Chapter 1When our sister got nearly killed in a car crash on Moon Creek Road, I called my Alpha mate, Adrian Blackwood - Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack and its head healer.
He swore on the Moon Goddess he'd perform the healing rite himself.
But inside the surgical den? He let his Omega intern, Sienna Rumsey - a female who hadn't even finished her healer's trials - cut into the patient while he sat on his ass editing her final thesis.
Suddenly, Sienna bolted to him, her face as white as bone. She stammered, "Alpha Healer Blackwood, I - I accidentally sliced into the patient's brain while I was sawing through her skull.
"The bleeding won't stop. What do I do?"
Then she threw herself into his arms, sobbing like her wolf had just lost its mate.
Adrian glanced at the flatline on the heart monitor.
Silence stretched. Then he patted her head and whispered, "Don't worry, little Omega. I'll handle it."
He walked out of the healing chamber and came straight to me - his anxious Luna.
"The healing rite failed. Start preparing your sister's funeral pyre," he said, flat as stone.
"Failed? It was only a decompressive craniectomy! How could it fail? She was breathing fine when they wheeled her in!" I cried. A howl clawed up my throat, but I forced it down.
I tried to push past him. Adrian shoved me back, Alpha command crackling off his skin.
"I said the rite failed. Are you deaf? What good is staring at a corpse going to do?" he snapped. "This was always her fate."
"She was barely clinging to life when she arrived. There's no point saving her. The sooner she goes, the less she suffers. Emily Hart, CONTROL YOURSELF!"
Then he grabbed a trembling Sienna by the hand and stalked off.
I stood frozen, my eyes tracking them.
Sienna looked back over her shoulder and smirked.
A bitter laugh tore out of me.
Did he seriously think the female on that table was my sister, Chloe Hart?
...
"Luna Emily, I'm so sorry for your loss," my assistant, Constance Dunphy, sighed. Sympathy dripped from every word.
I answered coolly, "It's nothing."
Constance blinked, thrown by how cold I sounded. She figured it was grief talking. Her pity only got thicker.
"Luna Emily, if you think something went wrong in the healing chamber..." she started, unsure.
"Why don't we take the healing den before the Elder Council?"
"No need," I said. "Just have them draw up a mate severance decree for me."
I lifted my gaze. Adrian and Sienna were just disappearing around the corner.
Sienna - the female who'd just butchered a patient - didn't show one ounce of guilt.
She was practically plastered against my Alpha.
Adrian tapped her nose like she was his precious little pup.
They flirted right in front of me, smug and glowing.
I wondered - when Adrian found out the female in that healing chamber wasn't my sister, but his own baby sister, Ruby Blackwood - would he still be smiling?
Just then, a healer's aide walked up with a death decree for me to sign.
"Adrian killed her. Let him sign it," I said coldly.
His sister's death had nothing to do with me. Especially since I was already planning to sever our bond.
"Luna Emily, I understand you're grieving, but think carefully. Alpha Blackwood is your mate," the aide reminded me sternly. "If you cause a scene, it could make the pack question their Alpha."
I sneered, memorized the name on her badge, and filed a formal complaint with the healers' guild.
Her face darkened. "Fine. If you won't sign, I'll notify Alpha Blackwood and let him deal with you himself!"
When Adrian first joined the healing den, I poured a fortune in gold and moonstones into his wing to fix the place up and smooth his path.
Everyone in that den - from the head elder to the lowest floor sweeper - knew how much I loved him.
Maybe that's why they thought they could threaten me so openly.
But I WAS DONE with Adrian.
Trying to use him against me? Laughable.
That night, as I got ready to send him the mate severance scroll, Sienna's newest Wolfgram post popped up and caught my eye.
One photo showed a candlelit dinner - wine, steak, the whole scene - with the two of them making heart signs at the camera.
Another showed Adrian in the healers' records office, erasing surveillance runes.
"I messed up BIG during today's healing rite. If Adri hadn't covered for me, I might've been kicked out of the healer's academy. To thank him, I'm giving him my body," she wrote.
Below it? A string of kissing emojis.
I chuckled, tapped like, and saved the screenshot as another piece of evidence for my mate severance case.
Then I sent the mate severance scroll to Adrian.
"Take a look. If it's fine, come back and sign."
Less than a minute later, my phone buzzed.
It was Adrian.
Chapter 2
"Emily, what the hell is this supposed to mean?"
His voice cracked through the phone like an Alpha command. Sharp. Accusing. Not even a hint of guilt.
I forced my wolf to settle. She was already snarling, claws scraping at my insides, begging to shift and tear into him. I swallowed it down and got ready to tell him I wanted the bond severed.
"Don't you dare pin this on us. Sisi's Wolfgram post has nothing to do with Chloe's death!
"Emily, if you keep throwing wild accusations, causing scenes in my healing den, wrecking Sisi's graduation, and dragging my name through the mud, then fine - we're done. I'll sever the bond myself!"
He hung up before I could get a single word out.
I stared at my phone, frozen.
My heart had already turned to ice when it came to him. I thought I'd killed every last feeling. But something in my chest still twisted. Hard.
I'd figured he called because he saw the mate severance scroll.
Turns out? He hadn't even opened it.
He was just protecting his precious little Omega.
"Adrian, before you come barking at me, I suggest you take a real good look at whose sister was lying in that healing chamber today."
I shoved my anger down and sent the message.
One gray tick.
That was it.
He'd blocked me?
A bitter laugh ripped out of me. If he didn't care about his own blood sister, why should I waste one more breath on any of it?
Earlier that day, I'd been hosting an important trade envoy from the Silver Ridge Pack when word came through - Ruby had been in a car crash on Moon Creek Road.
I dropped everything and ran.
But when I got to the healing den, not one Blackwood showed up for her. Not her mother. Not her father. Not her brother.
I called Adrian right away.
He sounded annoyed. Said he was on vacation. Told me to find another healer.
Only after I threatened to drag him back by his Alpha tail did he finally show up - and he brought Sienna, his Omega intern, tagging along like a lost pup.
Ruby had a brain bleed. Her skull pressure was climbing fast. She needed an emergency decompressive craniectomy.
Adrian swore he'd do the rite himself.
I thought it was routine. Simple. Nothing that should've gone wrong.
Instead, I got told the healing rite failed.
Even now, Adrian still had no clue the female on that table was his own sister.
Which meant one thing - he sure as hell hadn't been the one operating.
Healing Chamber 17. That's where it happened.
But what really gnawed at me? Ruby's body had been sitting in the healing den all day. The healers should've notified her family hours ago.
So why was Adrian still walking around like nothing happened?
While I was chewing on that, the den door clicked open.
He walked in with Sienna glued to his side. She looked fresh. Dolled up. Smiling.
"Lol, Adri, you handled the Luna's sister's body without permission. What if the Luna finds out and loses her mind?"
"So what if she does?"
Adrian wrapped an arm around Sienna's waist and sneered.
"That female chased me like a desperate pup for three years. If her family didn't have gold and pack connections to push my career, you think I'd have ever mated her?"
"But I took a huge risk for you today," he added, voice dropping. "How are you gonna thank me?"
And just like that, everything clicked.
No wonder the Blackwood family hadn't heard a thing.
Adrian was scared I'd demand a death inquiry and haul him before the Elder Council. So he used his influence in the healing den to handle Ruby's body himself.
As a healer, did he seriously not get that this wasn't just against the healers' code?
It was a crime. Against the pack. Against the Moon Goddess.
"Hehe, I'm all yours tonight. You can do whatever you want."
Sienna murmured, blushing as she pressed into his chest.
Adrian's lips curled. He scooped her up like she weighed nothing and started toward our sleeping chamber.
Then he stepped forward and froze.
I was leaning against the doorway, phone in hand, watching them with a half-smile.
"Emily - what are you doing here?"
Panic flashed across his face.
Chapter 3
"This is my den. Why wouldn't I be here?"
I leaned against the doorframe, calm as still water. My wolf was pacing, teeth bared, but I kept her leashed.
"Don't mind me. Go on, both of you. Pretend I'm not even here."
"Emily, Chloe's dead, and you're not even at her howl vigil? What kind of sister are you?"
Adrian let go of Sienna. His face twisted with irritation, like I was the one who'd done something wrong.
Watching him play victim made my eyes roll so hard it hurt.
He had the nerve to bring his Omega intern into our den, into our sleeping chamber, and then question ME?
"Emily, since you're here..."
His voice went cold. Flat. Like he was reading off a healer's report.
"You refused to sign. The healing den couldn't reach your family. So I signed the death decree for you."
Then he shoved a cardboard box wrapped in a flimsy plastic bag into my hands.
"This is Chloe's ashes. Saves me a trip."
I already knew he wouldn't treat Ruby's remains with a shred of decency.
But seeing that pathetic packaging, ashes already spilling through the seams, something inside me snapped.
"Adrian, you're in a REAL hurry to burn evidence for your precious Omega, aren't you?"
"Don't slander me. What evidence did I destroy?"
His face went red with rage. He grabbed the box and threw it at my feet.
"Chloe died in a car crash. That's her own bad luck. I'm a healer, not the Moon Goddess!"
I took a slow breath. Bent down. Picked up the box.
Barely half the ashes were left inside.
"The dead deserve respect. You're a healer, yet you can't even show the bare minimum of decency to the deceased!"
My fists clenched. My wolf howled inside me, clawing to get out.
Adrian waved a hand like my words were nothing but flies.
"The pyre grounds burn so many bodies every day. Those ashes all get mixed together. You can't tell who's who. What's the point? As long as there's enough left to bury, that's all that matters."
I laughed. I couldn't help it. How could anyone say something so heartless?
"Alpha Healer and Luna Emily, please don't fight. It's all MY fault."
Sienna suddenly sniffled, dabbing at her eyes like a wounded pup.
"I was the one who packed the ashes. If I'd known, I would've put in more. At least if some spilled, there'd still be enough left."
"How could this be your fault?"
Adrian stroked her head. Then he shot me a look full of disdain.
"She left her sister's body at the healing den and didn't care. Now she's trying to use Chloe's death to extort us.
"You did her a favor bringing the ashes back, and she's not even grateful. She just wants to blame you. That's what I call heartless."
I nearly lost control. The shamelessness of these two was unreal.
How could a simple decompressive craniectomy end in death?
And now he expected me to be GRATEFUL?
But as the former sister-by-mating, I had nothing left to care about.
If Adrian, her own brother, wanted to thank the female who killed his sister, that was his business.
"Alpha Healer, don't say that about Luna Emily. She's probably just overwhelmed after losing her sister."
Sienna pouted, feigning innocence, and covered Adrian's mouth with a playful smile.
For a moment, I saw a tenderness in his eyes I'd never seen before.
Watching them felt like a silver knife twisting in my heart.
"Luna Emily, people's fates are set by the Moon Goddess. You should let her rest in peace. Otherwise, her ashes might get scattered to the wind outside."
Sienna blinked at me, wide-eyed and innocent, and handed me the box of ashes.
I sneered and shoved it right back at her.
"Let Adrian keep the ashes himself."
The second I pushed the box away, Sienna jumped back and tore a hole in the plastic bag.
Ashes burst everywhere.
The room filled with choking gray dust. I coughed so hard my eyes watered.
"Luna Emily, I'm sorry. If hitting me will make you feel better, then go ahead."
Sienna dropped onto the floor, looking pitiful.
"But your sister's death really had nothing to do with me."
"Emily, are you out of your mind?"
Adrian stormed forward and slapped me hard across the face.
He pointed at me, disgust dripping from every word. "Sisi was only trying to help by bringing you the ashes, and you hit her? You're INSANE!"
He scooped her up in his arms, ready to leave.
"Adrian, let's sever the mate bond."
I pressed my palm against my burning cheek and took a deep breath.
At that moment, I was too exhausted to argue anymore. I pulled out the mate severance scroll I'd prepared long ago.
