Chapter 1

The clamor pierced through the wooden door.

Kayden Booker sat on the main seat draped with wolf pelts, pressing the remote control in his hand.

A projection screen descended, and on it was a video of me wearing revealing dance clothes, swaying my body.

The werewolves below let out excited howls. Some even nearly shifted right there, their claws scratching the floor.

A conservative werewolf voiced his objection in a low tone. "Alpha, Ella is carrying your pup, after all. Won't this public punishment hurt the pack's reputation?"

Kayden slammed his glass down hard on the table, causing shards of glass to fly everywhere.

"Reputation? She's already completely disgraced me! When she was sleeping with Rogues, did she care about reputation?"

He pointed at my pale face on the screen. "Look closely. This is the lowly nature of humans. Vera has put her life on the line for the pack, yet this woman tried to harm her today! She tried to harm our warrior!

"I don't need offspring with traitor blood in the Darkwind pack."

Another young werewolf warrior whistled. "Alpha, you're right. Ms. Walker is the most suitable mate for you. She's strong, loyal, and is a pure-blood.

"This human, though… What can she do except force out a few crocodile tears? Look at the stretch marks growing on her belly. Even Ms. Walker's fur is cleaner than hers!

"She's just a mere toy, and the Alpha is teaching her the rules. He's showing her that in this pack, only the strong deserve respect."

Mocking laughter echoed in the meeting hall.

Kayden scrolled down on the remote, and another video appeared on the screen. It was from three years ago, right after he first brought me back to the pack.

I wasn't pregnant then, and I had a slender figure. I noticed that he was in a bad mood, so I wore a see-through outfit and danced for him.

"Look at this," Kayden said with a cruel smile on his lips. "She was a decent pet back then. Now? It makes me sick just to look at her.

"Who wants her? I'll send you the video so you can use it for yourselves. Don't be shy."

Kayden's familiar voice was like sharp knives stabbing into my ears.

I curled up behind the railing, feeling my nails dig into my flesh.

Three years ago, when Kayden was lying wounded and covered in blood in the snow, I was the one who saved him.

That day, there was a blizzard. My alcoholic father had gambled all his money away and wanted to sell me to the butcher in town to pay off his debt.

I had run barefoot deep into the mountains. There, I discovered a man covered in blood, lying unconscious.

I didn't know who he was, but I also didn't want to watch him die.

After dragging him into a cave, I cleaned his wounds with snow, then tore strips from my skirt to bandage him.

The heavy snowfall blocked the mountain passes, so we were trapped inside the cave for three whole nights.

The only food was a single piece of bread from my pocket. While enduring the cramps in my stomach, I gave the only food I had to him.

"Eat. You need to heal," I said.

The man struggled to open his eyes, but he didn't speak. With a hand covered in dried blood, he pushed the bread back toward my lips.

"I'm not hungry," he said.

He then turned away and secretly licked some snow to satisfy his hunger.

That night, he developed a high fever. I used my own body heat to keep him warm and almost froze to death in the process.

On the fourth morning, my father and a few others tracked us down.

"You bitch! How dare you run?" he snarled.

My father waved an iron rod around and threatened to break my legs.

The man behind me stirred, and he pushed himself to sit up. In front of me, his human form tore apart and shifted into a silver wolf.

My father was so terrified that he wet himself. He ended up dropping the iron rod and running away.

The man shifted back to his human form. He looked at me. I was staring at him in shock.

"Are you afraid?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No."

He smiled and said, "Then, come with me. I'll give you glory and a home."

I had believed him.

I endured the prejudice against humans in werewolf society. I endured the disgust of their raw food culture. I endured his rough demands every full moon when he lost control.

In order to conceive this werewolf-human hybrid that had a very low survival rate, I took countless shots to protect the pregnancy. As a result, my belly was covered with needle marks.

And now, the pup I risked my life for was just a "mutt" in his eyes.

At this moment, I felt as though all my sacrifices were a joke. My heart seemed to shatter into pieces as I watched that video playing on the screen.

Just to get revenge for Vera Walker, Kayden could trample on my dignity in front of everyone else.

When Vera pretended to fall, he even rushed to pick her up first. He then turned around and slapped me across the face. My ears had been ringing from that slap ever since.

I turned and went back to my room, pulling my suitcase out from under the bed.

There wasn't much to pack. In this home, very few things truly belonged to me.

My phone vibrated. It was the address sent by the Supernatural Human Association.

At 3:00 pm tomorrow, they would come to get me, and then we would leave the werewolf territory.

It was time to end this cross-species mistake.