When the enforcer's voice came through the pack link, I listened even though I couldn't speak.
My spirit hovered in the corner of Julian's office, watching him. Cold. Composed. The Alpha mask firmly in place.
Would he feel anything when he heard I was gone? Even a flicker of pain through the bond that had once burned between us?
Would he grieve?
We had shared over twenty years of life together. Childhood hunts under the moon, whispered promises beside the training grounds, the first spark of the bond that flared the night I turned eighteen. I had thought it was love real, unbreakable. But maybe that had only been me.
Julian's expression was unreadable, his wolf scent muted, cold the way Alphas often got when they shut their hearts behind dominance and duty.
"It's just a gown?" he asked, voice low but emotionless.
The enforcer on the other end of the line hesitated. "Yes, Alpha. But it was found near the river's edge. There's… blood in the water. It's possible Luna Elena was attacked."
"I don't care who reported it," Julian cut in sharply, his tone commanding enough to make the warrior on the other end flinch through the link. "I know Elena. She's not the type to take her own life. She's done this before creating chaos, seeking attention. Don't waste pack resources chasing her games."
The enforcer went silent. Then, quietly, "Understood, Alpha."
Julian ended the connection before another word could be said.
I wanted to laugh a cruel, broken sound that never left my ghostly lips. Even with blood in the river and my scent fading into the earth, he still thought I was playing.
Still thought I was alive.
Still thought I'd come crawling back.
But I wasn't coming back. Because I was dead.
And the Moon Goddess, in her twisted sense of humor, had trapped me inside this void.
Camilla's pulse quickened as she approached Julian. Her scent sweet and deceitful curled around him. She draped herself over his shoulders, pressing close. "Julian… what if something really happened to Elena?" she murmured, her voice soft with fake concern.
He frowned, rubbing the back of his neck. "She did sound strange yesterday," he muttered. "Like she was… tired. Or crying."
Camilla's expression flickered for half a heartbeat guilt, or maybe amusement before she masked it again. "It might've been because I tried on her ceremonial dress," she said lightly. "Maybe she got upset and threw it into the river."
She lowered her gaze, voice trembling like fragile glass. "I've done everything to stay out of your way, Julian. I've buried my feelings for you, let you have her. Isn't that enough?"
Her tone was soaked in practiced innocence, but every word clawed at me like silver.
"The gown was designed with me in mind anyway," she added softly, tracing her fingers along Julian's chest. "The fabric, the cut, the colors it all matched my aura. Why should she be angry that I tried it on? It's childish. And now it's a pack matter? She's embarrassing your name, Julian."
I could feel his irritation rising, his wolf stirring beneath his skin. Slowly, that faint worry in his eyes dissolved, replaced by the same contempt I had seen so many times before.
And the ache in my chest deepened.
One week ago, I'd gone to the Luna seamstress for my final fitting the gown woven from moon-thread and blessed wolf silk. I'd walked in to find Camilla standing in front of the mirror wearing it. Not just wearing it altering it. Shortening the hem, reshaping the neckline, changing the silver hue to soft lilac. She looked at me like I was intruding on something that was hers.
When I demanded she take it off, she pouted, pretending to be hurt. "It's just a dress," everyone said. "Let her try it on."
Just a dress.
That night, she clung to Julian, laughing softly while I stood there the supposed Luna feeling like an outsider at my own bonding ceremony.
I knew then that my pack, my family, never saw me the way they saw her. Not since that day by the river.
We had been five years old. Camilla had fallen into the current during a storm. I dove in after her, but the rocks struck my head, and I lost consciousness. When I woke, I was wrapped in furs by the Alpha himself. I lived. But Camilla… was gone.
Vanished.
No scent trail. No remains. No howl of farewell.
Years later, she returned quiet, timid, scarred. And somehow, every wolf pitied her. Even Julian. Especially Julian.
At first, he didn't like her. He said she smelled of deceit. That something in her eyes didn't match the innocent tone of her voice.
But all that changed three years ago the night of our official bond ceremony.
Camilla dropped to her knees in front of me, clutching the hem of my ceremonial robe, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Elena," she cried, loud enough for the whole pack to hear, "why did you push me into the river?"
The air froze. My wolf howled in confusion.
I stood there, speechless, every eye in the room turning toward me. I had no memory of hurting her. None. But she shook and sobbed like a broken pup, and her scent carefully crafted carried genuine sorrow.
And the crowd believed her. My pack believed her.
Even Julian… began to believe her.
"Elena, I swear I'll be good from now on. I won't fight you for dominance anymore. Please… please stop hurting me. I miss Mom, Dad, and Nolan so much. I just want to come home to the pack."
Camilla's trembling voice cracked with just the right amount of pain, her scent laced with sorrow but beneath it, I caught the faintest trace of deceit. Her silver eyes shimmered, full of vulnerability so perfect it felt rehearsed. And yet… every wolf in the Silvercrest Hall believed her.
Before I could defend myself, my father's palm collided with my cheek.
The sound echoed across the Moon Gala, louder than the drums and the laughter that had once filled the night.
"I never imagined my own daughter could sink this low," Alpha Morrigan growled, his aura flaring with fury. His golden eyes burned through me. "Camilla was only a pup five years old and you tried to drown her?"
"No!" I choked out, reeling from the hit. "That's not what happened! I didn't push her! I didn't "
"She's your blood, Elena!" he roared. "Why would she make up something like this?"
My mother Luna Morrigan wrapped her arms around Camilla, shielding her as if I were a rogue intruder, not her daughter. "My poor girl," she sobbed into Camilla's shoulder. "All those years you were missing… the pain you must've suffered…"
My heart twisted. Yes, Camilla was my sister. But why did it feel like she'd come back only to destroy me?
The engagement celebration had turned into a nightmare. Instead of rejoicing over the bond ceremony between me and Julian Hale the future Alpha of the Hales I stood accused, humiliated before both our packs. My wolf howled inside me, caged by disbelief and heartbreak.
I cried, begged, tried to speak but no one listened.
My voice broke. My scent was heavy with grief and confusion, but they turned away as though my pain was nothing but noise.
Even Elder James Julian's father, the Alpha before him avoided my gaze. His eyes were full of quiet pity, the kind that hurt worse than hatred. "Take her inside," he told his son. "She's not herself. Let her calm down."
He couldn't even look at me. His silence was its own judgment.
Desperate, I clung to Julian's hand. The man who had once sworn that our bond was sacred that the Moon herself had chosen us. His hand was warm, but his energy… cold. He pulled me gently into his arms, whispering, "I believe you. Of course I do. You're the kindest wolf I've ever known."
But his eyes betrayed him. They were distant. Guarded.
His wolf didn't reach for mine.
He didn't even scent me to calm me.
That was the night everything inside me began to die.
Now, I watched that same moment from the quiet stillness of death itself. My body was gone torn from this realm but my soul hadn't moved on. My bond to Julian kept me tethered.
I could see.
I could feel.
But I couldn't speak. Couldn't move.
I was trapped inside someone else someone close to him. Every step he took, I followed, dragged by the invisible thread of our bond that refused to break, even after death.
Camilla sat before the vanity in my clothes. My scent clung faintly to the fabric, but hers was spreading fast sweet, invasive, wrong. She picked up my brow pencil and handed it to Julian with a smirk. "Can you do my brows for me?" she asked, voice soft and teasing.
And he did. As if it were normal. As if she were his Luna now.
Rage clawed through my ghostly form, sharp and wild. My wolf's spirit thrashed inside me, howling soundlessly.
Julian's eyes flickered toward the framed photo on the dresser our mating ceremony portrait. For a heartbeat, something in him faltered. His wolf stirred, restless, sensing the wrongness.
"Camilla," he said quietly, "we agreed last night. Things go back to how they were before."
She lowered her head, feigning guilt. "I know. I won't bother you or Elena anymore."
He pulled out his phone and called me. Again.
Of course, there was no answer.
If only he'd followed my scent instead of logic. He would've found my body by now cold, lifeless, lying at the river's edge where the bond had finally snapped. But he didn't.
He sighed, pocketed his phone, and muttered, "She's gotten too used to being spoiled."
Camilla giggled softly. "She's good at playing games, isn't she? Maybe she's already back at the Hale estate, ignoring you just to make you worry."
Julian's jaw tightened. His Alpha aura shifted sharp, cold, commanding. "We're going back today," he said. "It's tradition to visit the Elders after the bonding ceremony. She'll be there. She wouldn't dare miss it."
He shrugged on his jacket, already moving toward the door.
And me?
I followed. Not by choice but because my spirit was bound to him, my bond half-broken, half-alive.