Chapter 1

Midnight. Alistair came home.

He saw the evidence laid out on the table between us—the photograph torn from its pieces, the pink lace underwear. His face drained of color.

"The evidence is right there," I said, my voice cold. "The Severance papers. Sign."

He didn't listen. He snatched the photo fragments and ripped them again. He threw the lace into the fire.

"That woman set me up. I drank too much at the pack gathering, and she volunteered to walk me back to my room. She took the photo and had a witch doctor alter it."

"She's been bitter ever since she failed to win me back in training. Now she wants to destroy our family."

But his scent did not lie.

His skin should have carried the clean scent of pine and frost. Tonight, it was tainted with something else—jasmine and smoke. Her scent.

When I didn't move, his eyes blazed gold.

"Selene. Thirteen years we've been together. Eight years as mates. And you'd believe an outsider over me?"

I pushed the Severance papers toward him again.

He laughed suddenly. "Fine. I'll make her confess right now."

He pulled out his phone and snarled into it. "Jade Moonshadow. If you ever bother Selene again, I will end your worthless life."

He walked to the balcony. Several minutes passed before he returned. His face was exhausted. His voice came out almost pleading.

"Selene. I will handle this. Give me time. Don't joke about ending our bond."

I nodded. "All right. I'll give you time."

He exhaled in relief and stepped toward me to pull me into his arms.

I stepped back.

"I'm tired. I'll sleep in the guest room."

He froze. His face went pale as ash.

That night, I did not sleep.

At three in the morning, thirst drove me to the kitchen. That was when I heard noises from his study.

The door was not fully closed.

I saw my proud, restrained Alpha—the wolf who had always held himself above base desires. He was sitting in his chair, one hand wrapped around the pink lace that should have burned. His eyes were bloodshot. His throat made sounds he could not control.

And from his trembling lips, between ragged breaths, fell two words.

"Jade... my Jade..."

In that moment, a part of my soul died completely.

The seer had been wrong. It was not the fifth year when Alistair would betray me.

His heart and his body had already split apart long before.

The next day, I still insisted on ending the bond. But Alistair refused to sign.

Every evening, he came home on time. He brought a bouquet of pink roses—my favorite. He thought flowers could erase everything.

But within two days, Jade Moonshadow began posting relentlessly on her public feed.

A photo of her wrist wrapped in bloodied bandages, captioned: "If my existence hurts you, I'll gladly disappear."

A photo of her lying in the pack healer's tent, captioned: "Alistair, please don't worry about me. I'm the one at fault."

A photo of herself in front of the old training grounds, captioned: "Youth we can't return to. The wolf we can't forget."

I screenshotted everything and forwarded them to Alistair.

He called Jade immediately. I heard him roar through the phone. "Jade Moonshadow. Stay away from Selene. Or I swear by the Moon, I will forget every year we trained together and tear you apart."

Jade's tearful voice leaked through the speaker. "But Alistair... I've loved you for eight years. I can't live without you."

He hung up. His face was dark.

The next morning, the pack's announcement board bore a formal notice. Jade Moonshadow had been publicly reprimanded. Stripped of her Gamma ranking. Removed from all elite training rotations.

I knew. Alistair had done this to prove his loyalty to me.

But that afternoon, Jade burst into my quarters, weeping.

"Selene! Are you satisfied now? Not only did you trap Alistair in this bond, now you're destroying my future!"