Chapter 9
Sera POV
A whole week.
I locked myself in that dilapidated wooden cabin like a lone wolf licking its wounds.
Without high-grade ointments, I could only rely on those crude herbs and my body transformed by the sacred spring to endure. Miraculously, my recovery speed turned out to be even faster than that of ordinary werewolves.
Those torn and bleeding wounds scabbed over and fell off at a visible rate, not even leaving scars behind.
When I pushed open that creaky wooden door again, the morning sunlight stung my eyes.
I didn't bother washing up, only changed into clothes that were slightly less filthy and worn. I calmly straightened my collar and walked directly toward the elders' council hall.
I was leaving this place.
When I stood before Victor, he was sitting in his elevated chair, holding his newly commissioned diamond-encrusted cane. Seeing me standing there unharmed, a flash of surprise crossed his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by contempt.
"Who gave you permission to leave the cabin on your own, Sera?" Victor snorted coldly. "What, the whipping didn't teach you your lesson?"
"I've come to request permission to leave the pack." I ignored his mockery, my voice as calm as stagnant water. "According to wolf law, members have the right to choose exile. I'm willing to renounce my identity as part of Iron Moon Pack and sever all ties with the group from this day forward."
"Leave?" Victor sounded as if he'd heard the joke of the century, striking the floor hard with his cane. "Are you that eager to go out and get yourself killed?"
He stood up and walked toward me, looking down at me with that condescending gaze: "You're always so willful! First you violated the sacred spring's forbidden grounds, and now you want to just walk away? The pack has spent so much food and resources raising you, and not only are you ungrateful, you want to just leave without a second thought?"
I looked quietly at his old face, flushed red with agitation, and suddenly found it absurdly funny.
"Raising me?" I pulled at the corner of my mouth, revealing a cold smile. "Elder Victor, are you getting old and losing your memory?"
"How dare you talk back?!" He had already bared his fangs in anger, seeming ready to release his Alpha pressure to suppress me. But his Alpha power was far weaker than in his younger days.
If this had been the old me, I would have been trembling in fear, not daring to make a sound.
But now I was completely unmoved.
"Fifteen years ago," I looked him straight in the eye, enunciating each word, "if my father hadn't covered your retreat and taken that fatal blow from the enemy pack, you wouldn't even have the chance to sit here today accusing me of being ungrateful!"
After speaking, I paused deliberately and raised my voice.
"Also, Alpha Caden swore to protect me in front of you. Are you so old that you've forgotten even that?"
Victor's face instantly turned ashen. He wanted to lash out again, but found that I was completely unaffected. So he sat back down in his chair and first said to the werewolf guards on both sides: "You leave first. Don't come in without my orders."
I watched the guards' retreating backs, sneering inwardly. Even the formerly mighty old Alpha feared losing face because a wolfless girl wouldn't submit to his discipline.
He sat in his chair, caught his breath, his finger pointing at me trembling slightly: "You... you ungrateful wretch! Your father's achievements are one thing, your crimes are another!"
"So this is what you call your 'nurturing grace'?" I coldly interrupted him. "Treating me like a slave to be trampled at will, not caring about my daughter's life or death, not even letting me keep her ashes?"
Victor was left speechless by my retort.
I took a deep breath, suppressing the hatred in my heart: "I don't need your charity. I'll only ask once—what will it take for you to let me go?"
Victor narrowed his eyes, looking me up and down, a calculating gleam flashing in his gaze.
"Sera," he took a deep breath, his tone suddenly softening, even taking on a hint of earnest concern, "I took you into the pack for your father's sake. If you feel you've been wronged here and have no gratitude toward me, I can understand that."
He paused, his eyes showing the consideration and helplessness befitting an elder: "But you're still Caden's destined mate. The fated bond connects both parties' fortune and life force. If you rashly leave like this and encounter any danger outside, it will cause serious backlash to Caden. I can't let Caden and the pack suffer because of you."
Hearing these words, the last trace of warmth in my heart completely froze over.
So that was it. He wasn't refusing to drive me away out of old sentiment or mercy, but because he feared his precious son's destined mate might have an accident outside that would affect Caden. From beginning to end, in their eyes I was nothing more than a potential hazard that could explode at any moment, a tool to maintain Caden's safety.
If that's the case, then I'll simply dismantle this tool.
"Since you're worried about that," I looked Victor straight in the eye, my voice steady without a ripple, "then I'll take the initiative and completely sever the fated bond between Caden and myself."
The air froze in that moment.
Victor was stunned. His cloudy eyes stared at me intently. He knew how devoted I had once been to Caden. He probably never imagined that I would now so decisively, so unhesitatingly, give up my identity as Caden's mate.
"What did you say?" he asked incredulously, his voice slightly tight. "You want to give up being the Alpha's destined mate? Weren't you very..."
He didn't finish, his eyes narrowing slightly as if reassessing me as a person. "You want to leave the pack that badly?"
"I know." I looked at the harsh sunlight outside the window, feeling more relaxed than ever before.
"I have no attachments to this place anymore."
I turned my head to look at Victor, revealing a smile that was both brilliantly radiant and cruelly cold:
"Just this one condition. Break the bond, give me my freedom."
Victor looked at me for a long while, seemingly unsure how to respond to my request. He was already in semi-retirement and had no authority to decide the fate of Caden's destined mate. So he simply waved his hand at me.
"Go back for now. This matter is not for you to decide."
Caden POV
"Knock, knock..."
An extremely light but panicked knocking came from outside my study door.
"Come in." I lowered my voice, putting down the documents in my hand, my tone carrying the displeasure of being interrupted.
The door opened a crack, and Jack stuck half his body in. He was usually an extremely steady deputy, but now he looked as if facing a great enemy.
"Alpha. There's something I must report to you immediately." He lowered his head, his tone grave.
I frowned, heavily setting down the pen in my hand on the desk: "What are you panicking about? Say what you need to say quickly."
Jack swallowed and continued:
"It's Miss Sera... she just went to Alpha Victor and took the initiative to request completely severing the destined mate bond with you!"
The entire study fell into deathly silence. Only the occasional crackling of firewood in the fireplace echoed in the air, sounding particularly jarring.
I held the pen in my hand, but my fingertips tightened uncontrollably. With a crisp "crack," the solid metal pen body was crushed in my grip. Cold ink flowed down between my fingers, dripping onto the desk in a shocking sight.
"What did you say?" My voice was terrifyingly low, like muffled thunder before a storm, carrying a suppressed violence that even I hadn't noticed.
"Miss Sera said... she wants to voluntarily dissolve the destined mate relationship with you and then leave the pack." Jack kept his head deeply bowed, not daring to look at my eyes that had already turned blood red with anger.
Indifferent?
No, my heart was churning violently at this moment, as if countless beasts were frantically crashing against my chest cavity.
A wolfless, a useless wretch without a wolf spirit—being allowed to stay in the pack as a servant was already maximizing her value. Where did she think she could fly? What made her think she had the right to negotiate terms with me?
But... dissolving the destined mate bond?
This should have been something I brought up first!
She was my possession, my fated mate, marked with my scent! What right did she have to dissolve it just like that? What qualification did she have to abandon me?!
"Foolish creature who doesn't know death!" I ground out these words through clenched teeth, violently throwing the broken pen at the wall, leaving a deep ink stain.
I wanted her kneeling before me, crying and begging me not to abandon me.
Yet she couldn't wait to get rid of me?
Fine. Since she wants to play, let's see who gives in first.
