Chapter 1

Sera's POV

My daughter had been dead for exactly seven days.

In this world, death usually comes with some kind of ritual—a tolling bell, a eulogy, or at the very least, a gravestone no bigger than a thumbnail, carved with a name.

But my dead daughter had nothing.

The reason was simple: she wasn't an official member of the Iron Moon Pack. She was just a "mongrel" pup, a burden that survived only by clinging to my existence.

I clutched the small white ceramic urn tightly in my hands, something I'd traded for with what little savings I had left at a human general store outside the city.

The cold touch of the ceramic seeped through my palm and into my bloodstream, feeling exactly like Lily's gradually cooling, stiffening hand in that final moment.

Two miles away, the Iron Moon Pack's estate was ablaze with lights.

The faint sound of a symphony drifted on the night wind into this deathly silent dark forest. It was the Luna coronation ceremony for Alpha Caden Thorne and his new Luna—Elena Caldwell.

How ironic—at the very moment our daughter drew her last breath, the child's father was welcoming his new Luna on this territory.

The boots on my feet had already worn through at the soles. With every step, the gravel dug painfully into the soles of my feet.

But I didn't dare stop. I was afraid that once I stopped, those memories would drown me like a tide.

My father wasn't an original member of the Pack. He was a rogue wolf who had been taken in by the old Alpha Victor Thorne fifteen years ago.

He carried Beta bloodline and was recognized as one of the top warriors of his generation.

Years ago, when the old Alpha was ambushed and trapped in a desperate situation, it was my father who held on with his flesh and blood until the very last moment, trading his life to pull the old patriarch back from death's door.

Before he died, my father entrusted me to Caden, who was still just a boy at the time, right in front of old Alpha Victor.

Caden had knelt before my father's blood-soaked bed, gripping my hand and swearing: "Sera, as long as I live, Iron Moon Pack will be your home."

Back then, I naively believed he would truly protect me for life because of that oath. So I followed them back to the pack.

In the Iron Moon Pack, a werewolf's coming-of-age ceremony was sacred.

Typically, children in the pack would experience their first awakening at age thirteen, meaning they would soon learn to shift, possess tremendous strength and healing abilities, and officially become members of the pack.

That year, Caden awakened without incident.

Golden light enveloped him as a massive silver-gray wolf raised its head and howled at the sky—that was the supreme Alpha bloodline, majestic and domineering, destined to rule over everything.

The entire pack cheered, and old Alpha Victor was so moved that tears streamed down his face as he called Caden "the strongest king Iron Moon Pack has seen in a hundred years."

And I watched from below the stage.

Though I hadn't awakened yet, I naively thought it didn't matter.

Because Caden had promised to protect me.

But thirteen came and went with no sign from me.

Fourteen, fifteen... One by one, my peers could all transform into wolves, running and hunting under the moonlight. Only I remained trapped in a mortal shell.

Until I turned eighteen, when the final judgment came.

At that belated ceremony, I stood before the crowd, praying and screaming, but inside my body there was only dead silence.

No glowing light of transformation, no searing pain of shifting bones, no response from a wolf spirit.

The elder presiding over the ceremony shook his head and coldly stamped a black seal on the registry—"Wolfless."

In the werewolf dictionary, Wolfless was the lowest status of defective goods, waste not even worthy of being cannon fodder.

From that day on, the world changed.

Those who used to politely call me "Miss Sera" instantly changed the look in their eyes.

"Tch, so she's Wolfless. How unlucky."

"Does she think the Alpha would care about a Wolfless? What a joke."

"Stay away from her. Wolfless spreads bad luck."

Those vicious whispers buzzed around me like flies. On the training grounds, young wolves I'd once mentored dared to bare their teeth at me. In the cafeteria, the serving lady would deliberately throw spoiled meat onto my plate, muttering: "Wolfless don't deserve fresh food anyway."

I ran crying to Caden to confide in him.

By then, he had already been lifted to the clouds by everyone's adulation. He wore black combat gear and was so handsome it was hard to look directly at him.

"Caden, they're bullying me... They're calling me worthless..." I grabbed his sleeve like it was my last lifeline.

Caden stopped walking and looked down at me.

The tenderness was gone from his eyes, replaced by a complex, scrutinizing coldness.

"Sera," he pulled his hand back, his voice cruelly calm, "the Pack reveres strength. Being Wolfless... it really is hard to earn respect in the Pack."

"But you said you'd protect me! You swore over my father's corpse..."

"That was before." Caden cut me off. He turned away, no longer looking at me. "Now, I'm the future Alpha. What I need to protect is my entire pack, not a burden."

In that moment, I stood frozen in place, plunged into an icy abyss.

So it turned out that oaths were so fragile in the face of bloodline hierarchy.

From that day on, other she-wolves began appearing around Caden. They were strong, beautiful, and most importantly, they had their own wolf spirits. They looked at me with eyes full of provocation. And I could only hide in corners like a rat crossing the street, licking the shameful brand of "Wolfless."

If not for Victor's lingering guilt toward my father, I probably would have been expelled from the pack long ago, left to fend for myself.

But I still wouldn't give up.

I refused to believe the Moon Goddess had completely abandoned me, or that Caden would truly be so heartless toward me.

So every full moon night, when the pack's werewolves were running under the moon, I would secretly slip away to the sacred spring deep in the forest.

This was pack forbidden ground, where people rarely approached.

I would kneel on the cold stones, praying over and over again.

"Please grant me strength, let me awaken my wolf spirit, let me be worthy of standing by his side..."

It was an unusually bright full moon.

Silver moonlight poured down like mercury, and the air in the forest was abnormally sweltering.

As usual, I was kneeling by the sacred spring when suddenly, an intensely suffocating Alpha aura pressed down on the wind.

I looked up in terror and saw Caden.

He was half-kneeling on the ground, his hands desperately clawing at the dirt, his black combat uniform soaked with sweat.

His eyes glowed an abnormal crimson red, and suppressed growls rumbled from his throat.

It was "moon frenzy"—powerful Alphas would fall into a violent rage during the full moon due to excess energy in their bodies, and without a mate's comfort, they would go mad with pain.

"Caden?" I called out tentatively, trying to step back, but his suddenly locked gaze pinned me in place.

The next second, the world spun.

He pounced on me like an uncontrolled beast, his scorching chest pressed hard against me, that domineering cedar scent instantly drowning me.

"Help me..." His voice was hoarse, laced with pained gasps, his fingers gripping my wrist almost brutally.

In that moment, I should have run.

But I felt the trembling deep in his soul—my Alpha was craving me.

Possessed by some impulse, I didn't push him away. Instead, I tremblingly reached out and wrapped my arms around his burning neck.

The instant our skin touched, a miracle happened.

Though I couldn't shift into a wolf, in my mental sea, a faint but pure silver light suddenly ignited.

That was the resonance of "fated mates"!

The Moon Goddess hadn't abandoned me! I was his Mate!

That night, the moonlight was wild and delirious.

We tangled together on the grass by the sacred spring, sweat and tears mingling.

I felt the tremor of my soul being filled—that was "our mate bond."

I cried in his ear: "Caden, we've bonded... I'm your Mate..."

He held me tightly in his delirium, but the name he called out was someone else's.

"Elena."