My foster sister Sophia, the last purebred white wolf in Grell village, was raped and tortured to death by an unknow rogue wolf.

Her suicide note contained only one sentence: "Lina saw his face."

From that day on, I became the pack's greatest sinner.

Because I knew who the killer was, but I kept silent for five years.

Until my foster brother Damien, the most powerful Alpha in North America, returned. He brought back the Soul Vision Device and forcibly extracted memories from my werewolf soul.

All the werewolves who had the Soul Vision Device used on them either died or went insane.

My werewolf was repeatedly tortured in the device, but Damien suppressed the pain in his eyes and roared, "When I find the truth, I'll send you and the murderer to hell together."

But when they finally discovered the truth, Damien went mad.

My foster sister Sophia, the last purebred white wolf in Grell village, was dead.

Three days. That's how long she suffered at the hands of an unknown rogue wolf before they found her.

Her pure white wolf bloodline had been completely defiled. She couldn't face the pack anymore. She was terrified of bringing misfortune to everyone she loved.

So she ran into the forest. She bit through her own throat with her fangs. Then she threw herself into the ice lake.

[]

The water turned red around her broken body.

Her suicide note contained only one sentence: "Lina saw his face."

From that day forward, I became the pack's greatest sinner.

Because I knew who the killer was. I knew his name, his face, his scent. Yet I chose silence. For five whole years, I protected that monster.

"Aunt Lina, please!" The voice outside my cave was raw with desperation. "Just tell me his name!"

It was Aiden. Sophia's only cub. He knelt outside my stone cave every full moon, tears streaming down his young face.

"Please! Avenge my mother! You saw the killer's face! Why won't you speak?"

His sobs echoed off the cave walls. Each cry felt like a knife twisting in my chest. This seven-year-old child had lost everything. His mother was gone. His childhood was destroyed.

And I was the only one who could give him justice.

I stood behind the stone door, listening to his heartbreaking wails. My hands trembled against the cold rock. Every instinct screamed at me to comfort him, to hold him, to give him the answers he needed.

Instead, I turned away. I walked deeper into my cave and shut the inner door.

The sound of his crying followed me into the darkness.

"You bastard protector!" The angry voices outside grew louder. "You betrayed Grell!"

The pack had surrounded my cave again. They carried torches that cast dancing shadows on the walls. Their furious roars made the stone foundation shake.

"Come out and face us, traitor!"

"You're protecting the scum who defiled our purebred!"

"Coward! Murderer!"

I had heard these accusations every night for five years. The words had lost their sting. But the hatred behind them still burned like acid in my veins.

I walked to where Fenrir waited in the shadows. My black hunting dog had been my only companion since Sophia's death.

"Drive them away," I whispered, reaching for his iron chain.

The pack members scattered like startled prey.

They left. But I lost everything that night too.

Five years later, my body grew weak and frail. I could barely leave my stone bed. Only the medicinal herbs native to our territory kept me alive.

That’s when Damien stepped through the destruction.

My foster brother had returned. He was no longer the young wolf I remembered from our childhood. Now he stood as the most powerful Alpha lord in North America. Twelve Black Wolf Guards flanked him like shadows of death.

"Get up, Lina." His voice was colder than winter ice. "Today is your judgment day."

Two Black Wolf Guards rushed forward without hesitation. They grabbed my arms and hauled me off the bed like a sack of grain.

"Damien, I'm sick—" I gasped, my voice barely a whisper.

"Sick?" He laughed, but the sound held no warmth. Only bitter contempt. "You're sick because you have guilt eating away at your conscience!"

His amber eyes burned with fury I had never seen before. This wasn't my brother anymore. This was a stranger wearing his face.

"Sophia was blind to call you sister!" he snarled. "She's been dead for ten years! Meanwhile, the bastard who defiled purebloods has been living free for ten years!"

The guards dragged me toward the cave entrance. My bare feet scraped against the rough stone, leaving bloody trails.

"Today I'll use the Soul Vision Device," Damien continued, his voice rising with each word. "I'll see exactly who you've been protecting all these years!"

The moon was full and bright overhead. Its silver light illuminated the packed village square below.

Every werewolf in Grell had gathered for this moment. They formed a perfect circle around the ancient judgment platform. Their eyes gleamed with bloodlust and anticipation.

A pack recorder held up a crystal orb. The magical device pulsed with ethereal light. I realized with growing horror that this trial was being broadcast live to the entire North American werewolf community.

The Black Wolf Guards hauled me up the stone steps. Each movement sent pain shooting through my malnourished body.

"Aunt Lina!" A small figure broke through the crowd and rushed onto the platform.

Aiden. Seven years old now. Sophia's only surviving blood. His wolf eyes had already begun to turn red with rage and grief.

He grabbed my torn sleeve with both hands. "Why won't you tell us who killed her? Why won't you let me avenge my mother?"

Tears streamed down his young face. His voice cracked with unbearable pain.

"I've waited five years! Five whole years!" he sobbed. "Every night I dream about her! She's calling for justice!"

I looked down at this broken child. My throat felt like it was closing up. The words I wanted to say turned to ash in my mouth.

The crowd below began to howl:

"She knows the killer but won't speak!"

"Rogue wolves are all heartless!"

"She's brought shame to Grell's honor!"

Their voices crashed over me like a tsunami. Louder and louder until I couldn't think straight.

Damien stepped in front of me. His wolf eyes were like chips of arctic ice.

We had once been family. We had played together as cubs. We had shared meals and stories and dreams. But after Sophia's death, he decided I had betrayed everything sacred.

"There's still time to tell the truth," he said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "Confess who you've been protecting. Admit which bastard defiled our purebred."

He leaned closer. His breath was hot against my ear.

"Otherwise, when the Soul Vision Device activates, the high-frequency vibrations will make you wish for death. Your wolf bones will shatter piece by piece."

I struggled desperately against the guards holding me. "Damien, you can't activate it! You'll regret this!"

"Regret?" He laughed coldly, cutting off my words. "My biggest regret is picking you up from the snow when we were children!"

His voice turned raw with pain and fury. "All these years, I treated you like a real sister! I protected you! I cared for you!"

The Black Wolf Guards forced me into the metal judgment chair. The cold steel bit into my skin. Heavy shackles locked around my wrists and ankles.

I couldn't move. I couldn't escape.

A metal helmet descended from above. Countless thin needles pressed against my scalp, searching for entry points. The sharp tips pierced through skin and bone, drilling straight toward my wolf soul core.

The Soul Vision Device projection screen lit up in the center of the square. My memories began to tear away from my mind and display for everyone to see.

The werewolves below roared with fury. They hurled burning branches and sharp stones at me.

"Traitor lone wolf! Go to hell, scum!"

Flames grazed my arm. My skin turned black and charred instantly. But I didn't move. I couldn't move.

The first memory flickered onto the massive screen. Three days after Sophia's death.

I was being dragged by Black Wolf Guards to the village bonfire platform. The pack members spat at me. They threw silver daggers. Claws raked across my face, blood streaming down my cheeks.

"Tell us the killer's name!"

"You protecting bastard!"

I broke free from their grip. I ran desperately toward my stone cave. When I looked back, everything was in ruins. Flames had devoured the moonstone altar. The wolf-skin blanket Sophia gave me was burning to ash.

With nowhere left to go, I fled into the snowy mountains with Fenrir.

But the pack followed us.

They surrounded us in the white wilderness. Right in front of me, they used silver blades to slice off pieces of Fenrir's flesh. Strip by strip.

He never cried out. Even with his last breath, he was still trying to protect me.

The snow turned crimson with his blood.

I held his broken body and cried until my throat bled. I was only sixteen years old. No parents. No family. No pack.

Damien's cold laugh echoed from the platform. "You deserved it! If you hadn't protected the bastard who defiled purebloods, would you have suffered this punishment?"

The crowd agreed loudly. "She still wants sympathy? Sophia had it much worse!" "Lone wolves are all heartless!"

Suddenly, a clear wolf howl rang out from the screen:

"Lina! Let's race and see who runs faster!"

The scene changed. Sophia was laughing as she ran toward me through the snow.

Moonlight shone on her pure white fur like flowing silver. She wagged her tail and looked back at me. "Hurry up, little sister!"

Little Aiden threw himself at the screen. His small hands pressed against his mother's image.

"Mama... Mama..."

He collapsed instantly. Wailing with heartbreak.

For five years, he had asked the village elders every single day: "Did you catch the killer?"

The answer was always silence.

Grell village was remote and isolated. We had no magical surveillance. My stone cave was far from others. No one knew who had followed Sophia that day.

Only I knew the truth of what happened.

The memory continued playing.

After our playful time in the snow, the screen flickered again.

I was standing outside my cave. In my hand was a small jar of evening primrose honey balm.

A gift from Sophia.

She had once told me: "I gathered this in the Spinal Ridge Mountains. I almost got captured by eagle-shifters."

"I made it specially for you, Lina."

The next second, I turned around and threw the jar into a mountain crevice.

The watching wolves exploded with rage.

"She actually threw away the balm Sophia risked her life to make!"

"That purebred wolf risked everything for that medicine, and she won't even look at it!"

"So fake!"

"Sophia loved her so much, but she's completely heartless!"

"Lone wolves really have no family bonds!"

Torches rose higher. The angry roars shook the earth.

Damien stood in front of me without saying a word.

Of course he knew why I had thrown away that jar.

He remembered clearly. Our foster mother had once held his hand and said: "Lina will suffocate if she touches evening primrose. You must protect her."

That time I accidentally ate the flower petals, my lips turned purple. I stopped breathing three times.

It was Damien who rushed into the blizzard in the middle of the night. He searched three entire mountains to find the antidote.

When he carried me back to the village, his knees were frozen raw. Blood seeped into the snow.

But now, he said nothing.

He let the wolves curse me.

"Alpha, continue! We want to see the killer!"

The wolves below roared like a tsunami. They waved their torches high, sparks flying onto the platform.

Damien raised his hand coldly. He nodded to the soul mage. "Increase the soul vision intensity. I want to see the memories from that night at Black Pine Forest."

The soul mage gritted his teeth and pushed the energy lever forward.

The metal needles suddenly pierced three inches deeper. They reached straight to the core of my soul.

My entire body convulsed violently. A scream tore through my throat.

The soul震动 felt like razor blades churning inside my brain. Blood-red light exploded before my eyes.

Memory fragments began to flash across the screen.

The classroom. A small hut surrounded by earth walls. A bonfire burned in the center. Sophia, Damien, and I sat in a circle.

She used her claws to tear apart the roasted deer leg. She placed the most tender piece in my hands. "Lina needs to grow. She must eat more."

I looked up at her and smiled. She smiled back.

The scene shifted.

By the stream. My foot slipped and I fell into the icy water. The cold instantly froze my breath.

She didn't even have time to shift into wolf form. She jumped into the water and grabbed my collar with her teeth. She dragged me to shore with pure strength.

After we reached the bank, she was soaked through. Her wolf fur was frozen with ice. She shook so hard she could barely stand.

I held her and cried. But she laughed and said, "Silly little sister, watch where you step next time."

Another shift.

In the mountains. Three young wolves stood before the mountain god statue. We howled our wishes together.

My voice still carried childish innocence: "Please, mountain god, let me stay with Sophia and Damien forever."

They echoed back: "Live and die together. Never betray each other."

Our laughter echoed between the mountain walls.

The image suddenly shattered.

The next instant—Black Pine Forest ice lake.

Sophia's body was being pulled from the water.

Swollen and blue. Her pure white fur was matted with ice shards. Deep bite marks showed bone at her neck.

Every werewolf fell silent. The air felt suffocating.

That day, Damien and I knelt by the lake. We howled until our vocal cords tore. Tears mixed with mud flowed into our mouths.

Our white fur was stained with blood and dirt. We lay beside her body like sacrificial offerings.

In the memory, I returned to my stone cave. I curled up in the corner.

My claws dug desperately into the ground. My nails cracked and split one by one.

I bit and tore at my own hands. I howled and repeatedly crashed into the stone walls. "Sophia! Why did you kill yourself! Why!"

Here on the judgment platform, tears wouldn't stop flowing down my face.

Blood dripped from my torn claws. It pooled on the stone beneath me.

The entire square fell silent.

One wolf whispered quietly: "She looks... really suffering?"

Another replied: "But she still won't speak. Five years now. She'd rather let herself rot than tell us."