Seraphina was trapped under an avalanche.She was dying.

But her Alpha, Mortimer, was watching the aurora with his childhood friend, Vivian.

He had promised to give Seraphina a full mate mark that day.

Instead, he left her to die in the sudden avalanche.

“Vivian was kidnapped by rogues. I have to save her.I’ll come back for you after I rescue her.”

But Alpha Mortimer never came back.

She had loved him silently for ten years.That was why she agreed to their three-year contract marriage.

But under the cold snow, her ten-year love died with the ice.

When their contract ended, Mortimer held out a new one.

“My Luna, sign this. It lasts a hundred years.”

He looked at her with hope.But Seraphina only stared calmly.

She pushed the contract back.

“I won’t renew.”

When Mortimer finally learned she almost died that day,he realized it was too late.

He had lost her forever.

Seraphina's POV

"Mortimer, I did some digging. We can actually hike the Glacier Forest. And..."

I looked up at him, burying half my face in my thick wool scarf, my eyes locked onto Alpha Mortimer. "The rangers say if we take this trail, we'll get a front-row seat to the Blood Moon. It only happens once every twenty years."

I'm a healer back at the center, and I'd pulled a string of brutal night shifts just so I could clear my schedule for this trip.

Mortimer managed to carve out two weeks to join me here in Alaska.

Honestly? I was hoping this would be the spark our dying relationship needed.

"Let's try the trail tomorrow, okay?" As I spoke, my breath puffed out in a thick white cloud, and tiny ice crystals clung to my lashes.

Since our "political alliance" of a mating started three years ago, I'd always played the part of the perfect, poised Luna. I'd never let him see this side of me—the side that actually gets excited about things.

He reached out, tucking a stray hair behind my ear, and his usual icy vibe finally thawed. A small smile tugged at his lips. "Okay."

His golden eyes glowed with an intensity that almost felt... real.

"Seraphina," he murmured, leaning down until his warm breath grazed my neck, sending a literal shiver down my spine. "Our wedding three years ago was so rushed. It was just a cold ceremony. I never gave you a real promise, a mate's promise. It wasn't fair to you."

I looked into his eyes, seeing what looked like genuine regret, and my heart skipped a beat.

He took my hand, pressing his lips to my knuckles. His voice was low and husky. "Tonight, when the moon turns red, I'm going to make it up to you. I'm giving you the ceremony you deserve."

Legend said that if an Alpha marks his mate under a Blood Moon, the mating bond becomes unbreakable. Permanently blessed.

"I want you to be my Luna for real, Seraphina."

At the heat of his touch, my wolf, Lily, let out a long, happy howl in the back of my mind. "Mate... our mate wants us..."

In that moment, I felt the thin, fragile link between us flare to life, wrapping around my heart like a vine.

The sudden sense of destiny was so overwhelming I almost drowned in the tenderness he was weaving around me.

"Okay," I whispered. "Alpha Mortimer."

The next day, a total blizzard hit. The Alaskan wind was so sharp it felt like cold steel against my skin.

I held onto Mortimer's muscular arm, unable to hide my grin. "Look at this place," I breathed. "It's like a cathedral made of ice. Who knows when we'll get to be here together again?"

Mortimer stopped and looked at me, his golden pupils bright against the swirling snow.

Suddenly, he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me close.

"Whenever you want, Seraphina," he said, his voice dropping into that deep, masculine rumble. "We'll come back every year if that's what makes you happy."

As he spoke, he let his Alpha pheromones leak out—heavy, hot, and smelling of pine and wild earth.

It cut right through the freezing wind, slamming into my senses.

That was the scent of a fated mate.

Lily went wild in my head, whimpering and desperate for him.

I felt a rush of heat shoot down my spine, a dull ache of longing settling deep in my core.

"Mortimer..." I breathed.

He leaned in to kiss me, but the comm-link at his waist started vibrating like crazy.

The second he picked up, Vivian's frantic, sobbing voice filled the air. She was being ambushed by rogues.

Mortimer's face went bone-white. I'd never seen him look so panicked.

Without a single word or a glance back at me, he turned and sprinted back the way we came.

I reached out to grab him, but my hand caught nothing but freezing air.

By the time I struggled back to the lodge, Mortimer was already changing into tactical gear. His eyes were dark with this frantic, simmering anxiety.

Vivian—his childhood friend, the girl he'd been "protecting" for years—was clearly his only priority now.

"Viv's been taken. I have to go. Now." He didn't even look at me as he headed for the door, his words coming out in a blur.

Right before he stepped out, he seemed to remember I existed. He tossed a dismissive comment over his shoulder: "Watch the Blood Moon without me. I'll find you once I get her back."

My heart sank. Ignoring the heat still pulsing through my body from his pheromones, I chased after him. "Mortimer, wait!"

He spun around, and the sophisticated Alpha was gone. His eyes had shifted, the pupils becoming thin slits of pure, terrifying rage.

He let out a low, warning growl. "Seraphina, I chose you because you were sensible. Are you really going to let jealousy stop me from saving a life?"

It felt like a slap. I froze, my heart shattering.

He seemed to realize he'd crossed a line, a flash of guilt flickering in his eyes.

I looked down, swallowing the words I was about to say—that my heat was starting.

Instead, I just handed him his goggles. "I just wanted you to take these. The snow glare will kill your eyes otherwise."

Mortimer stiffened. He took the goggles, rubbed his temples like he was exhausted, and muttered a quick "Wait for me" before vanishing into the blizzard.

We'd been together for three years. The Mortimer I knew was always calm, always the gentleman. I'd never seen him lose his cool like that.

Lily curled up in the back of my mind, letting out a long, pathetic whine.

I sighed. Our mating had started as a drama-free, logical arrangement.

Seraphina's POV

I sat by the hotel window, watching the snow swirl into a violent frenzy outside.

My fingers mindlessly traced the wedding band on my left hand. The diamond caught the dim light, cold and hard—exactly like the day we made our deal three years ago.

The memories drifted back through the snow.

Mortimer and I were set up by my mentor, Alfie Bauer, the head of the Healing Department at Shadowfang Academy.

Professor Bauer was friends with Alpha Edwin of the Blade Pack, and when he heard Edwin was breathing down Mortimer's neck to find a mate, he thought of me.

I was his star pupil, after all.

As the daughter of the Silver Moon Alpha, my wolf is a rare, towering silver beast. I have the bloodline, the pedigree, and a healing gift that every werewolf envies.

I'd been trained since I was a pup in the most elite academies to be the perfect, poised Luna.

Everything about me—every ounce of my grace and power—was designed to be a perfect match for the golden heir of the Blade family.

But what no one knew was that our first meeting, orchestrated by our families, was a date I'd been mentally preparing for for ten years.

"Miss Hale, I don't care about werewolf traditions. Fate, fated mates—none of it matters to me. I'm only here because my grandfather is making my life a living hell."

Three years ago, even just sitting there casually, Mortimer radiated the suffocating power of a high-ranking Alpha. His golden eyes held zero warmth, only a cold, professional distance.

"I... feel the same way," I said, looking down to hide the fact that my heart was practically trying to punch its way out of my chest.

Inside my mind, Lily was doing laps. She felt the scent of our fated mate and was dying to let out a mating howl, wanting nothing more than to run over and nuzzle the side of his neck.

"Shut up, Lily," I snapped at her internally. "Don't let him know. Not yet."

"A contract mating of three years. Once he's satisfied, we dissolve the mating. What do you think?"

He reached out a hand. His fingers were long and elegant.

I shook his hand, feeling a spark of heat that could have brought any she-wolf to her knees.

I was naive enough to think that three years of living together would eventually turn the ice in that contract into something real.

But this freezing Alaskan wind just blew the last of my delusions away.

By evening, the moon was casting a bloody red glow over the snow. For someone whose heat had started early, this was a disaster.

My body felt like it was being eaten alive by a slow fire. The physical craving for my mate was shredding my self-control.

Lily was clawing at my mind, begging for that pine-scented wildness to just... take over.

I couldn't stay in that room. My pheromones would eventually leak out and call every crazed male within ten miles.

I threw on my hiking gear and stumbled out into the Glacier Forest, hoping the sub-zero temperatures would kill the burning, shameful heat rising inside me.

As I marched through the snow, I found myself opening my phone. It was like a reflex.

Vivian's I*******m story hit me like a heat-seeking missile, obliterating the last of my dignity.

It was a gallery of photos. The first was a selfie—she looked glowing, her eyes full of mischief. She didn't look like someone who'd just been "ambushed by rogues."

"To Morty, Vivi will always be priceless."

My eyes locked onto one photo in particular—a hand peeling an apple.

Long, powerful fingers, knuckles I knew by heart. And there, glinting in the light, was the wedding band that matched mine. It was a slap in my face.

The kidnapping was a lie.

The comments under the post felt like poisoned arrows.

"You're so spoiled, Vivi. Only you could get away with faking a rogue attack."

"Don't pull a stunt like that again," Mortimer had replied.

Vivian's response to him, "Morty, I'm sorry! I'll apologize to her when she gets back."

Other comments were even worse. "Alpha Mortimer should've just mated with Vivi from the start. Maybe her weak wolf spirit would be cured by now if he had."

"He's with her now, isn't he? Honestly, Vivi is obviously way more important to him than some 'high-blood' Luna."

They weren't even trying to hide it from me. And Mortimer hadn't deleted a single comment or defended me once.

Suddenly, I felt tired. Just... done.

"Lily... stop crying," I whispered, the taste of copper hitting the back of my throat.

Because of Lily's emotional collapse, my pheromones leaked out in an uncontrollable wave.

Almost immediately, I heard heavy breathing coming from the shadows.

Rogues. They were like starving hyenas, their eyes glowing crimson in the snowy dark, drawn by the scent of a female in heat.

"Get back!" I let out a low, ragged growl and sprinted deeper into the forest, trying to use the jagged terrain to lose them.

The snow was coming down harder now. The deep forest was a wall of deathly silence and white.

My breath came in thick clouds, my chest burning from the run.

Suddenly, the entire mountain began to rumble.

A deep, thundering roar echoed from the earth.

I looked up in horror. A wall of snow that had been building for decades on the peak was collapsing. A massive silver wave of destruction was screaming down the mountainside, blocking out the sky.

Fear, cold, and a crushing sense of finality filled my lungs.

Seraphina's POV

The weight of the snow felt like the cold, crushing hand of death, squeezing the last bit of oxygen from my lungs.

I was curled up in a tiny air pocket, my fingers trembling as I gripped my phone, praying for a signal.

If I was going to rot in this forest under the gaze of the Moon Goddess, I wanted to see Mortimer one last time.

I hit the button for a video call.

The dim glow of the screen was blinding in the suffocating darkness.

"Beep—"

The second it connected, my heart stopped.

But before I could even catch a glimpse of those familiar golden eyes, the screen went black.

He hung up.

The rejection hit me harder than the cold. It was like salt on an open wound, a pain that actually managed to outrun the fear of dying.

I didn't know where I found the strength, but ignoring the burning agony in my chest, I called again.

Declined. Again.

My heart sank into the same abyss as my body.

I held my breath and typed out a single line, "Mortimer, there was an avalanche. I'm buried under the forest."

I wasn't even expecting him to come back for me.

I was just placing one last bet on this pathetic ten-year crush—giving myself a reason to finally let go.

To my surprise, he replied instantly.

But every word on that screen felt like a poisoned blade.

"Seraphina, if you want me to come back, find a better excuse. This is a low blow, even for you."

"I'm staying with Vivi for a few more days of observation. When you're done playing games, come home. Stop acting out."

I stared at the words, the taste of copper in my mouth.

The burning heat of my early cycle was instantly snuffed out by pure, icy despair.

The cold seeped into my bones, sealing my wolf, Lily, away in a frozen vault.

I didn't feel the pain anymore. I didn't feel anything.

I stopped replying and let the darkness take me.

The distant howls of rogues and the muffled sounds of the world faded into nothing.

When I finally opened my eyes, everything was a blinding, clinical white. I smelled a mix of disinfectant and a crisp, woody scent.

"You're awake?"

I struggled to turn my stiff neck and met a pair of deep, gentle eyes.

"How are you feeling?" The man pushed up his silver-rimmed glasses. His voice was calm and clear, carrying a strange power that seemed to soothe my wolf. "I'm your healer, Caldwell."

"I..." My throat was shredded, raw as sandpaper.

"You've been out for five days," he said, holding a cup of water to my lips. "Surviving an avalanche like that... it means your wolf has a much stronger will than most. I'll be overseeing your recovery."

"Caldwell?" I repeated weakly.

"That's right." He gave me a professional but warm smile.

Even though I was completely drained, I managed to thank him.

I asked if he could help me get a new phone—I needed to tell my family back at the Silver Moon Pack that I was alive.

An hour later, the second I turned the new phone on, a flood of messages crashed into my inbox.

My parents, my pack mates, my colleagues at the center—everyone was frantic.

Except for my mate.

Mortimer's profile sat at the bottom of the list. Quiet. Empty. Not a single word.

I touched my chest.

There was a dull ache there, a hollow feeling, but that soul-shattering agony that made my wolf tremble? It was gone.

It had been replaced by a silence as flat as dead water.

I called home and told a lie—that I'd missed the avalanche because of a last-minute change in plans. I buried the truth of the disaster that had nearly buried me.

During my stay at the clinic, Caldwell took incredible care of me.

On the day I was discharged, he walked me to the car.

"Back to LA today?" he asked, holding the door. That clean pine scent of his drifted in the cold wind.

"Yeah. Vacation's over." I looked up at him and gave him my first real smile in weeks. "Caldwell, I'm actually a healer too. Maybe we can stay in touch—swap notes on some tough cases?"

His amber eyes flashed with surprise, and then a grin spread across his face. "Really? What are the odds? Maybe the Moon Goddess intended for us to meet. Safe travels, Seraphina."

I boarded the flight to LA. Seconds before they closed the cabin door, I checked social media one last time.

Vivian had posted.

"Guess who's watching the Northern Lights with me? Yep! My personal superhero!"

The photo showed the stunning green aurora stretching across the sky in Sweden.

Underneath, two figures were leaning into each other.

The tall man was only showing his profile, but I knew that jawline, those fingers, and that Alpha scent that used to sting my senses even through a screen.My mate.

I stared at Mortimer's silhouette.

In the back of my mind, Lily let out a low, final whimper of defeat.

I clicked on Mortimer's profile. With one tap, I unpinned his chat.