw, his fingers biting into my skin. “Ronald died of heart failure!” I stared at Penny’s hidden hand. On her middle finger was Ronald’s graduation ring — the one I had left by his urn. “One week ago,” my voice turned eerily calm. “The hospital found a matching heart. The day before surgery, we were told the donor backed out.” Penny’s smile faltered for a second before she burst into tears. “John, she’s lying again…” Miranda observed coldly: “Her left eyelid twitched twice — classic sign of a lie.” Then, “accidentally,” Penny knocked over the urn on the nightstand. Ronald’s ashes spilled across the floor, mixing with his beloved dried sunflowers. “She couldn’t even spare the dead,” Miranda whispered. “And you still want to forgive her? She’s the real stray dog here.” Miranda’s ethereal claws sliced the air, forming a shimmering ward. “She deliberately struck the moonstone seal with her elbow. That dust she scattered with the sunflower petals — that’s silver poison powder. It’ll keep a wolf’s soul from ever reincarnating.” “You spilled his ashes!” I lunged forward — —but Alpha John’s slap landed first. The edge of his ring tore my lip. Then came my mother’s wolfbone staff, slamming into my back. “Throwing a fit over some ashes? You’re just like your wretched father — pathetic!” “You finally understand,” Miranda’s voice was gentle, too gentle. “It wasn’t a misunderstanding. They’ve been killing your brother together — from the very beginning.” Penny crouched beside the ashes, dabbing a bit on her fingertip and smearing it at the corner of her eye. “Wendy, I’m sorry… The truth is, John begged the doctor to give the heart to me. He said he couldn’t live without me.” She leaned into my ear. “Did you know? The night before Ronald’s surgery, I unplugged his monitor.” I stared at the faint needle scar on her ring finger — the one she gave herself while faking heart failure. Alpha John was cradling her now, checking her “wounds.” My mother delicately wiped the ashes from Penny’s shoes. No one saw the blood trailing down my palm as I picked up the shards of Ronald’s urn. I closed my eyes. Six more days. And I’ll be free — forever.
I opened my eyes to the stark white ceiling of the hospital. I sat up, and the pain made me cry out. The door opened. A nurse walked in, smiling gently. “Wendy, back again. You’re practically a regular now.” She held a clipboard with a thick stack of my medical records from the past six months. Knife wounds, burns, fractured bones—the ink piled high like a mountain on the paper. “What happened this time?” I groaned. “An Omega brought you in,” she explained. How long had I been lying here? Long enough for the Omega sweepers to come and go, long enough that even a wolf’s natural healing couldn’t mend my cracked ribs in time. “Wendy… are you…” The nurse’s voice softened, “Are you being abused?” “I’m fine,” I cut her off quickly. “I’m just clumsy. It was an accident.” “An accident?” she looked up, and the corridor’s moonstone lights shimmered in her eyes. “But this time, it’s three fractured ribs, and…” She hesitated, then added in a whisper, “Wendy, you’re pregnant.” Tears welled up in my eyes as I placed my hand over my belly. “That’s his spawn,” Miranda growled in my mind, voice laced with contempt. “He put fate inside you while crying out another woman’s name. You really want to keep that humiliation?” I trembled as I answered, “I don’t know… but it’s still a life.” “You want to raise it? Just so John can control you again?” she scoffed. I still remembered clearly how it happened. Three months ago—right when Penny sent those sex tapes. That night, Alpha John staggered into my room, drunk, mistaking me for Penny. He kept murmuring, “Penny, don’t leave me…” over and over. I let him hold me. I let him leave chaotic Alpha marks all over me— Just so I could pretend, for a few hours, that I was wanted. The next morning, he woke up cold and accused me of seducing him. “The child is strong,” the nurse said, her voice floating faintly. “But you lost a lot of blood. If you’d arrived thirty minutes later…” I stopped listening. All I could see were the videos Penny had sent. I knew I no longer had the strength to raise this child. How could I bring a baby into such misery? “Wendy?” “I’ve decided to have an abortion,” I told her. The clipboard fell to the floor with a loud smack. “Wendy! You’re four months in. Abortions at this stage are extremely risky for werewolves, and—” “I don’t have a husband,” I stared at the cracks on the ceiling. “The father… his heart belongs to his fated mate.” I shrugged. “My mind’s made up. Please give me the necessary forms.” As I signed, a drop of blood from my fingertip soaked into the rune on the paper, vanishing instantly— A binding magic. Once signed, there was no turning back. “You’re finally making decisions for yourself. Finally listening to me—and to yourself.” I closed my eyes, and for the first time, my heartbeat felt steady. “Thank you, Miranda.” “Don’t thank me,” she replied. “We’re symbiotic. As long as you live, I can roar.” “Tomorrow morning at eight,” The nurse tucked away the forms, her eyes full of worry. “May the Moon Goddess protect you.” My phone buzzed. A string of missed calls lit up the screen. The last message was sent half an hour ago: “I’m at the border of Blackthorn. This time, I’ll get you out, Wendy.” I smiled faintly and sent a short reply. Then I checked the phone again— No messages from my mother. None from Alpha John. Not even Penny. As I walked out of the ward, I heard Penny’s laugh echoing down the hallway. “John, the pup kicked today!” Turning the corner, I saw Alpha John kneeling, resting his head against Penny’s belly. The Alpha token on his wrist was pressed gently to her rounded stomach. “I’m so happy you have a supportive husband through your pregnancy, Penny,” said the pack doctor. And right before my eyes, Alpha John kissed Penny. “It’s my honor, Penny. You complete me.” “My Luna,” he rose and kissed her forehead with a tenderness I had never known. “When our baby is born, I’ll hold the grandest celebration for you at the Moon Goddess’s altar.” “Do you still believe that Alpha ever loved you?” A sharp pain struck my heart. But I couldn’t help asking: “Then what was I?” Nausea surged. I rushed into the restroom and gripped the sink, retching. “Well, if it isn’t Wendy.” Penny’s voice rang from the doorway. “Enjoying your little peep show at my checkup?” “Get out.” “Still not dead?” She stepped closer. “When I left you lying in Ronald’s ashes, I thought you’d finally go keep him company.” “Kill her,” Miranda whispered. “She doesn’t deserve to breathe your brother’s name.” “You threw away Ronald’s ashes?” I looked up sharply, catching the blue ceramic shards stuck to her heels— The remains of his urn. Penny smirked. “Not just tossed them—I had an Omega bury them with dog shit. That useless heart of his should’ve gone to a mutt anyway.” I yanked her hair backward. “You venomous bitch! Killing him wasn’t enough, you had to desecrate his ashes?!” “Help! Wendy’s gone insane!” Penny screamed, suddenly curling up on the floor, clutching her stomach and writhing. “My baby… it hurts…” The bathroom door slammed open. Alpha John burst in. “What did you do to her?!” “She killed Ronald! She destroyed his ashes!—” SMACK. The slap was sharp and brutal. My vision blurred from the sting. His voice was ice. “Ronald’s life was always meant to save Penny’s.” Penny scrambled into his arms, And behind his back, she pinched his waist. In a whisper only a bonded Alpha could hear, she said: “Kill her, John.” Alpha John’s gaze darkened. He stepped forward, boot stomping down on the hem of my skirt, pinning me to the cold tile. Penny stood behind him, smiling cruelly, mouthing the words: “Die already.” “Alpha John…” I looked up into his eyes, hoping to see even a flicker of the light I had chased for ten years. But all I saw was hatred—cold, final. “She—” I began, desperate— “Shut up.” he cut me off, raising his hand toward my abdomen. Behind him, Penny stealthily stabbed his arm with her hairpin, Making it appear as though I had attacked her. In that instant, John’s rage exploded. He didn’t slap me again— He shoved me. Hard. My stomach slammed into the marble sink. I looked down at the pool of blood, And heard my own heartbeat slow… fading… Inside me, the faint flutter of the baby’s movement… disappeared. “Help… me…” I reached out, trying to grab the hem of his trousers— But caught only air. “Now do you believe me?” Miranda’s voice roared through me like a midnight storm through a forest. “He’ll kill you—for her. They all hate you… because you’re still breathing.” He didn’t look back. He just walked away, arm wrapped around Penny’s waist. His voice was full of unfiltered disgust: “Just die here, you worthless trash.”
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