Chapter 1
"Yvaine, you haven't been able to conceive for three years, while Lilith is already carrying my child. For the sake of the pack, surrender your title as Luna."
Carl coldly pronounced my death sentence.
I didn't beg.
I ripped the flesh from the bloody mate mark at the back of my neck and hurled it at his feet before turning and walking into the torrential rain raging across the borderlands.
The entire pack was waiting for news of my death in the wilderness.
Just as the fangs of a Rogue were about to tear through my throat, a heavy-duty pickup truck came roaring out of the darkness.
Fenrir, the lowly mechanic from the edge of town, didn't even shift into wolf form. With his bare hands, he crushed the neck of the Rogue Alpha.
He stepped through the wreckage and came to me. With a rough hand covered in motor oil and blood, he firmly pressed against the mangled wound on the back of my neck.
His voice was low and hoarse.
"If that bastard was blind enough to throw you away, then be my Mate. From now on, no one touches you."
"Yvaine, you haven't given birth to an heir in three years, while Lilith is already carrying my child. For the sake of the pack, surrender your title as Luna. Either become an Omega or get out."
There wasn't a trace of warmth in Carl's voice.
I stood in the middle of the hall, staring at the Alpha who had been my Mate for three years.
The love that had once filled his eyes had been replaced by naked disgust.
And nestled in his arms was Lilith—the girl I had once saved from a Rogue's fangs and treated like family.
Lilith protectively covered her slightly swollen belly. Her eyes were red as she put on a pitiful expression.
"Yvaine, I'm sorry. But the baby needs a father, and the pack needs a future. You can't have children. I'm only thinking of what's best for everyone."
"For everyone?" I let out a cold laugh. "Climbing into your savior's Mate's bed—that's how you repay me?"
"Enough!"
Carl suddenly unleashed his Alpha aura.
The invisible pressure crashed down on me, forcing my knees to buckle.
He snarled coldly, "Lilith can bear offspring, while you're nothing but a defective she-wolf who can't reproduce! You stopped deserving the Luna position a long time ago!"
Whispers erupted throughout the hall.
The same pack members who had been bowing and scraping before me just yesterday were now looking at me with nothing but contempt.
"Three years and not even a pregnancy. She must have a genetic defect."
"A useless she-wolf who can't produce pups. She should've been gone long ago."
"She's worse than the lowest Omega. She's a disgrace to Silver Moon."
Listening to their insults and looking at Carl's face, I felt sick.
For three years, I had fought on the bloodiest front lines to secure Carl's position as Alpha, tearing apart countless invading Rogues.
Two scars, deep enough to expose bone, still marked my back.
I had earned every one of them protecting the very people who were cursing me now.
The territory I had won for Silver Moon with my fangs and blood was worth less in their eyes than Lilith's fertile womb.
Every battle scar on my body had become a complete joke.
Seeing me remain silent, Carl assumed I was afraid.
He looked down at me from his lofty position, his gaze almost charitable.
"Yvaine, accept your status as an Omega and you can still stay in the territory and serve me. This is the last mercy I'll show you."
Stay here and serve him?
I almost laughed.
I forced myself upright beneath his Alpha pressure and stared straight into his eyes.
"You want me to give up my place? Fine. But there is no Omega who still carries a Mate bond. Carl, if you want to make this official, do you dare formally Reject me?"
Shock flashed through his eyes, quickly replaced by furious outrage at being challenged.
"You brought this upon yourself."
He roared, "I, Carl, Alpha of Silver Moon, formally Reject you, Yvaine! Hand over your necklace and get out of the territory. You are no longer my Mate!"
"Fine. As you wish."
I tore the silver wolf necklace from my neck and hurled it at Carl's face.
The sharp metal instantly sliced his cheek, drawing blood.
"Yvaine, you're asking for—"
I ignored his fury and reached for the back of my neck.
That was where he had bitten me when we completed our Mate bond.
The entire hall fell deathly silent.
Carl lifted his chin, waiting for me to break down in tears, waiting for me to humbly say, "I accept your Rejection."
But I didn't.
I clenched my teeth.
My fingers curled into claws and drove deep into my own flesh before I violently ripped outward.
"Rip—!"
Flesh tore. Blood splattered.
I forcibly tore away the piece of flesh bearing his scent, completely severing the bond.
The instant the bond broke, a terrifying backlash slammed into me like a hammer.
Carl groaned in pain and staggered backward. He clutched his cramping chest as the arrogance vanished from his face, leaving nothing but shock in his eyes.
"Yvaine! You actually—"
Pain blackened my vision, but I refused to make a sound.
I hurled the bloody piece of flesh at Lilith's feet.
"Ah!"
She screamed in terror.
"Carl," I swept a cold glance over them and turned toward the door. "I hope your new Luna is worthy of the choice you made today."
The heavy oak doors slammed shut behind me, completely cutting me off from the man who made me sick.
Outside, violent winds tore through the night as rain poured down.
The moment the tension holding me together snapped, the pain came crashing back twice as hard.
Clutching the bleeding wound on the back of my neck, I staggered into a deserted alley in the borderlands.
Blood loss and the broken bond made my vision swim.
Before long, three greedy pairs of glowing green eyes appeared in the deepest part of the darkness.
Three tall men stepped out of the shadows, their eyes fixed on my bleeding neck.
Rogues.
The leader greedily licked his lips.
"She smells like a high-ranking she-wolf. And she's a discarded Mate who just lost her mark."
"Grrrr!"
Their bones twisted with eerie cracking sounds.
In the blink of an eye, the three men transformed into enormous, deformed wolves. A rancid stench surrounded me as they closed in.
I bit my lip and tried to summon my wolf power, but the backlash from tearing off my Mate mark left me too weak to even shift.
"Get her! Tear her apart!"
The black-furred Rogue Alpha roared and leaped into the air.
Its fangs came straight for my throat.
Just as I clenched my fists, preparing to fight to the death with the last of my strength—
"Boom!"
A deafening engine roar ripped through the rainy night.
Two blinding headlights swept across the darkness like blades.
A black, heavily modified pickup truck came barreling around the corner like a maddened steel beast and slammed straight into the airborne wolf.
With a sickening crack of breaking bones, the giant wolf was hurled away like a rag doll. It flew across half the street and smashed through the brick wall opposite us, dying on impact.
The remaining two Rogues tucked their tails between their legs and stumbled backward in terror.
The heavy truck door was violently kicked open.
A pair of long legs in heavy tactical boots, splattered with mud and carrying the smell of motor oil, stepped into the pouring rain.
