After I died, Alpha went mad.

Everyone in the Shadowfang Pack knew that Alpha Kael was fiercely devoted to his Luna.

To save me, he had sacrificed his own soul to shadow magic.

He had endured the agony of being flayed alive, just to keep me breathing.

He had torn open his own heart, feeding me his blood, just so we could be together.

For three hundred years, I firmly believed I was his Luna, his other half.

But now, I was looking right at him. Kael, my Kael, thrusting his hips forward in a violent, primal rhythm, pinning a woman against the mattress.

A bell hung around her ankle, chiming with his every movement.

It was Lyra. My handmaiden.

Her magic-laced voice slithered into my mind via the mind-link. "Does it hurt, Luna? The Bell of Severance only rings when I feel... pleasure. And with every chime, your soul shatters a little more."

Kael kissed her passionately. "Make it ring louder. I want to hear it."

Chapter 1

"Luna Elara, are you certain?" The voice echoed through the dark, boundless caverns of the Underworld.

The Underworld wasn't a place of fire and brimstone; it was a realm of absolute silence, thrumming with ancient power.

The Arbiter, a being forged entirely of shadows with eyes like starlight, watched me in serene stillness.

"This soul pact is irreversible. In seven days, your soul will dissipate, fading into nothingness. The one who signs this contract shall never see reincarnation."

I stepped forward, my bare feet making no sound against the obsidian floor.

Without a shred of hesitation, I picked up the quill made of solidified moonlight. It drew not ink, but my own soul, pulling a shimmering thread of silver energy from within me.

I pressed my palm against the freezing altar stone, sealing the contract with a single drop of my blood.

According to ancient laws, once a soul was offered, its complete reflection should appear on the smooth surface of the altar stone.

But when I looked down, I only saw a fractured, broken orb of light.

The Arbiter's form flickered, a ripple of shock passing through his shadowy body. "You... you are..."

I knew why he was so surprised. Because he recognized who I was.

The entire werewolf world knew the story.

I was the Luna with the shattered soul. When Kael pulled me back to the living world from the brink of death, a part of me—a crucial, vital part—was left behind in the dark.

I left the Underworld and walked back through the village nestled at the foot of our fortress.

I could hear the excited whispers of the local girls.

"Is the Alpha getting married?" a young she-wolf asked an elder.

"Silly child," the old woman chuckled softly. "The Alpha has been mated for three hundred years. He is utterly devoted to his Luna. Why would he marry anyone else?"

"I heard it's a surprise," another chimed in, her tone filled with romantic awe. "He's prepared the Moonrise Chamber for her, decorating