Chapter 2

After returning to the Black Wolf Pack, I began packing for the journey north.

There was hardly anything worth bringing with me, though. The climate and customs of the Snow Wolf Pack were completely different from what I was used to, and almost none of my belongings would be useful there.

Still, I needed something to occupy myself with, if only to quiet the unease in my heart.

I had grown up in the Black Wolf Pack, and pretending I wasn’t afraid to leave everything familiar behind and travel so far away would have been a lie.

Susan had wasted away in misery after going north in my previous life. Now that it was my turn, would I really be any luckier than she had been?

The moment I stepped out of my room, I saw Susan leaning against Logan in the living room, her face deathly pale and blood still staining her wrist.

A silver blade lay on the floor beside them, along with a farewell letter addressed to Logan.

When he noticed me, the tension in his expression eased slightly.

“So much for refusing to go through with the marking ceremony. You still found a reason to come see me, didn’t you?”

Keeping one arm around Susan, he pulled out a clean bandage with the other and carefully wrapped it around her wounded wrist.

“Hold still. I’ll bandage it for you.”

The tenderness and concern in his eyes were impossible to miss.

Susan glanced up at me before deliberately turning back to Logan, her voice thick with tears.

“Logan, I’m sorry. Am I causing trouble for you and Serena again?”

His movements became even gentler as he answered, though the words seemed intended as much for me as for her.

“No. None of this is your fault. You were never the one who should have been sent to the Snow Wolf Pack.”

A sharp pain went through my heart.

Just like in my previous life, Susan had staged a suicide attempt to escape the alliance. The silver blade had barely touched her wrist, yet it had already frightened Logan badly enough.

“Logan, this isn’t Serena’s fault. I’m just unlucky. If I’m gone someday, promise me you’ll treat her well and stop arguing with her because of me.”

Susan continued speaking through her tears, and every word only made the concern in Logan’s eyes deepen.

Watching them from where I stood, I felt nothing but coldness spreading through my chest.

My father must have already told Susan that I was the one going north now, yet she was clearly keeping that from Logan.

I tried to explain.

“Logan, the person going north for the alliance is actually—”

Before I could finish, Susan suddenly cried out and cut me off.

Holding up her injured wrist, she let the tears spill freely down her cheeks.

“Logan, am I going to die? I still have to fulfill the alliance for the pack. I can’t die now.”

Logan immediately pulled her into his arms as though she were something unbearably precious.

“The Black Wolf Pack is Serena’s responsibility. She’s the one who should be dealing with this.”

When he looked at me again, his eyes had turned completely cold.

“Serena, are you bringing this up on purpose because you want to push Susan over the edge? She was desperate enough to try to kill herself. What more do you want from her?”

I looked quietly at the two of them holding each other and finally felt the last of my hope disappear.

I was the one who would be leaving for the alliance, yet at that moment, I no longer had any desire to tell him the truth and simply turned away in silence.

Tomorrow, the pack guards would escort me away from the Black Wolf Pack and begin the journey north.

Early the next morning, when I opened my door, an exquisite jewelry box was waiting outside.

A note had been placed on top.

“Don’t be mad anymore. It’s the moonstone necklace you’ve always wanted.”

As I stared at the box, an old memory surfaced.

Long ago, I had fallen in love with a moonstone necklace and teasingly asked Logan when he planned to buy it for me. At the time, he had promised that if I liked it, he could give it to me whenever I wanted.

That promise had eventually been forgotten, while every single thing Susan asked for was always given to her without delay.

Now he had finally given it to me, but only as an apology for speaking too harshly.

A gift given as an apology like this no longer meant anything to me.

Leaving the jewelry box untouched, I instructed the guards to load my luggage into the vehicle. After taking one last lingering look around the room I had lived in for so many years, I turned and headed downstairs.

Halfway down, Susan appeared behind me and spoke in a low voice.

“Serena, you’re leaving the pack already?”

My fingers slowly tightened around the banister as I turned to face her without expression.

Standing above me on the stairs, Susan looked down with triumph she could barely conceal.

“Once you leave, you probably won’t ever come back. The North is so harsh that even werewolves can barely survive there for long.”

Her smile deepened.

“And I heard the Alpha of the Snow Wolf Pack is cold-blooded and ruthless. They say he’s cursed. Three of his mates have already died on the night of their marking ceremonies.”

She leaned down slightly, bringing her lips close to my ear before lowering her voice.

“It probably won’t be long before you join that mother of yours in the ground.”