Chapter 1

The year I turned eighteen and awakened my wolf, I saw Rex for the first time.

He emerged from the depths of the snow forest, and the silver wolf inside me suddenly opened her eyes.

The scent of pine flooded my senses, and a resonance deep in my soul shot through every nerve straight into my heart.

My silver wolf growled with excitement in my mindscape.

"It's him.

"The fated mate the Moon Goddess chose for us."

Rex's black wolf recognized me too.

That night, our two wolves called out to each other through our bodies, and the mate bond connected us.

But to help Rex secure the position of Alpha, we kept our relationship hidden.

The former Alpha and the Council of Elders believed that revealing a mate would give his rivals a weakness to exploit. Rex promised me that once he had secured his place as Alpha, he would hold the mating ceremony in front of the entire pack and complete the mark.

In seven years, we never did.

Every full moon, the instinctive restlessness of our wolves and the longing born from the mate bond would peak.

Several times, Rex had pressed his fangs to the side of my neck. His black wolf screamed at him to bite down, but every time, he forced himself to stop.

"Just a little longer, Wendy.

"I want every member of the pack to know that you're my only mate."

Because of that promise, I waited seven full years.

The day Rex claimed the Alpha title, he finally announced that he would hold the mating ceremony for me.

The full moon hung high overhead. Pack members filled the sacred grounds with moonflowers and offered the first kill of the spring hunt to the Moon Goddess.

Bonfires blazed. Warriors shifted into wolf form and howled at the sky, their voices rising and falling in chorus.

Healer Martha Ellis stood beside the sacred fire, ready to witness the marking.

Rex walked toward me in his ceremonial robes.

His black wolf slammed against his mindscape with excitement, and through the mate bond, even I could feel its urgency and joy.

Rex stopped in front of me and leaned toward me, his gaze fixed on the side of my neck.

The black wolf kept urging him on.

"Now.

"Complete the mark. She's waited seven years for us."

Rex leaned down, his hot breath brushing my skin.

But just as his fangs were about to touch me, Lilia lunged forward.

She released her gray wolf and shifted into partial wolf form.

Claws tore through her skin, fangs jutted from her lips, and gray-brown fur sprouted wildly along her spine.

She knocked over the sacred fire basin with one swipe, shredded the ceremonial wreath, and clamped her teeth onto the hem of Rex's coat.

"Rex, you promised you'd only ever protect me."

Rex's body visibly stiffened.

His stance was still angled toward me, and his fingers instinctively reached for me.

The black wolf crashed against his consciousness in a frenzy.

"Don't turn around!

"Complete the mark!

"She is our fated mate!"

But Lilia let out a strangled whimper.

She trembled all over, her eyes rimmed with red, every strand of fur on her back standing on end, looking as though she might completely lose control at any moment.

But between gasps, she darted a glance at Rex.

Only when she saw his resolve wavering did she cling even tighter to his leg.

"Rex, it hurts... it hurts so much..."

Rex's clenched fingers slowly uncurled.

He had already taken half a step toward me, but in the end, he forced himself to turn around and walk to Lilia.

The black wolf roared with fury inside his mindscape.

"Go back! Complete the mark!

"That lunatic ruined our ceremony!"

But Rex forced the black wolf into submission.

He wrapped his arms around Lilia and smoothed the bristling fur along her back until her breathing steadied. Only then did he finally look at me.

"Wendy, Lilia's wolf lost control again.

"Let's pause the ceremony until she settles down."

He said it as if it were obvious.

As though I would keep standing in place and waiting for him, the way I had for the past seven years.

I forced down my silver wolf's anguished cry and looked at him coldly.

"Alpha Rex, tonight you either complete the mark, or we're finished for good.

"Choose."

Rex's expression darkened instantly.

"Wendy, you know what Lilia's going through. Do you really have to back me into a corner right now?"

I looked into his eyes, searching for even a trace of the warmth that used to be there.

He wasn't entirely unmoved.

His fingertips were still trembling, and the black wolf was still crashing against his consciousness.

But in the end, the look that settled in his eyes was still one of reproach, aimed at me.

Over the past seven years, things like this had happened countless times.

According to Rex, Lilia had been abandoned by her original pack as a child. Once, he hadn't caught her in time, and she had fallen down a slope.

Ever since then, whenever Lilia clutched her head and said she was in pain, he would think of that accident.

Lilia also claimed that her gray wolf had been traumatized by the fall and frequently lost control.

Rex's guilt over that accident had long since become an invisible shackle.

Whenever Lilia cried out in pain, he forgot everything else.

Including me.