Chapter 3

By the time I reached the forest edge, the pain hit like a sledgehammer. My legs buckled beneath me, and I collapsed to my knees.

The soul bond backlash came in waves—burning, tearing, as if my very soul was being ripped in half.

I slumped against a tree trunk, vision blurring, blood still running from my palm.

I didn't even get the chance to shift before the guards surrounded me. Derek's orders, no doubt.

They dragged me back to the packhouse. But instead of my old room, they threw me into the windowless basement beneath the Alpha's residence.

The iron door slammed shut with a deafening clang. No food. No water. Just cold stone walls and the suffocating stench of mildew.

By the third day, fever consumed me completely. Every bone felt like it was burning from the inside out.

But colder than the fever was my father's rage.

Kyle never once set foot in that basement. He left only a single message, one the guards repeated through the iron door, day after day:

"When you're ready to kneel before Lilith, apologize, and tell her you forgive her, then you'll get food."

Maximum pressure. Physical and psychological torture, combined.

For two full days and nights, I went without a drop of water, too weak even to shift.

But I didn't shed a single tear. I just sat there against the freezing stone wall, clutching a necklace that glowed with a faint blue light.

The moonstone necklace—passed down through every Luna in Crescent Pack history. The only thing my mother left me.

When I held it, I could almost feel her warmth. It was the last shred of comfort I had left in this living hell.

On the evening of the fifth day, the sharp click of heels on stone steps echoed through the narrow space. The basement door swung open from outside.

Lilith swept in wearing an elaborate gown that used to be mine, chin held high in triumph.

Without Kyle and Derek around, her fragile, pitiful act vanished completely. Her eyes glittered with the greed and malice of a victor.

"Look at you, Ophelia, groveling like a mangy dog," Lilith sneered, looking down at me.

I didn't even bother looking at her. I just carefully tucked the moonstone necklace closer to my chest.

But she caught the movement. Her eyes lit up. She lunged forward and grabbed the chain.

"Give it back!" Panic shot through me. I fought with everything I had left.

But I was too weak. Even as an Omega, Lilith easily shoved me to the ground and wrenched the necklace from my neck, leaving a raw, bleeding mark across my throat.

"So this is the Luna's heirloom?" Lilith held the moonstone up to the light, examining it greedily. "Derek told me once I wear this, I'll be the new mistress of Crescent Pack. Your time's up, Ophelia."

"Never! That was my mother's!"

I lunged at her like a wild animal.

Lilith jumped back, startled, and bolted for the door.

Eyes wild, I chased after her. My legs nearly gave out several times, but my mother's heirloom was in her hands—I couldn't stop.

I stumbled through corridors and pursued her all the way to the cliff edge at the border of pack territory.

Below the cliff yawned a bottomless abyss, perpetually shrouded in black mist.

"Give me back the necklace!" I cornered Lilith at the precipice, my voice ragged.

That's when I heard running footsteps behind me.

"Ophelia! Stop!"

Kyle and Derek. The guards must have alerted them.

The moment Lilith saw them, her arrogant expression melted into terror. Tears spilled down her cheeks.

She instantly shifted into a mask of fear, leaning backward, crying out: "Ophelia, please! I'll give you back the necklace, just don't kill me!"

"Stop lying!" Rage shook through my entire body. I reached for the necklace in her hand.

But Lilith didn't hand it over. Instead, in a voice only the two of us could hear, she whispered with pure venom:

"Go to hell. Die like your bitch mother did."

Then, right in front of me, she raised that softly glowing moonstone and smashed it against the jagged rocks beside her.

Crack.

The sound of shattering cut through the wind.

The moonstone splintered into pieces, crumbling into dull powder. A gust of wind swept across the cliff, scattering even the dust into the abyss below.

I stood frozen.

Sound became distant and muffled, like I was underwater. The wind howling against the cliff face, Kyle and Derek's footsteps, Lilith's fake sobbing—it all felt unreal.

I looked down at my hands, covered in blood and dirt. The knife wound in my palm still gaped open, but I couldn't feel the pain.

I couldn't feel anything anymore.

"No..." I dropped to my knees, clawing uselessly at the ground, finding only bloodied dirt beneath my fingernails.

My mother's gentle smile flashed before my eyes, then shattered like the moonstone—turning to powder, scattered by the wind.

"Ahh—!" Lilith suddenly screamed and threw herself down the slope beside the cliff edge, rolling until a jutting rock stopped her. Covered in scrapes, she wailed: "Kyle, save me! Ophelia tried to push me over the cliff!"

Kyle and Derek came charging forward, eyes blazing.

Kyle grabbed me by the hair and hauled me up, then drove his fist hard into my stomach.

"You monster! You actually tried to kill her!" Kyle roared, his eyes bloodshot.

Derek scrambled down the slope to Lilith. Once he saw she was only scraped up, he turned and looked at me like I was already dead:

"Ophelia, I'm done with you. Since you refuse to see reason, from this day forward, you are no longer my daughter. You are no longer a member of Crescent Pack."

"Grovel before Lilith and beg for forgiveness! Stay on your knees until she grants it!" Kyle grabbed my throat and forced me toward Lilith.

I didn't resist.

The pain in my stomach, the suffocation at my throat—none of it compared to even a fraction of what I felt inside.

I stared at the shattered stone fragments on the ground. At these two men I'd once trusted most, loved most.

For a liar, they'd stripped away my dignity and destroyed the last thing that mattered to me.

I was hollow. Empty. There was nothing left.

Suddenly, I stopped struggling. My eyes went dead. I let Kyle choke me, my lips curling into a cold, bitter smile.

"Kyle. Derek." My voice came out flat, broken. "Love her. Hate me. I don't care anymore."

Kyle froze. His pupils contracted sharply. His grip loosened. He must have seen it in my eyes—I was already gone.

"Ophelia, you—"

I shoved Kyle away with the last of my strength and staggered backward to the cliff's edge.

At the precipice, loose stones tumbled from beneath my feet, plummeting into the void. Wind tore at my hair and clothes, carrying the acrid stench of poisonous mist.

I spread my arms wide and let myself fall backward.

"If there's another life, I'll curse you both."

I closed my eyes and surrendered to the endless darkness.

The moment of freefall—stomach lurching, blood rushing to my head. Wind screamed past my ears, the cliff wall scraped my body, tearing at skin and cloth.

My mother's face, Kyle's smile, Lilith's venomous sneer—all of it flashed before me, then vanished.

At the top of the cliff, Kyle's outstretched hand hung frozen in midair, as if only now realizing what had happened.

As I fell, I heard one last sound pierce through the clouds—a raw, agonized howl filled with sheer panic:

"Ophelia—!!"