Chapter 3

At those words, everyone froze.

Catherine stepped closer, narrowing her eyes at me.

"Did you just say... you're the Luna?"

I looked straight into her eyes. "Yes. I am the true Luna of the Silvermoon Pack. You're nothing more than a substitute he found to cope. If he finds out you laid a hand on me, he won't let any of you leave here alive."

I laid out the plain truth, expecting Catherine to back down.

Instead, all of them burst into hysterical laughter.

"Is this bitch completely out of her mind?"

"Just because she looks a little like Catherine, she actually had the nerve to claim our Catherine is the substitute?"

"The whole world knows Alpha Ethan takes Catherine everywhere he goes! You're just a rat who crawled into his yard, and you dare call yourself the Luna?"

Catherine's lips curled into a nasty, wicked smile.

"Here I thought someone who went under the knife to steal my face would have some actual brains. Turns out, you're just an idiot."

"I've been with Ethan for months, and I've never heard a single word about him having a Luna. How many lives do you have to tell such a ridiculous lie?"

"If you really were the Luna, why has no one ever heard of you? Why would you be living all alone in this deserted dump?"

She wasn't wrong. I didn't carry Ethan's scent—because I had never allowed him to mark me. Without a mating mark, there was no scent, and no proof that I belonged to him.

Catherine snorted, turning back to her guards with a wave of her hand.

"Keep stripping her! Don't leave a single scrap!"

The guards didn't hesitate, tearing into my clothes with renewed brutality.

None of them realized that the reason this land was so deserted was because it was the sacred core territory of the Silvermoon Pack. No one was allowed to set foot here without the Alpha's express permission.

There used to be guards and maids, but Ethan had dismissed every single one of them out of pure, irrational jealousy.

He never announced my identity to the outside world because he couldn't stand the thought of anyone else looking at me.

Even hearing people talk about me felt like a violation to him.

I never imagined that his sick obsession would become the very reason they thought I was lying.

Seeing my clothes ripped to shreds, panic seized me. I screamed again:

"I really am the Luna! If you don't believe me, mind-link Ethan right now!"

Instead of stopping, they became even more vicious.

They shredded my remaining clothes while taking turns slapping me across the face.

"Fucking liar! Still trying to pull this crap? Let's beat some sense into you!"

My face swelled up rapidly, burning hot and covered in bruises. The healing cells under my skin struggled to repair the damage, but each fresh blow tore the tissue open again.

My hair was a wild, tangled mess, and my clothes were completely ruined, leaving me exposed and shivering on the dirt.

Catherine's eyes narrowed dangerously as she looked down at me.

"Her hair is in the way. It's hiding too much of her pathetic body."

A sinister grin spread across her lips. She pulled a lighter from her pocket—filled not with regular lighter fluid, but with liquid laced with silver dust.

Without warning, she set my hair on fire.

The silver-laced flames erupted across my scalp in an instant, engulfing me in blinding, agonizing heat. The silver scorched deep into my flesh, multiplying the pain and completely paralyzing my body's ability to heal. The burns tore deeper and deeper into my skin.

I screamed in pure agony, trying frantically to pat out the fire, but rough hands pinned my wrists firmly to the ground.

Within moments, every strand of my hair was burned away.

My scalp was charred black and cracked open, weeping tiny beads of blood that shimmered with a sickly silver sheen.

Catherine threw her head back and laughed in triumph.

"Hahaha! Look at you now, you bald, hideous freak! Let's see you try to seduce my Alpha looking like that!"

Her friends clapped and laughed along with her.

I glared at them with everything I had left, my entire body trembling as I rasped:

"You... will regret this!"