Chapter 10

Mom raised her hand and slapped Chloe across the face, tears of despair streaming down her cheeks as she cried out,

"How dare you? Elena was your sister! Why would you try to take her life?"

Chloe clutched her swollen cheek. In all her years, no one had ever struck her like this. She lifted her head, her eyes filled with venomous hatred as she glared at her mother,

"Why should she be the special one? We're both your daughters, but why was she always more talented? Why did everyone praise her healing abilities while ignoring mine? If you loved her so much, you should have only had her! Why did you even bother having me?"

Vivian stared at her in shock,

"How have we wronged you? Your father and I treated you both fairly! And after we misunderstood Elena, we gave you everything—our attention, our resources, our love! What more could you possibly want?"

"Want? You think your pathetic attention was enough?"

Chloe's voice rose to a shriek as she tore at her own hair,

"What good was your love when she had everything else? She was blessed by the Moon Goddess with a gift for creating Healing Gems—something I could never match no matter how hard I tried! And she found a mate like Kael—the most powerful Alpha in the territory! Even without you, she had wolves who cherished her!"

She laughed hysterically, her face twisted with madness,

"She deserved to die! Everything she had should have been mine from the beginning! Kael should have been my mate! With her gone, I could finally take her place!"

Vivian stumbled backward, her face pale with horror,

"You've gone mad... completely mad... Elena, my precious daughter! It's all my fault! I failed you!"

Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.

Arthur silently gathered his unconscious mate into his arms. His entire demeanor had transformed—he radiated the dangerous aura of a cornered beast. He fixed Chloe with a cold stare and spoke each word deliberately,

"From this moment forward, I only have one daughter—Elena. As for you, I'm severing our father-daughter bond through the pack link. You're not worthy of being my child."

Chloe watched in growing panic as her father carried her mother away without a single backward glance. Desperate, she turned to Kael with pleading eyes,

"Kael, please! I know I was wrong! I'm sorry—I'll do anything! Can't you forgive me? Elena and I looked so similar... couldn't you just pretend I'm her? I could be your Luna instead—"

Kael's hand shot out and wrapped around her throat, lifting her off the ground.

As her face gradually turned purple from oxygen deprivation, Kael's voice was ice-cold,

"You're not worthy of speaking Elena's name. When you successfully turned me against her, even then I never considered breaking our mate bond. Did you really think that with your counterfeit face, you could ever replace her?"

He pulled out a silver dagger and dragged it viciously across Chloe's face.

The silver poison destroyed her healing ability, leaving behind grotesque, permanent scars.

"You don't deserve this face—the face you share with Elena! You loved keeping that surgical scar to manipulate us? Let me give you scars you'll carry forever!"

Chloe clutched her ruined face, screaming in agony on the hospital bed.

Meanwhile, Kael also released evidence to the Werewolf Council and the Academy, exposing how Chloe had stolen credit for Elena's revolutionary Healing Gem designs. The truth came out—every achievement Chloe had claimed was actually Elena's work, plagiarized and presented as her own.

The revelation shocked the entire werewolf academic community. After a thorough investigation confirmed everything, the Academy stripped Chloe of all her honors and expelled her in disgrace.

But Chloe's punishment didn't end there.

Abandoned at the edge of the Shadowlands, her body suddenly began experiencing severe organ rejection.

My kidney—the one she'd stolen—had been corrupted by Wolfsbane. Now the poison spread through her bloodstream, attacking every cell in her body.

She finally experienced the same burning agony I'd endured for six months, the pain I'd begged them to believe was real.

In the end, she died screaming, her body consumed by the very poison she'd injected into me.

As for Mom, when she regained consciousness, her mind had shattered completely. She spent her days cradling a piece of driftwood, cooing to it and calling it "my Elena, my precious daughter."

Unable to bear the judgment of the pack and the weight of their guilt, Dad took his broken mate and left the Blood River Pack territory entirely. I heard they'd gone to live among the rogue wolves in the desolate grasslands, exiling themselves from civilized pack life.

And Kael? After destroying everyone who'd hurt me, he had a crystal coffin crafted for my body. He placed me inside and stationed himself beside it, refusing to leave.

Every day he spoke to my corpse, reminiscing about our past, about moments I'd long forgotten. His voice would break as he talked, tears streaming down his face,

"Elena, I know I was wrong. I know I failed you in every way that mattered. Could you... could you just look at me one more time? Or maybe... maybe I should come to you instead?"

He raised the silver dagger—the same one he'd used to scar Chloe—and plunged it deep into his own chest. Even as the silver poison burned through his body, he reached out with trembling fingers to caress my cold face one last time,

"Elena... wait for me. Please. I'm coming to find you now."

I'm sorry, Kael. I won't wait for you.

And in the next life? I pray to the Moon Goddess that our paths never cross again.

I watched his body slump beside my crystal coffin, his hand still reaching toward me even in death.

But my dead heart felt nothing.

No satisfaction. No vindication. No forgiveness.

Just emptiness.

As his soul began to separate from his body, I turned away and let myself drift into the void.

Wherever I was going next, I would go alone.

Because some betrayals run too deep for even death to heal.