Chapter 3

That night, a twisting pain deep in my abdomen ripped me out of a nightmare.

It wasn’t ordinary pain.

It felt like something was being torn open, little by little, inside my wolf soul.

Cold sweat soaked through my pajamas in minutes. Curled on the bed, even breathing came in broken pieces.

I reached for the bedside drawer, trying to find the potion that eased wolf-soul backfire, only to touch emptiness.

Then I remembered—

the villa’s emergency meds had been cleared out long ago.

Because Ann “couldn’t stand the smell of medicine.”

She said it made her wolf soul restless.

The whole estate was terrifyingly quiet.

They were probably all in Ann’s room.

Hovering around the ‘fragile pregnant cripple’ the entire Pack coddled, murmuring reassurance, staying up all night.

I gritted my teeth and forced myself upright, bracing on the bedframe.

No one was coming.

I had to go to the hospital myself.

The hospital lobby at dawn was lit in a harsh, chalk-white glare.

In the ER, the Pack doctor flipped through my wolf-soul records, his brows knitting tighter and tighter.

“How is it like this again?”

“Didn’t I tell you a long time ago—no alcohol, and you can’t keep overdrawing your wolf spirit like this?”

He looked up at me, the scolding he couldn’t hold back in his voice.

“Ethan didn’t keep an eye on you?”

“The last time he came, he specifically told me to get your condition back on track.”

For a moment, I went blank.

The first time my wolf spirit crashed, it happened here too.

That day, Ethan carried me into the ER with red-rimmed eyes.

He grabbed the doctor’s hand like he’d go mad, asking over and over if I could recover.

After I was discharged, he personally sealed away all my work files.

He woke up before dawn every day to cook the medicated porridge that soothed my wolf soul.

Every few days, he found the doctor again, demanding confirmation about my diet and rest schedule.

Back then…

he really did love me.

But that love still disappeared, bit by bit.

Maybe I was too busy.

Too busy negotiating for the Pack, too busy holding his Alpha throne steady, too busy to notice anyone’s feelings.

I still remember the last time Ethan and I had a real fight.

A cross-pack alliance project kept me awake for three straight days and nights.

Again, I missed the trip I’d promised him.

That was the first time he blew up at me like that.

He said I was cold-blooded, numb, only cared about power and profit.

He said I had never fulfilled my responsibilities as a mate, as a Luna.

At the time, I was honestly confused.

I was just following the road my mother had walked, trying to hold everything up and keep everyone safe.

What was wrong with that?

Supporting two bloodlines, keeping a Pack running—of course it was exhausting.

Everything shoved me forward. There was no room to stop and think.

And by the time I finally looked up again—

everything had already turned into this.

My phone vibrated suddenly, yanking me out of the memories.

A message from Ethan.

【I’m taking Dad and Ann out for clearing her mind. 】

【Transfer six million from the Pack’s public accounts. To cover our bills. 】

Like always, I replied: “Okay.”

Then I instructed finance to open an unlimited spending line for their trip.

Because—

it wasn’t my Pack anymore.

Whether the cash flow broke, whether the Pack’s resources collapsed—

none of it was my problem now.

The Pack doctor was still warning me beside the bed. “You have to follow the medical instructions. You can’t keep burning yourself out like this.”

“If you keep dragging it out, your wolf soul will collapse completely.”

I nodded, more certain than I had ever been.

“I understand.”

“From now on, I won’t.”

From now on.

I’ll live—

for myself.