Chapter 3

Seraphina's POV

The echoes of the Moon Gathering still lingered in the air, but the hunting horns had already pierced the night. According to tradition, the newly appointed Alpha must lead the pack on his first hunt, cementing his authority through prey and strength.

I should have stayed at camp. As an unacknowledged mate and a healer with limited fighting skills, my place should have been beside the herb piles and the wounded, not among that wild and powerful hunting party.

But I couldn't bear to stay alone in that cold cave, where last night's cruel words still hung in the air. I needed to breathe, to move, to fill myself with some "useful task" so my pierced heart wouldn't stop beating too soon. I secured the leather pouch containing styptic herbs and pain-relieving salve, and silently followed at the very back of the hunting party.

Lucian stood at the front of the group, sunlight outlining his tall, austere figure. Hunting leather armor wrapped his muscular chest, his deep gray fur seemingly absorbing all light, leaving only authority and distance. His briefing was short and powerful, his amber gaze sweeping over everyone, passing over me as coldly as if I were merely a stone.

Mira stood right beside him, her fire-red fur like a dancing flame, painfully eye-catching. She was speaking softly with Lucian, her fingers moving swiftly across the map, her manner intimate and natural. She glanced back at me, and that fleeting curve at the corner of her mouth was like a poisoned ice needle.

We ventured deep into Moonlight Forest. Ancient trees towered overhead, shadows layered upon shadows, broken silver light filtering through the canopy. The air was thick with the scent of soil, decaying leaves, and lingering prey. I tried to focus on my duties as a healer—searching for useful herbs among the bushes.

A rare patch of silver-leaf grass caught my attention. It worked wonders for lacerations, and the hunting party would inevitably suffer such wounds. I glanced toward the direction the main group was heading, hesitated for a moment, then quietly informed an older werewolf nearby before slipping away from the group, heading toward a small valley I remembered.

I thought no one would notice my brief departure.

I was wrong.

Just as I crouched at the edge of the ravine, carefully digging up the silver-leaf grass roots, hurried footsteps and that hauntingly familiar scent came from behind.

I turned around, my heart sinking.

Lucian, Mira, and several elite warriors were rushing this way. Mira's voice carried a hint of deliberate excitement: "Lucian, I'm certain—I caught the scent of a night panther, right down there! If we could capture it..."

Her words were cut short by an exaggerated cry of surprise. The rock beneath her feet "conveniently" loosened, and she lunged toward me, her ice-cold fingers gripping my wrist like iron tongs!

"Ah—!"

A powerful pull sent us both off balance, tumbling down the steep slope. Ice-cold river water instantly engulfed my mouth and nose, the biting chill piercing my skin like countless needles. The rushing current swept us along, making it impossible to stand.

"Lucian! Help! The water's so cold! My leg... I can't move my leg!" Mira's desperate cries rang out immediately, sounding helpless and despairing. She thrashed violently in the water, as if she might sink at any moment, each struggle deliberately taking her further from me while "fragility" was performed to perfection.

I clenched my teeth, the freezing river water burning my throat. I desperately sought underwater rocks with my feet, trying to steady myself, my fingers frantically scratching at the slippery rock face. I looked up toward the top of the ravine.

Lucian appeared at the edge, his expression hard as iron in the sunlight.

"Lucian!" I called out, but my voice was drowned by the water and Mira's cries.

His gaze quickly swept between us.

Mira's performance was flawless, her danger looking so real, so urgent.

And I was just silently, desperately fighting the current, looking like I could "hold on" a bit longer.

His decision came with barely a hesitation.

He slid down the steep slope, gracefully plunging into the water, the current seemingly offering no resistance. He headed straight for Mira, his powerful arms scooping her from the water in one motion.

Mira immediately clung to him like a vine, burying her wet face in the crook of his neck, whimpering: "Lucian... I knew you would save me..."

He held her, turning to climb back to shore. He didn't even look back at me, just threw a cold Alpha command:

"Seraphina! Hold on! I'll come back for you right away!"

In that moment, all the world's sounds seemed to vanish. Only the cold roar of the river remained, and the sound of my heart being completely crushed.

I watched him embrace another female with a protector's posture, watched that female cast a glance of triumph from his arms. And he had only told me to "hold on."

Huh.

My fingers clinging to the rock were already numb from the cold, yet nothing compared to the chill in my heart.

Just as Lucian struggled to lift Mira to shore and prepared to climb up himself, a slightly mocking voice unexpectedly broke the frozen atmosphere from above:

"Wow, looks like I missed the most exciting part? Lucian, your hunting day is certainly thrilling."

I looked up.

A young, handsome face that bordered on otherworldly appeared at the edge of the ravine. Short, slightly curly hair with several unruly strands falling across his forehead, and a pair of gray eyes similar to Lucian's yet utterly different, surveying the chaos below with interest. His lips held a carefree smile, the obsidian earring on his cartilage gleaming darkly in the moonlight.

Ethan. Lucian's half-brother, the most willful and arrogant free spirit in the Blackmane Pack. He always lingered at the pack's edges, yet was somehow everywhere.

Lucian paused, brows furrowed: "Ethan? What are you doing here?"

"The forest is huge. Is hunting restricted to Alphas only?" Ethan chuckled lightly, but his gaze moved past Lucian, landing precisely on me still struggling in the icy river.

His smile faded, eyebrow slightly raised.

"Seems like," he drawled, his voice not loud but clearly cutting through the sound of water, "someone needs a hand?"

His gaze never left me, that look containing no pity, no judgment, only pure curiosity and a hint of... indescribable interest.

Lucian finally climbed ashore and, hearing this, suddenly looked back at me, as if only now truly realizing I was still in the water.

But before Lucian or anyone else could act, Ethan had already slid down smoothly. Unlike Lucian, he didn't plunge directly into the water, but stepped across several protruding rocks, his movements elegant and agile, approaching me like a black panther, then extending a hand.

His palm was dry and warm, completely at odds with this cold desperation.

"Come on, Seraphina," his lips curled into that playful smile again. "It's not comfortable down there."

I looked at his outstretched hand, then at Lucian on the shore with his ashen face, and Mira in his arms, seemingly weak yet with sharp eyes.

The freezing river water seemed to have numbed my heart and mind.

I didn't take Ethan's hand.

Instead, using my last bit of strength, I clung to the rocks and climbed ashore myself, staggering and dripping. Cold water constantly fell from my body, and I shivered in the night wind, yet still straightened my spine.

I ignored Lucian's hesitant expression, ignored Mira's feigned concern, and also ignored Ethan's hand that hung in the air before slowly withdrawing.

I didn't even pick up the scattered, soaked silver-leaf grass.

I just turned around and walked toward the camp, step by step, silent and stiff. Each step felt like treading on broken ice.

Ethan's voice, with a barely detectable hint of amusement, lazily floated from behind, as if concluding this farce:

" Seems like the hero-saves-damsel routine doesn't always work, right, Lucian?"