Six years kept him alive，Now I let him die

Jasmine's POV: Listening to the vile sounds coming through the mind-link, I felt cold run through my entire body, my stomach churning. I sank to the floor, images flooding my mind. Six years ago, when Lawrence Bradley stumbled down from Dragon Cliff after fighting rogue wolves, drenched in blood, barely clinging to life, I traded my life force for his. When he recovered, he knelt on one knee and said, "Jasmine, I will spend the rest of my life protecting you." But what happened after? He was always "too busy" on my birthdays. When I had a fever so high I fell unconscious, he sent the servants to take me to the hospital. I waited for him to come home until dawn, only to hear him say, "The pack needed me." I kept lying to myself—he's the Alpha, he has no choice. Until tonight, I finally understood: it wasn't that he didn't have time. He just didn't want to spend it on me. He wore my love down, piece by piece. If that's the case, I want him dead. I threw on my cloak and, under the cover of night, made my way to the small cabin deep in the woods—the healer's dwelling. "Healer, I remember six years ago you told me that after I transferred my life force to Lawrence, I could terminate the contract. Please tell me how." The healer lifted her aged eyes and fixed them on me. "Jasmine, during the Moon Goddess Festival, if you make contact with seawater, the backlash will send you into a deathlike state. "Your body will be wracked with pain, your heart will stop, your breath will cease, but your mind will remain awake. The Moon Goddess will sever the contract. After three hours of torment, you will wake. And Lawrence will lose all the life force he took from you. He will become a monster and die for good. Are you certain?" "I am. Lawrence betrayed me. He will pay." I met the healer's gaze, my voice calm. "When the contract is broken and I fall into that deathlike state, I need you to push my body into the sea. I want to leave Lawrence behind for good." The healer sighed and gave a slow nod. The contract would be broken in five days. I began preparing for the Moon Goddess Festival celebration, and for my own false death. ***** The shoreline was being decked out for the festival, with a cruise ship docked at the pier. Lawrence stood on the stage, giving an interview to the press, pointing at the cruise ship and playing to the cameras. "This yacht is a gift for my Luna," Lawrence said from the stage during an interview. "For our sixth anniversary, I'm naming it Jasmine." "Alpha Lawrence, is there anything you'd like to say to Luna Jasmine?" Lawrence turned toward the cameras with a look of practiced devotion. "Jasmine, I'll love you in this life and every life after it." That public declaration sent the crowd into cheers. More than a hundred werewolves in the crowd erupted into cheers, their emotions boiling over. "Oh my God, that's so romantic!" "If my mate doesn't claim me in front of the whole world like Alpha Lawrence, I'm definitely rejecting him!" Among female werewolves, Lawrence had become the standard by which all others were judged, and the men felt that pressure acutely. Hidden in the crowd, I listened as Lawrence swore those words to the moon again, and nausea surged up so hard I thought I might be sick. I pulled up my hood to cover my face and turned away. Lawrence was very good at putting on a show. He could say he loved me with a straight face, then sleep with Mia while letting her mock me for being lowborn and gullible. Late that night, Lawrence finally came home. He walked into the bedroom carrying an enormous bouquet of red roses. "Jasmine, my love. Sorry for missing our anniversary. I've been so tied up with work these past two days. But I promise I'll make it up to you. On the night of the Moon Goddess Festival, I'm giving you something special." Lawrence wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. I took the roses and smiled faintly. "Really? Then I can't wait." Inside, I almost laughed. 'Oh, I have a surprise for you too.' Lawrence went into the bathroom, humming to himself. I tossed the roses onto the floor, and a white card slipped out of the bouquet. I picked it up and opened it. "I love you, Lawrence." I turned it over. A nude photo of Mia was taped to the back. These were the flowers she had given him! And he had been shameless enough to give me the bouquet his mistress had given him! The sight of Mia's naked body made my stomach turn. I shoved the card back into the flowers and dumped the whole bouquet into the hallway trash can. I did not care whether Mia had done it on purpose or Lawrence had simply failed to notice. I was not going to ask. In four more days, this would all be over. And after that, I would make sure they learned exactly what betrayal would cost them. A moment later, Lawrence came back from the bathroom with damp hair and steam still clinging to his skin. When he saw that I was awake, he leaned over me at once and reached for my right arm. "What's this? Don't you like the bracelet I bought you?" He saw that the diamond bracelet he gave me was gone from my wrist. I shifted, pulled my arm free, and pressed myself against his chest, playing cute to distract him. Lawrence growled, instantly aroused. "God, Jasmine, I've been thinking about you all day." His breathing roughened at once, and he dragged his mouth along the side of my neck. He kissed my temple as his hands began to move over me. His right hand slipped under my skirt and moved up my thigh. He held me tight, completely lost in the moment. But the moment I felt his hand sliding over my body, my stomach lurched. Disgust hit so fast and so hard I could barely hide it. I did not want him at all! Just as I scrambled for an excuse to push him off, his phone rang. Lawrence frowned in irritation. After a few seconds of hesitation, he finally rolled off the bed. "What is it?" He pressed the phone to his ear and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window. The moonlight cast his broad, muscular silhouette against the glass. He had the face and body of a man women would ruin themselves over. Inside, he was nothing but selfishness and rot. "Keep the injured warriors calm. I'm on my way." He ended the call and turned back to me with an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry, baby. The rogues are pushing the border again. A few of our warriors got hurt. I..." I interrupted him, feigning understanding. "Then go. You're the Alpha. The pack comes first." I only wanted him gone as quickly as possible. Lawrence promised me again and again that once he dealt with the rogues, he would rush right back. The moment the front door clicked shut, I picked up my phone, opened f*******:, and refreshed Mia's page. Every time Lawrence put on a public display of affection for me, Mia would post something soon after. In the past, I had foolishly assumed she had a new admirer. I had even congratulated her once. Looking back now, I wanted to laugh at myself. Lawrence and Mia must have thought I was too stupid to see what was right in front of me. No wonder they had only grown bolder with time. A second later, a new post appeared on Mia's page: Some love runs deeper and more endlessly than the sea. Attached was a photo of a man in a kitchen, his back to the camera, working at the stove like he was stirring a pot of soup. Most people would not have recognized him. I did. It was Lawrence. The pack border was nearly two hundred miles from Mia's house. There was no way he could have gotten from the border to her house in under an hour. So he had lied to me again. In all the years of our bond, Lawrence had never cooked a single meal for me. And tonight, after leaving our bed with some lie about trouble at the border, he had gone to Mia's house to make soup for her. I saved the post, the screenshot, and every other piece of evidence I had. Then I smirked coldly, putting my phone away.