The rough edges of the chain scraped across the skin of my wrists, and I felt a sharp, burning pain.

The guard behind me gave me a hard shove. "Move faster!"

I barely kept my footing and couldn't help glancing back. "I'm not going to run. There's no need to shove me like that."

But the moment the words left my mouth, I froze.

At some point, the one holding the chain had been replaced by Ryan Lambert, someone whom I had once risked being surrounded by beasts to save.

I thought perhaps he might be my chance.

I felt slightly relieved.

"Ryan, the chain is too tight," I said, raising my hands to show him my wrists.

The chain had already rubbed my wrists raw.

I added, "Could you loosen it a little? I won't run, and I won't make things hard for you."

If he had only loosened the chain a little, my wounds wouldn't have been chafed open again with every step.

But Ryan only glanced down at my wrists. "Deal with it."

I figured he was worried about the other guard overhearing, so I dropped my voice. "You just need to loosen it a tiny bit. No one will notice."

"I said, deal with it." He said, his voice even colder.

I said, lowering my voice. "Ryan. Have you forgotten the stampede of wild animals three years ago? Everyone else was running away. I was the one who went back for you. If it hadn't been for me, you would be dead."

Ryan's lips curled into a sneer. "Ms. Mills, you don't actually think I should be grateful to you for the rest of my life over that, do you? You saved me once, and you expect me to betray the Alpha of our pack and the future Luna for you?"

I was stunned.

Ryan let out a scornful snort.

The other guard shoved me onto the prisoner's cart.

The cart slowly pulled away from the pack, and the trees around us grew thinner and thinner.

The air was thick with the stench of rotting leaves and blood.

I grabbed the wooden bars. "This isn't the road to the border. Where did my father order you to take me?"

No one answered.

Then the cart rolled into a desolate valley.

Animal bones were scattered across the ground, and the tree trunks were covered in deep claw marks.

This was the barren land, the territory of wild wolves.

I shot to my feet, and the chain on my wrists clattered wildly against the wooden bars. Ryan suddenly called out, "Stop!"

The cart came to a halt.

The other guard unlatched the door of the cart and dragged me out by the chain.

Ryan swung down from his horse as well.

That was when I noticed a brand-new silver badge on his chest.

On it was the insignia of a royal guard.

With his background, no amount of years spent grinding away could have made him a royal guard.

I couldn't help asking, "Elena gave you that?"

Ryan's hand went instinctively to the badge, and a look of smugness flickered across his eyes. "Ms. Elena Mills understands reward and punishment far better than you ever did. She knows who truly deserves to be promoted."

I stared at him. "So you traded my life for this position?"

"You don't have to put it like that." Ryan frowned, as though he were the one who had been insulted. "You're not the future Luna anymore. Someone without a wolf was never meant to stay in the pack and waste our food."

I felt my blood run cold. "I saved your life."

"Enough." He cut me off impatiently. "Even without you, the other guards would have come back for me. You insisted on playing the hero. And now you're using that to guilt-trip me into doing something for you to repay you? Don't you find that ridiculous?"

I looked down at the chain on my wrists.

Without the chain, my odds of survival would go up a bit.

I kept trying to reason with Ryan. "For the fact that I truly did save your life, at least take the chain off."

Ryan jingled the keys in his hand, a mocking smile on his face. "Haven't you insisted that you have a wolf? If you're so capable, then survive on your own."

I stared at him. "Aren't you afraid that one day, I'll actually make it back?"

Ryan laughed.

"You?" He swung up onto his horse, looking down at me condescendingly. "What makes you think a worthless waste who can't even turn into wolf form like you ever make it back? Even if you somehow don't get eaten by wild wolves, you'll just end up as a rogue werewolf on this barren land."

I stood in the desolate valley, watching them disappear into the darkness of the night.

Only then did I understand that once I lost the identity of the future Luna, everything I had ever been given became worthless.

The wind swept through the valley.

A rustling came from the bushes.

I whipped around, but all I saw were pairs of green eyes opening in the darkness.

Wild wolves emerged from around the valley, closing in on me from every side.

I looked down and picked up the length of chain trailing on the ground, winding it around my palms in loops.

The lead gray wolf bared its fangs, saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth.

Then it lunged at me.