Outside, down the corridor dimly lit by hanging lamps, Yueyao's, no, Yueshuang's figure disappeared into the shadows, her steps unsteady yet relentless. Each step carried the quiet weight of a woman walking toward a destiny neither love nor death could turn her from.
The corridor shimmered faintly beneath the pale glow of moonstone lamps, their blue light casting trembling shadows along the carved wooden floor. The faint scent of sandalwood drifted in the air, the incense long since burned low, leaving only its ghostly fragrance behind.
Yueshuang's bare feet made no sound as she stumbled toward her chamber, the silk of her robes whispering softly against the cold air. Each step seemed to echo through the silence like a quiet farewell.
By the time she reached her room, her breath had turned shallow. She slid the door shut and turned the bronze latch into place; the quiet click seemed almost deafening in the stillness. The sound was too calm, too precise for the storm within her chest.
She leaned against the door, one hand pressed to her heart, her reflection dimly visible in the bronze mirror across the room. A nearby lamp flickered uncertainly, casting wavering light over her pale face. Her reflection seemed distant, like a ghost half-forgotten, half-reborn.
"Stop…" she whispered hoarsely, her voice trembling. "Please… stop."
Her gaze fell upon the mark glowing faintly on her neck, soft yet unmistakable beneath her skin. She touched it, fingers trembling, feeling the warmth that pulsed there like a second heartbeat.
"I'm… no longer pure."
"What's going to happen now?"
"On top of that, we have a son! A whole baby!"
"A whole born baby...." From his eyes, he wasn't lying or trying to manipulate her.
The words left her lips like a confession to the night. They hung in the air, fragile, trembling, and cruel. She could almost see her parents' faces: her father's fury, her mother's grief.
"If they ever found out… Father would demand his name. And Mother…" her voice cracked, "she'd want him dead."
But how had Yueshuang managed to keep all of this a secret? The mating mark, so sacred, so binding, and the entire pregnancy? How had she concealed something so monumental from everyone around her? Her parents, her attendants, even the clan elders?
Yueyao's thoughts spiraled as she stared at her reflection, the faint mark on her neck glowing with quiet accusations. How had this woman, the body she now inhabited, hidden something so intimate, so damning? The secrecy must have been suffocating. Every glance, every conversation, must have felt like walking on the edge of discovery.
Yueyao pressed a trembling hand over her heart. To live like that… to carry love and shame in the same breath. Yueshuang must have been desperate, desperate enough to defy her family, her clan, and the laws that bound them all. And now Yueyao was the one left to bear the weight of those choices, the tangled remnants of a love that still burned in Lian's eyes.
Knowing the consequences of these secrets if they leaked, Yueyao understood her completely; loving a man like this, he was probably worth it.
No wonder they had to keep this affair hidden from everywhere, but for how long was it going to be kept in the shadows?
The baby would grow and recognise her, what was she going to say then? What kind of life was this original Yueshuang was living in?
She slid down against the door, her knees drawn close to her chest, the hem of her robe pooling around her like liquid moonlight. The flicker of the lamp reflected faintly in her tears, casting them in a golden glow.
"And the marriage…" she murmured bitterly, " what would happen if the Alpha knows she is marked already? Not only marked, but also given birth to a whole baby?
She was no longer pure, and the original Yueshuang was so adamant in getting married to that man; did she think it was an easy task?
Her fingers traced the hollow of her collarbone, where two pulses intertwined, one mortal, and the other one divine.
"The moonbeast… and Lian."
The name trembled from her lips, half a curse, half a plea.
Two bonds. Two lifelines knotted into her soul.
One sacred and the other one forbidden.
Slowly, she rose and crossed to the lattice window. Beyond it, the night stretched vast and silver, the courtyard bathed in moonlight. The ancient pines swayed softly in the wind, their shadows long and trembling like spirits in mourning.
Her reflection stared back at her from the glass pane, pale, hollow-eyed, yet burning with something fierce beneath the sorrow.
"I can't undo what's been done," she whispered, " But I need to take control..."
Her hand clenched at her side, the faint golden flame of the lamp flickering as though in answer to what her mind was directing her to...