Chapter 9
Charlie suddenly remembered Victoria had said she had a gift for him. That tiny spark of hope ignited in his heart.
If she was sending him a gift… did that mean she hadn’t really left him?
With trembling anticipation, he opened the box-only to freeze in shock, eyes wide.
Beside him, Selena screamed in horror.
Inside the box was a mangled mass of flesh and blood.
There was a small tag attached: [Our pup. You killed him.]
Below it, a date-five days ago.
The same day Charlie had left Victoria stranded on that deserted road.
The same day she called him ninety-nine times. He had only answered once, coldly rejecting her desperate plea.
Just then, the giant screen in the banquet hall flickered on.
A video began playing: a car rocking wildly by the roadside, bodies entangled in lust.
“Selena, baby, you’re irresistible. Victoria can’t even compare with you.”
“Charlie…”
The guests collectively gasped.
It was unmistakably Charlie and Selena’s voices.
Someone shouted in fury, “Alpha! You betrayed our Luna!”
“The Moon Goddess will punish you both for this!”
Suddenly, a crowd of reporters burst into the hall, mics thrust forward.
“Miss Selena, we discovered that the woman in The Bondrose Maiden is the former Luna of the Bondrose Pack. What’s
your relationship with her?”
“Miss Selena, is it true you have connections to the Bondrose Pack? To be precise-collusion?”
The Lunar Crest Pack and the Bondrose Pack were sworn enemies.
According to pack law, any form of contact with Bondrose wolves was considered treason.
Selena’s face turned pale as panic overtook her. She ducked behind Charlie and stammered, “I don’t know! I have no connection to the Bondrose Pack! That painting isn’t mine-it’s Victoria’s! She’s the one who’s connected to them!”
A reporter pressed, “So are you saying you plagiarized Miss Victoria’s work?”
“No… I… I didn’t mean…”
Her words fell apart in a mess of contradictions. No one believed her anymore.
To them, she was nothing but a thief. A traitor.
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“So this is why Luna left, isn’t it? You drove her away, you vile bitch!”
The room exploded with shouts and accusations.
Selena cracked.
Screaming like a madwoman, she shouted,
“Yes! That stupid woman-so what if she was Charlie’s Luna? I still kicked her off!”
“Charlie locked her in the bathroom, and I knew she had claustrophobia. I had someone cut the power on purpose. You
should’ve seen her pathetic, terrified face-ha! Hilarious!”
“And guess what? I laced her food with a toxin that trigger’s wolf mutation. Her wolf was weak-I knew she’d get hurt.”
“Still, she wasn’t completely useless. All I had to do was cry about not having a signature piece, drop a few hints, and Charlie went and stole Victoria’s painting for me.”
Charlie’s mind shattered like glass. He felt like he’d been struck in the skull with a silver hammer. He had never imagined
that the sweet, gentle Selena could be this venomous beneath the surface.
His eyes flared golden-his wolf instincts rising-and he lunged, grabbing Selena by the throat.
“How dare you? How could you do this to Victoria?”
“You knew she had claustrophobia. You cut the power. You poisoned her. You stole her art…”
Selena’s face turned crimson as she clawed at him, forcing out a hiss between her teeth.
“Hahaha… Charlie, don’t forget-it was you who told me about her phobia. And you’re the one who locked her in the
bathroom!”
“Sure, I drugged the food. But what about you? When she was under attack, you pushed her into harm’s way! You’re the
one who let that mutated wolf bite her hand!”
It felt like silver needles stabbed straight into Charlie’s heart.
Even his wolf whimpered in pain.
“Shut up!” he roared, panic tightening his heart.
“It wasn’t me. You-you made me-”
Even now, he was trying to shift the blame.
He didn’t want to believe that he had driven away the one person who had truly loved him, while blindly trusting someone
with the heart of a snake.
Selena laughed through her tears, voice raw and cracked.
“Oh, and the painting? Did I force you to steal that too? Did I make you hurt her?”
“Charlie, let’s be honest. The one who truly betrayed her… was you, not me.”
Boom!
Thunder crashed outside the hall.
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Wind howled. Rain poured.
Charlie’s always-straight back slumped for the first time.
Just then, a warrior from the front lines burst into the hall, panting and shouting.
“Alpha! The Bondrose Pack is invading our border!”
“What?!”
“They’ve crossed into our territory. The pack is terrified. Please, Alpha, we need you to lead us and defend our land!”
Panic spread among the guests like wildfire.
Charlie stumbled back a step, shaken.
The warrior’s voice trembled as he added, “Their Alpha… he asked me to deliver a message. He said…”
He choked on his words, unable to continue.
Charlie tapped into his Alpha instincts and heard the message for himself-directly, without words: “You hurt my future Luna. This… is my retribution.”
Chapter 9
