The nights in the West Tower were deathly silent.

I sat on the rickety iron bed, listening to the north wind howl outside, a lonely echo of the storm that had shattered my life six months ago. Only this time, I held no more illusions.

The small, barred window faced the estate wall, but through it, I could see the distant, warm glow of the main house. I knew Sebastian was in there, with his new family.

And I was a ghost, forgotten in the cold.

I reached for the back of my neck, where a small, silver mark was imprinted—the official seal of the Elder Council. Every pack member had one, a conduit to the pack's collective consciousness, a record of their identity, status, and permissions.

Tonight, I was going to use it for something I should have done long ago.

Closing my eyes, I sank my consciousness into the mark, feeling the thrum of the pack's ancient power. Soon, the Council's archive materialized in my mind—not a library, but a nexus of the pack's collective mind, an archive woven from a thousand years of memory.

I found the rite I needed: Petition for Bond Severance.

It was one of the oldest and most sacred laws. When a mated pair's bond was broken beyond repair, either party could petition the Moon Goddess to sever the spiritual connection, completely and irrevocably dissolving the union.

The process was irreversible. And excruciatingly painful.

My spectral fingers trembled as I filled out the ethereal form:

Petitioner: Sophia Ashford

Mate: Alpha Sebastian Nightshade

Reason for Petition: The foundation of the bond has been destroyed by betrayal and the introduction of an outside bloodline. To continue it will only cause greater spiritual harm to both parties.

Date: Tonight

Signature: Sophia Ashford

The moment I willed it to be submitted, a tremor went through the entire pack's network.

A Petition for Bond Severance was instantly broadcast to all relevant parties: both mates, the Elder Council, and...

Sebastian.

I could feel his shock and fury crash against our crumbling mind link. The emotions were a tidal wave, threatening to drown me.

Less than five minutes later, the door to the West Tower was thrown open with such force it slammed against the stone wall.

Sebastian stood there, clad only in silk pajama pants, barefoot in the snow that had drifted onto the threshold. His eyes were burning with a wild rage, his chest heaving.

"Are you insane?" He stormed over to me, his voice shaking with anger. "A bond severance? Sophia, do you have any idea what that means?"

I watched him quietly, a strange sense of peace washing over me.

"I do," I said softly. "It means there will be nothing left between us. You can be with Elena and your children openly, without the inconvenient stain of a failed mate."

"You think this is what I want?" Raw pain flashed in his eyes. "Sophia, I know things are broken between us, but this is not the answer! The Elders are traditionalists; they will never approve this. And besides..."

He paused, his voice growing desperate.

"Besides, the process of severing the bond could kill you! Your wolf is already weakened by the trauma. Forcibly tearing your connection to an Alpha… your spirit can't handle that kind of backlash!"

I laughed, a dry, self-mocking sound.

"So you're worried I'll die?" I stood up to face him, eye to eye. "Or are you worried that the death of your barren mate will bring shame upon you in front of the other packs?"

"Sophia!" he roared, wounded. "I have never, ever looked down on you because you couldn't have children! Never!"

"Really?" I shot back. "Then why did you refuse to even discuss adoption? Why did you let your parents humiliate me in front of you and say nothing? Why did you choose Elena and her child without a second's hesitation?"

He opened his mouth to argue, but I pressed on, my voice rising with every question.

"Why, tonight, when that baby was seizing in my arms, was your first instinct not to protect me, but to order me away from my own home?"

Each question was a knife twisting deeper. I could see the agony on his face.

But I no longer cared.

"Sophia, it's not what you think..." his voice was a desperate plea. "I admit I've made so many mistakes, but please, withdraw the petition. We can fix this, but not like this..."

"Like what?" I sneered. "Like you locking me in this tower? Humiliating me in front of the entire pack? Or like you sleeping next to another woman every night while I rot in here alone?"

His face went white, as if I’d struck him.

"My... my arrangement with Elena is for the future of the pack, for the bloodline..."

"For the bloodline," I repeated his own damning words. "Yes, that's the core of it all, isn't it? I was a means to an end. And when I couldn't fulfill my purpose, you threw me away."

"No!" he yelled. "You were never just a tool, Sophia! You were my mate, the woman I loved..."

"'Loved'?" I seized on the word. "Past tense. You said it yourself."

He fell silent, the despair in his eyes a bottomless pit.

Just then, an urgent mind-link message burst into the room, so frantic it made us both flinch.

It was Elena's voice, laced with terror.

"Alpha! Alpha, come quickly! The pups have a dangerously high fever, their life-force is fading! The healers say… they say it might be a bloodline backlash from the unstable bond! They need your power to stabilize them!"

The color drained from Sebastian's face.

I looked at him, feeling that strange, cold calm return. Another choice. Another test.

And I already knew the answer.

"Go," I said quietly. "Your children need you."

He looked at me, his eyes a battlefield of pain and conflict. His hands trembled, as if reaching for me, but they fell uselessly to his sides.

"Sophia… I'll be back. We'll talk..."

"There's no need," I shook my head. "Sebastian, I've given you enough chances. Tonight was the last one."

He tried to say something else, but Elena's cries echoed in his mind again, more frantic, more hopeless.

"Alpha, please, they're getting worse! The healers say they might not make it!"

I could see the war raging inside him. But I also knew that when it came to a choice, he would always choose those two children. It wasn't wrong for a father to do so.

But it meant that in his heart, I would never, ever come first.

"Go," I said again, this time sending the word directly into his mind through our fraying link. "Your heirs are waiting."

He gave me one last look, his eyes brimming with unshed tears and a despair that mirrored my own, then turned and bolted from the room, a man running from his own ruin.

I listened as his footsteps faded into the snowy night.

Then I sat back down on the creaky iron bed.

Soon, the sounds of frantic activity drifted from the main house—the running feet of healers, urgent voices, the faint, pained cries of the pups.

And I listened to it all, a detached observer to a life that was no longer mine.

I don't know how long passed before the sounds finally died down. I felt a wave of relief ripple through the pack's collective mind—the children were stable.

The sounds of celebration followed, faint howls of joy for the heirs' recovery.

And as I sat alone in my prison, listening to them rejoice, the last ember of warmth in my heart finally went out.

The next day, just as I stepped out of the West Tower, my phone rang. It was the company.

"Ms. Sophia, given that you've submitted a petition to sever your blood bond, the Council has decided to revoke all your positions and privileges at the corporation. Please come in today to complete the paperwork."

It seemed the Council was just as eager to find Sebastian a more useful mate.

I paused for a moment. "I'll be right there."

The third floor of the pack's administrative hall. My old office was now a hollowed-out shell.

"Luna... Ms. Ashford," the woman from the pack's administrative office corrected herself, her voice cold. She pushed a form across the desk. "Please sign here to confirm you've collected all personal belongings."

I looked at the paper. It listed, in dense print, every title that had been stripped from me: Vice Director of Strategic Planning, Investment Committee Member, Board Advisor... Every position I had earned, every accomplishment I had been so proud of, was now just a cruel mockery.

"Sophia Ashford, applying for termination of all contracts and duties for personal reasons..."

Personal reasons. The irony was a bitter taste in my mouth.

I picked up the pen, but just as the nib touched the paper, a wave of intense dizziness washed over me. The office spun, the familiar furniture blurring into a vortex.

My health had been declining for months, and the constant dizzy spells were exhausting me.

This time, because I had just initiated the severing of the bond, my body was in a state of extreme weakness. The dizzy spell hit me with unprecedented force.

Deep in my chest, I could feel my wolf core vibrating violently. The pain was like a red-hot needle being driven through my soul. An energy imbalance caused by severe psychological trauma—one of the most dangerous conditions for a werewolf.

"Ma'am? Ma'am, are you alright?"

The administrator's voice sounded distant and muffled. Then, the world went black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was on a cot in the pack infirmary. The sharp smell of disinfectant made me gag, but worse was the rage and accusation flooding through what was left of our mind link.

Sebastian's voice roared in my head:

"Sophia! What did you do to them? What kind of curse did you place on my children? Why did they start seizing with a fever the exact moment you collapsed?"

I struggled to sit up, trying to form a defense, but his fury was a tsunami that drowned me out.

"I knew you would seek revenge! I knew a spurned mate wouldn't simply accept being cast aside! But I never thought you'd be so vicious as to harm innocent pups!"

"I didn't..." I tried to fight back, but my weakened mind couldn't penetrate his wall of righteous anger.

"Enough! Sophia, if anything happens to my children, I will never, ever forgive you!"

He slammed the link shut, leaving me alone in an aching, silent void.

The pack healer walked in, his face a carefully blank mask. "Ms. Ashford, your wolf core is severely unstable. You need at least three days of absolute rest. But given your current status... I can only give you these stabilizers. Please vacate the infirmary as soon as you are able."

My status.

Always my status.

I took the bottle of pills with a bitter smile. "Thank you."

Three days later was the pups' naming ceremony.

According to pack law, every member had to attend to offer their blessings to the new lives. As the Alpha's mate in name, my presence was mandatory. A final, public humiliation.

The grand hall of the pack manor was filled with lavish decorations and forced, joyous laughter. I stood at the edge of the crowd, a ghost at the feast, watching Sebastian hold the two pink-cheeked infants, accepting congratulations from pack Alphas and allies.

He looked radiant, a perfect father and a proud Alpha. Elena stood by his side, glowing as she basked in the praise of being the mother who had saved their bloodline.

They looked so right together. So perfect.

"Sophia."

A cold voice spoke beside me. I turned to see Marcus, Sebastian's father, approaching with a crystal goblet.

"Since you're here, you might as well perform your final duty," he said, shoving the goblet into my hand. "Go offer a blessing to the children. Then have the decency to disappear."

I looked at the amber liquid. It was the pack's traditional blessing wine, offered to newborns by elders and important members.

But something about it felt wrong. The color seemed too dark, the smell too sharp.

"What, lost your nerve?" Marcus sneered. "Or are you planning to use more of your dark arts to get back at us?"

The chatter around us died down as everyone turned to watch. I could feel their stares—contempt, disgust, and a sick sort of anticipation. They were waiting for me to fail.

Taking a deep breath, I raised the goblet and walked toward Sebastian.

His smile vanished the moment he saw me approach, but he didn't stop me. He probably saw it as my final, unavoidable duty.

"May these children grow strong and be the pride of the pack," I raised the goblet, reciting the ancient blessing, then poured the wine into a small silver bowl placed before the infants.

As part of the ritual, the pups would touch the bowl with their tiny hands, symbolically accepting the blessing.

But the moment one of the pups' fingers grazed the silver, something terrible happened.

The child began to convulse violently. Her face turned deathly pale, and then... she started coughing up blood.

A dead, horrified silence fell over the entire hall.

"No!" Sebastian's scream tore through the night. He clutched the bleeding infant, his eyes wide with a terror that ripped my own heart apart.

I stood frozen, my mind blank, watching the horror unfold.

Then, a brutal force struck my cheek.

Marcus's claws left three deep, bleeding gashes across my face, the impact sending me stumbling backward into a wall.

"Poison! The wine is poisoned!" a healer shouted after rushing to check the child. "This pup has been poisoned!"

Every eye in the room fixed on me, the hatred and rage so thick I could barely breathe.

"Kill her!"

"The demon witch!"

"She tried to murder the heirs!"

Roars and curses came from all directions. I lay on the ground, watching Sebastian cradle his dying child, his face a mask of pure agony.

He turned and looked at me, and his eyes... he looked at me like I was the embodiment of all evil.

"Why..." his voice trembled with heartbreak and disbelief. "Sophia, why would you do this?"

I wanted to explain, to scream that I did nothing, that Marcus gave me the wine, that I had no idea it was poisoned.

But he had already turned, rushing with the child toward the infirmary.

I scrambled to my feet, trying to follow, but Marcus blocked my path, his face twisted with murderous intent.

"You dare go near them?" His eyes burned. "Sophia, I should end you right here, right now!"

"I didn't poison the wine!" I yelled, my voice hoarse. "You gave it to me!"

"What nonsense are you spouting?" he sneered for the crowd. "I gave you the sacred blessing wine. How could I know you'd spike it with poison? Sophia, your evil is beyond anything I could have ever imagined!"

The pack members began to close in, their faces contorted with rage. I knew if I didn't leave, they might actually tear me apart.

But I had to get to the infirmary. I had to know the pup was safe. I had to make Sebastian see the truth.

A hostile crowd had gathered outside the infirmary, but they parted for me as I approached—not out of respect, but out of revulsion, like I was something unclean.

Through the glass window, I saw Sebastian sitting by the bed, holding the now-quiet pup's tiny hand. A healer was administering an antidote through an IV. The situation seemed to have stabilized.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but the pain in my chest only intensified.

Just then, Sebastian walked out. There was no anger left in his eyes, only a cold, hollow despair that chilled me to the bone.

"How is she?" I asked urgently.

"She'll live," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "The healer said one more minute and the poison would have stopped her heart."

I started to speak, but he pulled a folded document from his coat.

"This is what you wanted. The Petition for Bond Severance." He held it out for me to see. At the bottom, next to my own, was his strong, decisive signature. "I've signed it. It's done."

I stared at the document, at the finality of it, and felt a strange, terrifying sense of release.

"Sebastian..."

"Don't," he cut me off. "Sophia, as of this moment, there is nothing between us. Get out of my sight. And never, ever let me see you again."

He turned to leave, but I grabbed his wrist, a last, desperate act.

"I didn't poison her," I said, forcing him to look me in the eye. "I swear on my soul, I didn't hurt that child."

He glanced at me, and for a fleeting, heartbreaking moment, a flicker of doubt crossed his face.

"Maybe you didn't," he said softly, his voice full of weariness. "But it doesn't matter anymore, does it?"

He pulled his arm free and walked away without looking back.

I stood outside the infirmary, watching his back disappear down the hall, feeling a loneliness so profound it threatened to swallow me whole.

I returned to my room—no, it wasn't my room anymore. The marital suite.

The lock had been changed. The door was ajar. I pushed it open. The room was barren. Everything that had ever belonged to me was gone.

The closet was empty, the bookshelves were bare, even the paintings on the wall had been taken down.

It was as if I had never existed.

"You're just in time."

Sebastian's voice came from the doorway. I turned to see him leaning against the frame, his expression unreadable.

"Where are my things?"

"At the incinerator," he answered without emotion. "I didn't think anything tainted with curses and hatred should remain in this house."

The room spun. My things included mementos from my childhood, my mother's jewelry, photos from our bonding ceremony...

"My parents' heirlooms, too?" My voice trembled.

"Everything," he said coldly. "Sophia, leave now. The Enforcers are on their way. If you don't want to be thrown out, you'd better walk."

I looked at him, the man who once promised to protect me, now destroying me in the cruelest way imaginable.

"Fine," I nodded. "I'm leaving."

As I walked past him, he didn't move. Our bodies brushed against each other, and for a second, I could feel his warmth, his familiar scent.

"Sebastian," I whispered close to his ear, my voice venomous. "One day, you will learn the truth. And when you do, I hope you regret this for the rest of your miserable life."

His body stiffened, but he didn't reply.

I walked out of the room, out of the manor, and into the cold night rain.

The downpour was merciless, soaking me to the bone in seconds. I walked down the muddy path toward the territory border, with nowhere to go. I had no money, no allies, no one.

Worst of all, my wolf core was still fractured from the trauma. In this state, I probably wouldn't survive the night in the wilderness.

Just as I was about to cross the boundary of the pack lands, a low growl echoed from the deep woods.

Then, several pairs of glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness.

Rogues.

Feral wolves who had lost their minds to their primal instincts. And now, at least five of them were circling me, their prey.

I stumbled backward, a scream dying in my throat. I was at the edge of the territory. No one would hear me.

One last time, I reached out with my mind, a desperate, dying plea for the man who had just cast me out. The connection was instantly and mercilessly blocked.

The rogues began to close in, their teeth bared, the scent of rot and blood heavy on the air.

So this is how it ends.

The largest rogue lunged. I closed my eyes, waiting for the killing blow.

But the claws never came.

Instead, I heard the sharp crack of several gunshots, followed by the pained howls of the rogues as they scattered into the night.

When I opened my eyes, a tall figure was striding toward me through the rain. Behind him were three heavily armed guards, each holding a rifle loaded with silver-tipped rounds.

The moon broke through the clouds, illuminating his face—a face of impossible, classical beauty, edged with danger. His hair was a rare silver-white, shimmering in the rain.

But it was his eyes that stole my breath. They were a pure, deep violet, like priceless amethysts.

He stood over me as I knelt in the mud and water, a graceful and dangerous smile playing on his lips.

"Looks like you could use a hand, little wolf."