Matilda's POV:

I hurriedly washed my face, grabbed the backpack next to me, and walked through the corridor with the towering arc and the twelve tightly sealed doors. Just as I was about to rush to the training room, someone hugged me from the back.

"Hey, my cute baby, you didn't eat breakfast again today." The person hugging me was my boyfriend, Gray. He was over six feet tall and looked like a giant in front of me, but he was different from his rough appearance. He was a gentle and patient man. He was also a strong warrior, strong enough to fight alongside me.

I shrugged and gently tugged at his finger. "I'm late again. You know, it's torture to get up in the morning."

His beautiful brown eyes were smiling as he took out a packed sandwich from his new backpack. Inside was my least favorite sausage. I wrinkled my nose but happily took it anyway and squatted beside him in the training room as we ate our breakfast ungracefully. A mature girlfriend had to be considerate of her sometimes neurotic lover.

Gray and I didn't have the sweet scent of other lovers, but he was a very thoughtful boyfriend. I always felt lucky to have met him. He didn't say fancy things. We didn't suddenly do crazy, childish things. That was enough. We were each other's best friends and strongest supporters.

Even if we didn't have a telepathic connection, I could still see a subtle seriousness on his face. I pretended not to know and handed him the sandwich.

"Handsome, do me a favor?"

Gray kissed me and said apologetically, "Sorry, I forgot you don't eat sausage."

I shook my head and leaned over to kiss him. It was just an unappetizing breakfast. It wasn't a big deal.

The sandwich wasn't too big. I tried to hold back nausea and stuffed it into my mouth. I quickly drank a few mouthfuls of water to suppress the strange feeling. I hoped that this torture would only happen this morning. Then, I could sit in the dining room and have breakfast thirty minutes earlier tomorrow.

"You don't have to work so hard, babe. Everyone will be proud of you."

Gray's words made my stomach churn. Like everyone else in the pack, he always told me women didn't have to work so hard. Being a Beta wasn't for women, not to mention that I was the Alpha's daughter.

When I first arrived at the training ground, I was the smallest. They called me by all sorts of insulting nicknames. They called me a puppy. It wasn't a nickname. To be a pet dog was a massive insult for a wolf, a warrior.

They didn't do it anymore because everyone on the training ground had kissed my fist.

After I defeated everyone, they finally started to look at me. I would become the bravest warrior in the pack. My father told me so, but it didn't stop some people from thinking that this wasn't a woman's job.

It did not matter. I would use my fist to show everyone I was the pack's bravest warrior.

But the price of being a brave warrior was feeling so sore every day that I could not get up. Every muscle in my body told me I should continue to rest, but I would see my father's disappointed eyes if I stopped.

My father's disappointment made me feel worse than if he had killed me.

I knew why my father wanted me to be a brave warrior. It was because my mother was the most unrivaled, bravest, and beloved Luna. She had saved the pack many years ago. Many years later, she had saved me with her own. My father saw me as an extension of my mother, and of course, I should be as outstanding as my mother.

Guarding the pack was my mother's last wish, and that was also my wish and responsibility.

This was my daily training to continue the motivation. I was determined to become a Beta.

Suddenly, I felt cold. My body would not stop shaking as an image emerged before me. The ground was a river of blood. Everyone in the pack was lying on the ground, too weak to open their eyes.

It was the prophecy again!

Ever since my mother passed away, I could see a few visions related to the future. However, unlike my mother, I couldn't interpret or choose any future to see. I could only passively see visions that didn't have any meaning. That was why I had kept it a secret from everyone, including my father, a seer who couldn't interpret the prophecy. It sounded so lame.

The image disappeared in the blink of an eye, and so did my goosebumps.

I could no longer control the nauseous feeling. I leaned over and began to retch. Gray patted my back in confusion.

My father, dressed in his long robe, led his elders past us toward the twelve closed doors in the hallway. He glanced at me but didn't ask me to join them in their meeting. His eyes were so dark.

What was going on this morning? What was with Gray and my father? Nothing was normal.