Chapter 8

After leaving the infirmary, I received a message through an encrypted channel from the southern sanctuary.

They notified me that the migration permit had been formally approved and all necessary documents were ready for me to collect whenever I wanted.

I retrieved all my personal identification files and the thin migration permit.

On the same day, I received a communication from the wolf tribunal. They informed me that the mate termination agreement had been approved and would be effective in seven days.

Returning to the main house of Blackwood Manor—a place I had once considered "home"—I began to silently pack my belongings.

On the table lay a calendar made from thin, treated leather.

I had the habit of tearing off one page each day.

The pages dwindled, and soon I reached the last page of this calendar.

The year was coming to an end.

And I was about to leave the Stormfang Pack territory, a place I had lived in for over twenty years, a land that held all my loves and sorrows.

Throughout this week, Damine never once came back.

Sofia, on the other hand, tirelessly sent me provocative images and recordings through an encrypted comm device every day.

On the seventh day of the countdown, she sent a video clip captured in a recording crystal: Damine was kneeling on the floor of her sickroom, disregarding his dignity as an Alpha, gently massaging her calf with his hands, which were usually accustomed to gripping weapons.

As I watched the focused profile of his face in the video, I took out all the little trinkets I had secretly collected for him over the years—those calming incenses specially made for the frenzied phase, the exquisitely tanned belt buckle carved with a simple sketch of his wolf form, the blue flame berry jam I had learned to make after he once complimented how it tasted... all these simple tokens of my clumsy feelings, I threw them into the stone pot in the corner of the room, reserved for burning waste.

On the fifth day, she sent pictures: Damine had sent an entire crate of shimmering Moonstone and Mithril jewelry, crafted by the pack's artisans.

One close-up showed him carefully placing a ring on Sofia's finger. It was set with a large Moonstone and carved into the shape of a wolf's head.

Looking at the picture, I walked to the wall and took down the giant oil painting depicting our three-year-old Blood Moon mating ceremony.

On the canvas, I was wearing an ill-fitting Luna gown, while he stood beside me with a distant expression.

I raised the frame and smashed it against the edge of the fireplace. The canvas tore, and the wooden frame splintered. Then I threw all the pieces into the roaring flames of the fireplace.

On the third day, it was an audio recording. The background was quiet, with only Damine's even breaths and the name he unconsciously mumbled in his sleep: "Sofia... don't go..." His voice was hoarse with sleep, yet full of genuine affection.

I opened the section of his walk-in closet that was his, yet had always remained empty. I packed away all the gifts he had given me during our three-year bond—whether out of an Alpha's sense of duty or occasional guilt—the magnificent fur cloaks, the expensive gemstone necklaces from auctions, even the beautiful feather from a giant bird he had given me after a hunt...

I packed it all up, called an Omega attendant, and instructed him to deliver everything to the foundation in the pack dedicated to helping weak and orphaned wolves.

This main house, which I had once carefully decorated and filled with life, gradually returned to the empty and quiet state it was in when I first arrived.

Meanwhile, my few personal belongings, the ones that truly belonged to me, were gradually packed and placed by the door.

The older Omegas who had long served in the manor looked worried at my near-total clear-out. They cautiously asked among themselves if something had happened.

I smiled at them and forced my tone to be light, as if I were talking about something trivial. "It's nothing. The mate bond with Damine is just being dissolved."

"Dissolved?" Manor Manager Alexander repeated in disbelief, his voice trembling. "Alpha... he agreed to it?"

Agreed?

I didn't know.

But I figured, at this moment, with his heart completely filled with Sofia, Damine would probably feel a sense of relief, or even joy, if he saw the signed mate termination agreement.

As for what happened between Sofia and him, I wanted no part of it anymore.

On the second day of the countdown, another message from Sofia arrived unexpectedly.

This time, the camera wasn't on Damine, but on his parents—the respected old Alpha and his mate of Stormfang Pack.

The pictures showed the three elders sitting around Sofia's sickbed, laughing and chatting. The atmosphere was so harmonious it was as if they were the real family.

Still, I didn't reply to any message.

I calmly opened my comm device, scrolled through my contacts, and selected, one by one, the contact information for Sofia, Damine, and everyone else in the Blackwood family's inner circle who might remind me of this past. Then I pressed the delete button.

On the morning of my departure, the first snow of the year began to fall silently. Fine white crystals covered the Forbidden Forest and the manor's stone pathways.

I took out the leather-bound diaries I had hidden at the bottom of my case, filled with unspoken feelings, and a stack of letters written on light brown paper that I had never had the courage to send. I carried them all to the empty space in the courtyard where I sometimes liked to sit and daydream.

I used an old fire pit to light them. Orange flames leaped up, illuminating my pale face, which was chilled by the wind, and greedily devoured the words of my humble love. They consumed the hot, sour, and ultimately cold feelings of my youth, turning them to ash.

I tilted my head back, watching the falling snowflakes, wondering how long it would have to snow to completely cover these unbearable ashes.

Just as I was lost in thought, the heavy gates of the manor were suddenly pushed open from the outside.

It was Damine, whom I hadn't seen in a long while.

His steps were hurried, carrying the cold air from outside.

He glanced at me, squatting by the fire pit, but didn't stop. He walked straight into the main hall, as if to get something.

A moment later, he came out again and stopped beside me.

His gaze fell on the edges of some light brown letters scattered on the ground that hadn't made it into the fire.

It seemed he unconsciously recalled the letter that had been read aloud at the bonfire party.

The heart that had accumulated so much displeasure and anger toward me because of Sofia finally softened a little, and his tone became gentler.

"I've been... dealing with Sofia's recovery and follow-up care lately, I haven't had a moment to spare." He paused, his voice lower than usual. "In a couple of days, when things settle down, we... we should have a proper talk."

A proper talk?

Talk about what?

The final details of dissolving the bond? Or how to politely ask me, the "substitute," to step aside?

I pulled at the corner of my mouth and looked up at him.

Snowflakes landed on my eyelashes, melting into cold mist. My voice was flat, without a trace of emotion, as if stating a fact that had nothing to do with me.

"No need to talk. The thing you want most, I actually placed in your glove compartment a month ago."

The thing?

What thing?

Damine frowned, a flash of confusion crossing his face. He was about to ask for clarification when his encrypted comm device beeped a few times.

He lowered his head, glanced at the screen, and a soft, clear smile almost involuntarily spread across his face as he read the messages.

Seeing his expression brighten instantly, I took the last few sealed letters that would never be sent and gently tossed them into the flickering flames before me. Then I stood up.

The hem of my slightly oversized fur cloak naturally fell, conveniently hiding the fire pit behind me, which was still burning but about to die out.

Damine finished replying to the message and looked up again just as the last spark in the fire pit was extinguished, leaving only wisps of smoke.

He seemed to have forgotten what he had been about to ask me.

I silently followed him to the manor's main entrance and straightened his collar for him.

A bitter wind blew, kicking up snow from the ground.

Damine looked at my somewhat thin clothes and, out of habit, and with a hint of perfunctory concern he himself might not have even noticed, said gently, "It's cold outside. Go back inside, don't catch a chill."

But I shook my head and insisted on standing at the door to watch him leave.

The engine roared to life. Through the slowly rising car window, Damine saw me lift my hand and give a small wave in his direction. My lips seemed to move, saying something.

The sound of the wind and snow was too loud. He couldn't hear it clearly.

But no matter what, it was probably just a piece of ordinary advice he had heard countless times over the past three years but had never truly cared about, like "drive safe" or "come back early."

So, he didn't pay it any mind. He just nodded and then signaled the driver to go.

The powerful SUV crushed the snow and quickly disappeared at the end of the winding manor driveway, swallowed by the swirling snowflakes and dense forest shadows.

I stood alone in the increasingly heavy snow for a long time, until my limbs felt stiff with cold, before slowly turning and going back inside the main bedroom.

I put on the thick travel cloak I was taking, picked up the already packed suitcase by the door, and walked downstairs.

A pre-ordered SUV bearing the mark of the southern sanctuary was parked quietly in front of the villa gates.

Before getting in, I turned back for one last look at the Blackwood Manor, which looked increasingly indistinct and silent in the snowfall.

Then, I repeated the words that the wind and snow had swallowed, words that had been too soft to hear, clearly, one by one, to this land that had held seven years of secret love and three years of mistaken affection:

"Goodbye, Stormfang Pack."

"Never see again, Damine Blackwood."