Chapter 3

I stumbled frantically toward the pack's ancestral burial grounds, where my mother rested.

When I arrived, Jason was standing there, directing two workers who were digging up her grave.

"Stop!! Stop it!"

I lunged forward, shoving the workers aside with all my strength, snatching a shovel, and standing fiercely before my mother's tombstone.

Jason pulled Amanda and Henry behind him, letting out a mocking scoff.

"Jennifer Collins, didn't you say everything has a price tag?"

"I already wired you the rental fee for your mother's plot. What kind of drama are you pulling now?"

My teeth chattered from pure rage.

"Jason... are you even a human being?!"

Jason shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'm just playing by your rules. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Or does everything in your world have a sacred price, while our bond as mates is the only thing cheap enough to be traded for cash?"

My fingernails dug so deeply into my palms that they pierced the skin, but I was too numb with hatred to feel the pain.

I couldn't comprehend how the man who had once knelt beside my dying mother's hospital bed, swearing to the Moon Goddess that he would cherish me forever, could mutate into this monster.

Amanda held a framed photo of a golden retriever, tears glistening in her eyes.

"Forget it, Jason. Even though Buddy was family to Henry and me, an animal is still an animal. Using Jennifer's mother's sacred plot to bury him really isn't right..."

Catching sight of her tears, Jason's voice turned lethal.

"Jennifer Collins. Move."

I gritted my teeth. "Over my dead body!"

He stepped closer, leaning down to whisper against my ear:

"The specialist who accepted your bounty arrives next month. If you want that cure to happen, you'd better behave yourself."

A chill ran down my spine.

"Lily is your biological daughter! You're using your own flesh and blood to threaten me?!"

Jason gently tucked a stray hair behind my ear, his tone sickeningly casual.

"She is. But Henry is my biological son, too."

"The night before our mating ceremony, Amanda came to say goodbye. I had too much to drink, and I made a mistake..."

"You and Lily have wealth and the official Luna title. You ought to be the mature one here."

Cold sweat soaked through my clothes.

My mind flashed with agonizing memories of Lily writhing in pain during her flare-ups.

Slowly, the shovel slipped from my fingers.

My legs felt as heavy as lead as I mechanically dragged myself out of the way.

Henry immediately bolted forward, cheering, "Awesome! The old hag is making room for Buddy!"

He ripped my mother's portrait off the tombstone and grabbed her ceramic urn, ready to smash it against the rocks!

"No!"

My mind went completely blank. I threw myself forward, wrapping my body around the urn.

My head slammed violently against the marble edge of the tombstone.

The world spun, and warm blood washed over my eyes.

"Jennifer!"

Jason panicked, dropping to his knees to pull me up, his trembling fingers trying to wipe the blood from my forehead.

"Does it hurt? Are you dizzy?!"

I shoved him away with all my might, pulling a folded legal document from my coat and shoving it into his chest.

"The fee you sent wasn't enough."

"Sign it."

When his eyes landed on the title—*Territory and Asset Transfer Deed*—his face turned rigid with disgust.

"Fine. Jennifer Collins, you truly are something else!"

He snatched a pen, scrawling his signature with violent strokes.

He threw the pen and papers onto the gravel, grabbed Amanda and Henry, and stormed away.

The pen snapped in two upon hitting the rocks.

It was a gift I had given him for our third anniversary. The first document he had ever signed with that pen was our mating registry.

I picked up the papers, flipping past the land transfer to the Mate Rejection document tucked right behind it.

Staring at his hurried, careless signature, I laughed through my tears.

Cradling my mother's urn, I stumbled to my feet.

Once my daughter's curse was broken, Jason Collins and I would be finished forever.

Finally, the night of the full moon arrived. The healer who took the bounty came to our private clinic room.

I waited outside in the corridor, kneeling on the cold tiles, praying frantically.

I begged the Moon Goddess to show mercy and keep my daughter alive.

Before the ritual could finish, my phone buzzed with an incoming transfer notification.

Before I could even read the memo, the clinic door swung open.

The healer rushed out, not even bothering to take off his blood-stained gloves.

Numb with terror, I grabbed his sleeve.

"My daughter isn't finished! Where are you going?!"