Was it simply because I’d spent four years in the countryside?
In the middle of the night, I awoke in a panic.
My wolf was in agony, whimpering in my mind, “I… I think I’m dying.”
I stroked my chest gently and whispered back to her, attempting to remain calm.
I knew she’d breathed in too much silver dust.
She was fading, and so was I.
Suddenly, I missed my grandmother.
The only person in the family who had ever truly loved me.
She was kind… warm… and will always be there.
But she died years ago.
And with her, the final thread of love in my world snapped.
In the pitch-black den, with no food or water, and the wind howling through the cracks like ghosts,
I clenched my fists in a silent rage.
Arthur just reached out to me via a mind-link.
“Liora… our parents still care about you,” he added gently.
“They asked Vivienne to bring you some medicine for your head injury. She even made a sandwich herself.”
“She’s been trying to be kind to you… so could you stop making trouble for her?”
I nearly laughed. Kind?
Half an hour later, Vivienne arrived at the makeshift den.
As I reached for the sandwich she was holding, she suddenly dropped it on the ground.
Then she crushed it under her heel, grinding it into crumbs.
Her sweet smile turned cruelly.
“Liora, did you really think I came here to give you food and medicine?”
“Oops-my bad! The medicine? I threw it away on the way here.”
She spoke those words with a completely different expression than before.
Her face was twisted with jealousy and venom, and her tone was full of hatred.
“Did you see the news?” she scoffed.
“The werewolf councillor who used to support you—she’s been stripped of her position.”
“Mom and Dad know about it too. They’re furious because of what you did.”
Hearing her gloating voice, I couldn’t hold back my rage.
“Why did you do that, Vivienne?!”
She did not hesitate. Her smile turned into a vicious grimace.
“Because I HATE YOU!” she screamed.
“You bastard she-wolf! You’re nothing but a cursed troublemaker! It was all your fault that the councillor lost her job-you LIED to her!”
“Who do you even think you are?! Just a dying mutt corroded by silver dust! And now you want to cry and let the entire pack know you’re ‘going to die’? What a joke!”
“You think Mom and Dad will believe you?” she asked, laughing cruelly.
“Don’t kid yourself.”
Vivienne’s eyes gleamed like a predator, and her body coiled like a snake about to strike.
“If you’re really going to die… why don’t you just get it over with and disappear already?”
“Get out of our den and don’t ever come back to ruin this family again! You’re nothing but a cursed, unlucky she-wolf!”
I stared at the fury on her face, but my heart was as calm as a still lake.
“Vivienne,” I asked, my voice low and bitter, “why do you keep hurting me… when I have never done anything to hurt you?”
She laughed coldly, sharply, and with mockery.
“Hurt you?” she scoffed. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the luxury of kindness. I’ve only ever had one choice: to grab every chance I could to survive.”
“You’re their real daughter. I’m not. I was taken in like a stray mutt. If I don’t fight to be loved, to be needed, I’ll be thrown out like garbage again. I won’t go back to being a nobody… an orphan!”
