2

I followed him all the way to the pack hospital, my spirit form passing effortlessly through the stark white walls to Sarah's treatment room.

Looking at Sarah lying on the pristine hospital bed, wrapped in warm blankets and acting vulnerable, I couldn't help but think of my unborn pup. My precious little one who had formed a bond with me but never got the chance to see this world.

My wolf's spirit howled in agony at the loss of our pup.

I glared at Sarah and Nathan with fury, my ghostly form trembling with rage. If I could, I would have shifted into my most fearsome wolf form and made this pair of traitors pay for my pup's life with their own.

"Brother, are you blaming me? If it weren't for me, you could have chosen to save your Luna first."

"Don't overthink it." Nathan held Sarah close, gently patting her back. His voice was tender, soft like morning dew-a tone I'd never heard him use with me in all our years together. "You're weaker than her. I've arranged people to search for her. She's strong and her wolf is powerful. She won't die from this."

"But she's still your Luna, even if she made mistakes..."

"Mistakes deserve punishment." Nathan's icy words made my soul ache.

My mate, do you know?

Your so-called punishment has already taken both my life and our innocent pup's life.

We had such a long history together. Nathan and I were childhood friends, running through the forests together in our wolf forms. Our packs had arranged our mating when we were young, hoping to strengthen the alliance between Snow Peak and Moonstone packs.

Sarah came to Snow Peak pack when she was six, a small, fragile wolf pup abandoned by her birth pack. Nathan treated his adopted sister even better than a blood sister would be treated, fiercely protective of her every need and whim.

I had loved Nathan since we were pups, my wolf recognizing him as our true mate long before our arranged mating. But he always remained distant with me, his wolf turning away from mine, rejecting me more than once.

I used to suspect he had feelings for Sarah, but he insisted she was just a sister.

Later, Sarah left the pack and was said to be traveling to find herself. That night, Nathan drank a lot. I picked him up at the bar and drove him home, where he pinned me against the wall and I stretched my body to him almost euphorically.

Finally with him, the pleasure of being marked made me so dizzy that I didn't even realize if the "coyote" he mumbled afterward was calling me or not.

The next day, Nathan looked at me with a grim face but said he would take responsibility.

That's how Nathan mated me. No courtship dance under the full moon, no mating ceremony before the packs, no honeymoon run through our territories, not even a proper declaration of love.

I knew he didn't love me. He only mated me because he'd marked me while drunk and felt obligated.

But I couldn't help falling deeper. I thought after mating, he would eventually love me the way I loved him.

After mating though, he remained cold and distant. Even our intimate moments felt like mere duty - three times a week, no more, no less.

Then two years into our mating, Sarah returned to the pack pregnant, refusing to name the father.

During that time, Nathan would return to the pack house every day, even cooking dinner just to make sure Sarah ate well.

I couldn't control my jealousy. I fought with Nathan, losing control of my emotions and words.

"You care about her so much - anyone who didn't know better would think she was your mate instead of your sister."

"You're so protective of her - is her pup yours?"

That time, Nathan raged, he slapped me hard and unleashed his alpha power, even pressing me to the point of forcing my wolf form out.

I hadn't noticed Sarah at the doorway. Crying, I said I wanted to return to my birth pack.

Sarah stopped me.

"Sister, I didn't know you thought so poorly of me. I still have some dignity - I would never mate with my own brother. I'll leave the pack tomorrow."

Nathan and I didn't speak for half a month after that - or rather, he gave me the silent treatment.

Sarah didn't end up leaving. Once I calmed down, I felt guilty and apologized to her.

But Sarah must have harbored resentment over this incident.

On a family camping trip, she purposely grabbed my hand on a hillside and used the counterforce to pretend that I had pushed her down the hill, and just like that, she miscarried, lost her cub, and in the end, didn't know who that cub belonged to.

Nathan happened to witness the whole thing.

"Nora, if anything happens to Sarah, I will never forgive you for the rest of my life."

After that, Nathan grew increasingly disgusted with me, even suggesting we break our mating bond.

I desperately refused to break the bond, but our mating still teetered on the edge of collapse.

Sarah remained a thorn between us that couldn't be removed or ignored.

Looking at Nathan now, I wondered if he would be happy knowing I was dead. Finally free of me.

Nathan's phone rang. He answered it.

Nathan didn't put it on speaker, but my spirit form could hear both sides clearly. Curiously, I floated closer to Nathan, wondering if it was the search team calling about my death.

I watched Nathan's face, curious to see his reaction when he learned of my death.

But the caller ID showed my name, and the voice that came through was unmistakably mine.

"Nathan, how dare you choose Sarah over me. I want to break our mating bond!"

The phone carried my voice perfectly, but Nathan's face turned dark.

"Nora, since you're fine, get back to the pack house."

"I'll only return if you send Sarah away."

"Then don't come back at all. You can die out there for all I care."

Nathan angrily hung up the phone. His last words pierced my soul like an ice shard.

I had indeed died out there, just as he wished. I would never return to the pack house again.

I was intensely curious about who made that call, since it obviously wasn't me.

"Brother, you should still go check on her. She's carrying your pup after all."

"Pup?" Nathan scoffed, his wolf's lip curling in disgust. "Who knows whose bastard it is."

"Even if it was my pup, she and the pup together aren't worth half as much as you, Sarah."

Dead as I was, why did my soul still feel such pain? I clutched at my non-existent heart, my spirit form trembling.

He hated me so much that even when my father, the Moonstone Pack Alpha, died defending our territories, Nathan remained unmoved.