chapter 1

Scarlett’s POV

I groan softly, a sharp pain tearing through my chest as I struggle to breathe. Each inhale feels like I’m drowning, like something is crushing my lungs from the inside.

I can feel it.

Goddess, I’m dying.

The realization settles heavily in my chest, colder than the pain itself. But even now… even at the edge of death… There's only one thing I want.

Killian.

I want to see my husband.

Just once.

Since I fell ill, he has only visited me once. Just once. There was always an excuse that he was busy, tied up with pack matters, meetings he couldn’t miss. And I… I believed him every single time.

But now, as my world slowly fades to black, all I want is to see him… and Leo, my son.

My hands tremble as I reach for my phone. It feels heavier than usual, like even lifting it is draining the last bit of strength I have left.

I dialed Killian’s number.

Busy.

My heart sanks.

I try again, forcing myself to stay conscious.

This time, the call connects.

But the voice that answers is not his.

“What do you want?” The voice came.

Even though the voice was barely above a whisper… I recognized it.

It's Tiffany, the Beta's daughter.

Why does she have his phone?

My heart clenched.

I told myself there was an explanation. There had to be. Maybe she was delivering a message. Maybe they were in a meeting. Maybe....

"Oh babe. You are so sweet and romantic."

I heard Killian laughing and praising Tiffany from the other end of the phone.

His voice is low. Intimate. Nothing like the cold, distant tone he uses with me.

My fingers went numb.

No…

No, this can’t be real.

"Oh Yeah, I want you to fuck me hard, honey." I heard Tiffany's voice, moaning and calling his name like he belonged to her.

I listen, frozen, as the truth unfolds in the most cruel way possible.

The closeness in his voice, the way he speaks to her, it’s something I haven’t heard in so long.

I feel like I’ve been stabbed straight through the heart.

Goddess, I'm dying here and my husband is having sex with another woman?

The pain in my chest intensifies, making it even harder to breathe. Tears blur my vision, slipping down the sides of my face.

The phone slipped from my fingers as my chest seized.

Just then, my phone beeped.

A video notification.

I stared at it. Every rational thought I had left told me not to open it.

But my fingers moved anyway. Trembling, foolish, and desperate in the way only the truly broken can be desperate.

I opened it.

And I watched in horror as Killian and Tiffany were shamelessly having sex on our bed.

I watched him flip her over as he thrust his cock inside her from behind, kissing her back and moaning her name with pleasure.

My heart broke into smaller pieces as I watched them climax together.

Goddess, this is too much to bear.

The man I loved… the man I trusted… the man I gave everything to…

Has betrayed me completely.

A broken sound escapes my lips as tears stream endlessly down my face. My chest tightens so painfully I can barely breathe anymore.

The pain in my chest became intense. The machines beside me begin to beep wildly.

My vision darkens.

Through the blur, I saw doctors and nurses rushing toward me.

“Her vitals are dropping!”

“Stay with us!”

“Don’t give up!”

Their voices sound distant, like they’re coming from another world.

Hold on?

Goddess, how can I hold on… when the person I was holding onto has already let me go?

My eyes slowly close.

And everything goes dark.

.....

When I opened my eyes again, I was still in the hospital room.

For a moment, I thought… Maybe I survived.

But something felt wrong.

I lifted my hand and my breath caught.

It’s… transparent.

My fingers tremble as I stare at them in horror.

“No… no…”

My voice shakes.

Goddess, I’m dead. But knowing something and accepting it are entirely different things.

I opened my mouth and called out to the nurse standing two feet away from me.

The doctors move around my body like I don’t exist. One of them checks my pulse and sighs.

“The Luna is dead…” The doctor announced to the nurses.

“No!” I scream, rushing forward.

I try to grab his arm but my hand passes straight through him.

I freeze.

I tried again. And again.

Nothing.

I can’t touch anything.

No one can hear me.

I’m… really gone.

I watch helplessly as they cover my body with a white sheet.

Something inside me breaks all over again.

Later, I watched as the doctor called Killian.

“Alpha Killian,” the doctor said respectfully, “I’m sorry to inform you… Luna Scarlett has passed away.”

There was a pause.

A long, cold silence.

I waited.

Desperately.

Then…

“Handle it.” Killian’s voice came through the phone, flat and unbothered.

“I have a meeting. Don’t disturb me again for something so trivial.”

The line went dead.

Just like that.

My entire world… ended in one sentence.

I stood there, frozen.

He… is not coming?

Not even to see me one last time?

Not even to pretend he cared?

If I still had a heart… it has shattered completely.

.......

Just then, my soul drifted back to the Silver Moon Pack, as if pulled by something I can’t control.

And what I saw there... Destroys me.

Three days. It was barely three days since I drew my last breath, and Killian was already standing before the Alpha Council, dressed in his finest clothes with confidence.

Like nothing had happened.

Like I had never existed.

He stood tall, holding a file in his hand.

My file.

“My research is finally complete,” he said smoothly.

My body went cold.

No…

No, that’s mine.

“This anti-silver poison formula,” he continued, “will protect our pack from silver poison. It is the result of years of hard work and sacrifice.”

Lies.

All lies.

I floated closer, shaking.

“That is mine!” I screamed. “I made that! I died making that!”

But no one heard me.

The elders nodded in approval.

“Excellent work, Alpha Killian.”

“This will change everything for our pack.”

Killian smiled.

That same smile I once loved.

Now it made me sick.

“And tonight,” he added calmly, “I will hold a Luna ceremony.”

My breath stopped.

“I will officially mark Tiffany as my Luna.”

The world went silent for me.

But the hall erupted in cheers and praises.

I feel like I die all over again.

I watched as he smiled and accepted the Alpha position without a single tremor of guilt crossing his face.

I followed him everywhere after that, because I had no choice. My soul was tethered to his betrayal like a chain.

I watched him move through the pack with the ease of a man who had gotten everything he wanted. I watched the pack members bow to him, celebrate him, worship the Alpha he had become, the Alpha I had made him.

I was forced to watch as he took everything that was mine… and made it his.

But it doesn’t stop there.

It never does.

The ceremony was grand and beautiful.

Everything I once dreamed of.

But not for me.

Never for me.

I watch as he marks Tiffany in front of everyone, claiming her as his Luna.

And the pack cheers.

My soul trembles with unbearable pain.

Goddess, how could he do this to me?

At dinner, Leo sat across from Tiffany at the head table, and for the first time in his life, the first time in all the years I had tried and failed to reach him, my son smiled openly. Warmly. Like a boy who had finally come home.

"Mom," Leo said, looking directly at Tiffany.

The word hit me like a physical blow.

Tiffany reached across and touched his face with a tenderness that made my stomach turn.

"Yes, my son," she said softly, his eyes glistening, "I'm so happy that after all these years… we can finally be together as a family."

Family.

My entire world crumbles.

And suddenly, with the terrible clarity that only the dead can have, I understood. I understood why Leo had always looked through me. Why he had always been warmer around Tiffany. Why no matter how hard I tried, something between us never connected the way it should have between a mother and her child.

Because he was never mine.

They used me.

While I believed I was raising my son, loving my son, breaking my heart trying to reach my son, he had always known exactly who his real mother was. They all had. Everyone knew except me.

Goddess, how could they do this to me?

After everything I did for him, this is how he chose to repay me?

The fury that followed the grief was something I had never felt in life. It burned through my ghostly form like fire through paper, bright and consuming and absolute.

No.

I would not leave this world like this. I refuse to be cheated like this.

Suddenly, a strange force pulled me back to the hospital, and I saw a group of werewolf warriors dressed in uniforms bearing the Moonlight symbol. They entered the room and took my body away.

My eyes widened in shock.

But before I could even understand what’s happening…

Everything goes black again.