Three Brothers and Mate’s Regret After I Left

At the full-moon celebration for Leah Rosen, the family's adopted daughter, my three brothers chained me to the judgment pillar in the pack square. My fiancé, Kyle Mercer, drew a silver blade and plunged it into my chest himself, collecting a smal l cup of heart's blood to feed the moon moth larva Leah had bought on the black market. The larva, which had been stiff and lifeless, drank its fill of blood, and its translucent wings began to flutter. "It's alive. You win again, Leah." Leah threw herself into his arms, "You lost, Kyle. "I'll take Leah into town first. I've already sent someone to brew a clotting draught. I'll be right back." I tried to call out to him, but my eldest brother Darian stepped on my ankle. Darian was the war chief of Silver Ridge Pack, second in strength only to our father. He pressed down just slightly, and I heard a dull pop as the bones shifted out of place. "We didn't bring you back to Silver Ridge so you could compete with Leah." He looked down at me. "Know your place." My second brother, Victor, stood before the elders' dais, still draped in the black ceremonial robe of the pack council. "Wipe that pitiful look off your face. If you embarrass us in front of tonight's guests one more time, I'll strip your clan marks myself and dump you on the northern slope with the rogues." My third brother Ryan toyed with the silver claws at his waist, "You should be grateful Leah finds you entertaining. Stay put, or I'll cripple your other foot too." Kyle was the youngest healer in Moon Valley and one of the few in the North who could repair injuries to a wolf spirit. But this time, Kyle was in such a hurry to accompany Leah to Redstone that he didn't even double-check the prescription. When the attendant brought in the medicine, the System's cold voice echoed in my mind. [Warning: Ingesting this medicine will cause irreversible wolf core failure. Upon the host's death, return to the original world will be initiated. Proceed?] "Give it to me." Chapter 1 I didn't hesitate for a second. I tilted my head back and drank every last drop. [Wolfsbane has entered the bloodstream. Self-healing permanently disabled. Countdown to death: seven days.] It was late at night by the time Kyle returned. The attendants had unchained me from the judgment pillar and dumped me back in the bedroom tucked into the farthest corner of the main house. The wounds from the silver chains were still seeping blood, and my chest felt as though something were slowly tearing it apart from the inside. The door swung open, and Kyle walked in with the cold of the snow clinging to him. He had changed into a brand-new dark gray overcoat, its collar carrying the distinctive fir fragrance sold at Redstone's spice shop. Leah loved the scent. He used to find it too sweet, but now he had grown used to wearing it. He walked to the bedside and set a paper box on the table. "Honey berry pie from Redstone. It's your birthday too, after all." He glanced at the blood-soaked gauze on my chest, and a faint crease appeared between his brows. "Leah just wanted to see if the moon moth could be revived. She's never known hardship, and it's rare for her to take an interest in something. I didn't see the need to spoil it for her." Kyle sat down, pressing his fingertips to my wrist and his palm to my chest to feel the pulse of my wolf spirit. The System concealed the signs of my wolf core's deterioration, so all he sensed was chaotic energy. "The blade went half an inch too deep. That was my mistake. But your bloodline is stronger than an ordinary werewolf's. A wound like this won't kill you." His tone was calm, as though he were stating a fact that could never be wrong. Kyle and I had grown up together. Two years ago, the Rosen family identified me as Erin Rosen, the biological daughter they had lost during a hunter attack, and brought me home to Silver Ridge from a border town. By then, Leah had already been the pampered adopted daughter of the Alpha's household for sixteen years. The night I first arrived, everyone eyed me with suspicion and hostility. Kyle was the only one who stood in front of me. He said, "Erin, as long as I'm here, no one will ever shame you for where you came from. Anyone who lays a hand on you will never grow their claws back." To stay with me in Silver Ridge, he had given up his position as heir of Moon Valley. But eventually, he fell in love with Leah, who was fragile, tearful, and always in need of someone's protection. To keep her happy, I became the only patient Kyle had ever willingly harmed. Time after time, he watched others break me, and time after time, he put me back together. "The pie won't taste as good once it's cold." Kyle opened the box and pushed the still-warm berry pie toward me. "That shop in Redstone only makes ten a day. I waited in line for two hours." Kyle had never been one to lie. Leah had eaten a three-tier cake prepared by the household cook that night. He really had bought the pie for me alone. Some part of him still cared about me. He simply believed that I would never leave, and that I could never truly die. I didn't touch the pie. I just looked at him and asked, "Kyle, what if I died?" His expression darkened instantly. "How could you possibly die with me around?" A flicker of panic crossed his eyes, quickly smothered by irritation. "What are you making a fuss about now? Didn't you always love studying insects? Leah just borrowed a little of your blood. It's not like she was trying to kill you." I looked at that familiar face and suddenly felt nothing but weariness. Yes, I liked insects. But I didn't like being chained to a judgment pillar in silver shackles, and I certainly didn't like my fiancé slicing open my chest just to settle one of Leah's casual bets. Leah had been leaning against his shoulder, laughing as she said, "I bet her blood runs hotter than an ordinary werewolf's. It'll definitely bring the dead moon moth back to life." And so he had actually stabbed me. The searing pain in my chest suddenly intensified. I couldn't hold back the metallic sweetness rising in my throat any longer, and I doubled over and coughed up a mouthful of black blood. The foul-smelling blood splattered across the still-steaming berry pie. Kyle's pupils contracted sharply, and when he reached out to steady me, his fingertips were visibly trembling. "Erin, why is your blood black? Did the silver blade damage the vessels around your heart?" He immediately opened his medical case and rummaged for moonstone needles that could stabilize the wolf core. "Don't move. Let me seal the vessels around your heart first. Hold on. You'll be fine." Just then, a maid's frantic voice came from outside the door. "Kyle, something's wrong! Leah had a nightmare, and her wolf spirit is out of control. She keeps calling your name!" Kyle's hand froze in midair. He looked at my ashen face, then toward the door, his expression torn. "Leah can't breathe!" the maid urged again. "She says her chest hurts terribly, and she won't let anyone near her!" Kyle clenched his jaw, then put the needle case away. "You just took the medicine I prescribed. Purging the silver toxin from your body is normal." He seemed to be convincing me as much as himself. "Let me stabilize Leah's wolf spirit first. I'll be right back." He turned and strode out. The moment the door closed, the System spoke again. [Countdown to death: six days, twenty-three hours.] I watched him disappear through the door and slowly closed my eyes. Chapter 2 I had just leaned back against the cold headboard when the door swung open again. Leah walked in wearing a snow-white wolf-fur cloak, the blue moonstone hairpin Kyle had just bought her pinned in her hair. She shut the door, and the weakness and fear vanished from her face in an instant. "Disappointed?" She covered her mouth and laughed softly, her eyes full of a winner's triumph. "Kyle is in my kitchen right now, brewing my calming tea himself. He won't be back for at least half an hour. His own words: he doesn't trust me to drink anything someone else has touched." Her gaze swept to the table, and her smile faded. "Berry pie from Redstone? He bought that for you?" I didn't answer. Leah stared at the box, barely able to contain her jealousy. The next second, she grabbed it and flung it to the floor, plate and all. The ceramic shattered, and scalding berry jam splashed across the top of my foot. Before, a burn like this would have healed in moments. But the wolfsbane had shut down my healing, and the skin immediately blistered and swelled, burning with pain. Leah looked down at me, her voice light and vicious. "A bastard raised in a border-town dump thinks she deserves something Kyle stood in line to buy?" I leaned against the headboard and said nothing. What she hated most wasn't my defiance, but my refusal to cry and beg like I used to. Leah's lips curved into a smirk. "Want to bet? All I have to do is cry out in pain, and my brothers will burst in here and break every bone you have left." The words had barely left her mouth before she deliberately fell backward. "No! Erin, don't push me!" She fell into the broken ceramic shards, opening a shallow cut in her palm. Footsteps pounded across the courtyard. Darian was the first to burst through the door, scooping Leah up from the floor. "Leah!" Leah curled into his arms, sobbing and shaking, and pointed at me. "I just came to check on her wounds. But when she saw the hairpin Kyle bought me, she threw the plate at me and said I'd stolen everything from her." Victor arrived moments later. The instant he saw the blood on Leah's palm, his face went dark. He crossed the room in a few strides, grabbed me by the collar, dragged me off the bed, and slapped me hard across the face. My ears rang sharply, and my teeth cut the corner of my mouth. "Vile creature!" Victor glared at me with disgust. "Leah came to check on you out of kindness, and you dared to hurt her?" The wolfsbane had already spread through my organs, and the slap sent agony tearing through my chest, as though claws were ripping every organ apart at once. Ryan walked over and planted his foot on my right hand. As the pack's finest tracker, he had enough strength to snap an elk's neck. With the slightest twist of his boot, my finger bones cracked one after another. The pain shot straight to my heart, and darkness pulsed at the edges of my vision. "Slicing the tendons in your foot a few days ago clearly didn't teach you a thing." Ryan looked down at me, his voice stripped of all warmth. "Since this hand dared to touch Leah, you don't get to keep it." I swallowed blood and forced the words out. "She fell on her own." "And you still have the nerve to lie!" Darian handed Leah to a maid, seized me by the hair, and dragged me across the floor littered with broken ceramic. My ankle hadn't healed, and the motion wrenched the torn tendons and broken bones all over again. The pain nearly made me black out. "Kneel. Apologize to Leah." I braced myself against the floor and refused to bow. Darian gave a cold laugh and kicked the backs of my knees. I crashed down onto the shattered ceramic. Sharp fragments pierced through the fabric and into my flesh. Silver dust from the decorative plate seeped into the wounds, reactivating the wolfsbane that had gone dormant. Blood ran down my shins and spread in rivulets across the floor. "Bow," Victor ordered from beside me. "Forehead to the floor, again and again, until Leah decides to forgive you." Footsteps sounded outside the door again. Kyle stepped in carrying the calming draught, and his brow furrowed the moment he saw the scene. "What happened?" Leah threw herself at him with red-rimmed eyes, holding up the hand with nothing more than a faint scratch, and whimpered, "Kyle, my hand hurts so much." Kyle's expression changed instantly. He thrust the medicine bowl at a maid and grabbed Leah's hand to examine it. "How did this happen? Didn't I tell you to wait for me in your room?" He cleaned the cut with antiseptic, then took out the softest gauze and wrapped it layer by layer. Only after confirming the scratch wouldn't scar did he relax. Then, finally, he looked at me, kneeling among the broken shards. His gaze swept over my bleeding knees, twisted fingers, and ashen face, only to settle into irritation. "Erin, what did you do to upset Leah this time?" Chapter 3 There was no concern in his voice, only the same reproach I'd heard too many times. The pressure in my chest finally broke loose, and I retched up a pool of dark, almost black blood. Victor scoffed. "Playing dead again. She'll stoop to anything for sympathy. How long are you going to keep this up?" Kyle walked over and pressed his fingertips to my pulse, then sent his spiritual energy probing into my wolf spirit. The System was still masking the death creeping through me. He quickly withdrew his hand, his tone certain and cold. "You're overwrought, and it's destabilizing your wolf spirit. If you'd just give in to Leah, would you have to suffer like this?" He looked at me, a trace of contempt in his eyes, the kind that came from believing he had me all figured out. "Erin, the things you'll do to steal my attention from Leah keep getting uglier." Darian lifted Leah into his arms and turned to leave. "Kyle, this lunatic is your problem. Leah's been frightened. I'm taking her back to rest." Victor and Ryan followed them out. Soon, only Kyle and I remained. He crouched, looked at the blood still flowing from my knees, and took clotting powder from his medical case to sprinkle over the wounds. The powder hit the silver-laced wounds, and I shook with pain. Kyle sighed, and his tone softened slightly. "You don't have to do this to yourself every time just to make me feel sorry for you. I know you've had a difficult couple of days, but Leah grew up sheltered by the entire pack. She's timid and can't handle being upset. You survived on the border for years. You're stronger than she is. You can endure more. Why can't you give her a little more?" He plucked the ceramic shards from my knees and dabbed the blood from the corner of my mouth with clean gauze, his touch so gentle that he could almost have been the boy who once couldn't bear to see me hurt. "The position of Moon Valley's future Luna has always been yours. I promised to go through with the mating ceremony, and I won't go back on my word. So why do you insist on fighting with Leah?" I stared at him, almost certain I had misheard. But Kyle continued, "She only wanted a cup of your heart's blood. What would it cost you to go along with it once? You're always so stubborn. You just want me to spend more time with you, that's all." I turned my face away, pulling out of his reach. His hand hung in midair, clear exasperation on his face. "Still angry?" He tossed the bloodied gauze into a copper basin and offered, as though granting a favor, "You've always wanted to visit the old guardian at the Moon Goddess Sanctuary on North Mountain, haven't you? Tomorrow's a rest day. I'll skip my shift at the clinic and take you up the mountain myself." Kyle looked at me, seemingly certain I would be grateful for this small concession. "Just the two of us," he added. I tried to curve my cracked lips into a smile. "All right." One last visit to the man who had once saved me. That would be enough. When I agreed, Kyle's expression finally softened, and he even reached out to stroke my hair. "Good girl." The next morning, when I stepped out of my room, it felt as though countless insects were gnawing at my bones from the inside. With every step, cold seeped between my joints, and even breathing brought a tearing pain. A black snowcat waited in front of the main house. Kyle stood beside it, holding a heatstone in a leather case. When he saw me, he held it out. "Take this. The wind on North Mountain is brutal, and you can't afford to get any colder in your condition." I had just reached for it when Leah's personal maid came racing out in tears and stopped in front of Kyle. "Kyle, Leah's wolf spirit is flaring up again! Her chest hurts so badly that she's thrashing in bed and can barely breathe. She scratches anyone who gets close. Please, you have to come!" Kyle's face went white. His grip loosened, and the heatstone fell into the snow. He turned to rush into the main house, but after two steps, he seemed to remember me and stopped to look back. His eyes were frantic, but beneath the panic lay irritation that I was costing him time. "Erin, Leah's wolf spirit is failing. This can't wait. Stay here. I'll come back as soon as I've stabilized her." Without waiting for my answer, he rushed into the main house. I watched him hurry away without hesitation, and the taste of rust crept up my throat again. [Wolf core deterioration accelerating.] [Countdown shortened. Twelve hours remaining.] I didn't stay. I climbed into the snowcat alone and told the driver, "Take me to the North Mountain Sanctuary." The wheels rolled over the snow, and Silver Ridge Pack's main house slowly disappeared into the blizzard. Kyle thought I would stand there waiting for him to come back, the way I always had. But this time, I was done waiting. Chapter 4 The snowcat crawled along the mountain road. By the time we reached the Moon Goddess Sanctuary on North Mountain, it was already afternoon. There were no elaborate rituals here, only a stone house where traveling werewolves could rest and tend their wounds, and an ancient birch tree in the center of the square. Two years ago, when I first returned to Silver Ridge and everyone shunned me, the sanctuary's old guardian, Elias Ward, took me in. He treated the old wounds the hunters had left on me and taught me how to control the wolf inside me that refused to awaken. I slipped my final letter beneath the medicine chest he always used without alerting anyone. I had just passed through the corridor behind the stone house when Leah's familiar voice drifted from beneath the birch tree. "I feel terrible about what happened yesterday. Erin was kneeling on those broken shards, bleeding everywhere." Her voice was soft and remorseful, but her eyes betrayed a satisfaction she could barely contain. Yesterday's scene had gone too far, and some lower-ranking pack members had begun to whisper. Afraid of losing her reputation as the sweet, kindhearted sister, she had dragged all four men to the sanctuary to put on a show of praying for me. Leah cradled a moonstone amulet, her eyes rimmed with red. "I asked my brothers to shift and bring me here as fast as they could so I could pray for Erin's safety myself. Once she sees this, she'll understand how much I care and stop being angry with us." Victor sneered. "You're too kind. She tried to hurt you, and you're still praying for her. If she had half your sense, this family wouldn't be in constant turmoil." Ryan leaned against the tree, his tone mocking. "We should've left her to freeze on the mountain road for a few days. Once we grind down that ugly, stubborn temper, we can bring her back." Darian's face was grim. "As long as she behaves from now on and learns to make room for Leah, the Rosen family will give her everything she's owed, both status and resources." Kyle turned the moonstone amulet over in his hands, his expression still cold. "That temper of hers does need to be broken. She actually left without me this morning and came up the mountain alone. After the mating ceremony next full moon, I'll take her back to Moon Valley for a while. I'll close off every exit, cure her cold-moon sickness for good, and teach her how to be a proper mate." He sounded so certain, almost amused. "Erin's bloodline is incredibly strong. She's survived wolfsbane and silver wounds more times than I can count. That girl is too tough to die. She'll outlive every one of us. It's just that temper that needs reining in." At the words "outlive every one of us," Leah's grip on the amulet tightened. She had schemed endlessly to monopolize everyone's attention, but she knew perfectly well that no matter how harshly these four men spoke of me, deep down they all assumed I would stay by their side forever. They had even mapped out my entire future without asking. They had simply never asked whether any of it was what I wanted. Leah suddenly turned her head, pretending to have just noticed me behind a column at the end of the corridor. "Erin?" She gasped, tears clinging to her lashes, but the faintest smirk tugged at the corner of her lips. "What took you so long? Kyle was so worried my wolf spirit would flare up that he shifted and carried me all the way up here on his back. He's incredibly fast in wolf form. Of course you couldn't keep up." All four men turned at once. Relief flashed across Kyle's face when he saw me. Then he strode over and held out the moonstone amulet. "Haven't you caused enough trouble?" His tone was stern, with the condescending patience of a man granting mercy. "Leah was worried about your injuries and insisted we all come pray for your recovery. Take the amulet. Next full moon, you'll go through with the mating ceremony without any fuss. And I'll let this morning's stunt slide." The System's voice echoed in my mind. [Countdown to death: one minute.] Agony erupted deep in my bones and swept through my entire body. I looked into Kyle's eyes and pulled the wooden wolf fang from around my neck. He had carved it for me when we were twelve, a token of his promise. He had told me that when I came of age, he would leave his mate mark on me and claim no one else for the rest of his life. I tightened my grip. The wooden fang snapped in two. The snap was soft, barely audible. But Kyle's expression froze. The next instant, fury erupted from him. A crushing burst of power rolled outward, shaking loose the snow around us. "Erin, have you lost your mind? How dare you destroy our token!" Victor's face darkened as well. "Ungrateful wretch. Kyle has given you chance after chance, and you still won't stop. Fine. Leave her on North Mountain alone. No one is to help her!" I looked at Kyle's furious face and parted my lips, wanting to tell him I didn't need his chances anymore. But the thick, metallic sweetness surged up my throat first. I doubled over and vomited a mouthful of black blood. It splattered across Kyle's pristine gray overcoat with a sharp, rotten stench. [Countdown: ten seconds. Soul extraction initiating.] My legs gave out, and my body pitched forward. Kyle's pupils contracted sharply, and every trace of fury froze on his face. Instinctively, he reached out and caught me in his arms. "Why is the blood black?" His hands shook violently. He seized my wrist and forced his spiritual energy toward my heart. The System's concealment had lifted. Beneath his fingertips, there was no pulse. My wolf spirit had already begun to dissolve. The color slowly drained from Kyle's face. "Wolfsbane... Why is there so much wolfsbane in your body?" I looked at Kyle, fear twisting every feature, then at my three brothers, who were finally beginning to panic. With the last of my strength, I forced a smile. "Kyle... the prescription... was yours."