Chapter 1

At twenty-seven, I was the happiest she-wolf alive.

I had a son and a daughter, and my mate was Felix.

He was the Alpha of the Red Moon Pack and had been named the “Most Desirable Alpha” by werewolf magazines for eight years in a row.

The Alpha King had once wanted Felix to take his daughter as his mate, but Felix had turned him down without hesitation because of me.

“You’re so lucky. I’m honestly jealous of you.”

Those were the words I had heard more often than anything else.

Yet the first thing I did after being reborn was take a Mate Bond Dissolution Agreement to the woman Felix had never gotten over.

“I’m leaving. Felix is yours, and so are the two children.”

Chapter 1

Lillian stared at me in disbelief. I was actually handing her the place every woman dreamed of having.

But the seriousness on my face left no room for doubt that I meant every word.

“You’re the one they love. There’s no reason for me to keep making myself miserable.”

“Just get Felix to sign this, and I’ll find the right opportunity to leave.”

She studied the agreement for a long time, as though she were hesitating, yet the excitement in her eyes was impossible to conceal.

In the end, she accepted it. “Since you’re offering them to me so willingly, I won’t turn you down.”

“But you should understand one thing. Once you give them to me, I’ll never give them back.”

I only smiled at her warning.

In this life, I would never regret my decision. Anyone who wanted to be a Luna in name only was welcome to the title, because I certainly didn’t want it anymore.

“Give what back?”

Felix’s voice suddenly came from behind me.

The man who was always too busy whenever I called appeared leisurely inside the café.

My son, Toby, and my daughter, Amy, acted as though I wasn’t even there. They walked straight past me and threw themselves into Lillian’s arms.

“Lillian, Dad helped us pick this out especially for you.”

A sharp ache pierced my heart.

In seven years as mates, Felix had never once given me a gift.

The only exception had been on my birthday, when he unexpectedly brought home a cake. But it was a strawberry cake. I was allergic to strawberries.

There wasn’t a trace of apology on Felix’s face. Instead, he looked straight at me and asked, “What did you take from Lillian this time?”

The children heard him and, without even asking what had happened, immediately assumed I had bullied Lillian again.

They crowded around me, one gripping my hand tightly while the other searched through my clothes.

“Bad Mommy! Give it back to Lillian!”

They kept shouting the same thing at me.

My mate and my own children had chosen another woman’s side against me.

All I could think was how ridiculous it was. Apparently, I had been the outsider from the very beginning.

Lillian seemed to be enjoying my humiliation and deliberately let the silence drag on before finally saying, “Nothing happened. We were just talking.”

Then she turned to Felix. “Oh, right. Since I’m moving back here, there’s a document that needs the Alpha’s signature.”

She casually flipped the agreement to the signature page and handed it to him.

The moment Felix heard that Lillian was staying, he signed his name without even looking at what was written above it.

His eyes immediately lit up as he asked excitedly, “You’re really not leaving this time?”

Under his expectant gaze, Lillian nodded.

Toby grabbed her hand and shook it excitedly. “That’s great! Lillian, you should just come live with us.”

“If you move in, you can stay in the big bedroom with Dad. Mommy likes cooking anyway, so she can sleep in the kitchen.”

Amy happily wrapped her arms around Lillian’s waist. “Please stay. I want to live with you.”

“I wish you were my mommy. Then I could see you every day.”

Their pleading seemed to carry real weight, every word pressing down on my heart until it became difficult to breathe.

Felix clearly approved of the idea, though as their father, he couldn’t openly encourage such childish nonsense.

In a gentle voice, he said, “The house next door belongs to me too. You can move in there.”

It was such a warm, loving scene, yet watching it made my eyes ache.

In my previous life, not ending up with Lillian had always been Felix’s greatest regret.

They had parted ways after an argument.

Lillian left to live with another pack, while Felix accepted an arranged mating alliance between our families and formed a mate bond with me.

Perhaps his love for her had simply been too deep, because somehow even our children seemed to have inherited his affection for Lillian.

For years, I had comforted myself with the thought that none of it mattered as long as they were still by my side.

But when I grew old and could no longer walk properly, they left me alone at home to recover.

On Christmas Day, I leaned on my cane and spent hours preparing a table full of their favorite dishes.

When I called, they told me, “We’re not coming home. We’re staying here with Lillian. She’ll be all alone for Christmas otherwise.”

They felt sorry for her spending Christmas alone. What about me?

Distracted and heartbroken, I lost my footing on the stairs and fell, striking my head so hard that blood spread across the floor in a horrifying pool of red.

I tried desperately to call for help, but the only sound coming through the phone was Felix’s laughter.

He had never laughed like that around me. Even on the day we formed our mate bond, there hadn’t been the slightest curve to his lips.

In despair, I closed my eyes.

If I could ever live my life again, I would never waste it on them.

The pain of my previous life seemed to overlap with everything I was feeling now, until I could no longer bear to watch the happy scene in front of me and turned away.

After returning home, I began sorting through my things.

The sight of an old stuffed rabbit made my heart stir again.

I had made it myself for Amy’s third birthday. She had loved it so much that she refused to fall asleep unless she was holding it.

Unfortunately, one of its arms had been torn open in the washing machine. Sewing it back together would be the last thing I did for my daughter before leaving.

I had just picked it up when a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind me.

“What are you doing?”

Chapter 2

Felix stood in the doorway with a frown, holding the two children by the hand.

Amy rushed over and snatched the stuffed rabbit from me. The moment she saw the tear in its arm, tears welled up in her eyes.

“Mommy, I only hugged Lillian. Did you really have to tear my bunny apart because of that?”

Seeing how upset his sister was, Toby immediately felt sorry for her and shoved me angrily.

“Why are you so mean, Mommy? Even if you destroy all our toys, we’ll still like Lillian more!”

The moment I fell to the floor, something inside me seemed to shatter with me.

The disgust in Felix’s eyes was even more obvious.

“Are you really going to hold a grudge against your own children? They have the right to decide who they like.”

“It’s not what you think.” I kept shaking my head, desperate to explain.

Amy thrust the rabbit toward me as evidence and cried, “Its arm is already torn off! Why are you still lying, Mommy?”

Convinced that I had damaged the toy to punish them, Toby glared at me with open hostility.

“We just want to live with Lillian, Mommy. From now on, you can stay in this house by yourself.”

His words struck exactly where it hurt most.

Felix watched the entire scene unfold without saying a single word in my defense.

Instead, he tossed the rabbit in front of me and said coldly, “Stop taking things out on the children. If you want to tear something apart, then tear apart whatever you like.”

I was so furious that I actually laughed, though the smile on my face looked more painful than tears.

Never again. I was done with all of it—with all of them.

And I meant it.

I stopped forcing the children to go to bed on time and let them stay up until midnight, so naturally, they overslept the next morning.

In the past, I had gotten up at five every morning to prepare breakfast, making sure everything was at just the right temperature by the time they sat down to eat.

That day, I slept until I woke naturally. When the household staff brought out breakfast fresh from the kitchen, the children predictably burned their mouths.

Sticking out their tongues, they complained, “Bad Mommy. We’re never eating your breakfast again.”

Even if they wanted it, I had no intention of making it anymore.

Felix was obsessive about his appearance and couldn’t tolerate a single wrinkle in his clothes.

Before he left for work every morning, I used to iron everything for him carefully. That day, he went out in a creased suit and shot me a dissatisfied look.

Without me quietly taking care of everything, the entire house soon fell into disorder.

A week later, Felix finally lost his patience.

“How much longer are you planning to keep throwing this tantrum?”

“I’m not throwing a tantrum.” Without even looking at him, I turned over and tried to go back to sleep.

My dismissive attitude clearly irritated him, and his voice rose sharply.

“As their mother, you haven’t been taking proper care of the children.”

“And as my mate, you haven’t done anything to share the responsibilities of this family.”

“You’ve spent the entire week doing nothing and avoiding everything you’re supposed to do.”

The longer he spoke, the darker his expression became, until the look he gave me was colder than winter frost.

“And you still claim you’re not being unreasonable?”

Rather than arguing immediately, I simply looked at him in silence.

In my previous life, I had devoted myself completely to this family and given them everything I had, only to receive indifference and cruelty in return.

They had accepted everything I did as though it were only natural, without offering so much as a word of praise or thanks.

Yet the moment I stopped giving, accusations and criticism came pouring down on me from every direction.

Too tired to keep arguing, I asked, “I’m exhausted. Am I not even allowed to rest for a while?”

The two children, who had apparently been listening outside the door, suddenly rushed in with excitement.

“Okay! Then Lillian can take Mommy’s place for a while. You don’t mind, right?”

“She’ll definitely do everything a thousand times better than Mommy!”

A bitter smile touched my lips. “If that’s what you want, then I don’t care.”

A flicker of surprise passed through Felix’s eyes.

He clearly liked the idea himself, yet he still put on the air of someone reluctantly making a compromise.

“Fine. Lillian can move in and help you for now. The place next door hasn’t been cleaned yet anyway.”

Just as they wanted, Lillian moved into the house without any difficulty.

Strangely enough, the chaos disappeared almost immediately, because none of them could bear to make Lillian tired, so they began correcting the very habits they had always expected me to tolerate.

Toby and Amy no longer needed anyone to coax them into eating, and they even started putting their own toys away.

Felix hired someone specifically to take care of his clothes.

As for Lillian, she began acting like the lady of the house and rearranging everything according to her own preferences.

One day, she pointed at the large framed photo from our mating ceremony hanging on the wall.

“Doesn’t this take up a little too much space? Wouldn’t the house feel warmer if we put up more casual family photos instead?”

I had begged Felix for an entire month before he had reluctantly agreed to let that photograph hang in the living room.

This time, however, he didn’t hesitate for even a second before ordering the staff to take it down.

“From now on, whatever Miss Lillian asks for, you do it.”

Following his instructions, they replaced our portrait with framed photographs of different sizes.

Not a single one of them included me.

The house became more unfamiliar with every passing day.

Whenever I heard their laughter drifting from the dining room, they sounded exactly like a happy family.

My chest ached, but I said nothing to spoil the mood.

Since I had already decided to leave, I needed to let go of everything that came with this life.

But they still wouldn’t leave me alone.

I had just finished filing my pack transfer papers when Felix called.

“Come to the hospital.”

His next words were sharper and more urgent.

“Now.”

Chapter 3

By the time I rushed to the hospital, Toby and Amy were both lying in hospital beds.

Their bodies were covered in dense red rashes, with several bloody scratches where they had clawed at their skin.

No matter how distant we had become, they were still my children, and the sight of them in pain made me instinctively move closer.

Felix stepped in front of me before I could reach them, anger showing on the face of a man who was usually composed.

“Camilla, have you lost your mind? Why did you feed them strawberries?”

“It wasn’t me,” I denied immediately.

Ever since I discovered that they had inherited my strawberry allergy, I had been extremely careful about everything they ate.

I never allowed them to eat food from outside, and even on school days, I prepared packed lunches for them myself.

There were also two instructions I had repeated to their guards countless times: keep the children safe, and never let them anywhere near strawberries.

Toby, however, insisted that I was responsible and argued hoarsely, “Mommy was the one who gave them to us.”

Amy immediately backed him up. “She said if we didn’t eat them, she would make Lillian leave.”

I stared at them in shock. “What are you talking about?”

Toby only made the accusation worse. “Mommy said that once we ate the strawberries, Dad would blame Lillian and send her away.”

“I never said any of that!” I nearly shouted.

Being falsely accused was painful enough, but having the lies come from my own children hurt more than anything I could have imagined.

“Enough.”

Felix looked utterly disappointed in me, and every trace of warmth had disappeared from his voice.

“They’re so young. Why would they lie about something like this?”

“How can you be so vicious that you would even hurt your own children?”

Tears spilled from my eyes before I could stop them.

When I had been pregnant with twins, the joy had come doubled, but so had the danger.

The healer had warned me that my body was too weak and that he could not guarantee I would survive the pregnancy.

Even so, I had chosen to give birth to them, despite knowing that the decision could cost me my life.

Now the children I had nearly died bringing into this world were lying about me without so much as a flicker of shame.

The whole situation was so absurd that beneath the pain, I could almost have laughed.

But they weren’t finished with me.

“Dad, Mommy did something wrong, so she should be punished.”

“Why don’t we make her have an allergic reaction too? Then we’ll be even.”

Felix looked at their pale faces, then back at me, as though he were still waiting for me to admit it.

After hesitating for a moment, he agreed to their demand.

“Fine.”

The instant the word left his mouth, the guards on either side of me seized my arms and held me so tightly that I couldn’t move.

In my panic, I caught sight of Lillian hiding in a corner, and everything suddenly became clear.

By then, it was already too late. Someone gripped my jaw while a large amount of strawberry juice was forced into my mouth.

The reaction came almost immediately as rashes spread across my skin, itching and burning as though countless ants were biting into me.

A searing pain tore through my throat, and as the sensation of an invisible hand tightening around my neck grew stronger, breathing became increasingly difficult.

Everyone simply stood there watching me with cold, indifferent eyes.

Whatever warmth remained in my heart slowly disappeared, and when my body could no longer endure the reaction, consciousness finally slipped away.

When I opened my eyes again, night had already fallen, and the sound of quiet voices drifted into the room.

Lillian was apologizing softly. “Felix, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it would be that serious.”

“The children told me they had never tried strawberries before, and I felt so sorry for them that I bought some.”

Instead of reacting with the fury he had shown toward me, Felix answered her gently.

“It’s all right. You were only trying to do something nice for them.”

Toby lowered his head and said with a trace of guilt, “Don’t be upset, Lillian. Amy and I were curious, so we lied to you.”

Amy hurried to apologize as well. “I’m sorry, Lillian. We made you worry.”

Felix let out a deep sigh. “You still shouldn’t have lied. Because of what you said, your mother was punished for something she didn’t do.”

Afraid that Felix was angry with him, Toby quickly explained, “I’m sorry, Dad. We were just scared that Lillian would move away.”

“Besides, Mommy is really strong, so we knew she would be fine.”

I was the one who had been hurt and the one who deserved an apology more than anyone, yet not a single one of them seemed to spare a thought for me.

The realization settled heavily over my heart until even every beat seemed to ache.

When Felix came into my room, I was lying there staring blankly at the ceiling.

Perhaps the tears still lingering at the corners of my eyes made him uncomfortable, because after one glance, he quickly looked away.

“You heard them. It was an accident on Lillian’s part. Let’s leave it at that.”

When it was me, he demanded answers and punishment, yet when it came to Lillian, everything could simply be forgotten.

Wasn’t an Alpha supposed to value fairness above all else?

I wanted to argue, but the tears only fell harder.

Seeing how devastated I was seemed to stir a trace of guilt in him, and after a moment, he spoke again.

“Your birthday is next week. I’ll hold a party for you.”

I still gave him no response, but he took my silence as acceptance.

A moment later, the children were already pulling him back toward Lillian.

Perhaps that was for the best, because once my birthday was over, I would leave.

Chapter 4

My birthday celebration was held at the most luxurious hotel in the Red Moon Pack.

Felix walked at the front with an arm around Lillian, while Toby and Amy happily stayed close beside them.

Even though I was supposed to be the focus of the celebration, I had been left behind like an afterthought.

Whispers soon began spreading through the crowd.

“Does Alpha Felix still have feelings for Lillian? They look so perfect together.”

“Exactly. They’re practically made for each other.”

“I heard they used to be together. If Camilla hadn’t interfered, Lillian might have been the one who formed a mate bond with him.”

“You mean...”

The speaker never finished, but everyone around them turned to look at me with knowing expressions.

Pretending I had heard nothing, I calmly walked past them and headed toward an empty balcony.

I had barely stopped when Lillian’s voice came from behind me.

“I already got Felix to sign the agreement, so why haven’t you left yet?”

“You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” She met my gaze, searching my expression with obvious urgency.

I gave her a faint smile. “There’s no chance of that.”

Relief immediately crossed her face. “Good. Then you can leave without worrying about anything.”

“I’m the one they care about anyway. No one will care when you’re gone.”

My smile stiffened, though I knew she was telling the truth.

Before I could respond, the enormous crystal chandelier above us suddenly broke loose and crashed down.

The impact struck my head, and blood quickly ran from my scalp into my eyes, blurring my vision.

I tried to move, but one of my legs was trapped beneath the chandelier, while pain seemed to spread through every part of my body.

Lillian had been pinned down on the opposite side and was unable to escape either.

“Felix, help me! My hand hurts so much!” she screamed.

The crash had drawn everyone’s attention, and within moments, people surrounded us, Felix among them.

His eyes landed on me first, but almost immediately shifted toward Lillian, and the concern in his expression deepened.

The children were terrified by what they saw and rushed straight to Lillian, crying as they begged her not to die.

When the rescue team arrived, however, their expressions quickly turned troubled.

The chandelier was too large to move, and even with several people lifting together, they could only raise it slightly.

Because Lillian and I were trapped beneath opposite sides, lifting one end would force most of the chandelier’s weight onto the other.

“Alpha Felix, this is an emergency. We can only get one of them out at a time, so who should we—”

“Save Lillian.”

Felix cut him off before he could finish.

The rescuer hesitated instead of acting immediately, then asked again, “Our assessment shows that the Luna is in more critical condition. Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider?”

Felix shot him a furious look.

“Save Lillian. Don’t make me say it a third time.”

With no choice but to obey the Alpha’s order, the rescue team lifted the massive chandelier with all their strength and carefully moved Lillian out as quickly as possible.

As they lifted it, the weight shifted onto me, and I couldn’t help crying out in agony.

Right before I lost consciousness, neither my mate nor my children looked back at me even once.

When I woke again, the healer happened to be speaking with Felix beside my bed.

“We’ve treated all of the Luna’s external injuries, and the head trauma appears to be a mild concussion.”

“Her leg, however...” The healer paused before continuing in a quieter voice. “She won’t be able to remain on her feet for long periods anymore.”

After a regretful sigh, he added, “If she had been brought in sooner, there might have been a chance to prevent this.”

Once the healer left, Felix turned around and met the resentment in my eyes.

He understood the question I was asking without saying a word, so he answered it directly.

“You have no idea how many years it took Lillian to become a master pianist. She spent more than twenty years getting this far.”

“I had to protect her hands.”

“You spend most of your time at home anyway. Having trouble walking won’t make that much difference to your life.”

Yet in my previous life, that supposedly insignificant problem had eventually cost me my life.

My throat tightened as I asked, “If I had died yesterday, would you have regretted choosing to save Lillian first?”

His brows drew together instinctively. “There’s no point talking about something that didn’t happen, so stop imagining the worst.”

“As long as you stop causing trouble and take proper care of the children, you’ll always be my Luna.”

But I no longer wanted to be his Luna. I didn’t want to stay by his side anymore.

The thought had barely formed before I tried to say it aloud. “I don’t—”

A ringing phone interrupted me.

Toby and Amy were crying on the other end, calling Lillian’s name again and again.

The moment Felix heard them, worry flooded his face, and without another word to me, he rushed out of the room.

He left without hesitation. There was nothing left for me to stay for.

With difficulty, I pushed my wheelchair forward, collected the belongings I had already packed, and boarded a car bound for another pack.

Goodbye, Toby and Amy.

Goodbye, Felix.