Chapter 1

They finally found my body.

I'd been soaking in the lake for many days by then, so I was already disfigured beyond recognition. The guards who found me were so disgusted by the view that they gagged and vomited as they reported to Louis.

Louis was an Alpha belonging to the Blood Moon Pack, and was also the most skilled forensic pathologist among all the wolves.

When he rushed over from Lily's side, he still froze at the sight of my mutilated body, despite having witnessed countless gruesome sights before.

I was in my birthday suit, my lower body clearly violated with brutal force, my intestines spilling out. My face had been smashed beyond recognition by rocks, leaving my features caved in and unidentifiable. My limbs were broken and my entire body was covered with wounds, blood oozing continuously and filling the air with the stench of death.

One of the guards handed Louis a mask. "Alpha Louis, we've identified this as a female corpse."

Looking at my body, Louis' usually cold eyes showed a rare trace of pity and sorrow. That was the first time he had ever shown me any care or pity.

"From the looks of it, she was tortured and violated before she was killed. We need to warn the female wolves in the Blood Moon Pack to be cautious."

Louis nodded grimly, then took out his phone, his expression softening. "Lily, listen to the doctors and take your medicine. It's not safe now, so don't go outside, alright? I'll come to you after I'm done."

After carefully doting on her, he finally hung up, and that's when a guard asked him if he wanted to check in on me, too. "Luna Rena is an orphan, and you're her only family, Alpha. Maybe you should go home and see her?"

Immediately, Louis' expression darkened.

What the guard Adrian didn't know was that he hadn't been home in days.

His first love, Lily, had been studying abroad, and only returned to the pack after being poisoned by wolfsbane. From that day on, Louis had spent every waking moment by her side.

When he found out that my bone marrow fluid could cure Lily's poisoning, he forced me to donate it.

What he didn't know, however, was that I was already pregnant. I couldn't possibly sacrifice my unborn twins to save his first love.

He scoffed at me. "It's just a little fluid, Rena. Why can't you agree to something so simple? It's a life we're talking about here! Aren't you being too heartless and selfish?

"How in the world did I end up with a mate as cruel as you?"

From that day on, he refused to meet me or even listen to my voice altogether.

Seeing the displeasure on Louis' face at the very mention of me made the guard hesitate. "I hear that Luna Rena got pregnant. Isn't it unsafe for her to be all alone at home?"

Louis froze, but then scoffed. "Pregnant? Her? I haven't even touched a hair on her head after Lily came back, so how could she be pregnant? Is that the lie she's going with to justify not saving Lily?

"I regret claiming such a venomous she-wolf as my Luna!"

At that moment, I found out that even souls could feel pain. I couldn't help but mourn for myself, and for my unborn twin children.

Adrian seemed to want to say more, but Louis, already engrossed in his work, shut him down quickly, leaving him no other choice but to keep quiet.

Putting on a pair of gloves, Louis crouched down and stared at my broken front limbs, lost in thought.

On my front limb was a bloodstained ring—it was the matching couple's ring I'd bought when we first formed our mate bond.

Once he found out that I wasn't willing to donate my bone marrow fluid, Louis had thrown away his ring in a fit of rage, flinging it to the floor. "Rena, I won't wear the same stupid ring as someone who's as heartless as you! Lily's already suffered enough because I bonded with you, so I don't want her to be hurt again because of you in her final days!"

He put so much strength into it that the poor ring was smashed out of shape, rolling pitifully on the stairs before disappearing into the gaps.

Back then, I held my stomach and searched for it for a long time, but I never found it.

What about now?

Would he be able to notice that the ring on the corpse belonged to me?

"From the looks of it, she had a mate." Louis sighed and shook his head as he observed my body. "Go and check if there have been any cases of missing she-wolves. Her mate would be devastated, seeing her like this."

No, he wouldn't.

Not my mate.

When I was still alive, he had forced me to donate bone marrow fluid to his first love even when I was pregnant.

As I was being tortured to death, he abandoned me and his unborn children to accompany his first love at the hospital, not willing to accept a single phone call.

Even after I died, he still wasn't able to recognize me.

After all, he didn't love me at all.