Chapter 3

Every drop of blood in my body seemed to stop moving.

I forgot every rule of Pack hierarchy.

"Cain! Have you lost your mind? Those are your own pups — how can you —"

Before I could finish, blood I had been forcing down surged up and poured out of my mouth.

【Warning. Host's vital signs are dropping rapidly. Exit from this world accelerating.】

The System's voice had barely faded.

My mother, seeing Cain hesitate again at the sight of my blood, pointed and screamed at me again.

"Lyra! You snatch everything from your sister. Now that she coughs blood you pretend to cough blood too! You can't bear for our Alpha to love her for one moment!"

"How did I ever raise a daughter as vile and low as you?"

I stared dumbly at my mother's blood-red eyes.

I couldn't believe the woman who used to hold me in her arms and call me the greatest treasure under the moon.

Now looked at me as if I were her worst enemy.

I pointed at the pool of potion on the floor, heart shattering past anything.

"Mother, that was your grandson too. He died so cruelly. Do you not ache for him even a little?"

My questions, word by word, stunned her for a moment.

Until the servants returned with several small wooden boxes.

Every box held one of my dead pups.

The guilt in my mother's eyes vanished, replaced entirely by the joy that Serena could be saved.

My lips twitched. I laughed through tears.

I realized I was a complete joke.

When the heavier smell of blood drifted closer.

I collapsed weakly to the floor.

"System, I don't want to wait anymore. If I die now, I can leave this world immediately, can't I?"

I whispered it under my breath.

Cain frowned sharply. "Lyra, can you stop making trouble?"

"I've already promised. Once Serena completes her mission, all of us can live in peace. You will still be my only Luna."

"Are you going to threaten me with your own life and make this ugly for everyone?"

He stared at me and missed Serena's hate-filled glance when she heard the word "only Luna."

I did not react.

Everything in me had died for this world.

Even when the Pack Healer brought a new bowl, I only numbly let him draw my heart-blood and mix it in.

Seeing how obedient I had become.

Cain and my parents exhaled.

Especially Cain.

Looking at how dead my eyes were, his voice softened.

"That's enough, Lyra. I know you've been wronged. After today, I'll make it all up to you —"

The word "up" never left his mouth.

I had already shoved him aside and hurled myself at the stone pillar beside us.

"Lyra!"

Cain's roar exploded in my ears.

I closed my eyes, ready to die, but the pain I expected never came.

"Sister! Don't do anything foolish!"

A scream broke out right in front of me.

I slammed into Serena, who had thrown herself in my way.

The force of it flung her violently to the floor.

"Blood! The Consort is bleeding everywhere!"

A maid pointed, horrified, at the pool of blood spreading from between Serena's legs.

Cain's pupils shrank. He shoved me away and rushed to gather Serena into his arms. "Pack Healer! Pack Healer!"

I was thrown hard to the ground. My lower belly slammed into the sharp corner of a table.

The wound that was already unbearable burned with pain all over again.

As Serena was carried into the inner chamber, she was still clutching Cain's hand, pleading. "My Alpha, it was all my own carelessness. Don't blame my sister."

I hadn't caught my breath from the pain.

Cain raised his hand and struck me hard across the face.

The strike carried every bit of his strength.

My ears rang.

His eyes were red, flaming with a fury that looked ready to burn me to ash.

"Lyra Ashford! It's clear you haven't taken a single word I said to heart!"

"Serena finally carried a pup. She has never once schemed against you. Why do you insist on hurting her? If you truly want to die, then go die somewhere far away. Don't drag others down with you!"

Looking at Cain, consumed by his fury.

I found it almost funny.

"Wasn't she the one who threw herself in front of me? She's never schemed against me? Five of my pups died by her hands. Five years. Five pups."

"Even if she lost this one, it's nothing she didn't bring on herself!"

"Silence!"

Cain's roar was red-eyed, enraged past containment.

"Even now you refuse to see reason. I must have been blind. I once thought you were gentle and good!"

"Guards! Drag the Luna out. Give her twenty lashes per Pack law. She can come back when she's ready to admit her fault!"

I was dragged out roughly.

The barbed lash came down on my back, one stroke at a time.

When the twentieth stroke ended, I lay on the stones with barely a breath left.

Seeing that I still would not kneel and repent.

My mother stormed out and beat me and screamed at me. "You want me dead, is that it? What will it take for you to let your sister live in peace?"

"If I had known this day would come, I should have strangled you the day Serena came back!"

I forced out a bitter laugh, word by word.

"In that case, from now on, I have no parents like you…"

My father trailed behind her and paused.

Then he drew the short blade from his belt and flung it down in front of me.

"A mere mouth promise means nothing. If you truly want to cut your blood-bond with Ashford Pack, carve the scar-severance here and now!"