Moon Judgement, Forever Loyalty

The Soul Vision Device projection screen lit up in the center of the square. My memories began to tear away from my mind and display for everyone to see.

The werewolves below roared with fury. They hurled burning branches and sharp stones at me.

"Traitor lone wolf! Go to hell, scum!"

Flames grazed my arm. My skin turned black and charred instantly. But I didn't move. I couldn't move.

The first memory flickered onto the massive screen. Three days after Sophia's death.

I was being dragged by Black Wolf Guards to the village bonfire platform. The pack members spat at me. They threw silver daggers. Claws raked across my face, blood streaming down my cheeks.

"Tell us the killer's name!"

"You protecting bastard!"

I broke free from their grip. I ran desperately toward my stone cave. When I looked back, everything was in ruins. Flames had devoured the moonstone altar. The wolf-skin blanket Sophia gave me was burning to ash.

With nowhere left to go, I fled into the snowy mountains with Fenrir.

But the pack followed us.

They surrounded us in the white wilderness. Right in front of me, they used silver blades to slice off pieces of Fenrir's flesh. Strip by strip.

He never cried out. Even with his last breath, he was still trying to protect me.

The snow turned crimson with his blood.

I held his broken body and cried until my throat bled. I was only sixteen years old. No parents. No family. No pack.

Damien's cold laugh echoed from the platform. "You deserved it! If you hadn't protected the bastard who defiled purebloods, would you have suffered this punishment?"

The crowd agreed loudly. "She still wants sympathy? Sophia had it much worse!" "Lone wolves are all heartless!"

Suddenly, a clear wolf howl rang out from the screen:

"Lina! Let's race and see who runs faster!"

The scene changed. Sophia was laughing as she ran toward me through the snow.

Moonlight shone on her pure white fur like flowing silver. She wagged her tail and looked back at me. "Hurry up, little sister!"

Little Aiden threw himself at the screen. His small hands pressed against his mother's image.

"Mama... Mama..."

He collapsed instantly. Wailing with heartbreak.

For five years, he had asked the village elders every single day: "Did you catch the killer?"

The answer was always silence.

Grell village was remote and isolated. We had no magical surveillance. My stone cave was far from others. No one knew who had followed Sophia that day.

Only I knew the truth of what happened.

The memory continued playing.

After our playful time in the snow, the screen flickered again.

I was standing outside my cave. In my hand was a small jar of evening primrose honey balm.

A gift from Sophia.

She had once told me: "I gathered this in the Spinal Ridge Mountains. I almost got captured by eagle-shifters."

"I made it specially for you, Lina."

The next second, I turned around and threw the jar into a mountain crevice.

The watching wolves exploded with rage.

"She actually threw away the balm Sophia risked her life to make!"

"That purebred wolf risked everything for that medicine, and she won't even look at it!"

"So fake!"

"Sophia loved her so much, but she's completely heartless!"

"Lone wolves really have no family bonds!"

Torches rose higher. The angry roars shook the earth.

Damien stood in front of me without saying a word.

Of course he knew why I had thrown away that jar.

He remembered clearly. Our foster mother had once held his hand and said: "Lina will suffocate if she touches evening primrose. You must protect her."

That time I accidentally ate the flower petals, my lips turned purple. I stopped breathing three times.

It was Damien who rushed into the blizzard in the middle of the night. He searched three entire mountains to find the antidote.

When he carried me back to the village, his knees were frozen raw. Blood seeped into the snow.

But now, he said nothing.

He let the wolves curse me.