Chapter 1

Ethan Thornfield got the papers I had signed and immediately dialed his lawyer. "Yes, she's signed… Good. Now head to Pier Two Club. We'll go over the official steps for dissolving the mate bond."

I listened to him on the phone, then walked over to the wall and took down the huge painting. We had commissioned a street artist to paint it during our hardest times. It had only cost five dollars back then.

The painting showed Ethan and me. The wolf forms were a little distorted, the fur too pale, but I had always hung it in the living room, right where everyone could see it. It was proof of our love.

Now, all I felt was a dull ache in my chest.

When Ethan hung up, he watched me without any surprise.

"You don't have to move out immediately. The mate bond termination will take some time. You can stay in the manor until then. I won't shortchange you when it comes to the division of assets.

"You've been by my side for the last ten years, after all. I appreciate that you agreed so easily and didn't make me look foolish in front of the pack elders."

He glanced at his watch, adding, "That's about it. I'll head out now. Chloe's waiting for me. If I'm late, she'll cry again."

Ethan didn't wait for my answer. He strode straight to the foyer, changed his shoes, grabbed his car keys, and slammed the door shut behind him.

My body gave out at once, and I collapsed onto the couch. The oil painting slipped from my hands, the wooden frame hitting the floor and splitting in two.

I didn't want to cry, but my heart ached so badly I could barely breathe.

Since I found out Ethan was tangled up with that Omega, I cried too much this past year. At first, the pain came from his betrayal of our ten-year vow. Later, it was his indifference and ruthlessness that stung.

Even after I allowed him to keep other she-wolves outside, he still insisted on dissolving the mate bond. To force me out, he touched other females right in front of me.

He even shared heat with another she-wolf in our bedroom—on our bed. He did everything he could to humiliate me. What could I do?

The pack elders once said that if one side was determined to sever the bond, the other had no power to stop it, especially if the one who wanted to leave was an Alpha.

Hence, for the past six months, Ethan had used every trick in the book to push me into ending our mate bond.

The first time, he announced it on the night of the full moon, in front of the entire pack, that I was a useless she-wolf. After all those years of bonding, I had never given him a pup.

The second time, he had a Beta lace my wolf-suppression medicine with silver. It caused me to lose control and shift in the human world. Bounty hunters came after me, and I was left severely injured.

The third time was a month ago, during the hunting rite. He abandoned me deep in the forest, where Rogues gathered. I was three months pregnant then, and that attack took my second unborn pup.

More alarmingly, every time I tried to resist, he would sneer and say, "A she-wolf like you deserves nothing more than the lowest Omega… or exile from the pack forever."

It was the same tonight. Ethan mocked Dad in public, saying he had failed as a parent. He knew Dad's heart was weak and that he had undergone a werewolf heart repair surgery only three months ago.

In reality, I had been hiding our separation from Dad this whole time. To get what he wanted, Ethan didn't hesitate to expose my lie.

In the past, he would never even let me feel a trace of unhappiness. If I were upset, he would do everything he could to comfort me. I truly couldn't understand how he turned into this.

A suffocating pain clenched my ribcage. I was just about to return to my room when my phone rang. It was the werewolf caretaker looking after Dad.

I answered the call, and her voice came through with unmistakable panic, "Bad news, Ms. Clarke! Elder Robert is in danger!"