Back from Death to Destroy My Ex

Chapter4

NEXT YEAR NEVER CAME

ODETTE'S POV

The days went by in a blur while I remained inside the prison.

I no longer knew if it was morning or evening unless a small beam of sunlight slipped through the tiny window high above my cell. Sometimes I counted the hours by listening to the guards changing shifts. Other times, I simply closed my eyes and hoped I would wake somewhere else. The cold stone beneath me had become my bed, my chair, and my only companion. Every breath reminded me that the wolfsbane poison was still inside my body, slowly stealing my strength.

The prison doctor comes less often now.

He entered quietly, checked my pulse, changed my bandages without saying much, and left just as quickly. The medicine he rubbed over my wounds no longer eased the pain. My arms felt heavier every day, and my legs shook whenever I tried to stand. Even lifting the wooden bowl of soup became difficult.

One afternoon, I gathered enough courage to stop him before he left.

"Doctor..."

He paused without turning around.

"Am I getting worse?"

He stayed silent for a long moment and then finally, he nodded.

"The poison has spread."

"Can you stop it?"

He lowered his eyes.

"Not with the treatment I'm allowed to give."

I forced myself to smile.

"So... they really intend to let me die."

His lips tightened.

"I'm sorry."

Then he walked away. The sound of the prison door closing behind him echoed through the empty hallway.

After that, no one came.

The guards barely looked at me anymore. They slid food through the opening beneath the bars as if feeding a stray animal. Sometimes they forgot to bring water until hours later. They only checked my cell to make sure I was still breathing.

I stopped asking for Wynne. I stopped asking about my parents. Nobody ever answered anyway.

The silence became louder than any scream, and to stop myself from losing my mind, I started talking to my memories.

I remember the first time I met Wynne.

It had been a few years back, and I carried a stack of account books through the palace hallway. I was so nervous that I tripped over my own feet and dropped every single book onto the floor. Papers flew everywhere. I wanted to disappear from embarrassment.

Instead of laughing, a young man knelt beside me.

"You dropped these," he had said with a warm smile.

I looked into bright amber eyes that seemed to shine even brighter than the palace lights.

"Thank you," I had whispered.

"No need to thank me."

That had been the beginning.

A small smile appeared on my lips as I remembered it.

Back then, everything had seemed so simple.

I remembered helping him study old financial reports late into the night after he became Alpha. While everyone else praised his leadership, I quietly made sure the treasury stayed organised. Whenever problems appeared, we solved them together. Whenever he became tired, I stayed beside him until sunrise.

He always smiled and said the same thing.

"I couldn't do this without you."

I had believed him.

I remembered skipping my own birthday celebration because he had an important meeting with the neighbouring packs. I spent the whole day preparing documents instead of celebrating with my parents.

When he apologized later, I simply laughed.

"We'll celebrate next year."

Next year never came.

There was always another meeting, another problem, another duty.

I had never complained.

I remembered the night he held my hands beneath the moonlight.

"When the council stops pressuring me," he had promised softly, "I'll introduce you as my future Luna."

I had cried from happiness.

"I'll wait as long as you need."

"You deserve the world."

"No," I had answered. "I only need you."

The memory shattered my heart.

I slowly looked down at my empty hands—the hands that had once held his, and the hands he had pulled away from as if I were poison.

Tears quietly rolled down my cheeks.

"When did everything change?" I whispered.

No answer came.

Only silence.

Days passed, and I began noticing something else. I could barely feel my wolf anymore.

She had always been there, warm and comforting inside my heart. Whenever I felt lonely, she reminded me I was never truly alone.

Now, she felt far away. She was weak, and it felt as though she were slowly falling asleep.

I closed my eyes.

"Can you hear me?"

Only a faint feeling answered me.

"I'm sorry."

Another weak pulse.

"I couldn't protect us."

The tiny connection almost disappeared, and fear gripped my heart.

"No..."

I pressed my hand against my chest.

"Please don't leave me too."

I felt nothing, only emptiness. For the first time in my life, I truly understood what it meant to be alone.

One cold night, I curled into a small ball on the stone floor because my body would not stop shaking. The fever had become so strong that I could hardly keep my eyes open. Every breath hurt. Every heartbeat felt slower than the last.

I stared at the prison ceiling for what felt like hours.

I thought about my parents.

Had they been allowed to return home? Were they safe? Did they still believe in me?

I would never know.

Then I thought about Wynne.

I had loved him with everything I had. Every choice I made had included him. Every dream I built had his name inside it.

I had trusted him more than I trusted myself. Yet when the whole world accused me, he never for once came to ask if it was true. He had trusted strangers more than the woman who almost gave her life to save his.

A painful laugh escaped my lips.

"So..." I whispered into the darkness. "I was the only one who truly believed in us."

Fresh tears slipped down my face.

For years, I thought loving someone completely was the greatest gift I could give. Now I finally understood one thing: love without trust was nothing.

The prison grew quieter than ever, and even the guards' footsteps seemed distant.

My body no longer obeyed me. I could not lift my arms. I could not sit up. I simply lay there, staring into the darkness.

I knew my time had come.

A strange peace slowly settled over me. The pain was still there, but it no longer frightened me.

I closed my eyes and imagined standing beneath the moon with my parents smiling beside me.

I imagined a life where none of this had happened. A life where I had not loved so blindly.

With the last strength left inside me, I whispered into the empty prison.

"If I ever live again..."

A tear rolled across my cheek.

"I will never love you."

The words carried every broken promise, every sacrifice, every tear I had shed, and every piece of my shattered heart.

My breathing slowed, and the darkness around me became deeper as I breathed my last.