Scarlett’s POV

​I looked down at her hands gripping my arms, completely confused. My mind raced, trying to parse her words through the thick layer of suspicion that had been protecting my heart for years. How was I supposed to help her? What did she mean?

​"Scar, they will die," she begged, her grip tightening as she shook my arms. "Please help me."

​I frowned, my empathy instantly turning back into a cold, protective shield. I yanked my arms out of her tight grip, forcing her to take a step back.

​"There is nothing I can do, Ma’am Olivia," I said, my voice hardening. "I am not the Moon Goddess. I can’t just rewrite their fate on a whim. I have done enough. I have sacrificed five years of my life, my home, and my peace, and right now, I am not doing that again. I am done running, and I am done hiding."

​Olivia opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off, stepping firmly into her space.

​"Let’s just allow destiny to take its control," I said, looking down at her. "Believe in your sons. Believe in their brotherly bond. They are powerful Alphas, Ma’am Olivia. If you want this nightmare to end, you have to trust them to survive it. I can’t do anything else for you... unless you want to kill me."

​Olivia froze entirely. She shook her head violently, her eyes widening in absolute horror as if I had just struck her across the face. "Why would you think that?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "Why would you think I would want to kill you to end the prophecy?"

​"Because that is the only logical way to end the curse," I countered, my voice deadpan, my eyes tracking her every micro-expression. "And since you seem completely desperate to save them, it’s exactly what a desperate mother would do. You want the curse gone? You eliminate the source."

​Olivia stumbled backward, her hand flying to her chest as if she couldn’t breathe. "Is that how you see me? A monster? A monster that would murder an innocent girl just so my sons can be saved? Is that how bad I am to you, Scarlett?"

​I didn’t answer her. I just kept my gaze fixed on hers, my silence speaking volumes.

​"Scarlett, I would never want you dead," she pleaded, tears flowing freely down her face now. "Neither would my husbands, or your parents. Just as we love the triplets, we love you too. You are a child of this pack."

​Well, I found that incredibly hard to believe.

​As I watched her weep, a dark, heavy skepticism wrapped around my thoughts. I wanted so badly to scream the truth in her face—to let her know that she and her husbands were my prime suspects. Someone had been hunting me for three long years. Someone had hired highly trained, masked werewolves with military-grade weapons to storm a secure estate in Shanghai just to put a bullet through my chest. If it wasn’t the former Luna trying to scrub out the curse, then who the hell was it?

​But looking at the raw, shattered grief in her eyes, I couldn’t be entirely sure anymore. Either she was the greatest actress the werewolf world had ever seen, or she was completely innocent of the attacks.

​She took a ragged breath, wiping her cheeks with the back of her trembling hand, and looked up at me with a broken, hollow expression.

​"I know I forced you away, Scarlett," she whispered, her voice laced with deep regret. "I know I pressured you to use that witch’s spell and run. But I did it because I truly believed that separating you would keep everyone alive. I wanted you to live a long, happy life far away from the curse. I never wanted your blood on my hands. I swear it on the Goddess."

​She stepped closer again, no longer panicked, but completely deflated.

​"When I say I need your help, I don’t mean for you to sacrifice yourself again," Olivia said, her eyes practically searching my soul. "I mean we need to look at the prophecy together. There must be something I am missing in my visions. A hidden detail, a clause, a choice we haven’t made yet. If the fated bond is still completely active after all this time, then the Moon Goddess put it there for a reason. Please, Scarlett. For the safety of the pack, and for the lives of the boys... help me find a different way out."

​The weight of her words felt heavy in the room, but I couldn’t let myself soften. I had spent too many years on the run, always looking over my shoulder, to drop my guard just because of a few tears. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

​"There is nothing I can do," I said, my voice dropping into a quiet, firm whisper. "Please excuse me."

​Before she could say another word or try to grab my arms again, I turned around and walked straight into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind me. I didn’t lock it, but the boundary was clear.

​I leaned heavily against the edge of the marble sink, my hands shaking slightly as the reality of being back in the Full Moon Pack territory truly began to sink in. Turning on the tap, I scooped cold water into my hands and splashed it onto my face. The icy shock was exactly what I needed. It dragged me right out of my spinning thoughts about prophecies, fake marriages, and hidden killers.

​I grabbed a towel, patting my skin dry while staring at my face in the mirror. My eyes looked tired, but beneath the fatigue, there was a hard, confident look. I am not the same girl, I reminded myself, gripping the edges of the sink. They can’t break me this time.

​I stood there for a few minutes, taking slow, deep breaths, filling my lungs with the crisp mountain air that seeped through the vents. I forced my heartbeat to slow down, calming my inner wolf until she stopped pacing wildly in the back of my mind. We needed to be smart. We needed to stay alert.

​Once I felt completely calm and back in control of my emotions, I tossed the towel aside. It was time to face whatever came next.

​I pushed the bathroom door open and stepped back into the guest room.

​Ma’am Olivia was gone. The heavy, sad energy she had left behind had completely vanished, but the air in the room hadn’t cleared. In fact, it had grown much more hostile.

​Standing in the center of my room, lined up close together, were three women.

​My breath caught in my throat for a split second before my face turned to stone. I didn’t need a formal introduction to know exactly who they were. The thick, angry scents rolling off them told me everything.

​The three wives of the triplets were standing in my room.