Chapter 4

I stormed into the Pack House, seeing red.

"Give me my money back!"

My eyes were bloodshot. I glared at my mother sitting by the warm fireplace.

"That is my survival money! I washed plates in filthy water for a whole month!"

The air in the living room turned to stone.

Sylvia elegantly took a sip of her black tea. She didn't even blink.

"Watch your tone when speaking to your Luna." She set her cup down and scoffed.

"You've been draining the Pack's resources for years. What's wrong with taking a little of your money to buy Willow supplements? Besides, you're going to the border Patrol Academy anyway. You don't need money there."

So casual. So entitled.

I was shaking with rage. I tasted sickening blood in my throat.

Ten years of suppressed pain and anger finally boiled over.

"Draining resources?!" I screamed hysterically. "When you threw me into that drafty shack, did you even think of me as your daughter?!"

"When the rogues were breaking my door down, where were you?!"

"When I had a 102-degree fever and desperately mind-linked you for help, did any of you answer me even once?!"

Dead silence filled the hall.

Only the firewood crackled in the hearth.

My father Marcus's face instantly went dark.

Alpha aura slammed into me again!

The force made me grunt and stumble back two steps.

He stood up, pointed at the door, and roared. "You're out of control! The Pack gave you life! Every drop of blood in your veins, everything you own, belongs to the Pack!"

"If you throw one more tantrum in here, I'll throw you in the dungeon right now! I'll chain you up with silver! You aren't going anywhere!"

The dungeon.

This was my father.

Just to make me shut up, he was willing to treat his own flesh and blood like a prisoner of war.

I stood my ground and suddenly laughed.

The last ridiculous craving for family in my heart turned to ash and blew away in the wind.

Julian stood up from the couch. Frowning, he walked up to me.

He looked down at me like he was giving out charity.

"Harper, stop causing a scene. Submit to the Alpha." He sighed, his eyes full of blame. "If you just behave and go to the Patrol Academy, I'll visit you regularly. I'll take care of you."

Take care of me?

Looking at his utterly hypocritical face, my wolf whimpered in sorrow.

Enough.

I stared dead into Julian's eyes and unleashed a freezing aura.

"I, Harper, reject you, Julian, as my fated Mate." I said the ancient words coldly. "Our bond is dead."

Julian's tall frame violently staggered!

His healthy face went deathly pale.

"You..." He clutched his chest, panting heavily. His knees went weak, and he almost fell to the floor.

He looked at me in disbelief. His eyes were filled with panic and despair like never before.

He felt it.

It was the agonizing pain of a soul being ripped apart. It was an eternal loss.

I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and gave him one last look.

I didn't say another word.

I turned around and walked out into the raging blizzard.

Back in the broken shack.

In the dark, I booted up my battered old laptop.

The screen cast a blue glow on my face.

In my inbox, the top-tier admission file from the Royal Elite Academy was still flashing quietly.

Go to the Capital? Go to the place where Rowan, Willow, and Julian were? Go and keep being the ugly backdrop to their perfect lives?

With a cold face, I opened the file.

Without hesitation, I hit "Decline."

Then, I opened the other unread email in my inbox.

It was from Obsidian Academy. The absolute best in the werewolf realm, located in the distant Neutral Territory.

They sent me their highest-tier special recruitment offer.

They didn't care about family background or bloodlines.

Over there, only absolute power mattered.

I took a deep breath and smashed the Enter key.

"Accept."

The contract was sealed.

Just then, the phone on the table lit up.

It was a pack-wide announcement from Luna Sylvia in the internal channel:

[Tomorrow night, we will hold a farewell banquet for Willow at the Pack House before she leaves for the Capital. Everyone must be on time.]

Right after, she sent me a direct order:

[Harper, you must publicly apologize to Willow tomorrow. Otherwise, you can forget about going to the Patrol Academy.]

I looked at the screen, a cold smirk on my lips.

I opened the channel settings. My finger hovered over the red option, and I pressed hard:

[Renounce Pack]

The whole world finally went quiet.

I stood up. I didn't take a single thing with the Pack's mark on it.

I just slung on my beat-up canvas backpack with a few of my own old clothes inside.

I pushed the door open and walked into the silent, snowy night.

At the border transit station, a midnight cross-city bus heading to the Neutral Territory was slowly pulling out.

I stepped onto the bus and sat in the very back row.

I watched out the window as the city that held a decade of my humiliation and pain faded away.

From now on, the world was wide open. My past would be buried forever.

And I was never coming back.