Luckily, I managed to save myself.

Alone back in my hut, I saw dozens of fake messages of concern from Lyra through our mental link. It just made me sick.

I replied with the shortest possible message: "I'm fine, don't worry."

Then, without hesitation, I unilaterally cut off all mental links with her.

From now on, we were done.

As for Damien...

I instinctively tried to sense the faint mental connection between us, the one from our fated bond.

Dead silence.

Not a single message of greeting, not a single thought of concern had come through.

It seemed he really, as he’d said, didn't care if I lived or died.

For the next full week, Damien didn't show up.

I didn't ask where he went or who he was with.

None of it mattered anymore.

I just quietly performed the final ritual to sever the fated bond.

The Moonstone, having absorbed my heart's blood and Damien's "agreement to separate" energy, was placed in the center of my hut, within an ancient ritual circle drawn with moon-grass and stardust.

I sat cross-legged, channeling all my remaining lunar energy, chanting over and over the forbidden spell from the ancient wolf chronicles to break a fated bond.

Every chant felt like a sharp blade cutting into my soul.

The pain, bone-deep, almost made me pass out.

But I gritted my teeth and endured.

Because I knew, only then could I completely escape this fate.

Occasionally, during breaks in the ritual, I'd subconsciously see Lyra and Damien's sweet interactions through the pack's internal wind-whisper stones.

Like Damien peeling a whole plate of her favorite flame shrimp for her.

Like Damien grooming Lyra's soft fur under the moonlight, like a true mate.

Like Lyra drawing two cuddling wolf cubs in the snow with her claws, carving her and Damien's names beside them...

My heart was already a still lake, no ripples disturbed its surface.

Days passed.

The Moonstone in the ritual circle, continuously absorbing my lunar energy and my will to separate, grew dimmer and dimmer, the cracks more numerous and deeper.

Finally, when I had almost exhausted the last of my lunar energy, the pack's wise woman contacted me through a mental link.

"Miss Selena, today is the last day before your fated bond with Alpha Damien breaks. According to ancient wolf law and the intentions both of you previously infused into the Moonstone, as long as you cast this Moonstone into the Blood Moon Pack's 'Abyss of Severed Fates' before moonrise tonight, the fated bond between you will be completely broken. Are you ready?"

I had waited too long for this day.

I immediately got up, picked up the nearly shattered Moonstone, and walked towards the pack's forbidden land—the Abyss of Severed Fates.

Returning from the forbidden land, I felt incredibly weak, yet an unprecedented lightness filled me.

Just as I was about to pack my last few belongings and leave this heartbreaking place for good, I unexpectedly received an urgent mental message from one of Damien's subordinates.

"Selena... uh, Miss Selena! The Alpha... the Alpha got drunk at the feast celebrating the successful hunt of a thousand-year-old Shadow Demon Wolf! He's very unstable right now. Would you be able to bring him back to the Alpha's cave?"

I asked for the location of the feast, hesitated for a moment, but eventually went.

Not because I still harbored any illusions about him, but because I didn't want him to become a laughingstock among other pack members while drunk and disorderly.

Reaching the entrance of the huge cave where the leaders gathered, I was about to lift the heavy curtain and go in when I heard Damien's drunken voice.

"Those few days hunting with Lyra in the Moon-shadow Valley... were the happiest time since I became Alpha... no, the happiest time of my entire life. Only she was by my side. We didn't have to care about those damn laws; we could express our desire and love for each other freely. I wish time could have frozen at that moment... Lyra could have been mine alone, forever..."

The bone-deep pain in his voice made the other Beta wolves in the cave, who were usually close to him, look uncomfortable.

"Alpha, please don't talk such drunken nonsense. Miss Selena might be here soon. She'd be heartbroken if she heard you say that. She loves you so much, she even cut ties with her own pack to stay with our Blood Moon Pack for you... She only has you now, you can't let her down," a young Beta wolf said, mustering his courage.

"Yeah, Alpha! Miss Selena even gave up the precious opportunity to awaken stronger lunar energy at the Moon Goddess's temple just to be with you! All these years, whenever you returned late from a hunt, she'd light a moonstone at the cave entrance waiting for you; when you were injured in battles with rival packs, she stayed up day and night, using her pure lunar energy to heal you, guarding you for a whole month; when you were patrolling the territory and accidentally ate poisonous berries, writhing in pain, she found out and immediately, regardless of the danger, crossed the entire forest to find an antidote for you..." another older Beta wolf couldn't help adding.

"We know you've only ever had Miss Lyra in your heart. But... but you and Miss Lyra, after all, aren't the mates originally designated by the Moon Goddess. Miss Selena, she's the mate the Moon Goddess gave you, the one who should truly belong to you. You'll regret hurting her!"

Hearing their advice, Damien chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Regret? I've only ever regretted one thing in my life."

"Three years ago, I shouldn't have, in a moment of weakness, accepted this damn fated bond!"

"If, back then, I hadn't bonded with Selena... then, would Lyra and I still have had a chance to be together?"

####CHAPTER-NAME:

My chest felt like it had been slammed by a giant rock, so tight I could barely breathe.

But strangely, it didn't hurt with that tearing, heart-wrenching pain like before.

I closed my eyes and took a long, slow breath.

When I opened them again, all the turmoil in my eyes had calmed.

I hitched the small bag on my shoulder, the one holding all my belongings, a little higher, then raised my hand and gently pushed open the heavy fur curtain.

The Beta wolves, supporting an almost-collapsing Damien, came out of the cave.

When they saw me, their faces showed a mix of embarrassment and pity.

After a few brief pleasantries, they clumsily helped get the dead-drunk Damien onto the back of my gentle moon-deer mount.

Then, they bowed to me and quickly left.

I silently led the moon-deer, carrying the unconscious Damien, slowly towards the Alpha's cave.

Along the way, the moonlight was bright, the night wind cool.

Only Damien's intermittent mumbles echoed in the quiet night sky.

"Lyra... Lyra... My Lyra..."

Finally, we reached the Alpha's cave, a place that once filled me with longing, but now only held despair.

It took all my strength to get him off the moon-deer and onto the huge stone bed in the center of the cave.

He was so incredibly drunk, his body as heavy as a rock. The moment he touched the bed, he couldn't hold himself up anymore, collapsing downwards and pulling me down with him.

Then, like an octopus, he wrapped his arms tightly around me, his aggressive male scent instantly enveloping me.

His face was buried in the crook of my neck, his hot breath on my skin sending unsettling shivers down my spine.

Like a child who’d done something wrong, he kept calling Lyra's name in that deeply affectionate tone.

"Lyra, my precious Lyra. Don't be angry with me, I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have drunk so much, shouldn't have let them see me so vulnerable. But... but I really feel awful. I think about you every day. I crave to hold you, to possess you fiercely, every single moment. Lyra, don't leave me..."

His arms tightened, almost crushing my bones.

I tried to break free from his suffocating embrace, my voice carrying a stubbornness I hadn't even realized I possessed.

"Look clearly! I'm not your Lyra!"

Damien seemed startled by my voice. He slowly opened his eyes, which were hazy from alcohol, and stared at me for a long time.

Then his eyes suddenly became unusually bright. He tightened his grip, pressing me closer to his scorching chest, full of an undeniable dominance.

"I know you're my Lyra... I know you're angry with me. Because I... because I let that Selena... take the place that should have been yours..."

His lips, hot and smelling strongly of alcohol, rained down frantic, tiny kisses on my sensitive neck, earlobe, and cheek.

"I'm really not Lyra!" My voice trembled as I screamed.

But Damien seemed not to hear me at all. He gently stroked my hair.

Then, he pulled out that communication crystal, glowing with a faint bloody light, from his pouch, held it up in front of me, his tone proud, like a child eagerly showing his most precious treasure to his beloved.

"My little moon, don't be angry. Look at the surprise I prepared for you. This is a one-of-a-kind Luna gown I designed myself. It's made from the rarest starlight flower petals, which only bloom on the night of the full moon, and the tail feathers of the legendary ice phoenix. And this claw ring, it's set with the purest blood soul stone, representing eternity and loyalty."

"I've been preparing all this for you since the day we first met under the moonlight. Every time I see you, I imagine what you'd look like wearing this gown, becoming my Luna, standing by my side, receiving the worship of all the packs. When I put this claw ring on your finger, would you cry tears of joy, just like now..."

Looking at that incredibly ornate, dark red gown and that strangely shaped claw ring, I suddenly felt overwhelmingly sick.

It took all my strength to argue back, my voice choked with tears.

"You... you love her so much... then... then what am I, Selena... what am I?"

"Selena?" Damien seemed annoyed by my question. He frowned, as if talking about an object that could be casually discarded. "Her? She's nothing."

"If it weren't for the Moon Goddess's ridiculous joke... if it weren't for you, my Lyra, needing me to accept her, I wouldn't even have given her a second glance!"

After saying that, he seemed to have exhausted all his energy from the alcohol. He held me tightly, buried his face deep in my chest, and over and over again, with a heartbreaking tenderness, he kept murmuring.

"Lyra... My Lyra... I love you... I only love you..."

"Lyra... I miss you so much... I want... I want you right now..."

His body, hot and hard as iron from suppressed desire.

His hands also began to wander, roughly and urgently trying to tear off the thin layer of clothing on my body.

I laughed.

Laughed until tears streamed down my face.

So, in his heart, I wasn't even a replacement.

I was just a joke, nothing at all.

Until the first ray of dawn peeked through the cracks in the cave, illuminating the absurdity of the room.

Damien finally, from drunkenness and exhaustion, fell into a deep sleep. His even breaths rose and fell in his solid chest.

I lay perfectly still, letting him hold me tight.

I looked at him for a long time.

His handsome, almost perfect sleeping face now looked a bit pale from the hangover.

After a while, I carefully slipped out of his embrace.

Then I leaned down and placed the Moonstone, which had long since completed the severing ritual, by his pillow.

Damien, in his sleep, seemed to sense my departure.

His thick eyelashes fluttered slightly, but he didn't open his eyes, just unconsciously mumbled,

"Selena... don't go... get me... some sobering... spring water..."

This was the first time he’d called my name in his sleep.

It was also the last thing he ever said to me.

This time, I didn't humbly reply "Okay" like I used to.

Instead, I slowly stood up straight and took one last, long look at the man I had loved for seven years.

I turned and left with my baggage, without looking back.

I had no lingering attachment to this pack full of deceit and betrayal.

I walked out of the Alpha's cave, out of the Blood Moon Pack's territory.

With the last of my savings, I traded for a travel token to a distant southern human city at the border market.

They said it was spring there all year round.

Sitting in the merchant caravan's wagon, I watched the familiar forest and mountains behind me rapidly recede in the dawn light, eventually disappearing beyond the horizon.

I took out the communication crystal I’d always kept close to me and completely deleted all mental link imprints of Damien and Lyra.

When the wagon stopped before the ancient city gates of the southern city, the first ray of morning sun, warm and brilliant, fell upon me, dispelling all the gloom and cold.

I tilted my head up, took a deep breath of air filled with the scent of flowers and freedom, and took one last look in the direction I’d come from.

Goodbye, northern snow and ice.

Goodbye, Blood Moon Pack.

Goodbye, Damien.

From now on, I, Selena, will live for myself.

####CHAPTER-NAME:

(Third Person POV)

When Damien finally woke up from his drunken haze, the sun was already high in the sky.

A throbbing headache made his vision blur.

He instinctively wanted to call for Selena, to ask her to fetch some ice-crystal grass dew to ease his headache. But when he opened his eyes, he saw the cracked Moonstone.

He froze for a second, then frowned impatiently and picked up the stone.

"Selena, what kind of trick are you playing now? So I had a few too many drinks yesterday, is that any reason to scare me with this thing?"

He grumbled, turning the unremarkable stone over in his hand, ready to get out of bed.

But his movement stopped abruptly when he saw the ancient rune on the Moonstone, the one symbolizing a completely severed bond.

This Moonstone... the separation ritual was actually complete!

The color drained from his face. Forgetting his killer headache, he leaped out of bed, not even bothering to put on a robe, and rushed out of the cave bare-chested.

But he searched the entire Alpha cave, even all the places nearby he could think of where Selena might be, and found no trace of her.

What made him even more uneasy was that all the items in the cave that once carried Selena's unique lunar energy signature, things he’d once scorned but now made him feel strangely empty, had vanished completely, as if Selena had never existed in his life.

His mind went blank. A very bad feeling crept over him.

After a long moment, Damien took out his communication crystal from his storage pouch, intending to contact Selena, only to find their mental link had been completely severed.

Selena... had actually left?

Why?

Hadn't he been "good enough" to her lately? He’d given her gifts, taken her hunting.

And... and she loved him so much, loved him enough to give up everything for him. How could she bear to leave him?

He slumped onto the bed, his headache worsening, almost splitting his skull.

Suddenly, another communication crystal on his belt flashed urgently with a new message.

He quickly lit up the crystal screen.

It was a message from Lyra.

[Damien, are you busy? I suddenly really want to eat those sweet rainbow berries we found in Moon-shadow Valley last time. Can you go pick some for me now? Please?]

The moment he saw Lyra's message, all thoughts of Selena vanished from Damien's mind.

He got up and sped off towards Moon-shadow Valley.

In his mind, Selena's current departure was just her playing hard to get.

He was sick of having to pretend to be a good mate.

Since Selena dared to throw this "running away from home" tantrum, let her taste what it was like to lose his protection.

He'd see who came crying and begging him to restore that ridiculous bond in the end!

Damien sneered, no longer thinking about Selena, nor did he send any wolf guards to search for her.

He raced through the treacherous forest at full speed for a good two hours, then carefully searched a hidden valley filled with poisonous insects and miasma for most of the day before finally finding the rare rainbow berries Lyra wanted.

By the time he arrived at Lyra's dwelling with a small bag full of berries, it was already sunset.

His precious sister looked like she had just woken up, stretching lazily. The moment she saw him, she shrieked and threw herself into his arms.

"Damien!"

Damien caught her steadily, drowning in the faint, intoxicating scent of her hair.

"I got the rainbow berries you wanted. Eat them while they're fresh."

He took the berries, still warm from his body heat, from the small pouch in his pocket, successfully earning Lyra's sweet smile.

"Thank you, Damien! You're the best to me!"

She cheered, taking the small bag of berries. Then she took out her own communication crystal and carefully took several photos from various angles, seemingly preparing to show off to someone.

After taking the photos, she picked up the biggest, juiciest berry, took a small bite, then pouted her pink, alluring lips and complained, "Oh, Damien, why did you only pick such a small bag? I remember Selena seems to like these rainbow berries too. If you don't give her any, she'll definitely be upset when she finds out. How about... I give half of this to Selena? Remember to send it over to her later, okay?"

As she spoke, she habitually found Selena's mental link window, preparing to share one of the prettiest photos with her.

But the photo filled with a show-off failed to send.

"Damien! Selena... Selena cut off my mental link! Did... did she find out something? Or did you... did you do something to make her angry again?"

Lyra panicked, looking at Damien.

Hearing his precious sister's question, Damien snorted coldly, his tone dismissive. "I didn't do anything. She's the one who wanted to leave."

With that, Damien took out the Moonstone from his pouch and tossed it in front of Lyra.

Back in his own cave, he hadn't thought much about it, nor had he felt anything was wrong.

But now, facing the beloved he cherished so carefully, Damien could no longer suppress it. He gently took Lyra's small hand, his voice low, "Lyra, my little moon, isn't this good? It was Selena, that woman, who wanted to break the fated bond with me. She's completely gone now. We finally have a chance to be together, just like those days when we hunted together in Moon-shadow Valley, openly..."

As he spoke, he moved closer to Lyra.

Lyra's body involuntarily retreated until Damien cornered her against the cave wall, with no escape.

"Damien. We... we are... siblings, after all... The council of elders, and Father and Mother, they'll never agree to this..."

Her voice trembled as she tried to use her last shred of reason to stop Damien's potentially reckless actions.

However, her weak resistance was utterly futile against Damien's determined pursuit and possession.

Just like during those precious times they had spent alone together, they had long behaved like a true couple, sleeping in each other's arms every night, kissing and caressing without restraint, and even... even crossing that final line long ago, driven by desire, completing the most intimate union among wolves.

Damien reached out, grabbed Lyra's slender wrists, and pinned her fiercely against the rock wall.

Like a beast driven only by desire, he lowered his head and viciously kissed Lyra's soft, sweet lips.

"I told you! For you, my Lyra! Even if it means becoming an enemy of the entire Blood Moon Pack, even if it means completely cutting ties with my parents, I don't care!"

####CHAPTER-NAME: