Independence Werewolf 단편 소설 & 소설

Today is the Full Moon Ceremony, all members of the Wigner pack, along with the elders, have come to our mansion to celebrate together. But I wasn’t invited, even as Leon’s Luna. I was in the storage room with a report from the midwife in my hand. I was pregnant with three pups. This was supposed to be a surprise for Leon, until I heard Leon talking with his friend Demon just now. Demon asked, “Are you sure you won’t let your Luna join this party?” “My Luna is just a party bomber, she’ll only ruin tonight’s atmosphere.” “I heard Lisa is back. What do you think she’ll do when she finds out you married her twin sister? But I wonder, between the twins, which one do you prefer?” Demon laughed. “Carla is just a substitute for Lisa, you know. She will even die for me. But she’s useless, I’ll leave her soon.” Even the money for his party came out of my pocket. I brought in over $20 million in profits each year with my wolfsbane antidote formula. I was the one kept this company running, and still, I wasn’t even invited to his party. He was thinking about how to get rid of me. I covered my mouth to stop myself from sobbing. I pulled myself together five minutes later and left this party. I could feel that three strong heartbeats in my belly. “My pups, mommy is sorry. I have to leave your father-wolf…” My Luna’s Coronation Ceremony was only 5 days away. By that time, I would have already taken my triplets away and leave him forever.

In my third year after joining the werewolf guard, I single-handedly cut off the rogues' supply line during a raid. For my actions, the chairman of the werewolf council awarded me a Silver Moon Insignia and granted me the right to live in a four-bedroom penthouse apartment at Moonshadow Estate. Mom once told me that if we ever moved into a bigger home, she would give me a bedroom that belonged to me alone. On the night all the furniture was moved in, I searched every one of the four bedrooms, but there wasn't the slightest trace of me in any of them. The master bedroom belonged to my parents. My older sister, Kalista, had taken the sunniest south-facing suite. My younger brother, Keane, had a room filled with newly purchased combat manuals and an entire wall of cabinets for his hunting boots. The remaining bedroom had been turned into Kalista's walk-in closet, and all my luggage had been piled outside the bathroom. I asked Mom, "Where am I supposed to sleep?" She froze for a moment before pointing at the brand-new sofa in the living room. "You're usually out on night patrol and hardly ever come home. If you occasionally stay the night, isn't the sofa good enough?" Dad frowned as well. "Family members should be considerate of one another. Although the pack rewarded you with this apartment, it belongs to the whole family too. Be generous. Don't start fighting over rooms the moment we move in." I lowered my head and looked at the insignia in my hand. Suddenly, I laughed. So the large home I had risked my life to earn had room for Kalista's clothes, Keane's equipment, and my parents' pride. But somehow, there was no room for me. That night, I received an encrypted message from the captain of the guard. [Outpost 3 on the northern frontier urgently needs a werewolf guard willing to serve there long-term. The assignment involves three years of closed rotation under harsh conditions, but each guard will be provided with private quarters.] I looked up at the four closed doors and quietly typed two words in reply. [I'm going.] If there was no place for me here, then I would go somewhere that had reserved a place for me.

The pack's border was under attack by rogues, with countless casualties. As a healer, I led my team to provide support. However, on the way back, I was kidnapped by rogue wolves. Lucas arrived immediately with the rescue force, but he just stood there and watched as the rogues shattered my arm and slashed my face open. He made no move to intervene. As I was tortured nearly to death, I overheard Lucas talking with the captain of the rescue team. "Alpha, if we don't rescue the Luna now, her arm might be permanently damaged." But Lucas remained unmoved, saying coldly, "I have to do this so that Kira can get the position of Chief Healer." "Susan earned merit supporting the border defense. The Chief Healer position should rightfully be hers. The only way is to have someone shatter her arm so she can never hold a scalpel again. Only then will Kira have a chance at becoming Chief Healer." "She'll just have to suffer for now. I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to her." Hearing his words, my heart grew cold, and I stopped struggling. I never imagined that the man I loved most would be the one truly responsible for destroying me.

I was born into a regular family in the Moonridge Pack with no status, but through years of training, I fought my way up to become our pack's Gamma. My father was just an Omega and he worked as an ordinary salesman who always claimed he was too busy for family. When he finally took a vacation, I spent $100,000 of my own money to plan a luxury cruise for us all. Then his mistress Sarah and her daughter Emily heard about our trip and suddenly wanted to join. Without even discussing it, my father gave them our luxury suite and relegated Mom and me to the cramped staff quarters below deck. Even my grandmother, a respected elder, supported his decision. My fourteen-year-old brother took their side too, charmed by their fake sweetness. So I changed our plans. I took Mom on a first-class flight to a private island resort instead, where we spent three perfect months. That's when the family started to panic...

A month before my marking ceremony with Jim Luther, my dad, Frank Jackson, was exiled. Jim personally ordered him exiled to the wasteland without even explaining anything to me. "Kelly says someone leaked our pack's secret files, and we found them on your father's phone. Who else could it be?" My dad had come to attend my marking ceremony, yet because of what Kelly Chase said, Jim exiled him. "If you don't give me a reasonable explanation, he'll stay in the wasteland forever. "I won't abandon you just because of your father's actions. Our marking ceremony will proceed as planned in a month." I was devastated by the thought of my dad suffering in the wasteland. If this was how Jim treated my family and me, I didn't want to be with him anymore.

My fated mate, Alpha Kane Fenwick, rejects me for another she-wolf. That same night, rogues ambush him. The rejection tears his wolf apart, and the brutal fight shatters his memory. He remembers nothing. "Who… are you?" "I'm your mate, your future Luna." I corner him by Sacred Spring and close my hand around his wrist. "Can't you feel the bond between us?" I've made my peace with his rejection, but the bond between fated mates still has its hooks in him. The ice in his eyes starts to thaw, and I watch him walk straight into my lie. Good. Let Kane fall for me all over again, so hard he can't break free. Then I'll show him exactly what it's like to be cast aside by the one he loves most.

When my Alpha mate, Xander, wanted to bring Sadie—the pregnant widow of his best friend—into our home, I let him. I even went before the Pack Elders myself and filed to sever our fated mate bond. I set him free to honor the guilt and devotion he felt for her. I did it all because of my last life. In that life, blinded by jealousy, I had coldly refused his request. That refusal led to tragedy. Sadie left our territory alone, miscarried on the road, and was left barren—never able to bear a cub again. And he blamed me for all of it. So when I was the one dying, bleeding out on the birthing bed and begging him to save me, he showed me the depths of his hatred. He coldly pulled the pack healers from my room, leaving our cub and me to die in a pool of our own blood. I can still hear his icy words. "Sadie lost her cub because of you. Now, you pay the price for your cruelty." So this time, I stepped aside. I let him keep his promise to the woman he cherished, and I gave him the bone-deep hatred for me that he so clearly craved. But I never imagined what would happen when I was finally, truly gone from his life. I never expected that the same Alpha who treated me with such cold cruelty would go mad searching for me. That he would tear the territories apart, only to fall to his knees before me, his eyes bloodshot, begging me to come back.

Two days before the full moon, my mate Derek, our pack Alpha, decided to take his Omega assistant Sarah hunting in the forest. I didn't argue or make a scene. I even lovingly packed his bags for him. He mocked me, saying my pregnancy had finally taught me to be gentle. After he left, I immediately went to terminate the pregnancy. All because in my previous life, when I prevented him from accompanying that Omega, his little assistant was brutally murdered by rogue wolves in the forest. Derek acted indifferent on the surface, but when I was about to give birth, he sliced open my belly with a silver dagger, removed our unborn pup, and cut it to pieces before my eyes. Only then did I understand he had resented me all along. With this second chance, I will leave him with nothing.

Three years of marriage, and every time we make love, he does it from behind. “Aidan! Why do you always avoid looking at my face? Is it because you're afraid of seeing the person you're sleeping with is me, not my sister?” “You want me to look at you while we do it? Then let me give you what you want.Anyways, Zoey is nothing like you. She is pure and innocent. Maybe Aidan is right. He was originally my sister's mate, 'stolen' from her, and he will never truly belong to me. But when I decided to break the mate bond with him, I found out I was pregnant.

Three years ago, my father sent me to Damian’s side. Every day is a battle of wits with that cold, ruthless Alpha. Every night, I lose myself in his arms. I think… I've finally found the love I am destined for. I was so happy, so sure of our future, that I started planning our bonding ceremony. Until Clara showed up. By then, I realized just how naive I had been. For Clara, Damian locked me away in the isolation cell to teach me a lesson. He spent millions on her without a second thought, but left me alone in a hospital ward unconscious for seven hours. When it came down to life and death, he never hesitated to choose Clara, leaving me bleeding on the ground. The most ironic part? When I finally gave up and walked away, he lost his mind. He started insisting that I am his mate, his one true love. Damian, you're too late.

I have a secret. Whenever I touch someone, I can see the face of the person they love most. This is not an ability ordinary werewolves possess. I am a Moon Seer, a rarity that appears perhaps once in a century. I cannot read thoughts or memories, but I have never been wrong about a person’s heart. I had been the person Ronan Hartson loved most since he moved next door at seven. Our wolves recognized each other when we turned eighteen. When our Mate Bond awakened, I still saw only myself in his heart. Ronan officially claimed me at twenty two. He left his mark on my neck and announced before the entire Blackridge Pack that I was his only mate and the Luna of Blackridge. Our Mate Bond remained unshaken for three years. Then, at six weeks pregnant, I touched his collar before he left for work. I had known Ronan for twenty one years and touched him more than a hundred thousand times. This was the first time I discovered that I was no longer the only woman in his heart. That night, he lied about patrols. That night, I saw him feed her cake with his own hands. He thought our Mate Bond would keep me tethered to him forever. He thought I would never leave. But he forgot one thing: I don’t need a man to feel whole. And I will never raise my child in a house built on lies. He chose to protect her. I chose to protect myself.

The night before our Mating Ceremony, my fated mate, Alpha Ryker of the Howling Moon Pack, ordered me to give him the Moon Soul Crystal—the very thing that protected my pack, the Willow Creek Pack. He said he needed it to power up the Howling Moon Pack's Blood Moon Altar. He also promised he'd keep me and my people safe. But he didn't know that we, the healers of the Willow Creek Pack, can only create one Moon Soul Crystal in our entire lives. Making one takes a crazy amount of moon energy. It's the treasure that keeps our pack alive. My mother, worried about me using up my moon energy while I was pregnant, gave up her own Moon Soul Crystal instead. But just three months after Ryker and I were mated, she got sick, fast. She was dying. I knelt in front of Ryker, crying, begging him for the Silverleaf Herb from the Howling Moon's forbidden grounds. It was the only thing that could save my mom. But he just looked at me, his eyes full of disappointment, and kicked me away. "I asked for the Moon Soul Crystal to test you," he snarled. "And just as I thought, you married me for our pack's treasures! Your mother's not sick. You're making it all up!" "You don't deserve to be the Luna of the Howling Moon Pack!" It wasn't until after my mother died, when he was arguing with me, trying to kick me out of the pack, that my mother's things fell and scattered everywhere. Her Soul Stone, the symbol of a wolf's spirit, shattered. That's when he finally realized he was wrong. He fell to his knees, begging me not to leave, crying for me to forgive him.

Right before graduation, my three childhood friends, Xavier Reid, Silas Moore, and Caspian Ward, asked me to play Truth or Dare with them. I drew a dare in the very first round. My adopted sister, Vivian Sloane, asked if I'd be willing to give up the job offer I already had and go work in another city with them. Xavier, the childhood friend I'd been secretly in love with for years, even promised that if I came with them, we'd become mates once we were settled in our jobs. I said yes. That night, with everyone watching, I turned down my dream job. Xavier kissed my forehead and promised he would never let me down. On graduation day, once the ceremony was over, I'd meant to go tell them that I'd already found a new job. But before I could, I heard them around a corner, talking in low voices. "Is Vivian's job a done deal?" "It's official. HR called me right after Flora turned down the offer." "Good. This way she won't keep clinging to us and upsetting Vivian." "Poor Xavier, though. He's a werewolf, and yet he's had to spend all that time dating a girl he doesn't even like." The four voices drew closer. I stood frozen as my three childhood friends and Vivian met my eyes.

For seven years of marriage, my Alpha mate, Cassian Blackthorn, slept with thirty-two different women, every single one of them from my circle. I didn’t know how much longer I could endure it. Even when I was seven months pregnant, as I went to my prenatal check-ups alone, I kept enduring. Alas, disaster struck without warning. Cassian’s new fling, Sophia Corwin, led a pack of rogue wolves to ambush me. I clutched my belly with all my strength, begging Sophia to spare me and my child. She only sneered. "Ha. That wasn’t me. If you’re looking for the real culprit, go find them yourself." By the time a passerby found me and rushed me to the hospital, it was already too late. My baby… had died inside me. When my mother heard the news, her heart failed. She was gone, too. These two crushing blows left my world spinning. Hatred, grief, and fury rose inside me like a tidal wave, drowning everything else. Cassian’s father, Leon Blackthorn, came to the hospital to see me. Expressionless, I stared at him. "Let me go, Leon," I said in a raw and hoarse voice. "Whatever I owed you, I’ve paid it back in full."

I bloomed early, my curves more defined than other she-wolves my age. The year I came of age, my Alpha brother, Asher, was terrified I’d be snatched up by some rogue. He asked his best friend—Alpha Caden of the Nightshade Pack—to personally look after me. What my brother didn't know was that the very first time we met, Caden got drunk and took me. He pinned me against the wall, claiming me with a primal urgency. He left his scent all over me, kissing every inch of my skin like he was obsessed. But the next day, he told me that if my brother found out, he would kill him. And so began our four-year secret affair. For four years, I was his personal healer by day and his secret lover by night. Until his first love, an Omega she-wolf, came back. I watched them in a passionate embrace as Caden kissed her with a tenderness he never showed me. As for me? The same mouth that had been tangled with mine just yesterday was now spitting venom. "Aria, don't forget it was you who faked the scent of my fated mate to seduce me four years ago." "Are you going to make a scene and try to force me to marry you again?" In that moment, I finally saw him for who he truly was. I called my brother. "Asher, I'll do it. I'll accept the marriage alliance with the Silvercrest Pack."

Damian Blackwood, the Alpha heir of a neighboring pack, and I had grown up together, yet he told the entire pack I was worthless. "I'm going to be Alpha one day. I'll lead the entire Blackwood Pack. But you're stuffy and dull, and apart from a pretty face, you're worthless." After that, the entire pack knew me as nothing more than a pretty ornament who coasted on her father's name. Later, war came to the Blackwood Pack. The moment Damian rode out to suppress it, I asked my father to arrange a political match with another pack and let me bond with someone else. It was hard on my father, but he agreed. Six months later, Damian returned victorious, only to find that I had already become another man's mate. He came looking for me like a madman, his eyes red. "Why did you take someone else as your mate?" I turned the wedding ring on my finger and looked at him calmly. "You said it yourself. I'm stuffy and dull, and I'm not fit to be your Luna."

On the day my bond with Alpha Claus was finally severed, I walked out of the Mooncrest Packhouse wearing nothing but the simple linen tunic I had on the day we mated. The Luna mansion, the sports cars, the infinite pack wealth, and our three pups—I left them all behind for Alpha Claus. He stared at me with a genuine shock before his usual mocking sneer returned. "Have you truly thought this through, Elise? You carried our three daughters in your womb, raised them with your own two hands, and now you’re abandoning them too?" "If you are truly walking away with nothing, I will even grant you a clean break from the pack treasury. No alimony, no pack protection. That way, it’s fair." Without a word, I picked up the silver pen, quickly signing my name on the scroll to sever our legal ties. "Yes," I said, my voice eerily calm. "It is incredibly fair." Claus hesitated for a fraction of a second, his claws lightly scraping against the desk before he slowly signed his own name. The moment his signature left the page, the faint, golden shimmer of our mate-bond began to fade, leaving only the deep, spiritual Pack Bond pulsing in our chests. "Elise, if you regret this, we don't have to—" I raised my hand, cutting him off mid-sentence, and walked out of the Alpha's office without a single glance backward. For seven long years, Claus had claimed that I only used my fated-mate status to steal his power and that I weaponized our three daughters just to tie him down to a weak, sick she-wolf. But none of his insults mattered anymore. By the time he finds the cold ashes of my dying wolf… He will finally understand the cost of his cruelty.

I fell in love with my brother's combat training instructor, the Alpha of the Stormfang Pack. He was very kind to me. I pursued him for eight years, thinking that he wanted me to be his mate. But he betrayed my sincerity, ignored my efforts, and even used my love to pursue his childhood sweetheart. Realizing the truth, I chose to leave. But he regretted it and did everything possible to win me back, but everything was too late by then.

The coming-of-age ceremony had barely ended when I received a prophecy crystal from my family. Inside it, I saw myself ten years from now. "Ella, stop trusting Noah." "He only applied for the Healing track to keep you tethered to him." "In the end, you became an ordinary wolf. You never got the chance to study the moon phases and prophecy again." I stared hard at the version of myself trapped in the crystal. "And Noah? His heart always leaned toward Mira. He said he loved you, but his love was the cage that trapped you." The crystal shattered. The vision ended. I ran back to the academy and found it. The contract Noah had submitted on my behalf. The one that would keep me on campus. I withdrew the application. Then I booked the earliest flight back to my family's pack. This time, I wasn't giving up my future for him.

Five years after I broke up with Damon, Alpha of the Greyrock Pack, I was invited to a celebration for his one-month-old pup. Just as the guard was about to verify my identity, Damon's voice came from behind me. "No need. She can go straight in." With that, he walked past me and headed into the banquet hall without another glance. I still handed my invitation to the guard and waited until it had been verified before stepping inside. Damon was waiting for me up ahead, his tone smug and suggestive. "You can say whatever you want, but here you are. You just couldn't stay away from me." "You've been hiding somewhere nearby all these years, haven't you? Otherwise, how would you know I was holding a celebration today?" I smiled but said nothing. Five years ago, Damon had betrayed me for the Alpha position and marked my best friend, Vivian. From that moment on, I had decided I was done with him for good. I was about to walk around him when Damon reached out and blocked my way. His thumb brushed over the back of my hand as he lowered his voice. "I'm glad you came back. As long as you take good care of Vivian and the pup, I'll still love you the way I used to." I slapped his hand away and looked toward the two high-backed chairs placed side by side at the center of the banquet hall. One was reserved for Kieran, Alpha King of the Frostmoon Pack, who carried the pure bloodline of the Lane family. The other was for his Luna Queen, Evelyn. Me.