Chapter 1 Chapter 1

On my mating ceremony with my Alpha mate Derek, I felt my heart stop when his stepsister Victoria waltzed in wearing the exact Luna ceremonial dress I had been begging Derek to buy me for months. "It's just a dress, Scarlett. We need to save our resources for pack matters," Derek had told me when I asked for it. Victoria glided across the room toward me. She embraced me, her lips brushing against my ear. "Congratulations on becoming Luna." She whispered, her voice honey-sweet with poison underneath. "Do you really think you deserve that title? You don't even have a proper Luna dress. Derek told me only I am worthy of wearing this gown." My blood ran cold as she pulled back, still smiling for our audience. Before I could respond, Derek appeared beside us, beaming at his stepsister. "Victoria, you look stunning tonight," he said, his voice warm with affection he rarely showed me. Victoria's eyes glistened with false emotion as she raised her glass. "A toast to our new Luna!" she announced loudly. But as she stepped forward, she deliberately tilted her glass, spilling red wine down the front of her own dress. Her scream silenced the entire hall. "Scarlett! How could you?" she wailed, tears instantly streaming down her face. "Luna, I know you've always disliked me," she sobbed, clutching Derek's arm. "But I came to congratulate you sincerely today. Why would you treat me like this?" Derek's face darkened as he stared at me, his eyes flashing with his wolf's anger. "What is wrong with you?" he hissed, his fingers digging painfully into my arm as he pulled me aside. "This is supposed to be a sacred ceremony, and you're acting like a jealous pup.""Derek, I didn't spill anything on her," I protested. "She did it herself!""Enough!" His Alpha voice made everyone in the room flinch. "You're embarrassing yourself and our pack. This behavior is beneath even an Omega, let alone a Luna."“If you do this again, I will punish you and send you to jail. No one can disobey the wolf pack laws, not even Luna.” He warned. I watched in disbelief as Derek returned to Victoria. Just two days ago, when an Omega servant deliberately tore my million-dollar Luna gown at Victoria's instigation, I'd asked Derek to punish her. His response? "As Luna, you need to be gracious and kind to pack members, Scarlett." But now he thought I merely spills wine on Victoria's dress, and suddenly Derek's forgotten all about being gracious to pack members? "Derek," I finally spoke up, my voice low but filled with suppressed rage, "I don't understand why you always favor Victoria. This is our mating ceremony. I'm the one becoming your mate, becoming the Luna of this pack. Yet Victoria is the one wearing the Luna's ceremonial dress, standing here enjoying all your affection." My words made Derek pause for a moment, confusion flickering across his face. Then his expression hardened as he looked at me coldly, clearly not seeing how outrageously he was behaving. "Don't overreact, Scarlett," he said in a low voice that carried the unmistakable command of an Alpha. "Victoria is my stepsister. We grew up together. Her parents are dead, and she has no one else. If I don't stand up for her, she'll be bullied. As the Alpha of this pack, I can't allow that. And you, as my mate, should understand me." Then Derek turned to Victoria, his expression instantly softening with tenderness and indulgence as he comforted her, leaving everyone else forgotten. Considering this was supposed to be my mating ceremony, I didn't follow them but instead focused on calming the pack members who were witnessing this disaster. After the ceremony finally ended, Victoria sought me out. Still wearing that expensive dress, she flaunted herself in front of me. "Scarlett, so what if you've become Derek's mate? I'm the one he truly cherishes. You'll never have his real love. His heart will always favor me.""You're pathetic," I hissed, my wolf's anger rising inside me. “Even if you manipulated Derek, he still marked me today. I am the pack’s Luna and you are nothing.” Victoria's smile turned predatory. "Maybe I should be Luna then." Her expression turned vicious as she suddenly shoved me toward the bonfire at the center of the altar. Though my wolf reacted quickly, the flames still caught my dress, burning it and scorching my wolf who howled in pain. Everyone around us froze, then gathered quickly. Derek stood nearby, his face dark with anger. Victoria's voice rose above the commotion, her eyes brimming with false tears: "She just tried to tear my dress! I only pushed her away lightly to defend myself! Please, someone save her!" The pack members looked between us in confusion as I struggled to extinguish the flames licking at my ceremonial gown. Derek's eyes burned with fury as he stormed toward me, completely ignoring my pain. "What is wrong with you?" he roared, his Alpha voice making the ground beneath us tremble. "You're the Luna of this pack now. Why would you attack my sister over a dress? You've disgraced not only yourself but our entire pack!" I stared at him in disbelief, my skin still burning from the flames. "Derek, she pushed me into the fire! Can't you see I'm hurt?""Stop lying!" he snarled, stepping closer to Victoria protectively. "Your jealousy has gone too far. Victoria would never do such a thing.""This is already the second time today you've caused trouble for Victoria, Scarlett. If I catch you making things difficult for Victoria again, I won't hesitate to sever our mate bond. I mean every word I say." The entire pack witnessed my humiliation in shocked silence. My skin still burned from the flames, angry red welts forming across my arms and shoulder. The ceremonial Luna crown slipped from my singed hair, clattering to the floor while Derek didn't even flinch at the sound. Something had broken inside me at that ceremony—not just my heart, but my illusions.

Chapter 2 Chapter 2

"Deal with this mess yourself." Derek's words hit me like a sledgehammer as he turned away without hesitation, taking Victoria with him. The ceremony was over, but my humiliation wasn't. That evening, I learned through pack gossip that Derek had taken Victoria to the Maldives—our planned honeymoon destination. The mind link we'd just formed flickered with his message: "What happened at the ceremony upset Victoria deeply. Let's give our honeymoon to her as compensation. You should take this time to reflect on your behavior. I need to help Victoria relax." I stumbled back to our bedroom—no, his bedroom—where rose petals still covered the sheets. I was too exhausted to clean them, so I simply swept them onto the floor before collapsing onto the mattress in my still-damp clothes. The pack members had doused me with water after Victoria pushed me into the fire, but no one had offered me dry clothes or treatment for my burns. While plugging in my phone to charge, I "accidentally" saw Victoria's Instagram post. The photo showed Derek with his arm around her, their faces inches apart, almost touching. Both wore matching arm bands—traditional symbols of devotion in werewolf culture. A month ago, I would have shifted immediately and raced across the territory to demand an explanation. But now, I simply turned off my phone and rolled over to sleep. For years I'd believed Derek's coldness was just his way, that his devotion to Victoria was merely familial obligation. I'd made excuses for him, fought for his attention, earned my place. Now I saw clearly: I had never been his priority. It’s time to end all this. The next morning, with steady hands that surprised even me, I signed the mate bond severance documents and took them to the Alpha Council. Because Derek was the pack's Alpha, we needed the Alpha Council's approval to sever the mate bond. However, fate seemed determined to deny me peace. On my way back from the Council, in a secluded part of the territory, I found myself surrounded by wolves from the rival Bloodmoon Pack. Their eyes gleamed with hatred and savagery as they circled me. I tried to shift into my wolf form to fight them, but only then did I discover I was pregnant. The pregnancy had temporarily disabled my ability to shift—the most vulnerable time in a she-wolf's life. As panic set in, I heard the rival Alpha's thunderous growl: "Your mate drove my entire pack from our territory! Because of him, we lost everything! Our hunting grounds, our dens, all gone!" He stalked closer, his massive black form towering over me. "We heard your mate has just inherited the Shadow Pack. Once we have you, he'll trade those lands for your return!" Hearing they only wanted territory gave me a flicker of hope. Maybe they would spare my child if Derek cooperated. Desperately, I reached out through our newly formed mate bond. Nine desperate mental calls met with nothing but silence. My hands trembled against my stomach, protecting the life I'd just discovered inside me. Derek, please! I'm pregnant with your child! They'll kill us both! Tears streamed down my face, my legs giving out as I fell to my knees on the forest floor. On the tenth try, Derek's cold rejection came through: "Are you done with the dramatics? My sister Victoria isn't feeling well. Stop bothering me." His dismissal stripped me of any value in my captors' eyes. I fought desperately, but with my wolf dormant, my resistance was meaningless. The rival Alpha's claws tore savagely and precisely at my stomach. Horror froze me as I watched them rip my unborn child to pieces. As my blood soaked into the forest floor, a pain I'd never known tore through me—warm and sticky. My child was gone, just like that. Hatred crystallized in my heart, unleashing my Alpha wolf in one final surge of power. I managed to kill the wolf who had murdered my child before escaping the rival pack's encirclement. Back in safe territory, clinging to my last breath, I called my father. "Father," I whispered, my voice barely audible, "I won't be Luna of the Shadow Pack anymore. I agree to return and inherit the Silver Moon Pack."

Chapter 3 Chapter 3

What Derek never knew was that I was actually the daughter of the Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, the most powerful pack in the Northern Territories. My parents had always wanted me to inherit the Alpha position, but I had refused for Derek's sake. Derek and I had been together for six years, since we were teenagers in rival packs. Though we'd only recently held the mating ceremony, we'd actually completed the mate bond ritual right after graduating from pack training. During these years, I had secretly used my family connections to help elevate Derek from a mid-ranking wolf to the Shadow Pack Alpha position. He had once been a warrior who didn't understand leadership, even nearly plunging the entire pack into crisis because of his arrogance and impulsiveness. It was my strategic planning that guided the pack through that disaster. He said he needed me, so I stayed with the Shadow Pack. I helped him manage the entire Shadow Pack, transforming it from one of the weakest packs into one of the five strongest packs in the Northern Territories. Recently, I'd even been helping him campaign for the Alpha King position. I had stood by him as he grew from an inexperienced warrior into the Alpha of Shadow Pack. But now, I truly understood that all my sacrifices meant nothing to him. His heart had never belonged to me. My parents received news of my condition and immediately rushed from the distant Northern Territories to care for me. For an entire month, Derek never appeared once. My father insisted on accompanying me to my final check-up before discharge. We were leaving the obstetrics and gynecology department—the same department where I had lost my baby, where I had spent weeks recovering from having my womb torn apart—when I saw them. Derek and Victoria stood at the reception desk, her hand placed protectively over her stomach, his arm wrapped around her shoulders. The sight stopped me cold. My father's hand tightened on my wheelchair. Victoria spotted us first. Her eyes widened before a smile spread across her face—a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She tugged at Derek's sleeve and whispered something, guiding him toward us. "Scarlett!" Victoria called out, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "What a surprise to see you here!" She stepped closer. One hand remained curved protectively around her belly. "Why are you here? Are you sick?" Victoria's smile widened as she moved even closer, deliberately making sure I could see the hand cradling her stomach. "I'm pregnant," she announced, her eyes gleaming with malice disguised as joy. "My brother is so worried about me that he's been accompanying me to see the healer. You don't mind, right?" Every word was like a dagger. Just weeks ago, I had been pregnant with Derek's child—a child torn from me while he ignored my pleas for help. Derek shifted uncomfortably, unable to meet my eyes. "Scarlett, don't get me wrong. She is my sister, I just accompanied her to see the healer." My father stepped forward, his Alpha presence expanding until the air itself seemed to vibrate with power. "Derek," my father growled, his voice barely above a whisper yet reverberating through the entire department, "is this how you take care of my daughter?"