Chapter 2

Christian wore that all-too-familiar arrogant expression.

He looked down at me like I was dirt beneath his boots.

He was waiting for me to bow my head and beg for forgiveness, just like I had the other ninety-nine times.

"Serena, you’d better think carefully. Other than me, what Alpha would ever want you as their Luna?"

The man standing before me had become a complete stranger.

I couldn't connect him to the boy who had sworn he loved me eight years ago.

Back at the Wolf Academy, when I was brutally bullied, Christian fought through severe injuries just to rescue me.

He told me it was love at first sight, promising he would protect me for the rest of his life.

When I was eighteen, my parents were killed in a rogue skirmish, leaving behind crushing debts. Christian worked multiple jobs to pay off the debt and fund my tuition.

He worked himself to the bone, ending up hospitalized with internal bleeding, just so I wouldn't have to suffer.

When I was twenty, his rival pack kidnapped and violated me. After I was saved, he knelt beside my hospital bed, weeping, swearing he would love me forever.

Everything fell apart the day he reunited with Elena.

Every single sentence he spoke to me began to feature Elena’s name.

The more he brought her up, the less he came home.

He began to pull away, to look at me with disgust, standing by and watching while others humiliated me.

The cold breeze from the window washed over me, snapping me out of my trance.

The warmth in my blood finally froze, and the boy from my memories dissolved into dust.

I looked straight into Christian’s eyes and enunciated every single word:

"Then call it off. I hope the two of you rot together."

Seeing me turn away, a rare flicker of panic crossed Christian's face, his voice carrying an edge of desperation.

"Serena, stop right there!"

"You were violated by rogue wolves from our rival pack! Other than me, what Alpha would ever take damaged goods like you?!"

Gasps rippled across the room.

"Oh my god, Serena was violated by rival wolves?!"

"Look at how provocatively she’s dressed today. Who knows what really happened back then?"

"A tainted woman like her should be kneeling in gratitude that Alpha Christian even considered her as Luna! What is she complaining about?"

The murmurs and pointing fingers squeezed my heart in a vice.

"Christian, you absolute bastard!"

"You know nothing about that night—!"

I spun around, my hand trembling as I slapped Christian across the face with everything I had.

Smack!

The entire hall went dead silent.

Elena immediately rushed over, wrapping her arm around Christian’s shoulder and pulling him against her chest.

"Serena, you’re completely deranged! Christian and I just grew up together. Is that really worth throwing this pathetic fit?"

"Nobody else has a problem with it. You're just causing drama!"

The guests looked at me with even deeper disgust, their mocking whispers growing louder.

Christian stared ahead stiffly, refusing to meet my eyes.

Inside my chest, something shattered with a sharp, final crack.

Elena’s taunts, the crowd's insults, Christian’s cowardly silence.

Every shred of injustice I had swallowed over the years slapped me across the face all at once.

"Christian, I've stomped down my pride for far too long while you two did your filthy business behind the excuse of 'childhood best friends'."

"Every time we planned to mate, Elena complained of a headache, and you ran to her side like a loyal dog."

"When I was dying in the Healer's ICU, bleeding out from silver poisoning, you were dancing at the Moonlight Ball with her."

"You even bound yourself to her, and now you stand here ripping open my deepest trauma to humiliate me! Have you forgotten? I was attacked because of you!"

"Or did you honestly believe I was so pathetic that I couldn't survive without you?"

I gasped for air, tears blurring my vision.

Out of the corner of my eye, Christian seemed to reach a hand out toward me, but the ocean of vicious whispers felt like it was drowning me.

Unable to bear the suffocating agony for another second, I turned and fled like a coward.