2

One month ago.

Victoria called Marcus in tears, begging him to help care for her sick pet dog. Without hesitation, Marcus abandoned me to rush to Victoria's aid.

After he left, I encountered his enemy—rogue wolves from the eastern territories. That's when I discovered I was pregnant. My wolf had gone dormant to protect the growing life inside me.

I couldn't shift to defend myself. I could only desperately reach out through our mind link, calling for Marcus again and again.

Nine times I called. Nine times he ignored me.

On the tenth attempt, he finally responded with irritation: "Enough already. If you're going to fake emergencies for attention, at least know when to stop."

Then he completely blocked our mind link.

The rogues cornered me in the abandoned warehouse district. Their leader's claws raked across my stomach as I tried to protect my unborn pup . I felt the warm blood soaking through my shirt as darkness claimed me.

When I woke up in the healing clinic, the pack healer looked at me with sad eyes.

"I'm sorry, Luna. We couldn't save the baby."

The moment I learned our pup was gone, something inside me shattered completely.

I thought: it's time to end this.

**Back in the present.**

In our living room, Marcus stood with his back to me, gripping his bourbon glass so tightly his knuckles turned white.

He didn't ask why I hadn't contacted him that night.

He knew exactly why. He knew I had tried countless times to reach him through our mind link.

"It's probably for the best anyway," Marcus said without turning around. "You were never much of a mother to begin with."

He walked toward his study and shut the door with practiced ease.

Twelve years of being mated. Countless fights and arguments.

I was always the one who apologized first. Always the one who crawled back, begging for forgiveness.

But this time, Marcus waited in vain for my usual plea for reconciliation.

Thirty minutes later, he opened the study door and searched our enormous house. He couldn't find me anywhere.

I was already gone.

---

**How it all began.**

We discovered we were fated mates right after we both came of age and first shifted. The entire northern territory disapproved of our union. After all, Marcus was the Alpha of Shadowmoon Pack and heir to the Alpha King throne—the most noble wolf in all the northern lands.

I was just a commoner. Worse, my father was a convicted criminal.

But Marcus fell in love with me anyway. He pursued me with relentless determination.

Our first meeting wasn't romantic. I had just joined the pack's hunting squad as a bottom-tier soldier, assigned the dirtiest job of collecting and cleaning the kills. That day, torrential rain caused a mudslide that scattered our hunting party. I was ordered to search for missing pack members.

I found Marcus unconscious, half-buried in mud and debris.

I dragged him to a dry cave and used wild healing herbs to treat his wounds. When he woke up, his wolf immediately recognized me as his mate.

After learning I had saved his life, he followed me around like a lovesick puppy.

He would wait at my assignment locations, trailing behind me no matter how many times I told him to leave.

He bought me expensive designer dresses. I tore them to shreds and threw them back at him.

He spent ten million dollars at auction for a rare healing crystal, made me ridiculously expensive lunches with his own hands. I gave everything to my injured hunting squad teammates.

My friends all laughed, saying I'd caught myself a wealthy, devoted Alpha.

Anyone could see we came from completely different worlds.

But this same man burst into my safe house when my criminal father stabbed me with a silver dagger. Marcus didn't care about the blood covering me—he gathered my dying body in his arms and summoned the pack's best healer.

While the healer worked on my wounds, Marcus stood with his back to us. His shoulders shook uncontrollably, and he kept wiping his face with the back of his hand.

The healer asked him, half-exasperated and half-amused, why he was crying when he wasn't the one who got hurt.

"I don't know why," Marcus said. "But seeing her injured makes my chest feel like it's being torn apart."

In the medical ward, Marcus clumsily peeled an apple for me.

"I never want to feel this helpless again. Sage, promise me you won't get hurt anymore. I'm begging you."

I ate the ice cream he bought me, mumbling "okay" around the cold sweetness. Then I glared at him fiercely:

"So are you going to mark me or not?"

We both turned red-faced that entire day, too embarrassed to speak.

I had told Marcus a secret no one else knew. My mother was actually murdered by my father on purpose.

Dad knew Mom was severely allergic to Moonlight herb, but he forced liquid silver down five-year-old me's throat. Only Moonlight herb could cure silver poisoning in werewolves.

To save me, Mom desperately searched for the herb despite knowing it would kill her. She held on just long enough to feed me the antidote before her severe allergic reaction claimed her life.

From that day on, I hated my father, hated myself, and hated Moonlight herb.

"So if you ever want to break up with me," I told eighteen-year-old Marcus, "you don't need to say it directly. Just send me Moonlight herb."

"Don't be stupid," he said, holding me tight. "We'll be together forever."

The eighteen-year-old boy wrapped his arms around me, refusing to let me say another foolish word.

I should have known that forever was just another lie.