Chapter 1The pain from my broken fingers was so intense I could barely see straight. The cold counter pressed hard against my cheek as Gabriel's hand held me down by the neck.
That sickening crack from seconds ago—like snapping a dry twig—except it was my finger.
"Easy, baby. It'll only hurt for a second." His voice dripped with honey-sweet tenderness, just like he'd soothed me countless times over the past ten years.
"Just breathe through it."
"Lilith can't wait much longer. The pain in her heart and lungs is unbearable."
Tears poured out uncontrollably, mixing with cold sweat in a chaotic mess.
Deep inside, my wolf began howling—a broken, desperate sound that no one else could hear.
I couldn't get it—why could the man who made me soup yesterday, who called me his darling Thalia, now crush my fingers without a flicker of emotion, all for some she-wolf named Lilith Stormraven?
The silver scales flashed with crimson light, and the agony from my broken finger seemed to drain away, becoming just another cold commodity.
The Moon Goddess's ethereal form shimmered behind the counter, more shadow than substance, her silver eyes the only solid thing about her as she smiled that cold, knowing smile.
Gabriel released me, even carefully helping me up, cradling my trembling, mangled hand in his.
He lowered his head, gently blowing on my broken fingers, as if that could somehow blow the pain away.
"See? It won't hurt much longer." His tone carried a bone-chilling kind of pity. "My brave Thalia, this small price for one day without Lilith coughing up blood—it's worth it, isn't it?"
My three fingers for another woman's comfort for one day.
He said it was worth it.
I stared at his devastatingly handsome face so close to mine, nausea rolling through my stomach in violent waves. I wanted to scream, to tear apart that hypocritical mask, but my throat felt crushed shut. Only broken whimpers escaped.
He took off his leather jacket and wrapped it around me, his movements gentle as if handling fragile treasure, then scooped me up and carried me out of that sinister shop.
"Come back anytime," the Moon Goddess's voice drifted after us, soft and mocking.
Behind us, the Lunar Exchange began to fade, its ethereal walls dissolving into the misty shadows of the deep forest like it had never existed at all.
"Let's home."
Home—that place once filled with warmth now felt like a gilded cage.
In the truck, I curled up in the passenger seat, shaking from pain, my right hand swollen beyond recognition, waves of piercing agony shooting through me.
Gabriel drove with focus, his perfect profile almost unreal in the dashboard lights. After a long silence, he suddenly spoke, his voice eerily calm: "Don't hate me for this, Thalia."
"Lilith... she can't die. She became this way saving me." His knuckles went white on the steering wheel.
"She was my pack mate before I even met you. We were on patrol when that drunk driver ran the red light. She pushed me out of the way and took the hit instead."
My blood turned to ice.
"The accident destroyed her wolf. She can't shift anymore—hasn't been able to for twelve years. You know what that means to us." His voice carried that terrifying mix of explanation and justification.
"And now her body's failing because of the damage."
He reached over and stroked my hair, the gesture sickeningly tender.
"You're my Luna, my mate. You understand me, don't you? You'll support me in this." His voice dropped to that dangerous whisper.
"I just want her to live. This is my debt to pay—what I owe her for saving me."
I jerked my head toward him, staring in complete shock. Inside me, my wolf let out a howl of pure rage and betrayal that echoed through my very bones.
This happened before he even met me!
Why the hell should I pay for his past?
Because she saved you twelve years ago, you're going to destroy my life for hers? I'm your mate—we've been together for ten years!
The words stuck in my throat, so bitter I couldn't make a sound. My heart felt crushed by an icy fist, aching and suffocating.
"You're only giving up a little time, a little health. You won't die, Thalia." His voice stayed patient, reasonable.
"A few months off your lifespan? Some temporary pain? You're strong—you can handle it."
He even smiled, though his eyes were frighteningly cold: "But if you don't cooperate, Lilith might not make it through tomorrow. Could you live with that?"
He was making me the villain if I didn't sacrifice myself for his guilt.
Using my love against me to pay his debts.
The way he made it all sound so logical made me sick.
I closed my eyes as tears rolled down—not from the crushing pain in my fingers anymore, but because the place in my heart that once belonged to him was cracking apart, piece by piece.
The truck stopped. We were home. He carried me down, all the way to our bedroom, setting me gently on the bed before retrieving the first aid kit.
With infinite patience, he cleaned my wounds, applied medicine, and bandaged my hand.
I watched his lowered eyes, long lashes casting shadows.
Once, I'd been so intoxicated by this tenderness.
Now, I felt only bone-deep cold.
After finishing the bandages, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
"Get some sleep, yeah? Stay put for me. I don't want you getting hurt again." His tone was loving, but the warning underneath was crystal clear.
He picked up my phone and slipped it into his pocket.
"I'll keep this safe for you."
The bedroom door shut with a soft click, and then I heard the deadbolt slide into place. He'd actually locked me in.
Dawn crept through the windows as I curled on the bed, clutching my injured hand.
The physical pain was nothing compared to the agony in my chest.
I don't know how much time passed before I heard his lowered, urgent voice outside the door.
"Hey, don't worry, baby. I'm getting what we need... Yeah, I'll have enough of the medicine soon. You're going to be okay, I promise..."
Medicine.
So all those pieces of my lifespan, my health, even my pain that he'd pawned—to him, they were just medicine to save that woman.
Just ingredients in some twisted prescription to heal the woman who really mattered.
Tears completely blurred my vision.
Ten years of marriage, and it couldn't compete with someone else's life-saving grace.
My heart felt ready to explode from the acidic pressure.
In that moment, hatred mixed with lingering love grew like poisonous vines, wrapping around me until I could barely breathe.
Because even knowing what he'd done—what he was still doing—part of me still loved the man I thought he was.
Chapter 2
I lay on the freezing bed, my right hand screaming with pain. Gabriel's bandages were perfect—pristine white gauze wrapped just so—but underneath, three of my fingers were completely shattered.
Sunlight poured through the windows, but I felt like I was dying from the inside out. My whole body was drained, dizzy as hell, like someone had ripped my soul right out of me.
Empty.
And this was just the beginning.
Gabriel walked in carrying a bowl of rich bone broth, steam rising from the surface. He sat down and spooned some up, blowing on it gently before holding it to my lips.
"Come on, baby," he murmured, voice soft as silk. "You need to eat. Got to keep that strength up."
I turned away, bile rising in my throat. The thought of swallowing anything made me want to puke.
He sighed like I was being difficult and set the bowl aside. Then his hand slipped into his pocket and pulled out something that stopped my heart cold—my moonstone hair clip, the delicate silver one with the rare lunar gems that caught the light.
Mom's hair clip.
The only piece of her I had left.
"Look what I found." He turned it over in his fingers like he was examining some interesting trinket. The moonstone glowed faintly in the afternoon light.
"The Moon Goddess says this little beauty can buy Lilith three full nights of peaceful sleep."
I shot up so fast my vision went black, lunging for it with my good hand. "No! That's my mother's—"
He caught my wrist effortlessly, his grip so tight I yelped. The casual strength in his fingers could snap my bones like twigs.
"Easy there." His voice stayed honey-sweet even as his grip tightened.
"It's just sleep, Thalia. You can handle three rough nights. But Lilith? This might be the difference between her living or dying."
I stared at him in complete shock, my whole body shaking.
"How can you... Gabriel, that's all I have left of her. My mom gave me that before she—"
"I know exactly what it means to you," he interrupted, still using that patient, loving tone.
"That's what makes it so valuable. Your connection to it, your memories—that's what the Moon Goddess needs."
He stood up, slipping the clip into his pocket like it belonged to him.
"Gabriel, please—"
"Don't make this harder than it needs to be, sweetheart." The endearment sounded like poison.
"You've always been my generous, selfless Luna. That's what I love about you."
The door shut behind him with that awful click.
I collapsed back on the bed, sobs tearing through my chest until I could barely breathe.
The last piece of my mother—gone.
Traded away for hisso-called guilt.
Over the next few weeks, between each full moon, my body started falling apart. Every time Gabriel returned from those mysterious two-hour disappearances, I felt weaker.
I'd stand up and immediately get so dizzy I'd have to grab the wall.
Dark bruises appeared out of nowhere, purple and black marks that hurt to even look at. Sometimes my heart would race so fast I thought it might explode.
Each month when he came back, there was always something missing from our home.
My favorite book that I'd read until the pages fell out.
The silver bracelet from my eighteenth birthday. Items that had been there when he left, gone when he returned.
Each theft left me weaker, like he was draining my life away piece by piece.
And he always had his reasons.
"This old thing?" He'd hold up whatever he was stealing, voice dripping with false sympathy.
"Baby, you won't even miss it. But it could give Lilith a whole day without pain."
When I tried to fight back—really fight back—he barely had to try. One shove sent me crashing into the dresser, my head cracking against the wood so hard I saw stars.
He knelt beside me, checking the blood trickling from my scalp with clinical detachment.
"Jesus, Thalia. Why do you have to be so damn clumsy?" Like my injury was somehow my fault.
"Can't you just... I don't know, read a book or something? I've got enough stress dealing with Lilith's condition."
Something inside my chest cracked clean in half.
Last night, fever hit me like a truck. My whole body ached like someone had beaten me with a baseball bat. I curled up under every blanket we owned, teeth chattering so hard I bit my tongue.
Gabriel came in and pressed his palm to my forehead, his expression unreadable.
Then he pulled out his phone.
"I want to show you something."
The video made my stomach drop. Lilith lay in a hospital bed looking like a broken doll—pale skin almost translucent, coughing so violently that flecks of blood hit the camera. She looked fragile. Dying.
"See that?" Gabriel's voice was thick with emotion, but not for me. Never for me. "Every single cough is like a knife in my chest, Thalia. We're running out of time."
He was using my empathy as a weapon against me.
This morning, he brought me a protein shake loaded with supplements. He stood over me until I drank every drop.
"That's my good girl," he said, wiping the residue from my lips with mock tenderness. "Need to keep you functioning long enough to be useful."
I stared at him, wondering when my mate had turned into this monster.
That afternoon, his phone rang.
I watched his whole demeanor shift—shoulders relaxing, voice going soft and warm in a way it hadn't for me in weeks.
"Tomorrow? That's wonderful news, sweetheart... Of course you'll stay here. I've got everything ready for you."
When he hung up, he turned to me with that familiar look—part pity, part annoyance.
"Lilith's being discharged tomorrow. She's going to recover here."
The words hit me like a physical blow.
"Here? Gabriel, this is our home—"
"It's my house," he cut me off, voice still gentle but with steel underneath. "And right now, she needs me more than you do."
I scrambled to sit up, ignoring the way my vision spun. "I'm your mate! Your Luna! We took vows—"
"And you'll honor them by helping me save the woman who gave up everything for me.
" He moved closer, cupping my face with hands that used to feel like safety. Now they felt like shackles.
"Be the good, selfless Luna I mated, Thalia. Don't make this about you."
"Make this about me?" My voice cracked. "She's moving into our bedroom, isn't she? Into our bed?"
His silence made his answer.
"Gabriel—"
"Enough." His patience finally snapped, voice sharp for the first time.
"I'm done explaining myself to you. Lilith needs constant care, and I'm going to give it to her. Your job is to stay out of the way and stop making everything about your feelings."
He yanked my phone off the nightstand, his movements rough now, the gentle facade completely dropped.
"And since you clearly can't handle this like an adult, I'll be keeping this. Can't have you calling your little friends and filling their heads with drama."
"Gabriel, you can't—"
"I can do whatever I want. This is my pack, my territory, my house." His eyes flashed gold as his wolf came to the surface.
"You're my Luna, which means you do what I say. Period."
He headed for the door, then paused.
"Lilith moves into the master bedroom tomorrow. You can take the guest room." His voice was flat, emotionless.
"Try not to make a scene. She's been through enough."
The door slammed behind him. The lock clicked.
I sat there in the gathering darkness, phone gone, freedom gone, dignity gone. The silence was deafening—all I could hear was the sound of my heart shattering into a thousand pieces.
And that terrible, final sound of the lock turning.
Chapter 3
The next afternoon, the lock clicked open.
I sat up against the headboard, watching with dead eyes as my world officially ended.
Gabriel walked in carrying his precious cargo—a woman wrapped in cashmere blankets like some fragile goddess, only her porcelain face visible. He moved like she might shatter if he breathed too hard, his expression softer than I'd seen in months.
He carried her straight into the guest room right next to our bedroom. The one I'd clearly been kicked out of.
"There we go, baby," his voice was pure silk. "You're home now. I'm never leaving your side again."
My mangled fingers pulsed with pain, a perfect reminder of just how disposable I'd become.
He didn't even acknowledge I existed.
After what felt like an hour of him fussing over her, Gabriel finally appeared in the doorway.
His eyes landed on the untouched meal beside my bed, and his jaw clenched.
"Seriously? You didn't eat again?" His voice was sharp, impatient.
"What's your problem, Thalia? You want to waste away out of spite?"
I stared at him, refusing to look away.
After a few seconds, he shifted uncomfortably, like my gaze was making him nervous.
"Lilith's still really weak, so she needs peace and quiet," he said, not even waiting for my response.
"Just stay out of her way, okay? She doesn't need any extra stress right now."
He turned to leave, then added like I was some annoying roommate, "I'll bring you food later. Try to act like an adult."
The door slammed.
Within seconds, I heard his voice again through the thin walls—gentle, worried, loving.
"How are you feeling, sweetheart? Any pain? Don't worry about anything, I'll take care of you."
All the love and attention that used to be mine now belonged to her. I felt like a ghost in my own home.
The next few days were a nightmare. Every moment felt like torture.
Sometimes I'd see Lilith wandering around the house in expensive silk pajamas, looking weak and fragile as she leaned against doorframes.
When she spotted me, she'd give me these sweet, sympathetic smiles.
"Oh, Thalia! You look so tired, honey. Are you feeling alright?"
Before I could answer, Gabriel would showed up like he had some kind of Lilith-in-distress radar.
"What's wrong, baby? Are you dizzy again?" His hands would flutter over her like she was made of spun glass.
"Just a little," she'd whisper, leaning into him. "Maybe I shouldn't have gotten out of bed."
"Come here, let me help you back to bed." He'd sweep her away, shooting me a look like I'd personally caused her suffering just by existing in the same hallway.
Mealtimes were pure torture. Gabriel would spend hours preparing these elaborate healing broths—rich bone marrow stews that filled the entire house with their savory aroma.
He'd sit beside Lilith, testing each spoonful's temperature, coaxing her to eat like she was a wounded bird.
"Just a little more, love. You need the protein to get your strength back."
Meanwhile, I got bland chicken broth and crackers. Prison food.
I watched him feed her like she was the most precious thing on earth while I choked down flavorless liquid, and something dark started growing in my chest.
Not heartbreak anymore. Something sharper.
"I can't," Lilith would sigh after three spoonfuls, pushing the bowl away with a delicate shudder.
"I'm sorry, Gabriel. My stomach just can't handle rich food right now."
"Of course, baby, don't push yourself." He'd immediately stop, guilt written all over his face. "I should have made something lighter."
That expensive, healing broth would get tossed while I sat there with my sad crackers, watching this performance.
But the final straw came that night when I had a coughing fit.
Just a few rough coughs from my throat being dry as sandpaper.
Gabriel burst through my door like I'd set the house on fire.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" His voice was low and vicious.
"Lilith just fell asleep for the first time in days, and you're over here hacking like you've got tuberculosis!"
I looked up at him, this man I'd loved for ten years, and felt something inside me go completely cold.
"She can't handle stress, Thalia. Her body is hanging on by a thread." His eyes were wild, desperate.
"Can't you just... I don't know, suffer quietly? For once in your life, think about someone other than yourself!"
The words hit like physical blows. After everything he'd stolen from me, everything he'd put me through, I was the selfish one?
He stormed out, slamming the door so hard the walls shook. Seconds later, I heard him through the walls, voice gentle as a lullaby.
"Sorry, sweetheart, did the noise wake you? Shh, it's okay, just go back to sleep..."
I sat there in the darkness, and something fundamental died inside me.
The woman who'd loved Gabriel Ashcroft unconditionally?
She was dead.
Had died on that cold counter in the Lunar Exchange, had died with each thing he'd stolen, each casual cruelty, each moment he'd chosen her over me.
That woman had been weak. Trusting. Pathetic.
The woman sitting in this bed right now? She was something else entirely.
I listened to his soft murmurs and her contented sighs drifting through the walls, touched my still-throbbing hand, and slowly pressed my fingernails into my palm until the pain felt like clarity.
The old me was gone.
And in her place was someone who understood exactly what needed to be done.
