Chapter 3

“Do you even realize what you’ve done?”

Lucas’s voice cut through the sterile air, sharp and cold as a silver blade.

I blinked, still dazed, still half-human from the poison that refused to leave my blood. “What I’ve done?”

He slammed his hand against the table. The echo rattled the medical equipment. “Camilla!” he roared. “First you pushed her down the stairs last year, made her lose her pup—and now you attack her again at the Alpha’s birthday? You gave her a concussion this time!”

“She lied!” My voice came out hoarse, my throat raw. “I never touched her! Lucas, she’s lying—”

“Shut up!” His shout carried the weight of dominance—not Alpha, but Beta authority, enough to make my weakened wolf flinch inside the darkness of my mind.

“There were witnesses,” he continued coldly. “The whole pack saw you hit her.”

“They saw what she wanted them to see!” I tried to rise, but the pain in my abdomen felt like fire twisting under my ribs. The silver residue still ate at my flesh. “Please, you have to believe me—”

“Believe you?” His laugh was bitter, humorless. “You expect me to believe the wolf who nearly destroyed the pack’s reputation? The same sister who’s turned into a jealous, violent mess?”

His words hit harder than Liam’s kicks ever had.

I stared at him, breath trembling. “I’m your blood, Lucas.”

“You were,” he said. “Before you embarrassed all of us.”

I bit my lip until I tasted blood. “You think she’s kind, don’t you? You think she’s your savior.”

“Camilla helped rebuild the pack after Father’s death!” he snapped. “She kept Liam from losing everything after your—after your stunt. She’s the reason we’re still standing!”

His words twisted like knives.

I wanted to scream that Camilla was the reason we were all falling apart, but I didn’t. I just looked at him—my brother, my protector, the boy who used to chase shadows away from under my bed—and saw a stranger wearing his face.

“When you’re discharged,” Lucas said finally, voice cold and formal, “you’ll go to the Alpha’s mansion and apologize to Camilla. On your knees. Before the entire pack.”

“Lucas, please—”

“That’s not a request.”

His wolf aura flared—sharp, metallic, suffocating. My own wolf whimpered silently, still too weak to rise against him.

Blood dripped from my nose, staining the sheets. The healers said the silver might keep bleeding out for months. Each drop stung like ash.

“Lucas…” I whispered. “I’m your sister.”

He turned away, the Beta’s crest gleaming like mockery on his shoulder. “You stopped being my sister the day you tried to kill Camilla.”

He walked out, leaving a trail of cold air and betrayal in his wake.

I coughed, the taste of iron flooding my mouth. My vision blurred, black spots spreading across the light.

The monitor beside me wailed, a long, desperate sound.

A healer rushed in, but her voice was fading.

“Hold on, Luna—”

Her words scattered into static.

As darkness pulled me under, I heard something else—something small and broken inside my own soul.

It was my wolf, whispering through the pain.

He doesn’t see you anymore.

And for the first time, I believed her.