In rage, I closed Lucas’s journal, planning to return. As I turned to leave his study room, my legs stumbled on something and a wooden box fell from the table. The shining stone placed on the top of its lid grabbed my attention and I couldn't help opening it. Inside were laying several pacts signed by the blood, just as the one I signed before I agreed to donate my life source for my mother.
I opened all the pacts and read the content written on them. There were several pacts Lucas had managed to sign with those who were in need of money or some dark rituals he could perform only on one condition, and the condition was whenever he asked them to give their life source to Ember, they would be ready to hand it over.
Since my pack was filled with healers and shamans, I knew very well that whoever performs dark rituals, his wolf suffers worse than death and after dying, both heaven and hell reject him. Being a top shaman in the whole kingdom, he must have known the consequences of all those dark rituals he had been doing for these people yet he did it willingly, all for Ember. He was indeed a devoted lover, but he was my mother’s murderer and I was never ever going to forget that.
The night had been endless, and sleep seemed like a distant dream. By morning, Lucas assumed I had woken up early and suspected nothing. Perhaps because he had seen me struggling to shift the night before, he made breakfast himself, a table filled with carefully arranged, nutritious dishes, each one an illusion of care.
When Lucas saw me sitting quietly, he watched me with concern. "Ava, why aren't you eating? Are you feeling unwell?"
I shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "Just a little tired, that's all."
Lucas's gaze softened, and he reached out to stroke my hair. "You've been pushing yourself too hard, Ava. You need to take care of yourself."
I felt a surge of anger at his feigned concern, but I pushed it down. I was about to bring up the divorce, but Lucas casually continued. "Ava, I was thinking... since the full moon is approaching, why don't we hold a Pack's gathering at the late Alpha’s residence ? It might do you some good to get out and stretch your legs."
I raised an eyebrow, my tone cold. "You want me to go on a run with the pack and your mother, knowing how much she hates me?"
Lucas's expression turned sheepish, but he quickly recovered. "I know it's been tough, Ava, but I promise I'll be there to protect you. And besides, your sister will be there too. It'll be good for you to bond with her."
I felt a pang of anger at the mention of Ember's name, but I kept my cool. "I'll think about it," I said, my voice neutral.
Lucas smiled, seemingly satisfied with my response. "That's all I can ask for, Ava. Now, let's get ready to head out. The pack is waiting for us."
When we arrived at the pack's gathering spot, I saw Ember, dressed in her usual elegant attire, chatting with Lucas's mother, Emily. Emily was also sparing no chance of showing her adoration to her. Ember's eyes locked onto mine, and she smiled, saying pretentiously to Emily, “Grandma, stop feeding me so much out of love, I’ll get fat. Why don't you offer your special dishes to Auntie? Maybe by then, she will not look this sickly?”
Ember, was the maternal granddaughter of Emily’s husband from his first wife. Lucas didn't have any blood ties with Ember since he was Emily’s son, and Ember’s mother was Emily's step daughter. Since the late Alpha didn't have any male heir from his first wife, he married Emily and had Lucas. Lucas later inherited the pack while Lucas’s step sister married my father out of love, who was the Alpha of the pack and had been already married to my mother.
My father, being seduced by his new mistress, chased my mother and me out of his residence and we lived in isolation, only to be robbed of both my fiance and husband by Ember just like her mother robbed my mother's. Lucas's mother hated me for being ordinary and sick. She also felt ashamed of accepting me as her daughter-in-law in public.
As soon as her gaze fell on me, her knuckles tightened and she rushed to my side, whispering coldly, “Who asked you to come here? You are nothing but a sickly thing. Do you want everyone to assume we don't treat you well?”
“My son is getting older day by day, still without a son to inherit his pack. You can't give him a son, can't help him in running his pack, too sick to even please him in bed. Why don't you leave him to marry someone else? Or just die?”
