Chapter 1

With that, I turned to leave.

My fated mate, Harrison Talbot, grabbed my wrist, his eyes filled with impatience. He exclaimed, "That's enough, Chloe Redclaw! The whole pack is watching! Must you throw a tantrum over something this trivial?"

I yanked my arm away and looked him straight in the eye.

"You call this trivial? Today was supposed to be my mating ceremony!"

Seeing the fury in my eyes, Harrison hesitated and replied, "There's no need for you to feel so insecure. Selena just wants to pretend to be the Luna for a while.

"Once the ceremony ends tonight, she'll return the Moon Crown to me, and I'll still bite your neck to complete our mating bond."

Selena let out a soft, derisive huff when she saw my expressionless face.

"Oh, stop the act, Chloe. You also threatened to break up with Alpha Harrison when we made a bet and left you alone in the Black Forest last month. And what happened next? You were already brewing a soothing herbal tea the next day, bringing it to us as a peace offering, weren't you?"

Hearing this, Harrison's tense expression relaxed, his tone turning confident as he stated, "Exactly. You threaten to break up every single time, but have you ever actually left me?"

Selena turned to Harrison, asking provocatively, "Wanna make another bet, Alpha? I bet she won't last more than two days before she comes crawling back, begging you to mark her."

Harrison agreed without hesitation. "Fine by me. But you're giving her too much credit. I bet she won't even last ten hours."

Once again, they used me as the subject of a bet, completely indifferent to my emotions.

I forced down the nausea rising in my stomach and asked, "What makes you so sure I'll ever come back this time, Harrison?"

He leaned down, bringing his lips close to my ear. He then whispered, "You endured five years of cold shoulders and scorn from our pack, and spent over 300 days and nights preparing for this ceremony, just so that you could become my Luna.

"You love me to the very core of your being. Are you sure that you can really bring yourself to leave me?"

My heart sank when I saw the smugness and arrogance in his eyes. I didn't even want to argue with him anymore.

No matter what I did, Harrison would still remain convinced that I was merely playing hard-to-get, but he had no idea that I could just choose to walk away from him anywhere and anytime I wanted to.

Suddenly, the other wolves below the platform began to clamor.

"That's enough, Chloe! Just step down already!"

"We've all seen how much Alpha Harrison dotes on you. Remember when you were struck by wolfsbane? He stayed by your side for three days and three nights!

"He's just close friends with Selena, and it's perfectly normal for them to make bets or share a few jokes. Is it really worth making such a fuss?"

"Yeah! Everyone knows Selena has sworn an oath of lifelong loyalty to the pack and is a staunch 'lone wolf' at heart. She's not actually going to steal your position as Luna. What's the harm in letting her have a little fun just experiencing what it'd be like?"

The pack's grating "advice" came one barb after another, like countless poisoned silver needles piercing into my heart and bleeding me out.

They used the kindness Harrison showed me in the past as leverage to coerce me today. It was so bitter and ironic it was almost suffocating.

Everyone was pressuring me to be more magnanimous and just accept this humiliation with a smile on my face. Yet, not a single wolf asked why on earth I should even hand over the mating ceremony—which I spent an entire year preparing—to another she-wolf.

I let out a slow, shaky breath, my throat tight and aching.

But truth be told, Harrison was indeed very familiar with what I would have done in the past.

When Selena once burned down the medicinal herbs I'd painstakingly cultivated, he simply held me tightly from behind, kissed away my tears, and promised it wouldn't happen again—and I forgave them like a fool.

And when Selena ruined the ceremonial gown I'd designed myself, I was the one who told him it didn't matter simply because I hadn't wanted to see him caught in an awkward position.

I thought that I was showing him the patience and tolerance required when we were in love, but now, I'd finally come to my senses.

To them, my concessions were nothing more than a pathetic, spineless display of subservience, and the more I gave, the less they valued me.

Just then, Harrison's mother, Petunia Grayson, stepped onto the stage.

I expected her to uphold the solemnity of the ceremony, but she walked straight up to Selena, a gentle smile spreading across her wrinkled face.

"This Moon Crown suits Selena far better than it ever could have suited Chloe."