"Welcome to the Winsor pack, Wendy."

Vincent personally opened the hovercraft door, and the Moon Goddess tattoo on his sleeve glimmered faintly in the moonlight.

I stepped onto the carpeted steps, feeling the wolf fur beneath my feet.

"Sorry to keep you waiting for five years, Alpha."

I gently touched the vengeful sigils I had stitched into my skirt, a warning etched into the fabric. “This time, it’s not a game.”

Alpha Vincent was the Alpha of the Winsor pack, and a strong contender for Alpha King.

He was a head taller than Alpha John, with broad shoulders that seemed to block out the entire moon. The old scar on his left brow was a battle wound from his youth, earned while hunting snow wolves.

I couldn’t help but remember that birthday party five years ago. To this day, I could still smell the wolf’s poison mixed into the champagne that Penny had poured on me.

I had been wearing my mother’s old Moonstone gown, which I had secretly borrowed, but the hem was burned with holes by one of Alpha John’s friends’ cigars.

He, however, had held Penny close and laughed, saying, “Who are you trying to seduce? This rag should be thrown into the mine.”

Penny’s nails had scratched across my arm. “Wendy, not all clothes are sexy, some are just cheap.”

She had purposely spilled oyster juice all over my dress.

Alpha John had only knocked my forehead lightly with the bottom of his champagne glass. “Go wash up in the kitchen. Don’t dirty my party.”

That rainy night, I fled the party and hid in the abandoned silver mine, but I was cornered by three drunken warriors.

One of them yanked the hair from my head. “I heard you’re the discarded she-wolf of Alpha John. Perfect for us to play with.”

When the knife sliced through my skirt, a shadow crashed through the door, and Vincent was there.

Soaked to the bone, he snapped the wrist of one of the wolves and kicked the last corpse aside. “Get lost.”

When he kicked the body aside, the Alpha mark on the back of his neck glowed red in the rain.

I trembled in the corner, but he shed his coat and wrapped it around me, gently wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth. “Don’t come to places like this again.”

His warmth seeped through his wet shirt.

Later, I learned that night he had been investigating the gold mine smuggling, but he had exposed his location to save me.

“Thinking back to that birthday party five years ago…”

Vincent’s gaze held mine, his throat bobbing slightly.

He finally spoke. “Actually, I first saw you not at that party.”

I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “What do you mean?”

His eyes drifted to the distance, as though lost in the memory. “At the Spring Festival five years ago, at the Moon Goddess Market, you were crouched at an old woman’s stall, carefully choosing a handmade flower crown. Your eyes were so bright. You picked up a wreath of daisies and put it on your head, smiling at yourself in the mirror. That moment, I...”

His voice trailed off, his ears flushing a shade of red.

I stared at him, stunned. I had no idea there was such a past.

Back then, my heart and eyes were all for John, and I never noticed the figure in the corner of the market watching me.

“I watched you from afar, wanting to approach, but I saw you suddenly run off toward another direction—John had arrived. You ran to him, holding up the crown to show him, but he frowned and knocked it to the ground, saying that thing wasn’t worthy of him.”

Vincent’s fists clenched unconsciously.

“You stood there frozen, your eyes red, but you still bent down and carefully picked up the crown. After that, I silently watched you, seeing you hurt time and time again by John, but I couldn’t do anything about it.”

My chest tightened. I never knew such a silent, deep affection had been watching over me for the past five years.

All the moments when I was hurting alone, there had been a pair of gentle eyes watching from behind.

“Later, I found out you were with John,” he chuckled bitterly.

“That night, I stayed on Moon Goddess Mountain until the first rays of dawn touched my skin. I told myself, as long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters. But when I saw you so brutally hurt, I realized I couldn’t stay silent anymore…”

“I watched the gathering video.” Vincent handed me a cup of warm Moon Goddess wine.

“John’s face looked like it had been pierced by a silver bullet.”

“I lost the baby.”

“It’s what I wanted. But… it still hurts.”

He knelt before me, gently touching my hand.

“Let it hurt,” he said softly.

We sat in silence for a while.

Then I spoke again.

“Alpha John and Penny killed my brother. My mother knew, but still signed the papers agreeing to it.”

Vincent sighed deeply.

“My nephew has always been a terrible person.”

His fingers paused on my palm. He didn’t yell like Alpha John did, calling me “useless.” Instead, he took off a wolf tooth pendant from his neck.

“This was taken off the first snow wolf I hunted. When a pup loses its mother, it bites onto the wolf’s tooth to learn how to run.”

The pendant touched the surgical scar on my abdomen, and it suddenly glowed faintly.

Vincent’s thumb brushed over an old wound on my hand.

“Back in the alley, you said ‘I’m fine,’ but you ended up crying for half an hour in the mine cart.”

“They almost killed me too,” I added.

Vincent’s fingers stopped, and he raised an eyebrow.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly.

I stared at him.

“I’m here now. I want those bastards to pay for everything they’ve done to me.”

When Alpha Vincent suggested getting married the next day, I caressed the ring he handed me—the inside of the band engraved with my name.

Tomorrow, I would become the wife of Alpha John’s uncle.

Tomorrow, I would begin planning their destruction.