I froze, my entire being turning to ice.
“Lucas… what are you saying?”
His gaze was sharp, his voice full of contempt.
“She was perfectly fine before, but she kept claiming she had ‘silver sickness.’ I rushed back from the Frostlands overnight, only to find her sitting by the fireplace, eating fruit.”
“She always acts pitiful—just so I’d turn back and look at her.”
He paused, his eyes dark with disgust.
“Pathetic.”
A stabbing pain tore through my soul.
He didn’t know that I genuinely had silver sickness, that the poison of silver dust had been eating away my insides, burning my body from within.
That agony was worse than any bite, any wound. I didn’t want him to worry, so I used to force a smile, hiding my weakness from him.
But to him, all my pain, all my suffering had been nothing more than an act.
Sophia reached out at the right moment, tugging lightly at his sleeve, her voice soft and cautious.
“Lucas, don’t be like this… Ava… she only did it because she loves you.”
Lucas’s gaze turned even colder, his voice commanding.
“You don’t have to defend her, Sophia. She will apologize to you in front of everyone.”
“She is not worthy of being this pack’s Luna.”
My world shattered.
“So that’s what he thought of me.”
“So that’s how little I meant to him.”
“Lucas… you already snatched my right to be Luna.”
“Because in your heart, the true Luna… is no longer me.”
“But Lucas… do you even know?“The one who should be apologizing… is Sophia.”
“She was the one who pushed me into that silver mine. She was the reason I, along with our unborn pup, died in the cold, endless dark.”
“Yet right now, you are standing beside her, shielding her in your arms, while pouring all your hatred and scorn onto me.”
“The darkness had swallowed me whole, but the pain in my chest was far crueler than death.”
“Was I really never worthy of your love, Lucas?”
