Chapter 4

I took a deep breath outside the pack office building before pushing the door open.

This pack had once been all of mine and Ethan's blood, sweat, and dreams.

Back then, though he was the young heir of the Stormwind pack, he stubbornly insisted on carving out his own territory.

The Stormwind family rules were strict. Without proving yourself, you received no support whatsoever.

Those early days were unimaginably difficult.

The funds dried up, we couldn't pay salaries, enemies surrounded us on all sides.

To help him through that crisis, I picked up my paintbrush and painted day and night.

One painting after another, selling them to galleries, to anyone willing to pay, using that meager income to barely keep the pack afloat.

The massive painting at the pack office entrance, "Daybreak," was the first painting I ever sold.

My technique was still immature back then, but it was full of reckless determination.

After the pack's situation improved, the first thing Ethan did was track down that buyer by any means necessary, buying it back at ten times the price.

I remember how carefully he hung it there himself, then gently and proudly ruffled my hair amid all the pack members' teasing, his eyes shining brilliantly.

"Aria, look, it's come home. Later, when we're even more successful, I'll buy back every single painting you sold for me and fill our home with them!"

His words back then were a burning promise.

And I believed him.

But he only recovered this one.

After that, he encountered Selene again.

This promise, like so many other things, was silently shelved and forgotten, never mentioned again.

The moment I stepped into the pack office, my heart sank.

The most prominent wall by the entrance was empty.

Where "Daybreak" had hung, there was now a saccharine, technically precise commercial floral oil painting.

My heart jumped.

I rushed to the front desk, my voice tight. "What happened to the painting at the entrance? Why was it changed?"

The receptionist looked up and saw me. Her eyes flickered, her smile awkward.

"Alpha Stormwind ordered it changed. Miss Selene said the original painting's tones were too heavy and depressing, so Alpha Stormwind had someone replace it with something brighter."

Selene didn't like it, so he replaced it.

This painting was the pack's origin story, the witness to our love, and his promise to me from years ago.

But now, just because of Selene's casual complaint, he'd removed it from this position symbolizing our beginning and glory, disappeared to who knows where.

My heart felt like it had been struck by a blunt object, a dull, spreading ache bringing a suffocating daze.

As I stood before that empty wall, trying to digest this bone-chilling coldness, the security guard walked in carrying a large rectangular box.

"Miss Greenwood, you're here. You have a delivery that just arrived. I need you to sign for it."

I froze.

"My delivery?"

I hadn't sent anything personal to the pack office in a long time.

The guard checked the name on the receipt.

"Yes, the recipient is definitely you."

Confused, I signed and took the heavy box.

I went to the nearby break area and opened the package.

Beneath layers of protective paper, a pristine white emerged.

When I fully unfolded it, my breathing nearly stopped.

It was a wedding gown.

Classical lace long sleeves, delicate pearl embroidery, an elegant A-line skirt.

Every detail was so familiar it made my heart tremble.

This was the style of the wedding dress from my mother's old photo album, the one she'd worn!

My phone buzzed at that exact moment.

A text from an unknown number appeared.

"The wedding gown recreated from your mother's photo—do you like it?"