Chapter 1 Chapter 1

"Why's Joyce not howling anymore, that jealous bitch?" Toby Wagner asked casually. "Could something have happened to Luna Joyce, Alpha?" Barney Easton, Toby's butler and one of the betas in his pack, asked hesitantly. "Her screams last night were heartbreaking, and I haven't heard her pup make any noise in a long time…" Toby took a sip of his coffee before snorting disapprovingly. "I know Joyce better than any of you. She's deliberately howling mournfully so that you'll hear her, because she thinks that she'll be forgiven if she just acts pitiful! I must teach her a lesson this time so that she won't dare mess with Cissy in the future!" Barney glanced toward the basement before saying quietly, "But Luna Joyce's pup is weak, and the healer mentioned that the pup needs to be hospitalized regularly." Toby paused in his drinking, looking hesitant. "Is that so?" As he stirred his coffee with a spoon, a trace of hesitation flashed through his eyes. "Alright. Fine. Let Luna Joyce make me a cup of coffee, then have her apologize to Cissy! If she apologizes sincerely, I'll send her and her pup to the hospital." Toby then heated a glass of warm milk before walking into the guest bedroom. Cecilia Mallory was lying on the bed inside, breathing evenly. The blanket had been tossed aside, and her beautiful figure peeked out from beneath her nightdress. Toby swallowed at the sight, his Adam's apple bobbing. He stared at her for a long time, unable to look away, before leaning down to kiss her on the lips. Cecilia slowly opened her eyes and stretched pliantly, which made her voluptuous breasts all the more obvious. She then pouted and said, "You're making fun of me again, Alpha." Toby spread his legs wide, allowing her to sit in his arms. He caressed her waist with his fingers now and again. He lowered his head to kiss her on the chest, looking intoxicated. "Who can hold back when they see you sleeping while dressed like this?" In response, Cecilia buried her head in his arms and hummed at the comfort. Suddenly, she seemed to think of something and said anxiously, "Luna Joyce was yelling so loudly the night before yesterday. Has the pup fallen sick? Even though I know that she must have had a hard time giving birth to the pup, I'm still envious that she could carry a pup for you, Toby. "If I could do the same, I'd feel blessed no matter how much I had to suffer." Blessed, she said? At that moment, I, Joyce Dryden, had long become a ghost floating next to them. As for the basement, the entire space was stained red with blood. I had been desperate to get out because my pup was burning up with fever. As such, the basement walls were heavily marked with deep gouges that I had carved out with my wolf claws, to the point that my claws had broken off and gotten stuck in the gouges.

Chapter 2 Chapter 2

Furthermore, I had no milk with which to feed my pup due to being deprived of food, so I had slashed my wrists until the blood poured freely to sustain my pup. I managed to keep my pup alive for two days with my blood, but my pup still ended up dying in my arms. My wrist, which was exposed down to the bone, had bled all over the basement's floorboards. As sticky blood coagulated in my hair, I hugged my pup's cold corpse in my arms as I too breathed my last, my eyes open and unseeing. I wondered how Toby would react upon coming across this scene, but for the moment, he was only concerned with embracing Cecilia. His tone was filled with guilt and self-blame as he exclaimed, "It's my fault! I shouldn't have let Joyce appear in front of you with her pup in her arms and make you sad! I swear that this is the last time I'll let that she-wolf bear my pups! "In the future, you'll never see a pregnant she-wolf in my house ever again. You don't know this, but Joyce actually lied to me in an attempt to make me sympathize with her. She told me that the pup was weak and that the healer recommended hospitalization." I felt my heart constrict, and it felt hard to breathe. Two years ago, the small-sized packs that lived near ours had joined hands to surround Toby. I had broken through their formation with an unconscious Toby in my arms, but during the escape, I had been wounded with wolfsbane. After escaping back to our pack, I was hospitalized for half a month before healers managed to save my life, but my wolf was gone. During my pregnancy, I was also hospitalized many times in order to prevent miscarriage due to the fact that my body was too weak. When I was first imprisoned in the basement, I had pleaded with Toby, saying anything I could think of so that he would let me out. It was because if he really locked me up for three days, I knew that my pup and I would definitely die! However, Toby had shouted instructions at Barney in front of me. "Go throw this basement key away! Nobody is allowed to open the door for Luna Joyce behind my back! After three days, I want her to kneel and apologize to Cissy!" My pup was so hungry that they wailed loudly. In order to keep my pup alive, I took down the paintings on the wall and pricked my hands until they were covered in blood. I also broke my nails prying open the basement's skylight. I used all my strength to crawl out onto the grassy ground outside the skylight while enduring excruciating pain. I dug my fingers firmly into the ground as I crawled upward with my pup in my arms, inch by inch. However, Toby just happened to be sharing a deep kiss with Cecilia in the garden. Judging from how passionately they were kissing each other, they were about to progress even further. Cecilia then suddenly pushed Toby away, glanced down at the skylight, and screamed involuntarily. As a result, Toby looked up and was furious at the sight of me trying to escape. In fact, he firmly believed that I had shown up in front of Cecilia again on purpose. He personally stepped on my fingers and, powerless due to excessive blood loss, I fell back into the basement. In the end, I stopped breathing with my eyes wide open and a cold pup in my arms. Toby held the glass of warm milk to Cecilia's lips. "I've already instructed someone to bring Joyce over to apologize to you. If she's sincere about it, I'll get someone to send her and her pup to the hospital. But if she isn't, she can continue to live in the basement with her pup!" Cecilia drank the milk in small sips, but she still choked on it until tears came to her eyes. The sight made her look incredibly pitiful. "You can't treat Luna Joyce like this, Alpha. It's very dangerous for pups to get sick!" she exclaimed. Toby sighed and looked at her with great affection. "It's because you're too kind that you're bullied by she-wolves like Joyce, Cissy! Before she became Luna, she was a very powerful Beta who could live for many days without food or water!" He gently scratched the tip of her nose. "In fact, it's an Omega like you who needs more tender loving care. And you mentioned that it's dangerous for pups to get sick; it's as if you've carried a pup before!" Panic flashed in Cecilia's eyes, and she immediately lowered her head. "Only you can see past my tough exterior to the fragile heart underneath, Alpha," she said with a hint of grievance in her voice. When she looked up again, her eyes were misty, and her lower lip was glistening from her biting it. She wrapped her arms around Toby's neck and rubbed her breasts against his chest in a way that made it hard to tell if it was intentional.

Chapter 3 Chapter 3

Toby couldn't hold back any longer and kissed Cecilia, breathing heavily as she moaned softly into the kiss. As they exchanged fervent kisses, their hands started wandering frantically over each other's bodies. However, Cecilia shoved a panting Toby away at the last moment. "We can't do this. Luna Joyce is the fated mate assigned to you by the Moon Goddess. The two of you are already married, and she even bore you a pup. I don't want to be the third party who betrays my pack's Luna!" Toby's eyes were burning with desire as he cried out hoarsely, "Although we're fated mates assigned by the Moon Goddess, you're my true love! I definitely won't let your sincerity down! "I'll reject Joyce, because I'll only be worthy of touching someone as pure as you after cleaning my own slate!" He then placed a kiss on her forehead without hesitation, as if he were protecting a rare and valuable treasure. There was a look of satisfaction on Cecilia's face. Toby didn't see it, but I did. She said that she didn't want to be the third party who betrayed her pack's Luna, but I only found those words laughable. If that were the case, why had she come looking for me time and time again? Each time, she would declare shamelessly that even if I gave birth to the Alpha's heir, I would just be laying the foundation for her, and even the Alpha's heir would have to call her mother in the future. She had moved into our house under the poor excuse of being sick and having nobody to take care of her. She would flirt blatantly with Toby in front of me at home, for which I yelled at her after I couldn't take it anymore. However, Toby ended up demanding that I apologize. When I refused, he locked me up in my room and refused to let me out. My early due date caught me off guard, but no matter how I pleaded with Toby, he refused to send me to the hospital to give birth. In the end, I had to compromise and apologize to Cecilia before he finally sent me to the hospital. "It doesn't matter who's carrying my pup; what's important is recognizing who exactly Toby truly loves! I'll have you know that there's only one Luna in this pack, and that's me, Joyce!" Cecilia had said to me then. After successfully delivering the pup, the pup and I stayed in the hospital for a few days before returning home. In order to prove that she would be Luna, Cecilia seized the opportunity to curl up in Toby's arms and cry like a helpless kitten on the third day after my return. She cried about how she wasn't blessed with fertility and thus could never carry his pups for him. She mentioned how seeing me carry my pup in my arms all day inevitably made her feel sad and disappointed. "I've already done my best to avoid Luna Joyce, but I still can't avoid seeing her and her pup every day! I think it's best if I move out, because having to see the pup every day is too painful for me!" Toby immediately lost control of his emotions. He rushed up to me with a cold expression on his face and slapped me so hard that I fell to the floor with my pup still in my arms. "You clearly know that the sight of the pup will trigger Cissy's trauma, but still, you dangle the pup around in front of her all day! How could you be so cruel? "A vicious she-wolf like you doesn't deserve to be Luna! That's it! I'm locking you and the pup in the basement today so you can have a good taste of suffering!" On command, a few betas grabbed my limbs, then threw me and my pup into the dusty basement. The sudden change caused my pup to start wailing miserably, and I struggled to hold my precious pup in my arms. I desperately grabbed onto the doorframe with my other hand as I pleaded tearfully, "The healer told me to take my pup to the hospital for treatment today! If I go to the hospital, Cecilia won't be able to see me anyway!" Toby sneered. "Stop being so shameless. How could a strong she-wolf like you give birth to a pup that's so weak it needs to receive treatment at the hospital?" He ignored any further objections from me and slammed the door heavily down on my fingers. The gut-wrenching pain made me instantly arch my back and retract my fingers to hug my pup tightly, and I couldn't say anything else through the pain. Toby then locked the basement. He had a satisfied look on his face. At this moment, Toby and Cecilia were still grinding against each other. Barney ran toward them, huffing and panting, and yelled in panic, "Luna and her pup are dead!" Toby jerked his head up, looking displeased at being disturbed. "Dead?" Barney wiped the sweat from his forehead before replying fearfully, "The entire basement is covered in blood. Luna Joyce and her pup are also no longer breathing." He trailed off, not daring to go on. Toby straightened his messy shirt. "What blood? Oh, you probably mean the blood from when she pried open the skylight. Is the pup sick? Send them to the hospital."

Chapter 4 Chapter 4

Barney swallowed and continued to report, "Luna Joyce and her pup are no longer breathing." There was a trace of panic in Toby's voice, but just as I tried to listen more closely, his voice hardened again. "She's just pretending! I'd certainly like to see just how long she can keep up the act! "She's survived harsher conditions in the wild! She's just holding her breath to scare all of you! Summon a healer, because I'm going to expose her tricks right in her face!" Barney stared at him with wide eyes. "But Alpha Toby, Luna Joyce's pup isn't breathing anymore either." Toby interrupted him impatiently. "I'm the Alpha here! Who exactly do you take orders from?" "Yes, Alpha. I'll go get a healer to come over right now," Barney said quickly before sighing helplessly and leaving the room. Cecilia leaned into him pliantly. "Don't be mad, Alpha. Anger is bad for health. Luna Joyce just wants you to pity her." Toby's voice, sharp with defensiveness, cut in, "Joyce has a way of manipulating people. It's only been a few years, yet the entire pack seems to hang on her every word!" His words were like a blow to my confidence. In just three years, he had already forgotten his previous promise to me. On the day of our bonding, he looked at me with loving eyes and said, "This pack is your home, and from now on you'll be its only Luna." My tears spilled out uncontrollably. After my death, I had actually deluded myself into thinking that Toby might feel a shred of guilt and self-blame if he were to find out that my pup and I had died horrible deaths. I now knew just how stupid and ridiculous that thought had been. I actually really believed him when he told me that he would always love me. Toby and Cecilia were childhood sweethearts, but when Toby's fated mate turned out to be me and Cecilia was diagnosed as infertile by a healer, she immediately broke up with him and went abroad. She had said herself that as an Alpha, Toby needed an heir, and he needed to be with his fated mate. How could she bear to leave the pack without an heir? In the end, Toby chose to be with me in order to forget the pain of his breakup with Cecilia. When he later proposed to me, he told me that I was courageous, resolute, and the embodiment of all the good things in the world. After forming a mate bond with him, I managed the pack alongside him as pack Luna, taking care of his everyday life while also keeping the pack orderly and functioning. Finally, in the third year after our bonding, I successfully conceived a pup with him. Toby was so ecstatic that he immediately declared that the pup would be the pack's sole heir. However, Cecilia returned to the country just as I was about to give birth. Upon her return, she announced, "I don't have the slightest interest in inheriting any authority within the pack. As long as I can be with Alpha Toby, I'll be very satisfied with my life." From then on, Toby started staying out all night, and his shirts began to accumulate red lipstick marks that couldn't be washed out. I decisively proposed that I abort the pup and we reject the bond, but Toby refused to let me go. He insisted that the pup in my belly was the pack's heir, and so he would only reject me after I gave birth to them. He even told me that he had allowed Cecilia to move into our house because she had fallen ill and needed someone to take care of her. Furthermore, because she couldn't bear pups and could not stand the sight of them, he locked me and my newborn pup in an abandoned basement. He really deserved death! The healer, Ethan Brooks, soon arrived. As Toby's best friend, he had always been responsible for overseeing Toby's health. Toby followed angrily after Ethan with his arms crossed over his chest. "I'd certainly like to see how much longer you can keep up your act, Joyce!"

Chapter 5 Chapter 5

With a deafening crash, the basement door was thrown open. My body, which had been leaning against the door, tumbled to the side due to gravity when the door opened. The movement also dislodged my pup, who finally left my embrace and rolled into a corner. Thick layers of dust covered my stiff corpse, making it look like a mummy. Ethan frowned heavily at the sight, but he still performed a routine examination of me and my pup's vitals out of occupational habit. The cloying stench of blood hit Toby with such force that he instinctively recoiled, his hand flying to his nose. The oppressive heat had already begun its grim work, accelerating the decay of our corpses. He stood outside the basement, refusing to take another step inside. "What the heck is Joyce doing? She's stunk up the whole basement!" he complained. Barney lowered his head, not daring to make a sound, and simply glanced at Ethan from time to time. Ethan took off his gloves with a solemn expression on his face. "It's confirmed that Luna Joyce and her pup are dead, Alpha." Toby's cursing cut off abruptly, and he stopped pinching his nose. "They're dead?" He walked right up to Ethan and stared steadily at him, but Ethan avoided his gaze and pointed at the already decomposing body. "I've ascertained that Luna Joyce died from excessive blood loss, Alpha, but the pup will need to be sent to the hospital to determine the cause of death." After saying that, Ethan bent down and wiped the blood off my face with his gloves. The paleness of my face and the grayish discoloration of my body formed a tragic contrast, and my arms had stiffened in the way they had been posed while carrying my pup. Overall, it painted a creepy yet funny image, and Toby barely glanced at it before bursting into laughter. "When did you and Joyce hook up, Ethan? Don't you know that seducing the pack Luna is a grave offense?" He glanced coldly over Ethan before adding, "Was Joyce counting on you to save her? No wonder she wanted to escape by climbing through the skylight the other day! Did the two of you plan this? "I treated you as a friend, but you fucking seduced my Luna behind my back!" He grabbed Ethan by the collar, glaring fiercely at him. Ethan became enraged as well. "You're the one who locked up Luna Joyce and her pup, causing them to die of incurable causes! You've committed a crime!" "Go on! Keep acting, damn it! You've made two fake dummies to scare me! Tell me, where's the real Joyce and her pup? When did you rescue them? Hurry up and hand them over!" Ethan flitted through multiple expressions as he listened to Toby speak. In the end, he couldn't bear it any longer and punched Toby in the face. He used a whole lot of strength, enough to send Toby flying through the air. I had died with my eyes open, so when Toby ended up landing next to my body, he came face to face with my wide, unseeing eyes. He frantically leaped up and, in his panic, his hands came into contact with a ring on the floor—the Moonlight Ring that I had used my last bit of strength to pull off before I died. It was Toby's family heirloom, which he had given to me on our wedding day, and there was only one such ring in the entire world. He jerked away, backing up until his back hit the wall, whereupon he saw the long, large gash stained with bits of flesh and blood stretching across the wall. However, he quickly forced himself to calm down. Glancing darkly over at Ethan and Barney, he asked harshly, "Have you guys forgotten that I'm your Alpha? What did Joyce promise you in return? Let me guess… She told you that her pup was the pack's heir, so she'll definitely treat you well after her pup inherits the pack, right?" Barney hurriedly shook his head. "Luna Joyce has never said anything of the sort, Alpha!" Toby roared, "I've really been fooled by her innocent façade all these years! How could I have never seen her ambition for what it is? And all of you have actually lowered yourselves to becoming her lapdogs! "Well, I'll have you know that your wishful thinking is about to fall flat! She must be my Luna if her pup is to become pack heir!" Right at that moment, Cecilia walked into the basement. "How's the pup, Alpha?" Then, she took in the scene and let out a loud exclamation. "What is all this?"