Chapter 1

I was dead.

However, the mark of the wolf pack bride still bound my consciousness to the Moonshadow Pack.

My soul watched as Ragnar looked frustrated. “Where’s Selena? Is she dead? How could she not show up for our mate bond ceremony?!”

His childhood friend, Nina, brushed his hair. “Maybe Selena’s angry. You locked her in the abandoned interrogation room because of me.”

The pack’s Beta rushed in. “We searched the altar but couldn’t find Selena. There’s been no sign of her in the pack these past few days.”

After a brief hesitation, the Beta spoke up. “Should we check the interrogation room?”

Ragnar let out a low growl, a sign of an Alpha’s rage. “What’s there to check? That interrogation room has been abandoned for a long time, and the locks are broken. If she really wanted to get out, she would’ve done it already. With her skills, it wouldn’t have been hard.”

His golden wolf eyes were filled with nothing but disgust for me. “She’s deliberately avoiding me. She’s angry that I punished her because of Nina. She wants to make me a laughingstock of the pack by missing the mate bond ceremony!”

Nina suddenly clenched her teeth, looking as though she had made a decision. “I didn’t expect Selena to be so vile. I guess I can’t cover for her anymore. Ragnar, I think I saw Selena earlier. She was walking with that Rogue, Anthony. He's the one you exiled. I didn’t want to tell you about it at first. I was afraid it would make you mad.”

Nina held up her phone, showing Ragnar a photo. “Look, I even took a photo!”

In the photo, I was leaning against Anthony, and his arm was wrapped around me.

Ragnar bared his wolf fangs in fury, his eyes turning a terrifying shade of red. “She actually betrayed me on the day of our mate bond ceremony! And she ran off with my pathetic excuse of a brother!”

I could not help but feel sorrow for myself. My mate never trusted me. All it took was just one word from Nina and one photo for me to be utterly condemned!

If he knew I was dead, would he still accuse me of betraying him righteously?

Maybe he would. After all, he never cared about me. Nina was his only treasure.

What did my life have to do with him?

…

Seven days ago, he personally threw me into the abandoned interrogation room.

That room was designed for the most vicious criminals. It was a cage hidden underground where the moonlight never reached and where the painful howls of wolves could never be heard by the pack.

I had always been terrified of the dark, of being alone in a confined space.

I was so scared that I broke down crying and begged Ragnar, “I’m sorry. I'll apologize to Nina. Please don’t lock me in here!”

I was so humble, willing to give up the dignity that came from being Luna just to apologize to the wolf who framed me. Yet Ragnar remained high and mighty. “Now you’re scared? When you hurt Nina, did you think about how she must've been so scared? Even if you feel sorry now, you still need to be punished.”

“I didn’t hurt her. Please believe me! She’s the one who lied!” I tried to defend myself again, but the enraged Alpha grabbed my throat. “Even now, you’re still running your mouth and pretending to be the victim?!”

I looked at him as a wave of despair washed over me, seeping into every inch of my body. I was his marked mate, but he had never once believed me.

He pulled out a syringe and injected liquid silver into my body. “Nina was cut by silver because of you, and she's left with a scar. You deserve to feel exactly what she did!”

I howled in agony as the silver coursed through me. It felt like deadly poison. However, Ragnar only left me with his cold judgment. “I’m being merciful. This liquid silver won’t kill you. It’s the price you must pay for what you did to Nina.”

In a frenzy, I clutched Ragnar’s hand. “Don’t go! I’ll die. I was severely injured half a month ago…”

However, Ragnar was even angrier now and threw me into the interrogation room. “It was Nina who was injured half a month ago, you lying she-wolf! I must’ve been fooled into marking you back then!”

I collapsed in the cage, weak and coughing up blood. However, Ragnar just coldly turned and walked away.

He took the last torch with him, and my world fell into darkness. I felt like a Rogue who had been abandoned by the pack, terrified and alone.

Not long after he left, the mechanisms in the abandoned interrogation room activated. Thick poisonous gas spread from all directions, burning every inch of my skin as though a thousand needles were stabbing me at once.

The poisonous gas was laced with silver. It ate away at my breath, suffocating me.

My howls, my tears, my pain—none of it could bring me the salvation I needed from my mate.

He had blocked our mind-link. He did not hear me even as I used my last bit of strength to tell him, "Ragnar, I was severely injured half a month ago while trying to save you."

My wolf was weak, and there was still silver in my body. I would not be able to survive the second wave of poison. I would die!

I died in pain and despair. I struggled to open the interrogation room door, but the lock was too strong, and I did not have the strength to break it.