Chapter 4

Looking at that rough little blade, I felt a strange daze settle over me.

It was the blade I had forged for my father at the Pack smith's the year of my coming-of-age ceremony.

Not beautifully made, but I had poured every bit of my heart into it.

When I didn't move.

My mother pulled the moonstone pendant from her neck — the pendant I had once prayed over at the Moon Temple to keep her safe — and hurled it at my face.

"Even if you regret it now, it's too late. Take your things and get out!"

"However unwilling you are, from today we have no daughter called Lyra!"

The moment they turned to leave.

【Exit countdown. 3. 2. 1…】

The System's voice rang in my head.

A spray of warm blood suddenly splashed across their feet.

I had picked up the blade. Without a moment of hesitation, I drove it straight through my own throat.

"Why bother with a scar. I'll give you my whole life."

Cain had just stepped out of the inner chamber.

What he saw was me picking up the blade and driving it through my throat.

"Lyra!"

A cry loud enough to shatter a roof tore through the hall.

I fell into the spreading pool of blood and used the last of my strength to open my eyes, sweeping over every terrified face.

Then my gaze fixed, forever.

【Host vital signs lost. Reckoning protocol now beginning. Please wait.】

The System's voice had barely stopped.

My spirit drifted up and out of my body.

My mother stood frozen, the back of her robe soaked in my blood.

Stiffly, she turned her eyes toward me. Her wide eyes filled with tears at once.

My father was just as stunned.

Cain was pressing his hand against my throat, eyes blown wide, screaming, "Pack Healer! Stop the Luna's bleeding, now!"

His hand was trembling with the force of it.

But no matter how hard he pressed, he couldn't stop the blood.

The Pack Healer came stumbling over, scattering every blood-clotting powder he had across my wound.

Then he saw my chest, unmoving.

With shaking fingers, he checked for breath, then felt for a pulse, refusing to believe it.

In the end he went ghost-white and dropped to his knees. "My Alpha, the Luna — the Luna is dead."

"Silence!"

Cain kicked him to the floor with a single blow.

"Who said the Luna is dead? Say it again and I'll bury your whole bloodline with her!"

Staring at my closed eyes, Cain tried to hold himself together.

"Lyra. Lyra, wake up. I'm here. Open your eyes and look at me —"

No matter how he called.

My eyes stayed shut.

My mother came to herself and scrambled over. Seeing the terrible wound on my throat, she held a trembling hand to my breath.

When she confirmed what the Pack Healer had said — that there was nothing left.

She collapsed as if a bad dream had finally broken.

"Dead… how is she really dead…"

My father stared blankly at the scene.

Every bit of color drained out of his once-commanding face.

"My Alpha! It hurts so much, please come see me —"

Inside the chamber, Serena's pained moans rose.

She clutched her belly and wailed.

But Cain heard nothing. He only kept clutching me, calling my name.

My parents, still not fully back from shock, stumbled into the inner chamber to check on Serena by habit. "Serena, we're here, don't be afraid."

Without Cain there.

The expression on Serena's face twisted for a moment.

Then she looked up, eyes bright with tears, and clutched my mother's hand. "Mother, why hasn't my Alpha come? My belly hurts so much!"

And with that, she threw herself into my mother's arms the way she always had as a pup.

Watching my mother soothe her.

I found myself laughing, bitter and quiet.

Serena and I were both born to my mother.

Serena had been born when my parents were at the height of their bond.

I had been born when my mother nearly bled to death in labor and my father had just taken a lover.

So she had always believed I was the reason her happiness was broken.

For years, they had favored Serena down to the bone.

As if I had never been their daughter at all.

Cain ignored every one of Serena's cries.

He held my cooling body close, white-faced, and finally had to accept that I was dead.

The Alpha King who had once stood untouchable at the top of the world sobbed like a child. "Lyra, don't leave me. I was wrong. I'm begging you, don't leave me —"

He roared it through grief, his tears falling in heavy drops to mix with the blood on the floor.