เรื่องสั้นแนว Feel-Good Story Werewolf และนิยายในฉาก Karma

My ex-boyfriend was banished from his pack. He begged me to let him hide out at my neutral clinic for five days. We had been together for four years. For old times' sake, I gave him a temporary access code. The day I wrapped up an emergency house call for another pack and rushed back to the clinic overnight, I couldn't get the door open no matter what I tried. I rang the doorbell. Slippers shuffled inside, followed by a woman's impatient voice. "Who is it? Don't you know pregnant women need their rest at night?" The door cracked open, the chain lock still in place. A heavily pregnant stranger stood there wearing my white coat, glaring at me with undisguised contempt. "You must be Evelyn. "Ronan told me all about you. He already rejected you in front of everyone. How shameless can you be, chasing him all the way here to harass him?"

After our pack lost the war, the survivors spent two years on the run. In the third year, the Wolf Council passed a decree allowing us to be absorbed into new packs. But there was a catch—we had to pass the Trials, a specialized test designed to test our physical fitness, reflexes, and overall abilities. Those who passed would be accepted. Those who didn't would be cast out as rogues for good. One month before the Trials, Vera Cross burst into the gathering, her voice trembling with excitement. "Everyone, stop preparing! I got a spell from a witch—just chant it in your head during the Trials, and you'll pass for sure!" She grinned and pulled out a record. "My friend Lily already took these exact Trials during her pack's routine check last month. She didn't prep at all—just chanted this spell in her head. And guess what? She passed." The record got passed around. Cheers erupted. Last life, I tried to warn them. Told them the official Trials would block all spellwork—that using it would flag them as anomalies, get their qualifications revoked on the spot, and dump them straight into rogue status. No one listened. So I reported the situation to the Council. Vera got her membership revoked. Died out in the wilds. Back then, every single pack member said she deserved it. Thanked me for saving them. But after we settled into the new pack, they cornered me. Doused me in gasoline. Burned me alive. "If you'd just kept your mouth shut, she'd still be alive!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the exact moment Vera was rallying everyone to give up on prep.

When the pack set out on its southward migration, Rebecca Hale, one of our newly appointed young leaders, proposed changing the route at the last minute. She wanted to break away from the main column, take the shortcut past Blackwind Gorge, rest in wild-wolf territory along the way, and live on berries gathered by the roadside. Each wolf would need only half a bag of rations, and we would reach the southern grounds ten days ahead of the main column. Freedom and speed were the whole point. My family had guarded the border of Blackwind Gorge for generations. I knew exactly how deadly that route was. Every year, young wolves who strayed from the pack died in that gorge. Some were flayed by rogues; others became prey for venomous snakes. Newly adult she-wolves were the easiest targets of all. In my past life, I fought with everything I had to stop them. I went from pack to pack, warning each Alpha until they withdrew. In the end everyone gave up the shortcut. Rebecca alone refused to listen. She vanished on her second day in the gorge. A week later, her body was found among the loose rocks. Because I had stopped the others in time, I earned the right to become the pack's priestess. But on the day of my investiture, my mate, Stefan Cross, tore out my throat. "If you hadn't stopped everyone from going with her, Rebecca would never have died alone! "You'll pay for her death with your life!" The packmates I had risked everything to save stood there cheering my death. Then they hurled my body onto the altar. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Rebecca proposed the detour through Blackwind Gorge.

On our wedding night, Alpha Derek Blackwood's private plane went down. To comfort me, my mother-in-law, Hester Blackwood, sent his illegitimate younger brother, Kane Blackwood, into my bedroom. She said he could ease the loneliness now that my mate was dead. I panicked. A werewolf only ever has one mate, and as the Alpha King's sister, I had always been fiercely protective of my chastity. But the moment I opened my mouth to refuse, lines of text appeared in the air in front of me. [The hero was so terrified of marrying the side character that he faked his death overnight, then dumped some unwanted bastard on her? That's brutal!] [Stop crying, side character. Your husband is off drowning himself in the Luna Queen's bed!] [Tsk, tsk. A royal insider hooking up with the Luna Queen? Who's living for this? Me!] [If the side character quietly accepts the bastard, she survives. Too bad she's so loyal. She refuses to stop searching for the hero's body, which actually moves him a little. The Luna Queen hates her for it. The moment the Alpha King dies, the Luna Queen has her imprisoned for life and force-fed slow-acting silver poison every day.] What? Terrified, I hurried to smooth out the velvet sheets, change into a silk nightgown, and put on perfume. "Well, handsome, what are you waiting for? Come here!" Then why did that supposedly dead Alpha come crawling back only days after word of Kane and me got out?

At the Wolfen Academy’s annual ball, I stumbled upon a group of high-ranking Alphas cornering an Omega girl. They were trying to film her, to humiliate her. I stepped in. I saved her. A week later, she turned on me. She told everyone I was the one who bullied her. That I was the one blackmailing her with a video. I was taken away by the Alliance Enforcers. I lost my spot in the elite Gamma Team. The story blew up on the pack network. They even dragged my father’s name through the mud—a hero who died fighting vampires, now called a fraud. Our family lives and dies by its honor. Under the weight of it all, my mother wrote a letter. Then she killed herself on my father’s grave to prove my innocence. Eventually, the charges were dropped. I was cleared. But my family’s honor was destroyed. My pack had already cast me out. I found the girl. I asked her why. "He's the future Alpha of the Crimson Fang pack—the most powerful in the North. That night, he was just playing around with me," she said. "He wants me. An Omega with nothing could become his Luna! You stood in my way. Don't you think that was your crime?" Just then, the Crimson Fang's future Alpha wrapped his arm around her. "Daughter of a war hero? So what? Dreamed of joining the Gamma Team?" he sneered. "Now you're just prey crushed under my boot." His men swarmed me. Everything went black. When I opened my eyes, I was back in that moment. Watching them corner her. This time, I turned away.

I’d just stepped onto the moonstone stage at Ettelgard Academy’s annual Induction Ceremony. The screen behind me went black. The next second, a recording blasted through the hall. 【“I’m out of funds. Send me five thousand.”】 【“I need the Alpha-level combat ring tonight. Give me access.”】 【“If you don’t, I’m telling everyone your big secret. Your whole ‘untouchable Alpha’ act? It’ll be over. You’ll be ruined.”】 The crowd of a thousand elites from every major pack went silent. Then whispers erupted. That girl on the recording? The one shamelessly demanding credits? Yeah. That was me. And the guy she was "blackmailing"? Julian Valerius. The strongest pureblood wolf of our generation—the one everyone expected to become an Alpha. Scarlett, the Beta pack’s heir, stormed the stage. She pointed right at me, her voice shrill with fake righteousness. “Did you hear that? Aurora Vance isn’t some quiet bookworm. She’s a leech! A parasite who’s been blackmailing Julian for credits and privileges! A disgrace to her bloodline! She doesn’t deserve any honor from this academy!” A thousand sharp glares cut into me like daggers. On the dais, the Elders’ faces were grim. Scarlett savored my humiliation, her voice dripping with arrogance. “Aurora, Julian is too generous to stoop to your level. But you will apologize. You will beg this academy for forgiveness for being a shameless, clinging fraud!” I stared at the screen, the recording of my "blackmail" still playing. Exhausted, I pressed my fingers to my forehead. This was a total joke. Julian Valerius is my grandfather’s youngest son. My dad’s little brother. He is my literal, honest-to-God uncle. And that “big secret”? It was a threat to tell everyone how our grandmother used to chase him around the manor with a switch when he was a kid.

My mate, David, was hailed as the most generous wolf in our pack. He donated his entire ten-thousand-dollar monthly salary to the wolf orphanage. He didn't keep a single cent for himself. The heavy mortgage, his parents' expensive herbal medicines, and the pack academy tuition all fell squarely on my shoulders. I had to pay for everything using my salary as an emergency room doctor. I worked several forty-eight-hour night shifts in a row at the pack hospital. My inner wolf was utterly exhausted, but my salary was never enough to cover our expenses. Having no other choice, I tried to talk to David. "When you get paid next time, could you leave just a little bit of money for us?" To my surprise, his face instantly darkened. "That's my money. I can donate it however I want. Why is it any of your business?" His parents immediately jumped in to defend him. "Everyone in the pack praises David. Instead of being proud, you're being petty. You're trying to ruin his reputation. What's wrong with you?" Even our five-year-old son, Leo, accused me in his childish voice. "You're stopping Daddy from being a hero. You're a bad mommy!" I looked at my fingers. They were trembling uncontrollably from pure exhaustion. I felt my inner wolf growing weak and decided not to argue anymore. I turned around and sent a confirmation email to the Lycan Medical Center. I officially accepted their six-month isolated medical residency. I couldn't wait to see how this family of saints would survive without the money I worked myself to the bone to earn.

Ten years ago, my pup was tortured to death by a mutant wolfsbane strain. Right in the pack hospital's ER. I held her small, rapidly stiffening body. A dead, desperate cold seeped into my very marrow. Her high-and-mighty Alpha father did it. He personally ordered the pack’s only vial of pure antidote away. Just to save his childhood sweetheart's daughter. And that precious little girl? She just brushed against some silverweed in the garden. A mild allergic reaction. That was it. That day, I took a silver dagger. I carved the unforgettable mate mark right out of the flesh on my nape. Then,I plunged into the hellish world of lethal toxicology. Ten years later, I am the top toxicologist in the Northern Territories. The only one who can crack mutant wolfsbane. Today, the High Lycan Council handed me an emergency commission. A royal mandate. They promised me the Council’s highest honor and a massive twenty-million-dollar bounty. But when I skimmed the name on the commission, I gripped my vial hard. That name. That face. A top-tier Alpha in the Council's inner circle, radiating pure, feral dominance. I could never forget him. It was carved into my bones. I ripped off my lab coat. I slammed the file against my partner Marcus’s chest. "I'm not taking this job."