Chapter 1

The 77th time my mate, Alpha Kane, abandoned me for his adopted sister, Fiona, I filed to sever our bond.

I was digging at the spiderweb of black veins the wolfsbane had left in my arm when Kane came home. The tip of my tweezers sizzled against raw flesh.

He frowned the moment he stepped through the door, his body flinching back a half-step. He didn’t even try to hide his disgust. He looked at me like I was something filthy.

But I could smell her on him.

The scent of white moonflower incense that always burned in Fiona’s room, clinging to his trench coat.

He’d just come from her.

"Explain Drake," he said from the doorway, his voice clipped with impatience. "Why would he save you?"

I didn't look up. I fought back the burn in my throat and kept cleaning the wound.

Yesterday, I was kidnapped by a pack of masked wolves.

They shot me up with wolfsbane, tortured me, left me for dead. The kidnappers told Kane to bring the pack's sacred relic to save me. But he never came.

Fiona had a "mental breakdown," so he chose her instead.

We've been mated for ten years. This was the 77th time he'd abandoned me for her.

And now, after I escaped on my own, he wasn't asking if I was okay. He was interrogating me about the Alpha who saved my life.

His eyes landed on my mangled arm, and the hard line of his jaw softened—just a little. He crossed the room to my side.

"Look, I know you're in pain. I told the kidnappers I was coming for you. I just... I had to delay an hour. Fiona's mind was shattering. You're my mate, Elara. Of course I was coming for you."

He glanced at my arm.

"Damn it. I warned them not to touch a single hair on your head. How dare they!"

He looked so furious now, as if my pain actually bothered him.

He reached out, his hand aiming for my cheek in a hollow gesture of comfort.

Just then, his communicator buzzed in his pocket.

It was just a soft hum, but his hand froze in mid-air.

He answered. The mask of the loving mate he’d worn for me shattered, replaced by raw panic.

"What? Still crying? Hyperventilating?"

"Don't worry. Tell Fiona I'm on my way. Right now."

He hung up. Without another glance at my bleeding arm, he turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" I asked, though I already knew. My voice was ice.

"Fiona had a nightmare," he said, tugging his collar straight. His tone was dismissive. "She dreamt that you died, and she can't breathe. The healers say she's unstable. I have to be there. Elara, you're a healer yourself. It’s just a scratch. Patch yourself up and stop being so dramatic."

Dramatic.

Me almost dying was dramatic. Fiona having a bad dream was a crisis.

The door slammed shut.

This time, I didn't cry. I didn't even feel the ache in my chest. I was just numb.

I bandaged my arm, pulled on a long-sleeved robe to hide the wound, and walked straight to the Elder's Hall.

If he wouldn't give me respect, I would take back my freedom.

Inside the hall, the five Elders sat on their high stone chairs, looking down at me.

"You want what? To sever the mate bond?" The Head Elder scoffed as if I’d told a joke. "Elara, what is this nonsense?"

"It's not nonsense." I stood straight. "Kane abandoned me when my life was on the line. He broke the mate's vow. I have the right to request a severance."

"Abandonment? Kane acted for the greater good!" another elder snapped. "Fiona's power was spiraling out of control. If he hadn't contained her, she could have leveled half our territory! He was protecting the pack!"

"By sacrificing his Luna?" I shot back.

"Watch your place!" The Head Elder slammed his staff on the floor. "Elara, do not forget your place. You are a treaty bride, a living sacrifice! Your purpose is to secure this alliance, not throw a tantrum over petty jealousy!"

"As long as Kane doesn't publicly reject you, you will always be his Luna. An Alpha’s favor is a privilege, not a right."

"Go home. Don't let us hear this foolishness again. Or we will make sure your birth pack hears of this humiliation."

I was "escorted" out of the hall.

Standing on the steps, I looked up at the almost-full moon and felt a chill cut straight through me.

To them, I was just a thing. An object used to secure a treaty. Not Kane, not the Elders—no one had ever seen me as a wolf with dignity.

If they wouldn't grant me justice, I would have to claim it myself.

Back in my room, I pulled a battered, ancient book from a hidden compartment under the bed. I remembered seeing a passage when I was restoring it. A ritual for a Blood Severance.

It was a brutal, forbidden magic. A ritual to unilaterally sever a bond that had been corrupted.

"On the night of the blood moon, take the blood of the betrayer. With your own spirit as the key, you can defy fate and break the pact."

The blood moon was in four days. It was when our power as wolves would be at its peak.

The perfect time.

As for Kane's blood...

I'd find a way.

This was my only way out. My only path to freedom.

I stroked the rough pages, but my mind drifted back to yesterday. To that blood-soaked, abandoned warehouse.

I was fading in and out, but I remembered the warmth of Derek arms. I remembered his eyes. And now, thinking back, I realized they were achingly familiar.

"Don't be afraid. I'm taking you home."

The memory hit me all at once: Derek, saving me.

For a decade, I thought that boy was Kane.

Because Kane let me believe it. Because I thought the jagged scar across his chest was a wound he’d taken for me.

Even when he grew cold, when he ignored me, when he betrayed me again and again, I endured it.

I owed him my life, I told myself.

But yesterday... I finally understood.

My devotion. My gratitude. My entire life.

It was all a fucking joke.

I had thanked the wrong man. I had loved the wrong man. I had wasted ten years of my youth and my dignity on a lie.

The one who saved me, who had always been there, was Drake.

Kane was nothing but a pathetic thief who stole another wolf's glory.

I pulled out the micro-comm Drake had given me. My fingers trembled as I typed a single line.

【Four days. Blood moon. Get me out of here.】

The reply was instant.

"You better be sure about this, Elara. Because I'm not 'helping' you this time."

A beat of silence. Then the next message pinged through.

"I'm taking you. I’ve waited ten years for this. You’re not getting away from me again."