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The Witch had gazed into her crystal ball and delivered her prophecy — my pack would fall in seven days. Only my fated mate could prevent it.

But as the deadline crept closer, I hadn't found a single lead.

I sat at my desk, frowning, restlessly spinning a pen between my fingers.

Was fate truly impossible to change?

I asked myself that question for the thousandth time.

Just as I was running out of options, my office door burst open. Nora, my assistant, stumbled in, so panicked she could barely form a sentence.

I set down my files and handed her a glass of water. "Take a breath. Tell me what happened."

She gulped the water down and finally steadied herself.

"Alpha — the altar — it's been blown up!"

My frown deepened. "The altar? Who did it?"

"It was... it was Lucian Grey. He buried a bag of explosives near the altar. When the guards caught him, he kept demanding to see you."

Lucian was the son of a minor pack's Alpha. His father, Viktor, had sent him to our pack as part of a political union to secure our alliance. But just days ago, Lucian had slipped wolfsbane into my water. When I found out, I'd banished him to the Wasteland in a fury. I never expected him to escape the guards and bomb our altar.

The altar was the most sacred symbol of any pack. The news sent shockwaves through our entire territory. I watched the media coverage play out on the screen — cameras cutting to three or four guards pinning Lucian to the ground. No matter how they pressed him, he repeated only one thing:

"I need to see the Alpha . Take me to her — now."

My gaze hardened. I stood and turned to Nora. "Get the car. I'm going to the scene."

We pulled up to the altar. Smoke hung thick in the air, a pillar of black rising into the sky.

A crowd had already gathered, but when they saw my car, they parted on instinct, clearing a narrow path for me.

At the end of that path knelt a filthy male wolf, his face blackened with soot beyond recognition, held down by the guards.

I stood over him and looked down. "Why did you bomb my altar? Do you have any idea that this is a capital offense?"

He didn't answer my question. Instead, he raised his head. Behind those bright eyes, there wasn't a trace of fear — only a smile that was impossible to read.

"I'm from the real world. I'm here to save you."

Those words struck me like lightning. My entire body trembled.

"Lock him in the dungeon. Execution in three days."

I turned and walked away without looking back.

I didn't dare stay a moment longer. I was afraid the tremor in my voice would betray me.

In the car, Nora spoke up cautiously. "Alpha , we still have a partnership with the Tidewater Pack. If we just kill his son, I'm worried about what it'll do to relations between our packs..."

"Our pack is the most powerful in all of wolf-kind. Why would we worry about his little pack?"

Seeing how firm I was, she dropped it.

It wasn't until I was back in my office that I finally allowed myself to exhale.

Late that night, when the world had gone quiet, I drove down a narrow forest road, winding through rugged hills until I reached the deepest part of the woods.

There stood a small cabin. The scent of potions drifted through the windows — the Witch's home.

I pushed the door open. She was stirring something in a massive cauldron, not even glancing up at my entrance, as though my visits were nothing out of the ordinary.

The room was cluttered with potions of every kind, bizarre ingredients, and a crystal ball the size of a fist glowing an eerie blue. I looked closer — the figure reflected inside was Lucian.

He wasn't dead. I had hidden him here, in the Witch's cabin. The execution in three days would be nothing more than a cover — a convicted rogue wolf dragged up as a stand-in.

"The crystal ball tells me this man is the fated mate you've been searching for."

The Witch studied Lucian's unconscious form in the crystal ball, a thoughtful look on her face.