I am Ayna Radolf, the only White Wolf in Moonshadow Pack.

Everyone says I grew up cherished by Carlson Moonclaw, the Alpha.

When I was three, my father died in battle. Carlson held me in a pool of blood and swore to protect me for life.

When I was five, I was bullied in the pack because of my unusual fur color. He announced to the entire pack that anyone who touched me was his enemy.

For 15 years, I have lived under his protection, offering him my heart and my life without reservation.

At 18, Carlson falls under the vampires' death curse. I willingly sacrifice half of my lifespan and beg a witch to use a forbidden spell to transfer the curse onto me. With that, I take on his certain death.

On that same day, as I watch his unconscious form and tightly furrowed brows, I cannot help but kiss the corner of his lips.

He wakes up.

Unexpectedly, there isn't any tenderness or any trace of emotion—only overwhelming rage and disgust.

He grips my chin with horror in his eyes, as if he is looking at a filthy maggot. "Ayna, I am your brother! How dare you have such disgusting thoughts?"

From that day on, Carlson has avoided me like the plague.

This goes on until Selena Fang, his so-called fated mate, returns.

She cries and tells him that she is abused and abandoned by her former mate. Now, she is blind and covered in injuries.

The healer declares that only my White Wolf's eyes are a perfect match for her.

So my Alpha, the brother I loved for 15 years, comes to me.

Carlson stands in front of me and says solemnly, "Ayna, I know this is unfair to you. But if Selena doesn't have eyes, she will live in darkness for the rest of her life. As long as you give her your eyes, I will do anything you ask—except give you my love."

I snap back to reality and dig my fingers hard into my palm. The sharp pain clears my mind instantly.

I am not dreaming. I am reborn and back to the day Carlson forces me to give up my eyes.

In my previous life, I refused to the end. During the struggle, Serena "accidentally" fell off a cliff, and her body was never found.

Carlson blamed me for everything. On my birthday, he gouged out my eyes and threw me into the dungeon where rogue wolves were imprisoned.

There, I was assaulted endlessly. In the end, I died in the cold, damp darkness like a piece of discarded trash.

The despair and pain from before my death still linger in my bones. I look at the man in front of me. The love that once filled my chest completely fizzles out into nothingness.

I will give him these eyes as repayment for the 15 years he has protected and raised me.

From now on, we will go our own ways, and we owe each other nothing.

"I'll do it," I said.

Every argument and underhanded tactic that Carlson Moonclaw had prepared to coax and pressure me into agreeing with him suddenly died in his throat when he heard that. He was visibly taken aback with a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

"Well, since you agreed to it, then I will definitely carry through with it. You can ask for anything except for me to mark you."

I looked up, meeting his gaze, and said, "I only have one request. After the surgery, I want to leave Moonshadow Pack, and I will no longer be your stepsister from then on. I don't want to have anything to do with the pack or with you anymore."

Carlson's brows furrowed instantly as if he'd just heard a pathetic joke.

"Are you serious, Ayna Radolf?"

He probably thought that I would behave like I used to, crying and demanding that he give me all of his love and attention and make me his mate. He never thought that I would ask to leave.

"If you don't have pack protection, you won't be able to live on your own beyond three days with your current condition," he said in a warning tone, certain that I was only throwing a tantrum and playing hard-to-get.

I responded nonchalantly, "Okay."

I didn't care if I could live on my own after that. It was certainly better than certain death under his hands.

Carlson looked at my unperturbed expression and frowned even harder.

A few seconds later, the shock in his eyes vanished, replaced instead with disdain and mockery.

"I get it now. You think that I'm going to give in to your inappropriate whims and fancies just because you're threatening to run away from home?"

He looked down on me, his tone self-righteous and condescending. "Stop it with your little schemes. There will never be a future between us. My only mate is Selena, and Selena alone."

I looked at him behaving like this and felt a profound sense of helplessness.

I could still vividly recall the pain of being torn apart by the Rogue wolf in the underground dungeon in my past life. And so, this time, I certainly wasn't so pathetic as to cling to someone who wanted me dead ultimately.

"I know," I responded just as calmly.

Carlson looked like he still wanted to say something, but I couldn't be bothered to listen to him anymore.

"If you don't have anything else to say to me, then I'm taking my leave now."

I turned around and walked out of the room without a backward glance.

I'd only just made my way out to the hallway when a loud scream suddenly rang out.

A split second later, Carlson rushed out right past me, shoving me aside harshly with his shoulder, his eyes fixed on the figure lying on the ground.

"Selena!"

He rushed up to her and carefully gathered her into his arms, tenderly yet urgently asking her if she was alright.

"What happened?"

Selena Fang shrank into his arms, timidly raising her eyes to him and looking hesitant to speak. I saw her glancing toward me with malice in her eyes.

"It's not Ayna's fault, Carlson. I just couldn't see where I was going because I'm blind, and I guess I must have bumped into her… Please don't blame her for anything."

She then bit her lower lip and humbled her voice until she could barely even be heard.

"After all… She's a noble white wolf, and I… I'm just a blind, abandoned, used-up piece of trash. I don't mind living in the darkness for the rest of my life because I don't expect her to give me her eye…

"I just wish that she'd stop shoving me… It's hard for me to walk on my own, and I'm already frightened as I am…"

Tears then began streaming down her cheeks as she played the perfect role of the victim.

The same thing had happened to me in my past life, and I was nailed to the pillory of shame because of what she said here. But this time, I simply stood there and coldly watched her pathetic performance.

"Noble?"

Carlson turned abruptly to look at me, his eyes as sharp as knives. "She doesn't even deserve it."

His words stabbed right into my heart like a frigid icicle.

"If it weren't for my protection all these years, she'd end up nothing but trash, utterly destroyed by the Rogues! Forget about her losing just one eye—she'd still have to put up with it if she lost them both!"

So, the person whom I had loved with all of my heart for 15 years thought that I was nothing but a worthless piece of trash who didn't even deserve to exist.

My heart clenched uncomfortably at the thought, but still, I felt utterly relieved more than anything else.

I refused to continue listening to his degrading words and walked out of the healing center instead.

The cold wind whipped against my face. I pulled out my phone and called Mia Grayhound, my only friend in the world.

I went straight to the point as soon as she picked up.

"Mia, I heard that the Northwind Center is willing to take in homeless wolves. Is that true?"

Mia went silent for a second. When she spoke again, she sounded tense.

"It's true. But what happened? Did Carlson bully you again?"

"No," I said, leaning back against the cold wall, my voice soft yet firm and determined.

"I'm just asking hypothetically if I were to be exiled from my own pack, and my wolf was severely injured, would the Alpha of Northwind Pack still take in a useless wolf like me?"

Mia immediately gave me a positive answer.

She said that the Alpha of Northwind Pack was completely different from the other hypocritical Alphas in the southern region.

Apparently, the Alpha didn't care about the wolf's bloodline or their strength. If a wolf had nowhere to go, the Northwind Pack doors were always open to them.

I heaved a sigh of relief and felt my tension easing away.

As it turned out, I wasn't going to be truly without options anyway.

Just as I ended the call and put my phone away, I felt a hard chest slamming up against my back.

I smelled the familiar scent of cedar in the air and knew that it was Carlson.

His brows were furrowed as he glared down at me, sounding impatient as he interrogated me.

"Who were you talking to on the phone? What is this about a shelter?"

I felt my heart drop into my stomach. However, I quickly calmed down after that.

Carlson had only heard bits and pieces of my conversation. He hadn't managed to overhear everything.

So, I lowered my eyes and got rid of all the emotion in my eyes before coming up with an excuse.

"Oh, it was Mia. She invited me to watch a movie about a shelter and asked me if I was interested."

The doubt in Carlson's eyes quickly disappeared. His lips curled up in a sneer as he scoffed and said, "Nonsense. You should stop being friends with shady hooligans like Mia. She's only going to corrupt you."

He then paused for a bit and resumed his cold demeanor.

"The surgery is scheduled in three days. I will be bringing Selena home to take care of her in the meantime. It's more convenient that way."

Then, he seemed to suddenly think of something, and his voice got even colder as he ordered, "Also, get rid of the stupid stars in your room and make sure Selena never finds out about them. I don't want any misunderstandings to happen."

Stupid stars.

So, that was what he thought about those memories.

I smirked lightly and self-deprecatingly.

When Mom and Dad died in the battle, I nestled in Carlson's arms, sobbing hard and asking him if there was anything I could do to bring them back, how to be strong so that I wouldn't continue getting bullied, and what I should do so that Carlson would always like me.

Back then, Carlson wiped away the blood smears and tears from my face and said, "The Moon Goddess will grant your three wishes once you've managed to fold 1000 paper stars, Ayna."

I believed him.

Ever since getting a crush on him, I wrote down all of my unspoken love, affection, and dependence on Carlson onto the tiny paper slips before folding them day after day into paper stars and collecting them into a glass bottle.

After 15 years, I had finally finished folding all 1000 of them.

However, the very person who wove this fairytale for me had long forgotten that promise a long time ago.

"Fine. I'll throw them away," I said, my voice dry and hoarse, going with everything he said.

Carlson seemed very satisfied with my obedience.

"Smart. At least you know what's good for you."

Then, he turned and left.

I went home and pushed open the door to the second bedroom, my eyes widening as soon as I saw Selena seated on my bed and holding the glass bottle of stars in her hands. She was happily unfolding the stars one by one, reciting aloud the words I'd written in a drawn-out voice.

"Carlson called me pretty today. I was happy for the entire day."

After reading it aloud, she threw the slip onto the floor and clicked her tongue in disapproval. "What touching, unrequited love, Ayna."

I clenched my fists and suppressed my anger.

"You're not even going to pretend to be blind anymore?"

Selena didn't seem to panic even though I'd caught her red-handed. Instead, she slowly looked up and waved the glass jar at me.

Her right eye was wide open, and it looked clear and bright. There was no sign of blindness whatsoever.

"So, you knew all along," she said with a malicious grin on her face.

I stared at her intact eye and found it ridiculously absurd.

"You already have all of Carlson's love, Selena. Why are you still pretending to be blind? Why won't you just leave me be?"

"You're asking me why?"

The smile on Selena's face suddenly turned dark and twisted. She jumped up from the bed and took menacing steps toward me.

"Do you even know what kind of life I'd been living all these years, Ayna Radolf?

"That bastard I was mated off to treated me like livestock, constantly beating me up and verbally abusing me every single day! I was fed rotten scraps and even had to sleep with one eye open to avoid being mauled to death by the other she-wolves!"

She then pointed at her blind left eye with a resentful look and said, "And what about you? What were you doing back here when I was being treated like a mongrel elsewhere?

"You stole all the love and affection that should have belonged to me! You were cared for so tenderly by Carlson the whole time, and even being treated as the apple of his eye! Why? Why!"

She suddenly raised her voice as she screamed in my face. "I am the one who was his fated mate all along! All of Carlson's love and all of the best resources in the pack should have been mine! Mine!

"Why should you, an orphan without even the mark of a fated mate on her body, take all of this from me and enjoy them all in my place?"

I felt a deep chill run down my spine after listening to her maniacal words.

I never thought that her resentment toward me had stemmed from such a ridiculous "reason" where she accused me of usurping her place in the pack.

I wasn't the one who caused the suffering she went through outside the pack. And yet, she still pinned the blame for her misfortune on me.

"So, I decided that I'm going to ruin your beautiful silvery eyes. As long as you descend into a pathetic wolf, despised by everyone who sees you and forced to eke out a living in the total darkness, then I will finally consider that you'd have repaid all of the good days you lived in my place, with interest."

She then cackled aloud with a strange, crazed look in her eye. "When that time comes, Carlson's gaze and all his love will finally belong to me, and me only!"

"You're out of your mind," I said, suppressing the chill in my heart. I didn't want to continue arguing with this mad she-wolf anymore and just fixed my gaze on the glass jar instead.

"Give that back to me!" I demanded.

"Give it back? Sure!"

A malicious look flashed in her eye before she suddenly dropped the glass jar.

The jar hit the ground and smashed into a hundred pieces on the hardwood floor, and all 1000 folded paper stars containing my love for Carlson scattered all over the place.

At the same time, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from downstairs.

Selena screamed out loud and threw herself to the floor, tears immediately gushing from her eyes.

Carlson's figure then appeared at the door. When he took in the scene, his face immediately turned as dark as thunder.

He pulled Selena into his arms at once and began yelling at me without even bothering to ask what was going on.

"Ayna Radolf! What the fuck is wrong with you!"

I ignored him and crouched on the floor, picking up the broken pieces of glass instead.

The sharp edges sliced into my fingers, and blood seeped out at once, bleeding into the paper stars on the floor.

"I just… I just accidentally walked into the wrong room, Carlson… I didn't mean to bump into Ayna's jar…"

Selena shrank herself into Carlson's arms as she began sobbing harder. "I didn't think that she would rush up to me and shove me over. I didn't mean to break her things…"

Carlson's knuckles popped as he clenched his fists.

He'd only just reminded me earlier today to get rid of these "stupid stars", and yet, how dare I shove Selena to the floor after she'd broken it?

He was just about to roar at me in fury when his gaze suddenly landed on an unfolded paper star on the floor with something written on it.

"I wish that Carl would stay happy and healthy forever."