Chapter 1

"Good afternoon. I'd like to file for a mate bond dissolution."

Two years after forming a mate bond, I decided to dissolve it. However, the registrar at the marriage office didn't seem to take me seriously. She thought I was here for a prank.

I couldn't blame her. After all, I was a petite-looking student with a Werewolf University badge. No matter how she looked, I appeared nothing like a mated woman.

Sternly, she told me, "To file for that, you and your mate will need to come down to the office here and sign. I need more than just you."

"I'm aware that the agreement will only take effect if both of us sign it, but could you give us a copy of the document instead? I'll ask my mate to sign it at home and submit it as soon as he does.

"He's… a busy man."

After hearing my explanation, the registrar handed me the agreement stamped with the city hall's official seal. She told me the mate bond would be dissolved five days after we both signed it.

By then, our relationship would officially end.

I took the agreement and went home. As soon as I walked in, I saw Logan Hunt and Bianca Miller roasting venison together. I didn't know what they were talking about, but they seemed happy.

When he heard the door open, he immediately came over. "You're home early today. Have some roast. It's your favorite, isn't it?"

I glanced at the fragrant meat and felt a pang in my chest. All year, I had never eaten roast at home because he said he didn't like our apartment smelling like it.

I pulled out a medical form I had prepared. "The uni's scheduling a health check. They need a parent's signature."

I was an orphan with no family. Logan, as my mate, was the only one who counted as family.

"Sure. Let me see what kind of tests they're doing," he said, reaching out to take the form.

Immediately, I froze. I hadn't expected him to actually read it.

As the CEO of the pack's trading company, he was always busy, too occupied to waste time on trivial matters like this. He had been busier, especially after his childhood sweetheart, Bianca, returned to the country a month ago.

I tried to quietly slip the Mate Bond Dissolution Agreement back into my bag. The next second, Bianca handed Logan a piece of roast meat with a smile.

"Celeste is your mate. Why are you talking so seriously? Anyone listening would think you were lecturing your younger sister. You two seem nothing like a couple."

"Was I being too serious?"

Logan's expression softened. He glanced at me with a smile and completely forgot about checking the medical form. Instead, he signed right where I pointed without a second thought.

Swiftly, I turned and left before he could see the title of the document. Once I was inside the bedroom, I let out a long, relieved breath.

I looked down at the agreement, and for the first time, I felt freedom calling to me. It was over between us.

Technically, it should've ended a month ago.

Before all that, Logan truly treated me with such tenderness. The way he looked at me was full of love; at night, he would hold me from behind as we slept.

During our werewolf pack gatherings, when no one was watching, he would sneak little sniffs, hug me tight, then lift me into his muscly arms, and kiss me until I couldn't breathe.

However, everything changed a month ago. Bianca returned. All of a sudden, he became busy—distant.

Our fathers had been close friends. Logan's father was the Beta of the pack, while my dad, as his second-in-command, threw himself in front of a silver nitrate bullet during a Rogue attack—a bullet meant for the Beta.

The silver tore into his chest, and the nitrate dissolved swiftly into his bloodstream. There was no saving him. My father died, and I became an orphan.

Out of gratitude, Logan took me in, even though I was ten years younger than him. We started living together.

He could've easily become the pack's next Beta, but he had no interest in power. Instead, he was more drawn to business.

So, he founded a trading company that became famous not only in the pack but all across Hampshire Street and the entire Veloria.

He won the Global Excellence in Business Award and was named the world's most eligible bachelor.

Yet, for all his brilliance, I never truly knew him. Even under the same roof, there was always a wall between us.

Everything began to shift on a night two years ago. The Beta had badly injured a Rogue. To get revenge, the Rogues came after me.

I was tending to a cut on the inside of my thigh when Logan came home. He took the bandage from my hands and began wrapping the wound for me. Then, his lips brushed against my thigh.

A moment later, his hands slid to the back of my neck, pulling me into a kiss that left me dizzy and breathless. The hands that should've pushed him away instead hovered in the air, uncertain.

The kiss was intoxicating. I lost all sense of control, completely swept up in him. All I could do was let him take the lead in everything.

A month later, we held the bonding ceremony.

Logan said he wanted to give me a sense of security and make sure I would never think that night was just a moment of impulse, that forming a mate bond with me wasn't out of guilt or some sense of duty.

Instead, it was a choice, one he made with his whole heart. And so, I became his mate. I believed every word he said.

Then, a month ago, Bianca—a human, his longtime confidante, and more importantly, his business partner—got close to him. Not to mention, the Miller and Hunt Corporations had always maintained close commercial ties.

After her divorce, she returned to Hampshire Street, home to the largest stock exchange in the world.

Logan started coming home late. Meetings piled up; every time I reached out, he was either in a meeting or about to start one. We barely talked anymore.

To be fair, he never stayed out overnight. He always came home, even if it was past midnight. However, the unfortunate part was when Bianca started showing up at our home more frequently.

If she wasn't here for dinner, she was dropping by to discuss business. That lasted for the entire month.

A week ago was our second anniversary.

I had reserved the best table at Moonlight Bistro and planned a candlelit dinner. But instead of Logan, I was met with a jewelry box of moonstone accessories, delivered by his assistant, along with a message.

"An emergency international meeting came up."

Later that night, I came across the truth online, thanks to a photo taken by a paparazzi. Logan and Bianca were standing outside a movie theater. She was holding a piece of popcorn up to his lips.

That was the moment I decided to leave.

Now, looking at the signed Mate Bond Dissolution Agreement, I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. If it hadn't been for Bianca steering the conversation away, it never would've gone so smoothly.

In five days, I would be free again. My life would no longer be filled with false promises of love or pretense.

As for Logan… He could finally be with Bianca openly without any guilt.