Chapter 1

I had just completed the mate-bonding ceremony with Caden Voss, the future Alpha, the most coveted male in the pack, when my adopted sister Rena drove her car straight into me.

The impact shattered my ovaries. The pack's finest healer, my own mother, Dr. Elena Ashton, said both were beyond saving. They had to be fully removed.

Caden's howl of anguish shook the hospital walls. "It doesn't matter! I just need my mate alive!"

Mom and my brother Eli stood red-eyed, gripping my hands.

"Easy now. Close your eyes. We have the best healers, the strongest herbs. Sleep, and the pain will pass."

In my most broken moment, I was grateful that everyone I loved was by my side.

Then the anesthesia began to pull me under, and through the gap in the door, I heard them talking in the hall.

Mom's voice carried a thin edge of excitement.

"Mara is healthy. Compatible blood type, right age. While we have her under, we take her heart and transplant it into Rena."

Dad, the pack's Beta, agreed without a pause.

"I've already had the security footage of Rena's car deleted. Mara won't ever know."

Eli's voice, smooth and clinical. "I'll synthesize a compound. Even with a damaged heart, Mara won't suffer visibly."

A moment of silence. Then Caden's voice — and the relief in it turned my blood to ice.

"Rena loves to run, loves to travel. She needs a strong heart. As for Mara… we'll make it up to her someday. I'll go sign the surgical consent forms now."

I felt myself falling — not into sleep, but into a void with no floor.

My heart ached as though the blade had already found it.

【System Alert: Host — your Cannon Fodder task has been completed. Heartbreak index has reached 100%. Do you wish to return to your original world immediately?】

I laughed. And then I wept.

Their love — every tender look, every careful touch — I didn't want any of it anymore.

...

I fought to roll off the surgical table. A nurse shoved a breathing tube down my throat and flooded my veins with sedative.

As consciousness collapsed, I glimpsed Rena being wheeled in through the doors.

Mom raised her scalpel and murmured to the nurses with calm precision.

"Don't bother stabilizing Mara's ovaries damage. Extract the heart first. Rena's transplant takes priority."

I felt the blade part my chest layer by layer, and in the last seconds before the dark swallowed me whole, Mom's voice drifted in, soft and tender.

"Hold on a little longer, baby girl. When you wake up, you'll be able to run again. Run as far as you want."

She was talking to Rena.

...

When awareness flickered back, I confirmed everything with the system at once.

【Only if the host body dies: automatic return to the original world. Your congenital heart defect will be fully healed. One hundred million in bounty will be deposited to your linked account. Confirmed.】

How laughable. I had been so relieved that even after years lost to a rival pack's captivity, I hadn't lost my family's love.

That Caden had searched for me, proposed the moment I returned.

And all along, they only kept me breathing because they needed my heart.

I pulled the oxygen tube from my throat without a second's hesitation.

Breathing became agony. My face darkened to violet. The monitors screamed red.

But I was smiling.

Better to die than stay and look at them.

Mom burst through the door with a team behind her, howling my name.

She performed CPR with her bare hands and forced the tube back in. When I was stable, she glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

"Mara! Why would you — it's only your ovaries. You can still live a full life. You can't—"

I pressed a hand to the wound in my chest and rasped:

"Is it really only my ovaries?"

Caden fell to his knees, slapping his own face over and over.

"Honey — blame me. When the car came, I didn't shield you. I let you get hurt. The driver's already in custody, I swear I'll—"

"You found a heart donor for Rena already, didn't you?" he added, turning to Mom. "She's going to be all right?"

Dad's voice was hollow. "We've contacted every pack healer in the country. We'll find you a new heart soon, Mara. I promise."

Eli touched my shoulder gently. "I'm going back to the lab right now. I'll engineer something custom. You'll breathe just like anyone else."

How laughable. Three sentences to smooth over Rena running me down, destroying my body, and stealing my heart.

I curved my lips into something that was almost a smile.

"Where's Rena? I want to speak with her myself. I saw her face when they brought her in."

Mom's brow knotted. "How dare you accuse your sister. She was with me in the healer's ward when you were hit — she nearly had a heart episode just from the shock of hearing you'd been injured. We found her a donor just in time."

"You found a donor at the exact same moment my heart failed," I said. "What a coincidence."

The room went very still.

"Mara…" Mom started.

I was too tired. I pulled the blanket over my head.

When I surfaced, only Caden remained, watching me with an expression I used to believe was love.

I smiled at him. "Go check on Rena. Come back and tell me how she's doing."

He left without hesitating.

Alone at last, I exhaled slowly and reached for my phone with trembling hands.

The system had promised to grant me one wish in exchange for completing its KPIs. Before they'd wheeled me into the OR, I'd spent that wish on two recordings.

I watched them now, rigid, replaying every second of how they'd planned to hollow me out. Every word my mother had spoken while cutting into my chest.

Every degree of warmth drained from my body.

I was suddenly very glad I hadn't died.

Because leaving this easily would be far too generous to them.