Independence Werewolf の短編小説 & Regret 小説

My foster sister, Sylvia Blackwood, was so terrified of being bonded to the cold, merciless Alpha King that she rigged the lot the moment it was my turn to draw. I pulled out the Alpha King. The whole hall erupted. I looked toward my fated mate, Raymond Hale—but he wasn't looking at me. His eyes were locked on Sylvia, and only her. My brother, Carl Blackwood, didn't call out the switch either. He just let them whisper and laugh. I stood there frozen, eyes burning red. Everyone treated it like a joke. They never thought I'd actually go through with bonding with a wolf that dangerous. But staring at the same faces who once swore they'd love me forever—I finally knew. I was done. I was leaving.

On the day of my Luna coronation dress fitting, Sterling pinned me against the full-length mirror. I could clearly feel the raw hunger in his wolf's soul. But the moment his rough fingertips traced my spine. The moment he completely claimed me. He gasped another woman's name. "Chloe, you smell so sweet." Chloe. My half-sister. And his former Fated Mate. She was killed in a rogue attack. Her life forever frozen in the year they loved each other most fiercely. From then on, her memory became sacred ground to this powerful Alpha. No one was allowed to touch it. Every Full Moon Festival, I would accompany Sterling to her memorial to lay down moonflowers. He used to cup my face and swear repeatedly that the mate bond had died with her. He said in his long life, he would only spend that one full moon night mourning the past. For all the remaining days and nights, his wolf would belong only to me. But an Alpha's vow was a joke. My sister's ghost still possessed his soul. She never left for a second. And I finally woke up. You can't compete with a ghost. This mark was a lie. I would sever the bond myself. He was in love with a dead woman. I didn't want him anymore.

I let Gideon mark me again. Then, I put my Alpha mate up for rent. The fragile widow of his dead Beta, Civian, always found excuses to drag him out of our bed. I stopped crying over the possessive pull of our Mate bond. Instead, I just charged her by the hour. 100,000 an hour during the day. 200,000 at night. Triple on full moons. In just three months, my offshore account grew by nearly twenty million. He had promised to take me to the werewolf auction to buy some rare herbs. But that woman called, crying that her wolf was out of control and desperately needed soothing. I didn't even blink. I just pulled out my phone and started the timer. Midnight. Burning up with fever from the pills I took to suppress my heat, he was driving me to the Pack hospital. That woman called again, shaking because she had a nightmare about Civian’s bloody death. I calmly signaled him to pull over and drop me at the next intersection. Seeing the flicker of struggle in his eyes, I just smiled lazily. "Just don't forget to pay." Then came the day of our daughter Mia’s checkup at The Pack's Gene-Therapy Center. The woman called again. "Toby's first shift is coming up. He really needs a strong Alpha to guide him through this dangerous time..." Gideon hung up the phone. He turned, guilt flashing in his eyes, and started to kneel before our daughter to explain. But Mia just held out her little hand, copying me exactly. "It's okay, Daddy. Just pay up. It's a full moon today, so that’s triple."

When my sister, Vesper Rowe, begged us for help, my mate, Alpha Sterling Blackwood, and I traveled for three days and nights to reach the neighboring Cloudwolf Pack. Vesper's in-laws made her life as hard as they could. I out-argued every wolf in the room, and Sterling backed me up with brute strength. Once her mate bond was finally severed, a smile finally appeared on Vesper's haggard face. "Moon Goddess bless you both. Don't ever split up, okay? Otherwise, I won't know whose house to go to anymore." Sterling ruffled her hair, then looked at me with open affection. "Don't worry about us. The Moon Goddess chose Livia and me as the most compatible mates in the entire werewolf world. Everyone else could split up, but we'd still be together. "What matters now is figuring out what kind of life you want for yourself." After we brought Vesper home with us, I took even better care of her than before and made sure she got out and met new people. Whenever Sterling saw me preparing a plate of fruit for Vesper, he'd pull me into his arms, acting jealous. "Livia, your sister is a grown woman. I'm your mate, and I'm the one who needs more of your attention right now." I laughed and popped a slice of apple into his mouth, my heart brimming with happiness. When I returned from a month-long training retreat, they were both there to pick me up. Sterling opened his arms to hug me as usual, but I spotted a lipstick stain on his collar. When I confronted him about it, Sterling, who'd always answered every question I asked, remained silent. My heart sank, and I decided I'd break the bond the very next day. But when I reached for Vesper to take her with me, my hand closed on empty air. She gave me one reluctant look, then turned and walked to Sterling.

After my parents die in the war between werewolf packs, my four siblings and I are left to fend for ourselves. My eldest brother, Adrian Ashbourne, establishes one rule. All five of us must always come home together. No one gets left behind. Five years ago, my youngest sister, Cecilia Ashbourne, wandered into the forest, and the guards spent three hours searching for her. We waited until midnight before going home together. Three years ago, Cecilia fell in love with a human and insisted on moving to human territory. We spent hours persuading her to stay, finally bringing her home at dawn. Last year, Cecilia finally returned on time, only to get distracted by an amusement park on the way to the house. Once again, we waited until midnight for her. Every time, Adrian insists, "We're family. We're not all home until everyone's here. Cecilia's still young and loves to have fun. There's no harm in waiting a little longer." This year, however, I am eight minutes late because I stopped to buy Cecilia a gift on my way home. By the time my rescheduled flight lands, my family is already gone. I check my phone and find a message from Adrian. "We left. Cecilia was hungry." "You're old enough to find your own way home," Gabriel Ashbourne, my second brother, adds. When I arrive home with the gift, the four of them are already eating dinner. There's no place set for me. Cecilia gives me an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Selena. I was just so hungry." My third brother, Nathaniel Ashbourne, affectionately puts more food on her plate. "Don't be hard on Cecilia. She's never been able to go hungry. You know how to cook, don't you? Just make yourself something." I glance at the sticky note on the wall. It reads, "The five of us will always come home together!" It's been hanging there for five years. They can wait for hours when Cecilia is the one who's missing, but when I'm left behind, no one cares. I open the invitation email for the wasteland development project on my computer and click "Accept". From now on, I won't wait for them anymore.

When I was little, I was poisoned by wolfsbane. My sister Fiona saved me. After that, she always said, "I saved your life. You should be grateful. Never forget what I've done for you." So whenever I had good food or pretty clothes, I gave them to her if she wanted them. When I turned eighteen, the pack chose a fiancé for me. Fiona told me, "Don't trust any man so easily. Let me check them out for you first. If they're not right, you shouldn't marry them." So she went on dates with those men on my behalf, from refined gentlemen to charming, outgoing guys. Every time she came back, she looked disappointed. "Zoey, this guy seems really shady. He's not right for you." "Zoey, this guy is all sweet talk. I'm worried he'll trick you." Then I met Darren, the best warrior in the Starlight Pack, and fell for him at first sight. We became a couple, but my sister never stopped worrying. She insisted on joining us on every single date. Darren happily went along with it. "Your sister really cares about you." I believed them. On the day we'd scheduled to try on wedding dresses, my sister walked out of the fitting room before me, wearing my gown. She posted a selfie: "Trying it on for my little sister. Today I get to be the beautiful bride too." Darren commented underneath: "You really are beautiful." I hit like and decided to walk away from their little game of "looking out for me." She could have him.

On the twelfth anniversary of our mating ceremony, my Alpha mate gave me a ten-million-dollar Moonlight herb. Fresh from the healing clinic after my miscarriage, I calmly dialed his number to request the severing of our mate bond. On the other end of the line, his secretary—also his childhood sweetheart—apologized through tears: "Sage, Moonlight herb is a sacred healing herb for most werewolves. I didn't know your mother died from Moonlight herb poisoning. I didn't know you despised it most. It's all my fault for making the decision myself. Please don't be angry with the Alpha." Marcus spent a long time gently comforting her, only saying to me: "If you want to sever it, then sever it. Don't regret it later." But when I really cut off the mate bond, the powerful Alpha went crazy.

Alpha Fabian's first reaction to learning I was his fated mate? Rejection. But drunk at the bonfire festival, he couldn't fight the pull of fate. He marked me. Marking a rejected mate came with a price. His power weakened. Forced into a bond with me, he despised me. For two years, I bled for him. I did 100 impossible things, just hoping for a single glance. I snuck into forbidden lands for rare herbs. I negotiated with enemy packs. I fought on the front lines for him in pack wars, always coming back covered in scars. But the one he truly loved was my adopted sister, Gloria. Even my own parents, the pack's Beta, hated me. I was their lost daughter, raised by rogues for fifteen years. But they only had eyes for their perfect, obedient adopted girl. Then, on my 100th task, I nearly died in the Valley of Shadows. When I woke up, I had amnesia. I was done chasing a cold mate and a family's love I'd never have. And when I finally walked away, Fabian discovered the truth. It was never me who couldn't live without him. It was always him.

Just before our fifth marking anniversary, I found out I was pregnant. I was about to share the good news with my Alpha mate, Ethan Hart, when I accidentally overheard something that shattered me. He was planning to hold a marking ceremony with another woman. It turned out that the grand marking ceremony he gave me five years ago was a lie. The mark he left on me wasn’t even real. It was just an ordinary bite. He had saved the real marking ceremony for someone else. Back then, I had gone against my parents’ wishes, left my home pack, and followed him to the Silver Moon Pack. I gave up everything for a marriage that ended up being a lie. My heart was crushed. If I was never his true, legal mate, what reason did I have to stay? It was time to give up the title of Luna and return to my true home. Ethan had no idea I was the only daughter of the Alpha King from the Dark Moon Pack. I had given up my birthright to be Alpha Female all for him. In a week’s time, the Dark Moon Pack would welcome their new leader.

I was Alpha Adrian’s mate, his Luna, and the woman who held his pack together for ten years. Then he decided Bianca needed “protection.” Protection meant giving her his name in front of the Pack Council. It meant letting her stand at his right hand, wear the Luna jewels, and let her daughter call him Daddy while our son waited for him at home. He called it duty. He called it temporary. He expected me to understand. I did. I understood that every time he had to choose, he chose someone else. So I stopped begging for the place that was already mine. I took our son, walked into the severance ritual, and tore our mate bond out by the roots. Adrian thought I would come back once his guilt caught up with him. But by the time he realized what he had lost, I was already free.

Gavin became Alpha right after our mating ceremony. His older brother, Damien—the former Alpha—was dead. Killed by a rival pack from the North. Gavin took his brother's mate, Sarah, and headed north. He claimed he was avenging his brother. He swore he'd expand our territory. He told me the expansion was too dangerous. He didn't want me to get hurt. So I was left behind. Left to rule a dying pack in the south, with only my healing gift to keep us from collapsing. I bled myself for healing serums, all to ensure his northern campaign didn't falter. Every time I sent word asking when our packs would merge, he'd give me an excuse. His position in the North was unstable. They'd just finished a war. It wasn't the right time. Seven years later, the pack couldn't hold on any longer. I sent Leon, my last remaining beta, to find Gavin. Leon’s message back told a different story. Gavin's new pack was already one of the three great powers in the North. And he had a pup with Sarah. A public one. Pain, sharp and swift, lanced through my chest. I marched to the pack elders and demanded they sever our mate bond. Then, I sent a message to the Healers' Guild that had been recruiting me for years: "I'm severing my bond. I'll be packless in three days. Tell the Guild I'm in."

My mate, the supreme Alpha of the wolf pack, vows to be faithful to me for life. Yet on our anniversary night, I catch the scent of another woman on him. Later at a gathering, he holds my hand and gazes at me with tender affection. He promises that I'm the only one he'll ever cherish in this life. But moments later, I catch him outside the private room with his lover, who is wrapping herself around him. He's bragging to his friends about their thrilling hookup. It's only after the family elders whip him within an inch of his life with silver-laced whips that he finally begins to understand. When he cries out my name in his fevered delirium, something shifts. He's finally learning what it means to truly lose someone. His grandfather calls me, begging. "He's dying. Please, come see him one last time." I keep my voice calm. "That was his choice." He doesn't understand that some betrayals can never be forgiven. Not from the moment they happen.

During a battle with a rival pack, my Alpha mate, Damien, burst into my private healing sanctuary. He was carrying Lyra, a Beta warrior who had supposedly taken a poisoned blade for him. The next day, under the watchful eye of the Moon Goddess, Damien was forced by the pack elders to apologize. He explained that bringing an outsider into my sanctuary was a desperate act in a moment of crisis. After all, Lyra had saved his life. But that night, in the bed we once shared, Lyra stabbed herself with a dagger laced with wolfsbane and framed me for the attack. He chose to believe her. The rejection ceremony ripped my wolf from my soul. I was cast out—a powerless exile, left for dead in a storm, to be torn to shreds by rogues. But what Damien never knew was that the ancient curse afflicting him could only be healed by me. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the beginning: the moment Damien carried that woman in, demanding I save her.

When I was reborn, returning back to the day of filling out the mate registration form, I decided to write my sister Sophia Harrington's name on the form. I would help her achieve her dreams with Adrian Northgate in this lifetime. Without waiting for Adrian to ask, I gave the wedding dress to my sister ahead of time and placed the ring that symbolized our mate bond into her hands. I did not argue or make a fuss. Instead, I facilitated every opportunity for them to spend time together. When he took my sister to fight in the southern territories, I quietly packed everything up and went to university in the northern grasslands. This was because, in my previous life, I devoted myself to caring for our family. Yet, after Adrian was promoted to the pack's first warrior, he and our son knelt before me, begging me to dissolve our mate bond so that he could fulfill his love for Sophia. Living this life again, I decided not to become mates with Adrian. I wanted to pursue my dreams — to study at the Northern Grassland Werewolf University, become a medical doctor, and live the free life I had always desired!

My fated mate, Alpha Ethan, chose another woman over me. Not once. Not twice. But ninety-nine times. He always claimed it was for the pack. He always swore he loved me. He always promised that next time, I would be his priority. Then she showed up at his Alpha ceremony. The outsider, Oliva. In my Luna gown. My Beta saw red and told Oliva to get her ass out of our pack. Ethan abandoned me on the stage—on the night we were to be crowned together—and stormed down to shield Oliva in his arms. For the hundredth time, he ordered me to apologize for the sake of an alliance. As if she was the victim. And just like that... I was done. I drew my silver dagger and sliced it across my palm. "I, Ivana, before the Moon Goddess and the Elders, reject my mate bond with Alpha Ethan." He thought I was throwing a tantrum. He was wrong. I didn't just shatter our bond. I erased him. And that’s when he lost his mind, tossing Oliva aside and begging me to come back.

The day my parents severed their mate bond, my sister and I had to choose. One of us would go with our father—the Alpha who'd gambled away every inch of pack territory in underground wolf fights. The other would go with our mother, who was marrying Alaric, the most powerful Alpha in the werewolf world. In my past life, my sister fought to go with our mother. I stayed behind with our father in silence. Later, our father rebuilt himself. His territory grew tenfold. He became one of the strongest Alphas, and I was his most beloved daughter. But my sister provoked the tyrant Alpha Alaric, was banished from his territory, and was torn apart by rogues. After rebirth, my sister didn't hesitate. She dropped her packed bags and clung to our father, sobbing: "Daddy, I can't leave you. Let my sister go live the good life with Mom. I'll stay with you." Our father's eyes softened with emotion. He looked at me quietly packing my things, and his voice turned cold: "Get out. You're just like your mother—a gold-digging bitch." I didn't argue. I left in silence. In my past life, I fought thousands of battles in underground wolf pits for him. My wolf nearly died countless times. My body was covered in scars. I won back his territory piece by piece. Only then did he wake up, pull himself together, and become a powerful Alpha again. But my wolf had been shattered beyond repair. On the verge of death, my wolf burned the last spark of her life to reverse time. But she couldn't reverse her own decay. This time around, all I wanted was to find a place with no fighting and sit in the sun for a while.

When I realized my soulmate Darius was still hung up on his former lover Cassia and her child, I started teaching our son to call him "Lord Darius." That night, Theo accidentally stepped into a thorn trap set by forest nymphs. He was poisoned by a minor curse that sent his magic spiraling out of control and plunged him into darkness. But Darius turned and left because Cassia called him on his messaging crystal late at night. I touched my son's forehead as his divine aura dimmed from the pain, and made him say, "Goodbye, Lord." On Theo's birthday, Darius skipped our celebration because Cassia tearfully complained that her child needed a father. I didn't say much. I just had little Theo explain to the guests, "The Lord has important divine duties to attend to." My boy would always struggle for a long time before forcing those words out. Until Darius finally realized he owed us far too much. He offered to go to the temple and commission an enchanted portrait of our family. But right there inside the Portrait Pavilion, Cassia sent another message through the crystal. "Darius, I am begging you to come to the Divine Academy. Could you just pretend to be Milo's father for a bit? The young gods here are all mocking him for being a bastard..." A flash of guilt crossed Darius's face. He was just about to bend down and explain things to our son. But this time, Theo did not need my prompting. He just waved his hand. "It is okay, Lord Darius. Hurry up and go be with your other child. Just having me and Mom in the portrait is enough."

Three years ago, my Alpha mate, Grayson Blackthorn, has a dream in which he falls for an Omega who works at a flower shop and does countless things to hurt me for her sake. When I hear about it, I don't take it seriously. Instead, I laugh and tease him, "And then what?" Grayson pins me beneath him and kisses me fiercely. "Then, you got me drunk and tricked me into breaking our mate bond. By the time I woke up, you were gone, and I couldn't find you anywhere." He claims it's just a ridiculous dream, yet he starts avoiding alcohol, steering clear of every flower shop, and keeping his distance from every Omega. He even develops severe separation anxiety. It got so bad that our pack's healer, Ravenna Nocturne, has to intervene regularly. To put Grayson's mind at ease, I do everything I can to show him that I love him and depend on him more. Gradually, we forget all about that dream. On our fourth wedding anniversary, a seemingly pure and fragile Omega named Avery Darkcrest appears before me with a bouquet of white lilies in her hands. The flowers nearly send me into anaphylactic shock because of my severe lily allergy. The council demands that Avery be expelled from the pack, but Grayson steps in front of me to protect her. "Avery didn't do it on purpose. Don't make things difficult for her." As I watch him shield her with his body, I know that nightmare is beginning to come true. In the dream, Grayson leaves me utterly broken, and it takes me a long time to finally walk away. But this time, I need only five days.

I was born wolf-less. At the academy, Arabella made my life hell for it. By the time I graduated, my wolf finally awakened, gifting me powerful healing abilities. I thought the nightmare was finally over. I met my fated mate Alpha Tristan. He was powerful, gorgeous, and promised me the world. But the day I went to tell Tristan I was pregnant was the day I discovered his devastating lie. It was never Tristan in my bed. It was his twin brother, Ronan. The rogue Alpha who’d abandoned the pack years ago to slum it with humans. He used a scent-mimicker to crawl into my bed, to get me pregnant. It was all a twisted plot to humiliate me on my big day. They wanted revenge for Arabella, who lied and claimed I was the bully. They wanted to crush me. I stormed into the study to confront them. I told them I’d expose everything and demand an apology. Instead, they imprisoned me. They performed a dark ritual, siphoning my wolf into Arabella. They drained my life force and murdered my unborn pup. I died in agony. Then I opened my eyes. I was back on the day I found out I was pregnant. I clutched my belly, a single tear tracing a path down my cheek. Those bastards were going to burn for what they did.

My fated mate, Alpha Kian of the Valerius Pack, had an unbreakable rule. After 9 PM, he cut off the mind link. No calls. No exceptions. He called it his "absolute radio silence." A time for the Alpha to calm his inner beast. Even when my heat hit the hardest. Before 9, he’d comfort me. The second the clock struck 9, he pushed me away without a second thought. Once, I was patrolling the borders late at night and got ambushed by rogues. My wolf howled in pure agony as blood spilled. Panicking, I pushed through our mate bond, begging for help. All I got was his voice, dripping with extreme annoyance. "Do you have any idea what time it is? Do not disturb me!" That night, I tore those rogues apart myself. I dragged my bloody, battered body back to the Pack House at dawn. He didn't even bother to bandage me. Just frowned dismissively. "You're the strongest female warrior in the pack. It's just a few rogues. Stop being so dramatic." To him, my strength was a given. Until today. I was cleaning his study and accidentally bumped his private phone. In the encrypted logs, I found a call. From 9 PM to 9 AM. Twelve hours straight. Every single night. For five years. I knew the number. Lily. The weak Omega daughter of his mother's old friend. The only one he bent his rules for. The one who got to stay in the Pack House. In that moment, my wolf let out a tragic, broken whimper. I sat staring at the screen for a long time. The morning light finally crept through the windows. In silence, I picked up the printed schedule for our Luna Mating Ceremony on his desk. I tossed it straight into the fireplace. His heart was never open to me. And now? My door is permanently closed to him.