Betrayal on a moonlit night

On the night of winter, New York received its first snowfall of the year. Maria, a photographer in a werewolf pack, was lying on a bed in the hospital's emergency infusion room, listening to the reminder of the little girl in the next bed in her ears, her werewolf instincts made her perception of her surroundings unusually sharp, even in a drowsy state. "Sister, you can't come alone to get an IV, you just fell asleep, the potion finished and returned all the blood, luckily my mom smelled the blood and called the nurse for you." Maria's sense of smell caught the scent of antiseptic water in the air and the freshness of the little girl's body, and she nodded slightly in appreciation. Her movements were sluggish as she fished her cell phone out from under her pillow and glanced at the time. "Two in the morning." She muttered to herself, realizing that she hadn't had a good night's rest in a long time. Maria was a werewolf, and her werewolf instincts gave her a keen sense of the passage of time. She worked in the studio all day, and the evenings were her time for hunting and photography. But tonight, her werewolf instincts felt ill and a cramping pain in her abdomen forced her to come to the hospital. The doctors diagnosed her with acute enteritis, but Maria knew it was more than that. She had werewolf blood running through her veins, and her ailment was connected to some secret in the werewolf pack. After three days in the hospital, Maria received a call from Lucy, Maria's adoptive mother and the elder of the pack. "Tomorrow is your sister's birthday, don't forget." Lucy's voice came through the phone with a hint of a commanding tone. Maria had just walked out of the hospital, her voice with a hint of werewolf low and raspy, "Can't go, sick." Lucy, knowing Maria inside out, was clearly not convinced. "Sick? Fake it you, you don't get sick sooner or later, why did you get sick when your sister's birthday came around?" Maria's werewolf instincts made her angry at Lucy's distrust, but she suppressed her wolfishness and replied coldly, "Believe it or not, I'm not going anyway, what's the point of going to a birthday, it's the funeral that's fun, I'll go when she's dead." Lucy became enraged, her voice raised an octave, "Maria! Why are you so vicious!" Maria's werewolf instincts made her retort even sharper, "Even more vicious, you gave birth to me, and to call me names is to call yourself names." Lucy was speechless, knowing that Maria's werewolf instincts gave her the upper hand in the conversation. She began to give orders, "I'm not going to bother with you, Daniel is coming over tomorrow too, he said he'd pick you up." Maria's werewolf hearing caught the background noise on the other end of the line, she knew of Lucy's power in the pack, but her werewolf pride made her unwilling to give in. "You called him?" There was a hint of menace in Maria's voice. Lucy felt Maria's werewolf aura and her voice softened, "Yeah, you guys had a fight, what did I expect you to call? I'm also giving you a leg up, apologize to him when you see him and admit you're wrong." Maria hung up, her werewolf instincts telling her that the fight was just beginning. When she got home, Maria cooked a pot of herbal porridge unique to the werewolf pack, ate it and went straight to bed. Her werewolf restorative powers allowed her to quickly regain her strength in her sleep. At noon the next day, she was awakened by a phone call, it was her hairdresser, Mia. "Honey, I have a 3pm flight, I'll be there at 5:30, come pick me up." There was a hint of urgency in Mia's voice. Maria sat up from the bed, a hint of werewolf lethargy in her voice, "Aren't you traveling for a month? It's not even half a month and it's over?" Mia explained her trip, and Maria's werewolf instincts warmed her to Mia's loyalty. "I'm going back to the old mansion tonight." There was a hint of determination in Maria's voice. Lucy had transferred money to her, initially giving only five figures, Maria's werewolf pride making her dismissive. Lucy tried back and forth to seven digits before Maria sent a 'Thank you Grandma Fortune' emoji. Mia's behavior towards Lucy is tinged with sarcasm, she really doesn't understand Lucy, the eccentricity is off the charts. Treating her own daughter as a grass and her adopted daughter as a treasure. Mia was pissed off to no end every time she mentioned the lackadaisical ones in Maria's family, cursing a few times before changing the subject. "How are you and Daniel doing? Still out cold?" Maria's werewolf instincts made her angry at Daniel's betrayal, but her werewolf wisdom told her that now was not the time to be impulsive. "He's going to the birthday party tonight too, Lucy asked him to pick me up." There was a hint of calm in Maria's voice. Mia was silent for a moment, but finally couldn't hold back, "Babe, don't blame me for talking too much, it's not a good idea for you and Daniel to keep fighting like this." Maria's werewolf instincts made her grateful for Mia's advice, but her werewolf pride made her unwilling to show weakness. "Daniel isn't the same Daniel." Mia tried to scold her awake. Maria's werewolf instincts made her bitter about Daniel's change of heart, but her werewolf tenacity kept her from giving up. "He's changed his mind, he's in love with Louisa, wake up, he's not clean anymore, why do you have to hang yourself from his crooked tree?" Maria's werewolf instincts made her loathe the name Louisa, but her wits let her know that the fight was far more complicated than she thought. "Why do you have to hang yourself on Daniel?" Of course she was upset, after all the years she had waited for the wedding of the two. Maria's instincts had her looking forward to this upcoming wedding, but her instincts told her that things wouldn't go so well. "Okay, she's cheeky, she can be shameless, but she's still not happy about it." Maria's pride made her unwilling to give up so easily. Unwilling to give up just like that, unwilling to cheapen that white-eyed wolf Louisa. But what could she do if she was no longer willing? Maria was excited about the upcoming challenge and knew that she would have to utilize her werewolf abilities in order to be victorious in this fight. Daniel said she had turned into a hedgehog, and she was indeed a hedgehog. Unfortunately it wasn't anytime soon, the spines all over her body were pulled out one by one by Daniel, the armor was gone, only bloody holes remained. When the last thorn was gone, how could she survive? Maria felt uncertain about the outcome of this struggle, but her courage made her decide to face everything. As Lucy had said, Maria received a call from Daniel. Daniel, the heir to one of the powerful families in the werewolf pack, had a hint of unquestionable authority in his voice. "It's your sister's birthday, Aunt Lucy asked us to come along, where are you? I'll pick you up." Maria had just come out of the shower, her keen sense of smell catching the herbal scent of her own body as she grabbed her cell phone and headed for the checkroom, "I thought you were ignoring me? So now it's a reconciliation?" Daniel paused and asked rhetorically, "Do you want to reconcile?" Maria listened to his condescending tone of voice that didn't back down and knew that once this conversation got going, it was going to be another fight, and she didn't want to do it over the phone. Her werewolf instincts kept her calm in the face of conflict. "Apartment." As night fell and gray, heavy clouds coiled the sky, Maria's werewolf vision allowed her to see better in the night. The black sedan was parked on the curb, and Daniel was leaning against the door, smoking. Maria stomped over to him on her heels, her werewolf hearing catching the sound of his heartbeat, knowing the man was getting impatient with the wait. Maria's waist swayed and her clear eyes glanced at a couple of cigarette butts at his feet and asked with a smile, "Tired of waiting?" Daniel leaned against the car door and didn't go over, waiting for her to come over, his eyes not lightly falling on her, perfunctorily returned a sentence, "No." It was actually impatience; he'd been waiting for almost an hour, and five minutes later, he'd have just left. Daniel knew he had changed, once upon a time, not to mention an hour, Maria was a day late, he would have waited for her, no matter how long he would have waited. Daniel was proud of Maria's beauty and family, but his pride also made him reluctant to admit his dependence on her. Maria was his fiancée, a beautiful woman of the werewolf pack whose beauty and family lineage were equally respected in werewolf society. But Daniel doesn't value any of that; his werewolf instincts tell him that true mates should be soulmates. A mutual friend of the two advised him, "Daniel don't do it, there is no one in the world who loves you more than Maria, piss her off and there will be times when you regret it." Maria loved him, he knew it. He also loved Maria s, initially loved passionately, later, the love became flat and boring, and with a ...... resentment that he dared not admit. Now he was in love with Louisa, a woman whose life was like a weed, but who was tenacious and persevering. The friend again advised, "Daniel, wake up, you have loved Maria for so many years, it is impossible to suddenly fall in love with someone else." Was it an illusion? I don't know, what does it matter, nowadays in his heart, Louisa is indeed more important than Maria. On the way to Maria's house, Daniel mentions the cold war between the two, repeating the question from the phone call, "Do you want to reconcile?" Reconciliation? Of course I want to reconcile, it's just that - Maria turns her head to look at him, "Sure, as long as you fire Louisa, I'll never argue with you again." Louisa, Daniel's secretary. Maria had told Daniel to fire the person when she realized that Daniel wasn't treating Louisa well. Daniel refused, saying that Louisa had outstanding abilities and there was no reason to fire her. She was even more anxious at the time about how to get Daniel back, thinking that Daniel just blamed her for being gone too long, thinking that Daniel was just mad at her. She never believed that even Daniel was abandoning her. Until two months ago, when she saw the two of them downstairs in Daniel's apartment, the interlocked hands, the lingering morning kiss that stung her. Daniel's subsequent candor was more like charity, like a hand from hell tearing her apart inside out. He said, "Maria, I don't want to hide from you that I'm in love with Louisa. Of course, it's impossible for our family to recognize her, so don't worry, I'll still marry you, and the wedding will go on as usual." A quiet, soothing piano tune played in the car, the falling notes stirring Maria's memories on the verge of decay. The vows of her youth were nothing more than that. She'd wanted to marry Daniel, dreamed of it, and Daniel was certain she'd compromise out of love for him. But her pride wouldn't allow her to coexist with Louisa, and Daniel was in love with Louisa, forcing her to fulfill his second love. It's a dead end. As expected, the topic of "reconciliation" falls apart again when both sides don't budge. Daniel's words were heartbreaking: "Maria, if I have to back out of the marriage, it's not impossible. Don't be unreasonable. To put it mildly, in our circles, couples go their separate ways after marriage." Maria did not reply to this, her arm supported on the car window to look at the scenery outside, looking at the high buildings lined up on both sides of the road, her thoughts do not know where to go. When she was almost out of the car, she reached for her cell phone and sent a tweet. The message was sent to Daniel. Daniel glanced at the screen and tucked his phone away in his pocket again without much care. It wasn't the first time Maria had sent him a number, the first time it was a '1' and this was the ninety-ninth time, so it was a '99'. He'd asked her what it meant, and she'd drunkenly joked, "I'll remember you when you've stabbed me in the heart, Daniel, and when you've stabbed me a hundred times, Maria, who loves you, won't have a life, and I won't want you anymore." Maria sent "1" last year, the first time the two had quarreled since their engagement. Daniel had analyzed her patterns, and it was true, every time she sent the number it was after a big fight between the two, but not every fight, as if it depended on her mood. Daniel hadn't taken it seriously and had just assumed that she was playing games. After all, Maria loved him like her life depended on it, and he was certain that she would eventually compromise.