Chapter 3

Lucas walked out without looking back.

On the other side of the door, I heard him whispering to Layla before their footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

I turned around and walked to the stone wall. I then picked up a sharp bone knife and carved a deep mark into the wall.

There were three more days until Dad came to bring me home.

The next morning, following Lucas' instructions, I personally brought the bracelet to Layla's room.

"Diana, you know I never wanted to take something you treasured, but Lucas says I deserve the very best. I simply couldn't refuse him."

She looked up and almost seemed sorry.

"Besides, the design of your bracelet is so outdated. Such beautiful black kyanite deserves better.

"I've got a wonderful idea!"

Layla suddenly smiled. She then drew the Beast Dagger, the very one she had taken from me, and violently pried the black kyanite from the bracelet's setting.

"These black kyanite crystals would make a perfect pair of matching bracelets."

She gathered the crystals into her palm and held them up to the light.

"Lucas and I can each wear one. Every time we look at them, we'll think of you. Diana, doesn't that sound nice?"

"If that's what you like," I said.

Layla seemed dissatisfied by my composure. She smiled again.

"Oh, right. I heard you've always been the one making Lucas' herbal soup for his stomach."

Lucas hadn't had an easy childhood. He often went hungry, and sometimes it went on for days.

That was why he'd developed severe stomach problems.

For the past five years, I had personally prepared his herbal soup every single day.

"Could you teach me how to make it?"

She looped her arm through mine as if we were the best of friends.

"After all, I'll be taking care of things like that from now on."

I didn't refuse.

The pot in the kitchen was the one I always used.

Standing before the earthen stove, I added each herb in order, carefully controlled the heat, and stirred the soup with movements so practiced they felt like a spell I had repeated a thousand times.

Layla stood beside me for only a few minutes before complaining about the smoke and retreating to the doorway.

I watched the soup simmer inside the pot.

This would be the last time I ever made soup for Lucas.

When it was finished, I poured it into an insulated wooden container and handed it to Layla.

She didn't take it. Instead, she looped her arm through mine again.

"Come on. Let's bring it to Lucas together. I'll tell Lucas you taught me how to make it."

Holding tightly to my arm, she practically dragged me toward Lucas' study.

The door was slightly ajar.

Inside, I heard Lucas talking with his childhood friend, Simon. He was the strongest warrior in the pack.

"Lucas, don't you think you've gone too far this time?

"You took back the pendant, gave away the Beast Dagger, and now you've even made Diana hand over the bracelet she treasures more than her own life.

"Are you really trying to drive her away?"

Then came Lucas's cold, emotionless voice.

"Drive her away? Where could she possibly go? She's nothing but an orphan who can't even remember her own past. Apart from Mist Pack, she has nowhere else to go.

"I've spoiled her too much these past five years. She's become more and more arrogant. Now that Layla is back, she needs to learn her place.

"This time, I'm going to strip away every ounce of her pride until she understands who truly calls the shots.

"Once she finally understands her position, I'll naturally leave her a place in the pack. I'll make sure she doesn't starve."

I stood motionless while holding the soup.

Only then did Layla release my arm. She turned around to look at me. There was triumph in her eyes.

Inside the study, Simon sighed softly.

"If you keep humiliating her like this, she might actually give up on you."

Lucas let out a dismissive laugh.

"Give up on me?

"Diana should consider herself lucky. The greatest blessing of her life was meeting me. She's nothing more than a parasitic vine. She can only cling to me.

"She'll never leave me."

The tray tilted slightly in my hands.

A few drops of the scalding soup splashed onto the back of my hand.

The burned skin immediately turned red and swollen, but I felt no pain.

Seeing the burn on my hand, Layla smiled with satisfaction.

"Oh, right. Diana, Lucas told me earlier that your room gets the best sunlight, so I'm moving in tonight.

"Shouldn't you clear out your things?"

Lucas and I had lived in that room together for three years after he became Alpha.

Every corner was filled with traces of our life together.

Looking at Layla's smug expression, I simply nodded.

"Alright. I'll pack my things now."