The shirt Aurora wore as she left Cris's bedroom barely reached halfway down her thighs, highlighting the stark contrast in their body sizes.

The guard escorting her back to her cell was different from the one before. He didn't drag her along, nor did he rush her.

"You're lucky the alpha didn't do to you what he did to your brother," he remarked, glancing at Aurora. But with her head bowed, she didn't catch his words, and he could only sigh. "How could someone like you be born to such a cruel alpha?"

He knew Aurora couldn't hear him—this wasn't a secret. Anyone who had interacted with her over the past week would know that by now.

Meanwhile, Aurora was staring up at the dark sky, her eyes fixed on the crescent moon. The moon goddess. If God really existed, why did they allow this misery to befall her?

Despite her bitterness, Aurora felt a small relief at being able to walk in the open air again, after being confined to the hard, unyielding walls of her cell. She prayed that her misery would end someday.

She also hoped Cris wouldn't treat the people of the Blue Moon pack as horribly as her father had treated his. Most of them had simply followed their alpha...

"Get inside. Someone will bring you some food," the man said as he opened the cell, and Aurora stepped inside.

Once again, she was trapped in this darkness, the cold biting into her skin with nothing around to offer warmth.

Aurora huddled in the corner of her cell, hugging herself tightly. Her body felt feverish, yet she was so cold.

She was sick again...

=======================

"She has a problem with her hearing?" Cris leaned back against the desk behind him, folding his arms as he listened to Joan, his beta, report.

"Yes, she was born a runt, after all. Besides her health issues, she has hearing problems. But from what I know, she can read lips—that's how she communicates with others."

That explained why the girl hadn't replied to his question when he hadn't forced her to look at him.

"How was she treated by her father?" Cris couldn't shake the image of her scarred back. Those marks were from being whipped, he was certain of it. But who would have dared whip the alpha's daughter?

"Why are you asking this? Did you take pity on her?" Joan asked, his curiosity piqued. He stared directly into Cris's eyes, searching for a hint of what was going on in his mind, but it was impossible. The depths of Cris's thoughts were terrifying.

"Pity?" Cris tilted his head, his dark eyes growing cold at the word. "We don't pity our enemies, Joan."

A complex expression crossed the beta's face. "I've tracked down her personal maid. If you want, I can interrogate her."

Cris considered it for a moment. "Bring her here."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"You're going to interrogate her yourself?"

"Yes."

Though still a bit puzzled, Joan followed the order without question.

It didn't take long for Aurora's personal maid to arrive before Cris. She kept her head lowered, clearly terrified in the presence of the alpha.

"Her name is Annie. She's been with Aurora since the girl was seven," Joan said, glancing at the woman beside him. She appeared to be in her late twenties. Though not shabby, her eyes were swollen from excessive crying.

"Alpha Cris, my name is Annie," she introduced herself, her voice trembling as she fiddled nervously with her fingers.

Cris waved his hand, signaling Joan and the guard who had brought Annie to leave the room.

"Tell me everything about her," he said, cutting straight to the point. Cris had neither the time nor the patience for pleasantries.

It had only been a week since Cris had overthrown the alpha of the Blue Moon pack and taken his children captive. Now, he had to manage the pack and assert his role as the new alpha.

There were many who needed to be punished, and the former alpha's laws needed to be overhauled.

"Miss Aurora?" Annie lifted her head cautiously, unsure if she had heard correctly. But the moment her eyes met Cris's, she quickly lowered her gaze again, afraid of the cold, indifferent stare that bore down on her.

"I don't like repeating myself."

"Yes, yes… Alpha…" Annie stammered before she began recounting everything she knew about Aurora. She had been with her since the girl was little, and there was little information Joan hadn't already reported to Cris. "Please, Alpha Cris, don't hurt her… She's nothing like her father," she pleaded, her voice trembling with fear.

Annie, a low-ranking shifter in the pack, knew all too well how cruelly Aurora's father had treated the Howling Wolf pack, reducing them to little more than slaves. But Aurora had no part in that.

However, this was not what Cris wanted to hear. "Tell me about the wounds on her back."

Annie flinched at the question. If Cris had seen Aurora's scars, it meant he had undressed her, and she could only imagine the horrors her dear missy might have suffered at the hands of the alpha.

"That's…" Annie choked back her tears, her emotions in turmoil. She loathed Alpha Cris for hurting her missy in such a cruel way.

"I didn't hear your answer." Cris stepped toward Annie, his footsteps echoing ominously through the room, amplifying the eerie silence. "Who whipped her, and why?"

Annie was startled that Alpha Cris knew. She looked up in fear and saw the alpha waiting for her response.