Accompanying the roar was the crushing weight of an Alpha’s Command. Ethan unleashed his spiritual pressure without holding anything back.

The force hit my chest like a sledgehammer. I couldn’t even put up a defense before I was blasted backward, my body flung like a kite with a cut string, smashing directly into the solid oak staircase.

Bang.

My spine collided with the sharp edge of the steps. A sweet, metallic taste surged up my throat, and I spat out a mouthful of blood.

Ethan didn't stop. He stood at the top of the stairs, cradling the "unconscious" Ivy, looking down at me with unmasked disgust.

"How can you be so venomous? Ivy is a fragile Omega—your power could have killed her!"

"It makes me sick just breathing the same air as you."

I wiped the blood from the corner of my lips. My insides felt like they had been rearranged, screaming in agony. I didn't try to explain. I just looked at him cold, dead eyes.

"If I make you sick, then I have good news."

"I’ll file a formal request with the Council for Severance. I’ll clear out and leave this place for good."

Ethan paused, clearly surprised that I was the one bringing up leaving the pack. But the shock quickly turned into a sneer.

"You better keep your word. Don't be like last time—running to the border only to come crawling back in tears."

With that, he didn't spare me another glance. He turned and rushed Ivy to the infirmary, his back turned to me in finality.

I slumped against the cold floor, looking at the mess around me. For some reason, my mind drifted back twenty years.

We had just gone through our first shift.

During our first hunting trial, I had been reckless, chasing glory, and got cornered by a mutated grizzly bear.

It was Ethan who had charged in without hesitation. He used his small, juvenile wolf body to take a fatal claw strike meant for me.

Back then, covered in blood, he had comforted me: "Don't be scared, Selena. As long as I’m alive, no one will ever hurt you."

But now? That boy who swore to protect me was dead. In his place stood a man who used his Alpha Command to crush my internal organs for the sake of another woman.

I tried to stand, but the pain made me stumble.

Letting out a self-deprecating laugh, I leaned against the wall and inched my way out of the villa.

I didn't go to the Pack Hospital. That place was crawling with Ethan’s spies.

Dragging my broken body, I went to the underground black market, to an unlicensed clinic run by a Rogue witch doctor.

The doctor inspected my injuries and whistled. "Ruthless. He was aiming for your Wolf’s Essence. If you’d come thirty minutes later, your S-rank strength would have been permanently crippled."

I lay on a musty cot for two days.

On the third day, I returned to the villa.

I waited until Ethan was in a Council meeting. I didn't pack any clothes or jewelry. Instead, I took my tactical daggers, the strategic defense maps I had drawn over the years, and the black card containing all my bounty earnings.

I moved everything to a safe house I had rented in the black market—a place shielded from tracking signals.

Five days. That’s all I needed. Once the emissary from the Winterborn Pack arrived and I signed the Blood Pact, I would cut ties with the Silver Moon Pack forever.

Night fell on the third day.

I was cleaning the blood grooves of my dagger when my phone rang. It was a number I didn't recognize—the one I had blocked was obviously no longer working for him.

I picked up. The background noise was heavy metal music and the howling of drunk wolves. He was at a club.

Ethan’s voice was slurred with alcohol and thick with his usual entitlement.

"Where are you? Get your ass to the Full Moon Club."

I frowned, continuing to polish the blade. "Ethan, we’re done. I have nothing to say to you."

There was a second of silence on the line, followed by the clinking of glass. Ethan sounded agitated, clearly provoked by my indifference.

"Done? Selena, are you finished playing hard to get?"

"Ivy has a scar from the burn. Regular medicine isn't working."

"You’re a Healer-Warrior. Your blood and energy can remove scars. Get over here and heal her. Now."

Listening to his righteous demands, I stared at my own cold reflection in the steel of the blade.

He hadn't called because he noticed I was missing. He called because his precious darling needed my blood as an ointment.

"I told you, I moved out," I said calmly. "Besides, my blood is expensive. She can't afford it."

Ethan’s breathing grew heavy. I could feel his rage vibrating through the speaker.

"Moved out? You're addicted to running away from home, aren't you?"

"Fine! If you have so much backbone, then get the hell out of Silver Moon territory! Go become a Rogue! Let everyone hunt you down!"

"And don't expect me to collect your corpse when you die out there!"

"If you don't get back here and fix Ivy's skin, don't you ever dream of having a Marking Ceremony with me!"

I glanced at the packed tactical bag on the table and the Winterborn entry contract beside it.

The corner of my mouth hooked into a mocking smile.

"Deal, Ethan."

"I'll get lost. Far away. I promise I won't be an eyesore for you two anymore."

Before he could react, I hung up.

I pulled the SIM card out of the phone and dropped it into a glass of high-proof spirits in front of me.

Fizz.

The chip fried instantly.

Just like the last remaining shred of love I had for him. Gone up in smoke.

In the fireplace of the safe house, flames greedily devoured a pile of old memories.

There was the amulet I had spent three years carving from the fang of a Dire Wolf to protect Ethan.

There was the dried Moonflower he had plucked for me the first time he took me hunting in the forest.

And there was the battle journal where I had meticulously recorded every one of his dietary preferences and combat habits.

I watched them turn to ash, and my heart remained perfectly still.

The phone on the table buzzed. It was an encrypted email.

It was from the Alpha of the Winterborn Pack himself: "Welcome to the pack, Commander Selena. The extraction team will arrive at the border at midnight."

A new home. Since my rebirth, this was the only thing I had looked forward to.

I stared at the firelight, checking my gear one last time, ready to embrace my new life.

But my peace was once again interrupted.

I suddenly received a message from Ethan’s parents. Alright, they were back from their diplomatic patrol, and that so-called family dinner required my attendance.

Fine—let it be my farewell to everyone.

It was evening when I arrived at the Pack House.

Ethan’s parents—Elders I had grown up respecting—sat at the head of the long table.

Ethan sat on the left. But right next to him, in a chair that shouldn't have been there, sat a trembling Ivy.

The expression on everyone's face was grim.

I could only imagine the pillow talk Ivy had been whispering while I was away.

I walked in without changing my expression.

Ethan’s gaze swept over me coldly. He seemed annoyed by my indifference. Suddenly, he threw his dining knife onto the table with a loud clatter.

"Looking at that funeral face... I’ve lost my appetite."

He stood up and headed for the study upstairs.

Ivy, acting like a frightened little rabbit, immediately scrambled up to chase after him. "Ethan, please don't be angry... "

I ignored them and sat down .

The old couple awkwardly tried to make excuses for their son, even putting food on my plate.

I looked earnestly at these two elders who had once treated me like their own daughter.

In my past life, they had tried to stop Ethan’s tyranny. In return, he had locked them away in the back mountains claiming they were "senile," and they eventually died of grief.

In this life, I didn't blame them. I only blamed myself for being blind enough to mistake a rock for a diamond.

I set down my wine glass and spoke softly, but my voice was made of steel.

"I have been thinking for a long time."

"Perhaps the Moon Goddess did not bless Ethan and me. Our bond is incomplete; our wolves do not resonate."

"For the future of the Silver Moon Pack, and to end this mutual suffering..."

"I, Selena, reject Ethan as my mate. I also resign from my position as Lead Enforcer."

The fork dropped from the former Luna’s hand. Her face went pale, and tears welled in her eyes.

"Selena, child... has it really come to this? Is that boy bullying you?"

I nodded firmly.

Addressing the one thing that had weighed on my heart since my rebirth, I felt incredibly light, even as the tension in the room thickened.

Before leaving, I didn't go back to the bedroom filled with memories.

Instead, I went to the storage room on the third floor. I needed to retrieve my parents' relics—two white jade urns containing their ashes.

My parents had died protecting the Silver Moon Pack. These urns were the only connection I had left to them, the only things I couldn't leave behind.

But when I pushed open the door to the storage room, I froze.

Ivy was standing by the shelf, idly playing with the two urns in her hands.

Seeing me enter, her lips curled into a grotesque smile. She lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Selena, you're leaving? You want to take these dead people with you?"

"Tell me... if these jars shattered, would you die of a broken heart, too?"

My pupils constricted violently. "Ivy! Put them down!"

Ivy’s smile widened. A flash of pure malice crossed her eyes, and suddenly, she opened her hands.

"Oops. Slipped."

CRASH!

Two crisp, shattering sounds echoed through the silent hallway.

The white jade urns smashed into pieces. The gray-white ashes exploded outward, filling the air with a mournful dust before settling into a chaotic mess on the floor.

In that instant, my blood froze. My vision turned red.

A terrifying wave of S-Rank energy, fueled by pure grief and rage, exploded from my body. "IVY! YOU DESERVE TO DIE!"

BOOM!

The shockwave hit Ivy squarely in the chest.

She shrieked, her frail body thrown backward like a rag doll.

"Ahh! Selena, don't! Don't hit me!"

"My stomach... it hurts..."

Hearing the commotion, Ethan charged in.

The first thing he saw was the floor covered in jagged jade shards and gray powder.

He recognized whose ashes those were.

For a split second, the rage in his eyes stalled, replaced by a look of disbelief and genuine shock.

He looked at me, his voice trembling slightly. "Selena... are those... your parents..."

He knew how much they meant to me. Instinctively, he took a step toward me to comfort me.

"Ethan! Help me..." Ivy’s sobbing voice cut him off. She curled up on the floor, her hands protecting her lower belly.

"Selena went crazy... I was just trying to help dust the jars, and she attacked me... my stomach hurts so much..."

"Our baby... it's our baby..."

Ethan froze.

"Baby?" He frowned, a flicker of confusion crossing his panic. "What baby? As an Alpha, I would have sensed his heartbeat the moment he existed. I felt nothing from you."

Ivy trembled, clutching his hem, tears streaming down. "Because I'm too weak, Ethan... The doctor said my body is so frail that it masks the pup's aura... I wanted to surprise you once he was stable...

But now... I can't feel him anymore... Selena's power... she crushed him..."

The flicker of guilt on Ethan's face vanished instantly.

It was replaced by a rage and panic ten times stronger than before.

He didn't spare another glance at the ashes on the floor. He rushed over, shoved me hard against the wall, and then gingerly scooped Ivy into his arms.

"Selena! Are you insane?!"

He roared at me over his shoulder, looking at me as if I were a monster.

"I know you care about the ashes, but they are just dead objects! Ivy is carrying a living life! She is carrying my Heir!"

"How could you attack a pregnant woman? Has your conscience been eaten by dogs? No matter what, you shouldn't have pushed her!"

I leaned against the wall, sliding down slightly. I looked at my parents' ashes, now trampled and mixed with dirt.

Then I looked at the man who once claimed to love me, now trampling on my parents' dignity for a woman whose mouth was full of lies.

My heart finally, truly died.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and walked up to him, step by step.

Ethan thought I was coming to apologize or explain. He opened his mouth to scold me again.

SMACK!

I channeled every ounce of my S-rank strength and slapped him across the face.

The force was so great it whipped his head to the side, and blood instantly trickled from his lip.

"Did that wake you up, Ethan?"

I spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the floor and stared into his shocked eyes with cold indifference.

"Rest assured. As of today, I am no longer your future Luna."

Leaving Ethan with that look of stunned disbelief, I massaged my stinging wrist. I gave a curt nod to the former Alpha and Luna, who stood by the door wearing complicated expressions.

"Goodbye."

I didn't look back at the chaos erupting inside the Pack House. I walked straight out into the night.

The moment I stepped past the pack’s barrier wards, the injuries I had been suppressing came roaring back.

When Ethan pushed me away, he used all his Alpha power. Right now, my body was burning with pain.

If I had known it would hurt this much, I would have burned the last of my spiritual energy to shove those jade shards right down Ivy’s throat before I left.

That was Ethan. Always the same.

Whenever something happened, his fangs were always bared at me, while all his gentleness was reserved for that professional victim.

Years ago, if Ivy tripped over her own feet on the training grounds, Ethan would scold me in front of the entire pack for being "jealous and aggressive."

Eventually, I stopped explaining.

And so, I became the "vicious, envy-ridden madwoman" in the eyes of the pack.

My vision began to blur. My body swayed, losing its balance.

Just as I thought I was going to collapse onto the freezing snow, a convoy of matte-black armored SUVs pulled up silently in front of me.

The doors opened.

A wave of Alpha pheromones hit me—colder than a polar blizzard and a hundred times more terrifying than anything Ethan could ever muster.

"Falling down already? My new First Commander."

I squinted, forcing my head up.

A man stood before me, tall and broad as a mountain, clad in a black tactical trench coat. Even in the darkness, his pupils glowed with an electric, spectral blue light. It was the gaze of an apex predator.

I opened my mouth to say his name, but darkness claimed me.

I didn't hit the ground. I fell into a hard, warm embrace. My nose was instantly filled with a scent that was strangely grounding—cedarwood and the metallic tang of blood.

When I woke up, I wasn't in a public hospital smelling of disinfectant.

I was in the luxurious cabin of a private airship.

I was lying in a high-tech healing pod, tubes connected to my arms delivering high-purity Spirit Liquid.

And sitting by the bed was him.

He wasn't wearing a mask. His profile was sharp and cold, like a statue carved from ice. A shock of dazzling silver hair caught the light, glowing with a chilly brilliance.

It was the trademark of the Winterborn Alpha—Damon.

The North’s most brutal tyrant. The man known for being fiercely protective of his own.

Right now, this tyrant was bowing his head. With hands that were famous for tearing enemies limb from limb, he was carefully, almost delicately, adjusting the flow rate of my IV drip.

Looking at that silver hair, which looked surprisingly soft, I reached out as if possessed and touched it.

It felt cool and silky.

Damon looked up the instant I moved. Those ghostly blue eyes locked onto mine.

But he wasn't angry. Instead, a playful, dangerous smirk curled his lips. He caught my hand, brought it to his mouth, and lightly bit down on my fingertips.

"What? Making a pass at your new boss the second you wake up?"

His voice was deep and magnetic, resonating in his chest like a cello. It made my ears burn.

I tried to pull my hand back, but my phone on the bedside table suddenly started vibrating violently.

The moment the call connected, Ethan’s hysterical roaring filled the cabin.

I had no idea how he got my new number. He clung to me like a ghost that refused to fade.

"Selena! You murderer!"

"Ivy miscarried! My Alpha Heir is gone! All that blood... that was my child!"

"How could you be so venomous? That was my firstborn! You will pay for this with your life!"

He was screaming like a rabid dog.

I leaned back against the soft pillows, my expression indifferent. I actually felt like laughing.

"Ethan, honestly, you should have dissolved the contract with me ages ago."

"It wasn't hard. All you had to do was swear to the Moon Goddess and unilaterally reject me as your mate. Then I wouldn't have been stuck with the title of your future Luna."

"The only reason you dragged it out is because you’re greedy. You wanted Ivy’s submissive adoration, but you couldn't bear to lose your free bodyguard and pack administrator. Am I right?"

"I spoiled you for ten years. I made you think I was a dog you could kick away and call back at will."

"Oh, and Ethan? You really are an idiot. Ivy’s pregnancy was fake. That blood she was sitting in? It smelled like chicken blood from the black market."

I didn't wait for his reaction. I hung up and added his number to the permanent blacklist.

My chest heaved with the emotion of the moment, pulling at my internal injuries.

A large hand reached out, gently patting my back to help me catch my breath.

Damon watched me. There was no pity in those blue wolf eyes, only unmasked arrogance and a brutal sort of protectiveness.

"Selena, there's no need to waste energy getting angry at dead men."

He idly rubbed the Wolf King’s bone ring on his thumb, his tone as casual as if he were discussing dinner options.

"Say the word, and I’ll have the Winterborn Heavy Guard turn around right now."

"Before dawn, I can raze the Silver Moon territory to the ground. I'll twist that idiot Alpha's head off and let you use it as a soccer ball."

"Or, we can throw that female wolf—Ivy—into a snake pit? You choose."

I looked at him.

He was saying the most violent, bloodthirsty things, yet his gaze was focused on me as if I were the only thing in the world that mattered.

This was Damon, the Tyrant. Simple. Brutal. But he gave me a sense of safety I had never known.

I forced a weak smile, meeting his aggressive gaze head-on.

"Flattening the territory is too easy for him."

"Damon, I do have a favor to ask of you."

Ethan had been so smug about his "Heir," hadn't he? He thought of me—his "barren" ex-mate-to-be—as nothing but dead weight.

Fine.

If we were going to break up, I was going to make sure it was loud enough to shake the foundations of the pack.

I picked up my phone. I angled the camera to capture the large, powerful hand currently adjusting my IV drip.

In the photo, the man’s hand was scarred from battle, his fingers long and dominant as they held my pale wrist.

But the focal point was undeniable: the black-gold signet ring on his thumb, carved with the roaring head of a wolf. The symbol of the Northern Overlord.

I didn't block anyone. I posted it directly to my public feed.

The caption was simple, brutal, and provocative:

[This Alpha mate is much better. #Upgrade ]