Chapter 3

The massive warehouse door slammed shut behind us, completely sealing off the rainy night.

Fenrir didn't turn on the lights.

He immediately pressed me against the rough brick wall in the darkness.

The backlash from the broken bond had left my entire body freezing cold, but his burning body pressed tightly against mine, and his powerful Alpha scent instantly burned away what little reason I had left.

"I'll wash him away."

His rough hand firmly lifted my face.

His dark-gold eyes churned with suffocating possessiveness in the darkness.

The next second, his kiss crashed down with brutal force.

There were no words.

No tenderness.

He tore apart my soaked dress with one hand and lifted me effortlessly in his powerful arms.

This wasn't gentle seduction.

It was the savage claiming of a Lone Wolf who had been suppressing his instincts for far too long.

Every movement was fierce and uncontrolled.

Under his overwhelming strength, I couldn't even form a complete sentence. I could only cling instinctively to his broad shoulders and endure the storm of his claiming.

At the breaking point, Fenrir turned me around.

His burning chest pressed tightly against my back, his heavy breathing brushing over the raw wound on my neck.

"Hold onto me."

He growled.

His sharp wolf fangs sank mercilessly into my gland.

After the searing pain came an overwhelming rush of pleasure.

His scorching Alpha blood surged into me through the Claiming Bite, violently extinguishing the threat of death from the broken bond.

A brand-new Mate bond formed inside me with a thunderous force.

From that moment on, I was completely his.

My taut nerves finally snapped, and I collapsed unconscious in his burning embrace.

…

When I opened my eyes again, daylight was already streaming through the window.

The Fenrir of last night had been like an insatiable beast.

I had expected to wake up on a cold, filthy floor after our desperate bargain.

But I was wrong.

The rich smell of sizzling bacon had awakened me.

I was lying in a large, clean bed, and the horrific bite wound on the back of my neck had been carefully cleaned and treated with cooling herbs.

The panic of losing my Pack made me instinctively search for something to do.

I endured the soreness, got out of bed, and walked to the sink outside, intending to wash Fenrir's rough work shirt from last night.

The moment my hand touched the cold water, a scorching hand suddenly closed around my wrist.

Fenrir had just finished showering and was standing behind me.

Water droplets slid down his powerfully built chest and disappeared beneath the waistband of his work pants.

The heat of his masculine presence instantly surrounded me.

"I'm doing laundry…"

I tried to pull my hand free.

"And I'll make breakfast."

Fenrir frowned sharply.

He pulled me away from the basin and firmly sat me down beside the dining table.

Then he turned and placed a steaming plate of eggs and bacon in front of me.

"You don't need to wash heavy grease stains."

His voice sounded like a military order.

"You were just marked. Stay away from cold water. Your job is to eat and heal."

I watched his broad back as he returned to the cramped kitchen, swallowing the ache rising in my eyes.

In Carl's eyes, I had been nothing but useless breeding trash.

Yet this rough mechanic covered in the smell of motor oil was claiming absolute territory around me in the most overbearing way possible.

Just then, an ear-piercing screech of brakes shattered the quiet.

A black SUV bearing the Silver Moon insignia stopped outside the repair shop.

The door was kicked open, and Carl's second-in-command, Mark, stepped out, covering his nose as he disgustedly kicked aside the scattered parts on the ground.

"Mechanic! Get out here!"

Mark shouted arrogantly.

"The chassis is making a weird noise. Fix it now. If you delay Alpha Carl's schedule, you couldn't afford the consequences!"

He turned his head and spotted me sitting inside.

After a moment of shock, Mark burst into a malicious laugh.

"Well, well. Isn't this the former Luna who couldn't produce pups?"

Mark swaggered closer, his eyes moving contemptuously between me and the shirtless Fenrir.

"Alpha Carl kicked you out, and now you've fallen so low that you're getting yourself worked up with a lowly mechanic in a junkyard?"

My face went pale.

My fingers dug into the edge of the chair.

When I remained silent, Mark became even more brazen and reached for my hair.

"If you're that desperate for an Alpha, why don't you come back to the territory and let the brothers—"

His fingers never even touched a strand of my hair.

"Bang!"

A black blur exploded into motion.

I didn't even see Fenrir move.

Mark was hurled through the air by terrifying force and slammed onto the hood of the SUV.

The hard metal shrieked and buckled inward, leaving a massive human-shaped dent.

"Urgh!"

Mark's eyes bulged as blood spilled from his mouth.

Fenrir clamped one hand around his throat and crushed his face against the scorching metal.

There was no flashy display of Alpha pressure.

Pure physical brutality alone left a high-ranking Beta completely helpless.

"You just called someone lowly?"

Fenrir looked directly at him.

His voice was quiet, but the silence around him felt like death itself.

"Let… let me go…"

"I'm from Silver Moon…"

Mark struggled desperately, only to realize in despair that the strength he had always been proud of was laughable compared to this mechanic.

Fenrir couldn't be bothered to waste words.

With his free hand, he casually grabbed the thick solid-steel bumper bar at the front of the SUV.

Right before Mark's eyes, accompanied by the hair-raising screech of tearing metal, Fenrir twisted the solid steel into a pretzel with one hand as easily as if it were clay.

The entire scene fell silent.

Mark's pupils contracted violently.

He was so terrified he couldn't even scream.

He had crushed solid steel with his bare hands.

This was absolutely not the strength of an ordinary werewolf.

"Get out."

Fenrir released him like discarded trash and tossed him onto the ground.

His eyes were devoid of warmth.

"Tell that idiot Carl that if he sends anyone onto my territory again, I'll use his spine as a wrench."

Mark scrambled into the SUV and sped away in terror.

Fenrir remained where he was, watching coldly until the taillights disappeared.

The instant he turned around, all that terrifying ferocity vanished.

He strode back to the table, casually wiping the motor oil from his knuckles against his pant leg.

He pushed the plate a little closer to me.

He tapped his knuckles against the table.

His low, hoarse voice was firm and impossible to refuse.

"Eat while it's hot."

That rough plate of bacon became the beginning of everything that changed.