Chapter 6

"Then die."

Serena went white, clawing at his hand, not understanding what she had done wrong. "My Alpha, my Alpha — it's me, it's Serena —"

With every word she said, Cain's eyes grew redder.

When Serena's face began to go purple.

When she was one breath from unconsciousness, Cain flung her to the floor like something filthy.

Before her coughing could stop.

Cain bent and grabbed her by the hair, his eyes red enough to bleed.

"You said if you failed your mission, the System would make you die, didn't you? I want to see whether you actually die."

Tears leaked from Serena's eyes in pain.

Close up, she looked into Cain's red eyes.

A sudden, delayed terror rose up in her chest.

At her expression, Cain's grip tightened on its own.

He slapped her hard, once.

"Lyra was your own blood sister. She did you no wrong. How could you destroy her like that? I treated you well for years. You deceived me the entire time. Serena. Well done."

Hearing the killing fury in his voice.

Serena forgot the pain and scrambled upright, clutching his sleeve, begging.

"My Alpha. I did all of this because I loved you too much."

"Lyra is already gone. From now on, I will stay by your side. I will never leave."

Cain bent his head and watched her weep.

Just as Serena was about to break.

Cain suddenly leaned down and rubbed away a tear at the corner of her eye with his thumb.

"Is that true?"

Serena stared at him, stunned.

And then, not daring to hesitate, she swore it word for word.

"My heart for my Alpha is witnessed by the moon itself. If my Alpha doesn't believe me, I will die at this very moment without a single word of complaint."

The fury in Cain's eyes slowly faded.

After a long moment, as if nothing had happened, he pulled her up and drew her into his arms.

"It seems I was wrong to doubt you."

"You were right. Since Lyra can never come back, I should cherish you instead."

Joy flooded Serena's face.

But if she had lifted her head just a little, she would have seen the eyes behind his words — empty, entirely without warmth.

After that night.

Cain truly issued the decree to name Serena the new Luna.

On the day of the Luna Coronation, my father limped into the manor leaning on a cane. My mother came with a veil covering half her face.

The night I took my own life, my father had been given fifty lashes on Cain's order.

He was a warrior with hardened bones, but he was old.

The fifty strokes had not killed him, but they had crushed one of his legs. He was a cripple now.

My mother had been struck on the jaw through the entire length of my father's punishment.

The face she had once cared for so carefully was ruined. She couldn't be seen in public.

And beyond that, Cain had stripped them of their Pack rank and cast them out as Rogues.

Seeing my parents like this.

Serena did not show a single trace of pity. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Didn't I tell you not to come to the manor?"

"I'm about to become Luna of the entire Pack. If people see you looking like this, what am I if not a laughingstock?"

Watching the open scorn on her face.

My mother couldn't believe it.

"Serena, you are our daughter. Today is your great day. Of course your parents would come. Don't you want us here?"

Her sincerity did not touch Serena at all.

Instead, Serena clicked her tongue, annoyed.

"Serena, what is this? Even at Lyra's coronation, she treated your mother and me with respect. We favored you all these years, and now you —"

My father hadn't finished.

Serena cut him off with a sharp wave of her hand.

"Enough. Bringing up Lyra on my great day — are you trying to ruin it?"

"Fine, since you came, you came."

"But there are no seats reserved for you in the Great Hall. With your current Rogue rank, you can stand at a distance and watch, then leave. Don't stay and embarrass yourselves."

My father and mother looked at each other.

Neither could believe what they had heard.

"Serena Ashford, don't forget you still bear the Ashford name. Even as Luna, you are still our daughter. What have you become? Truly you are not half the woman your sister was!"

My father's face turned red with fury.

Serena only sneered and blew lightly on her gold-tipped claw-guards.

"Ha. I'm not as good as Lyra? Did you forget who drove her to her death? Now that she's dead you remember how much you loved her?"