My Husband Stole My Wolf Spirit

I barely escaped with my life to bring back the Lunar Herb from the abyss.

When I returned, I found my husband, the Alpha of our pack, getting intimate with my older sister.

My own son and daughter had been keeping their secret for three hundred years.

My parents rushed to the scene, but only to demand that I step down and give my position as the Alpha's mate to my sister.

I left that house alone and wandered for a century before settling in the Forbidden Shadowlands.

Even the ancient dragons and fierce beasts there followed me around, calling me Mother.

When Silas finally found me, I was already the Sovereign of the Shadowlands, ruling over all spirits.

He looked at me and said, "If you would just be obedient, you wouldn't have to live such a miserable life out here."

Silas bound me and dragged me back home to watch his grand wedding to my sister.

My biological children threw silver daggers at me, telling me to get lost and not to stain their mother's eyes with my presence.

I turned to leave without a word, but that was the moment they finally began to regret everything.

1.

At the bottom of the Shadowlands, the Alpha husband I hadn't seen in a century kicked the hand that held my trowel.

The precious flower seeds I was holding flew out of my grasp and scattered into the dirt.

"Seraphina, is this how you live now that you've left me?"

His eyes were full of nothing but pure disdain.

He was waiting for me to crawl on my knees and beg him to take me back to the Moon-Crest Pack.

I didn't give him the satisfaction of a response.

Instead, I looked at the ruined seeds with a heavy heart.

If the children found out about this, especially Vesper with her short temper, she would probably tear Silas apart.

Elowen, who was standing beside him, reached out to grab me.

"Seraphina, just come back with us. Even if you aren't the Alpha's mate anymore, we will still give you a place to eat and sleep."

"Isn't that better than begging for scraps in this godforsaken hellhole?"

I looked at her with a confused expression.

"I am Silas's lawfully wedded mate. Why would I need you to give me scraps?"

Elowen froze, a flash of guilt crossing her face for just a second.

She was the foster daughter my mother took in, and my mother loved her like her own blood.

I had even stepped aside to let her take the title of the eldest daughter of our bloodline.

But during our Awakening Ceremony, she used a dark ritual to steal my Wolf Spirit, leaving me powerless.

While I was married to Silas, she seduced him behind my back and stayed in his bed for three centuries.

Even the twins I nearly died giving birth to helped her hide it from me all those years.

Thinking about those two ungrateful brats who threatened to kill themselves if I didn't let their "Aunt Elowen" stay, I couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.

"Elowen, you have my husband now, and you're raising my kids to call you Mother. What else do you want? Why come here to bother me?"

Silas's face turned bright red with rage.

"Don't act like you're too good for us! Elowen was the one I was supposed to marry in the first place! She only let you have the spot because she pitied a weak, spiritless loser like you"

I didn't want to hear another word, so I picked up my trowel and started walking toward my cabin.

Suddenly, a massive force yanked me back from behind.

I looked down to see the Silver Bind sinking deep into my skin, burning me.

Before I lost consciousness, I heard Silas's cold, arrogant voice.

"Fine, if you want to be a beggar here, go ahead. But I won't let you embarrass our children any longer!"

"Besides, Elowen and I are having our wedding, and I need my ex-mate there to witness it."

He didn't see the slight smirk on my face as I closed my eyes.

They had no idea that my two adopted children in the Shadowlands were famous for being the most vengeful creatures in existence.

2.

When I woke up again, I was back in the high halls of the Moon-Crest Pack.

The sound of drums and trumpets echoed from outside, and the servants passing by were whispering with excitement.

"The Alpha and the eldest daughter have been waiting for four hundred years. They're finally making it official!"

"I know, right? I heard the Alpha even brought back a Lunar Herb from the Shadowlands as a wedding gift. The young heirs, Kaelen and Lyra, have prepared huge gifts for her too!"

Kaelen and Lyra. The twins I had sacrificed everything to bring into this world.

They were so weak when they were born that I stayed by their beds day and night, pouring my own life force into them just to keep them alive.

And yet, they were the ones who looked at me with disgust and said a low-life like me didn't deserve to be their mother.

While I was lost in my thoughts, a servant pushed me out the door.

"If the Alpha didn't need you to sign the severance papers, I don't know why he'd bother bringing a useless person like you back."

I smiled at her. "If I'm just a useless person being thrown away, why does that bother you so much? It's not like you're getting the job."

Her face turned red, clearly shocked that the woman who used to be as soft as cotton suddenly had teeth.

A moment later, someone slammed into me with a lot of force.

It had been a hundred years, and Kaelen had grown into a handsome young warrior.

He looked exactly like a younger version of Silas.

Even the look of hatred in his eyes was a perfect copy.

"Today is my mother's wedding day. Why did a failure like you come back? Are you still obsessed with my father?"

He scoffed, looking at my rough, dirt-stained clothes.

"You should look in a mirror. You look like trash compared to the elegant and kind Aunt Elowen."

Obsessed? Abandoning them?

I looked at him with an amused expression until his confident smirk started to waver.

So, you haven't forgotten either, Kaelen. You were one of the people who chased me away.

As I stood my ground against Kaelen, a crowd of guests began to gather, pointing and whispering at me.

"Is that the woman who stole her sister's fianc? The one who forced Lady Elowen to live in the shadows for three hundred years?"

Elowen walked toward us, draped in a magnificent white silk gown.

When she saw me surrounded by the mocking crowd, a glint of triumph flashed in her eyes.

Without hesitation, Kaelen threw himself into her arms. "Mother! You're finally here!"

He looked at me and tilted his head up proudly.

"Seraphina, you should open your eyes and see the gift I gave my mother. It's a Midnight Blossom, the rarest flower in the world."

Elowen took the glowing flower with a graceful, fake humble gesture.

"The Midnight Blossom has incredible healing and beauty powers. Seraphina, you've probably never even seen something this beautiful in that dump where you live."

3.

The old Seraphina would have definitely been impressed by such a thing.

Ever since Elowen became my mother's foster daughter, she had played the role of the sweet, innocent girl perfectly.

She used her tragic backstory to manipulate my parents into treating her like their true biological child.

When I was young, I was actually happy to have a sister to play with.

I never imagined she saw me as a rival for our parents' love, framing me and driving a wedge between us until they completely turned against me.

From the time we were kids, her clothes and toys were always better than mine, the actual daughter of the house.

When Silas married me, it was a small, private ceremony.

I had to sew my own wedding dress.

It was nothing like the grand, golden spectacle she was having today.

When I caught her and Silas in bed together, my parents and my children arrived only to defend her.

"Seraphina, don't blame Elowen. The Alpha always wanted to marry the eldest daughter of our line. She only stepped aside because she didn't want you to be sad after you lost your Wolf Spirit."

"Now that the truth is out, just give back what belongs to her. Let her be the Alpha's mate with the honor she deserves!"

I had been heartbroken back then. My family and my lover felt like total strangers.

Everyone chose to forget that Elowen was the one who stole my spirit.

And the title of "Eldest Daughter" was technically mine by birth.

But to the person I am now, this "rare" flower was a joke.

My children in the Shadowlands brought me treasures like this every single day.

I had grown thousands of flowers in my valley, and the Midnight Blossom was the lowliest weed in my garden.

I couldn't even bring myself to look at it.

Maybe the mockery in my eyes was too obvious, because Kaelen got angry.

"Everyone knows you're just a beggar in the Shadowlands. Why are you pretending to be unimpressed?"

Just then, Silas arrived in his wedding suit, followed by my daughter, Lyra.

After all these years, Lyra looked at me with a confused and distant expression. "Mother, who is this woman?"

Elowen smiled and pulled Lyra close. "Lyra, this is your birth mother. Have you forgotten her already?"

"Come on, say hello to your mother."

My eyes stung for a split second.

When I left the pack house, Lyra was still very young.

She had been influenced by her brother to hate me.

She was still a part of me, though. I thought she was just being misled and must still have some love for me deep down.

I reached out my arms toward her, my voice trembling. "Lyra, come let me hold you!"

I saw a flicker of tears in her eyes, but she quickly turned away and hugged Elowen tightly.

"Is my real mother trying to take me away? I don't want this ugly woman to be my mom! I only want you!"

Silas patted Lyra and Elowen's shoulders with a fatherly tenderness.

The four of them stood together, looking like a perfect, happy family.

I was the only one who looked like an outsider, a villain trying to ruin their joy.

Silas turned to me, his gaze full of venom.

"Seraphina, you were the one who abandoned these children. Now they have a new mother, and they don't want anything to do with a useless failure like you!"

My blood slowly turned to ice.

Well, it was exactly what I expected.

4.

I was still bound by the Silver Bind as the servants pushed me forward to sign the severance papers.

When I went into exile a hundred years ago, the bond between Silas and me hadn't been officially severed.

If he wanted to marry Elowen, he had to perform a blood ritual with me to break our old oath.

Silas looked at me with a deep, dark gaze, as if he were trying to be merciful.

"If you behave, I might let you stay in the pack house. The kids won't call you Mother, but I'll let you see them occasionally"

My mother, Lady Rosalie, wiped a fake tear from her eye.

"You are still my daughter, after all. I can't let you suffer out there in the dirt."

I ignored them both.

Without hesitation, I grabbed a dagger and sliced my own palm, letting the dark red blood drip into the ritual bowl.

"No thanks. My actual children are waiting for me at home. Let's just go our separate ways."

Silas looked stunned. Then, with a flash of anger, he took the blade.

"Fine, Seraphina! Don't regret this!"

Our blood swirled in the water, touching and then instantly pushing apart.

The marriage contract Silas had written three hundred years ago appeared in the air, glowing faintly before dissolving into ash.

Kaelen and Lyra cheered as they walked Elowen and Silas to the altar.

The guests were shouting and laughing, celebrating their union.

But for some reason, Silas kept glancing back at me with a dark, brooding expression.

He was always arrogant.

He knew the old Seraphina loved him more than her own life.

Back then, he could just pretend to be sick, and she would jump into the Shadowlands to find a cure for him.

How could she seem so indifferent after being away for only a hundred years?

Silas told himself it was just an act to get his attention.

Without him, what could she possibly do? Go back to begging?

Three hundred years ago, I really believed Silas loved me.

We were childhood friends, promised to each other since we were pups.

He knew Elowen took all the attention from my parents, and he used to hold me and tell me how much he pitied me.

"Seraphina, when you marry me, you will be the only lady of the Alpha's house. Your sister will never be able to bully you again."

I believed him. I married him with a heart full of hope.

I didn't know he had already been sleeping with Elowen and only married me because of the pack's laws.

His love was a lie.

But the betrayal was very, very real.

I turned around in front of everyone.

The Silver Binds on my wrists suddenly snapped and turned into a pile of gray ash.

Lyra gasped. "That was Father's Alpha power! How could a wolf with no spirit do that?"

She was even more shocked when I cleared my throat and made an announcement.

I declared that I was cutting all ties with the bloodline, the Alpha, and my two biological children.

From this day on, we were strangers.

The room went dead silent.

Then, the gossiping started.

"Is she crazy? She has no power. How is she going to survive in the supernatural world without her family or the pack?"

"She must be so jealous of her sister that she's lost her mind."

"What kind of mother disowns her own children?"

Silas grabbed my wrist, his face dark with fury. "Are you here just to make a scene?"

Lady Rosalie snapped, "Seraphina, do you still hate your sister that much?"

My son and daughter stepped in front of Elowen, throwing silver daggers at my feet.

"Get out of here! Don't let your filth touch our mother's eyes!"

It was so familiar.

Long ago, they had stood by Elowen's side just like this, driving me out when I was the rightful Lady of the house.

I simply nodded, turned my back, and started to walk away.

But someone blocked my path.

A beautiful woman in an elegant black dress walked into the hall.

With a wave of her hand, thousands of glowing Midnight Blossoms began to bloom around her feet.

The entire hall was filled with an incredible fragrance.

Someone whispered in awe, "Is that Lady Hecate from the Shadowlands? They say she's the most beautiful woman in the world and only answers to the Shadow Dragon!"

"A person like that must be here for Lady Elowen!"

Elowen's smile grew wider as she heard the praise.

Lyra said proudly, "Mother, I sent an invitation to the famous Shadow Dragon. I didn't think he'd actually send Lady Hecate to congratulate you with such a huge gift!"

Mentioning the Shadow Dragon made Lyra's face turn a bit red, like a girl in love.

Elowen stepped forward gracefully, reaching out to touch one of the flowers.

Lady Hecate just stared at her with a blank expression.

Elowen usually prided herself on her beauty, but next to Hecate, she looked like a plain commoner.

She felt her confidence slipping. "Lady Hecate, what is the meaning of this?"

Hecate smiled beautifully. "My master told me this gift is for the eldest daughter of the house. Not for you."

"Lady Rosalie only has one biological daughter, and her name is Seraphina."

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