Chapter 1

This time around, I wasn't crying my eyes out as I called Blake to beg him to change it back.

The day I went to visit the Sterling family's territory, Blake just so happened to be taking Sophia Hurst to a private yacht show in the Procktoms.

I casually handed him the confirmation letter for the bonding ceremony, but he impatiently swatted it away. "I'm not reading your apology letter. Bring me the Van Cleef necklace Sophia wants, and maybe I'll drop my aura and forgive you."

I couldn't even be bothered to explain what it was. I simply stood there, coldly watching him drive away.

On the night of the bonding ceremony. Blake, who had always looked down on everyone and prided himself on his pure bloodline, stormed into the venue like a crazed beast, screaming hysterically, "Get out of my way! That's my Luna!"

…

"Stella, are you absolutely sure you don't want to change the declaration letter? Harrison's wolf can't even awaken in his current condition. If you go through with this, wouldn't you be stuck in a markless and bondless marriage?"

My mom, Margaret Merritt, had red-rimmed eyes, and her pheromones reeked of anxiety. They made me feel a little guilty.

Ever since she found out Blake had agreed to form a mate bond with me officially, she had been the happiest person alive.

She'd watched me endure the agonizing loneliness of my heats from age 23 all the way to 30, year after year.

She had cried with me after the first time Blake postponed the ceremony. Between the fourth and seventh times, she sat with me in silence.

By the tenth time, she was so numb that she couldn't even hear the cries of her wolf anymore.

I was even given the unspoken nickname "the Lane family lady who would never get the mark of an Alpha" by the werewolf social scene on the East Coast of North Aforia.

When the Sterlings agreed to the bond, Mom cried to the Moon Goddess all night long. She had even dug out the haute couture gown from her own bonding ceremony and personally altered it, stitch by stitch, until it fit me perfectly before giving it to me.

But now that Blake had printed the wrong name on the declaration letters and sent them to every pack leader in North Aforia just because of some stupid bet with his Omega assistant, all I felt was exhaustion.

Staring at the envelope sealed with the Sterling family's wolf crest, I said softly, "It's okay, Mom. At least I'll still be the lady of Sterling Manor."

I knew I couldn't keep letting my wolfish impulses make decisions for me anymore. I had to be realistic.

This was the tenth time Blake had gone back on his word.

The first six times were just "postponements". The venue was booked, the invites sent out, the dress fitted, only for him to invoke his authority and say, "Let's wait a little longer."

The last four times were outright cancellations. But in Norveyport high society, the rumor had long since become, "Stella was abandoned ten times." And no one cared about the actual truth.

When it happened the first time, my friends in the pack were outraged for me. By the second time, people started wondering if my scent just wasn't appealing enough.

After that, it was just one cancellation after another, until everyone just assumed it was my fault. They said I was too domineering, too controlling.

They said I lacked the obedience expected of a traditional she-wolf, and that was why my childhood sweetheart Blake didn't want to mark me.

During that time, I'd thought about severing my ties to Blake.

But when a few mutual friends secretly tried to set me up with eligible Alphas from other families, they'd take one whiff of the Sterling family's scent permanently clinging to me and politely turn me down.

"Blake's territorial instincts are too strong. It's not worth crossing him. Besides, your reputation…"

No one said it outright, but I got the message loud and clear.

As I touched the words "Harrison Sterling" on the letter, I knew that finally, I had cut every invisible tie binding me to Blake.

Blake thought sending out the wrong declaration was just a cruel little prank, and that I'd end up crying and begging him to fix it.

What he didn't realize was that once this declaration was issued, it became official under the witness of the entire North Aforian Werewolf Alliance. And I was already standing at Harrison Sterling's doorstep with it in my hand.

Only, the Harrison who answered that door was no longer the same Harrison everyone remembered.