Chapter 2

The Alpha bloodline of the Black Moon Pack was notoriously difficult to conceive.

When the Pack Doctor confirmed that the pup in my womb carried a direct Alpha lineage, the entire council was shaken.

Noah returned the very next day after hearing the news.

All the cold distance he had shown before vanished overnight.

He began taking care of me personally. An Alpha—learning how to cook.

The first time he tried, he poured too much oil and nearly set the kitchen on fire.

Some nights, he would crouch beside me, pressing his ear against my belly, listening to the tiny heartbeat of our wolf pup.

During full moon nights, he would walk with me beneath the silver light.

He even remarked me. For a while, I thought… Maybe he still loved me.

Until the day Noah disappeared.

No body. No trace of spiritual energy.

The Alpha’s mate bond between us hadn’t broken, yet I couldn’t sense where he was.

I asked the King Alpha.

I searched the Southern Territory, the Western Alliance, even the Silverwood Forest.

No one knew where he had gone.

No one would tell me whether he was dead or alive.

But the Black Moon Pack could not remain leaderless.

The elders forced me to take the Alpha seat.

I carried our pup while taking over the Pack.

I went to my pregnancy checkups alone.

I gave birth alone.

I carried my feverish pup through a snowstorm to the healer’s hall—alone.

I stood at my parents’ graves—alone.

I arranged the funerals of both our families—alone.

I forced myself to become a Luna without a mate.

Twenty years later.

When my life was nearing its end and my wolf spirit had begun to weaken—

Noah returned. His aura was still powerful, unchanged by time.

Only then did I learn the truth.

For twenty years, he had been living in Sliver Claw Pack.

With Ann.

Ann was the descendant of a witch, disguising herself as an Omega when she traveled.

They had adopted a wolf pup who could never awaken his wolf.

They gave that child all their love.

And the son Noah and I had never existed in his world.

Ann, however, had always carried resentment. She knew she was never the rightful Luna.

She also knew Noah had never broken his mate bond with me.

Her final regret before death was that she never became his true mate.

Noah told me, “I’m sorry.”

Then he said, “if you hadn’t insisted on taking the Alpha seat, I could have left more completely.”

I almost laughed at how absurd it sounded.

He blamed me?

If he didn’t love me—

Why hadn’t he broken the mate bond earlier?

An Alpha could apply for a severance ritual.

Yes, it would cost half his spiritual power.

But he could have divorced me.

He could have given Ann a home.

Instead, he left me guarding an empty title in the main hall…

Carrying the Black Moon Pack for twenty years alone.

What right did he have to resent me?

But the most ridiculous thing of all—

Was my son. The son I raised with my own hands.

The future Alpha of Black Moon Pack.

He looked at me and said,

“Mother… I envy him.”

“The child Father adopted with Ann… he grew up in love.”

“But I was born out of responsibility.”

He even blamed me. “You never asked if I wanted to be born.”

Only then did I realize—

While I knew nothing about it, he had already been in contact with Noah.

Through the Alpha bloodline resonance.

Through the spiritual bond channel.

They had been communicating all along.

And I—

Was the one excluded.

I sat on the swing for nearly an hour before finally heading to the main hall.

In my previous life, it was here that I handed over my entire life.

When I arrived at the entrance, I saw Noah crouching on the ground.

He was helping someone up. Ann. She must have been knocked over by someone. Dust clung to the hem of her dress.

Noah was holding her wrist. And I could clearly feel it— His wolf spirit was trembling.

That was the reaction only triggered when an Alpha met his fated mate.