Chloe POV:

Hazel blinked, her glowing yellow eyes looking confused.

Her inner wolf was fighting against her fading human mind.

"Your Alpha?" Hazel mumbled, looking at Hunter. "But... why is Chloe wearing the Luna dress?"

Hunter stood up smoothly, his body releasing a thick wave of calming pheromones.

The scent was meant to soothe, but it made my stomach turn.

"She's just a low-level Omega I hired for the dress fittings, Hazel," Hunter lied smoothly, stroking her hair.

"Go to the next room. The makeup artists are waiting for you."

Hazel's mouth pulled into a childish, vacant smile that did not reach her eyes, and she wandered out of the room.

Once the door clicked shut, Hunter turned back to me.

His eyes flashed with the glowing gold of an Alpha.

"Take off the rest of that dress, Chloe," he ordered.

He was using the Alpha's Command.

It was an absolute power that forced lower-ranking wolves to obey.

An invisible, heavy pressure forced my knees to bend, and my hands moved against my will.

I pulled the torn white fabric off my shoulders, feeling stripped of my dignity.

"Look at you," Hunter mocked, looking down at me. "You're nothing but a cellar-dwelling apothecary. You cannot even afford your own wolf-bane suppressants."

His words felt like heavy stones smashing into my ribs.

I was a genius Healer, a rare talent.

I had a chance to go to the prestigious Werewolf Council for advanced studies.

But Hunter had used our mate bond to manipulate me.

He exaggerated Hazel's illness, making me feel guilty, so I stayed behind to brew potions for her in a dark basement.

He had bound my ambitions to this small room, and now he mocked me for my cage.

Hunter turned and walked out to prepare for his fake ceremony.

I stood alone in my underwear, shivering in the cold room.

My phone buzzed on the dressing table.

It was an encrypted email from Silas, the Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack in another country.

Silas was a powerful, stable leader, completely different from Hunter.

The email read: The Chief Healer position is still open for you in Country D. Are you ready?

Silas and I had never met in person, but three years ago, my grandmother had saved his sister's life with a rare antidote. He had been watching over me from afar ever since-and he had never trusted Hunter.

Without hesitating for a single second, I typed my reply.

I accept. But I need to bring my Grandmother.

I hit send, feeling a tiny spark of warmth in my chest.

I quickly changed into my plain, everyday clothes-a gray sweater and jeans.

I walked out of the backstage area and slipped into the shadows of the grand ceremonial hall.

Above the altar, a massive magical crystal projector was displaying memories.

The Mind-Link Projection network was a magic system that broadcasted images to everyone in the pack.

But the images on the screen were wrong.

Instead of my memories with Hunter, the screen showed Hunter and Hazel kissing under the full moon.

A sick, frantic pounding began in my chest at the public spectacle of their affair.

A hand, strong as an iron clamp, seized my arm from behind.

"Did you think you could hide from me?" Hunter whispered in my ear.

He had found me using The Scent, the unique smell that tied fated mates together.

"I command you to stand at the altar as Hazel's best friend and witness this ceremony," he ordered.

I yanked my arm away. "Who is this charade truly for, Hunter? Her illness, or your own diseased ego?"

Hunter twisted the bone ring on his finger, a dark, wicked smile spreading across his lips.

"You'll do it, Chloe. Because this broadcast is wired into the medical Mind-Link."

A deathly chill crept up my spine.

"My Grandmother is in heart surgery right now," I warned him, my voice shaking.

"Exactly," Hunter sneered. "The live feed is playing directly into her recovery room. If you make a scene, or if you fail to smile, your fragile Grandmother will be forced to watch your humiliation in real-time."

He was using my only living family member as a hostage.

Hot, humiliating tears spilled over my eyelashes.

I looked at the man the Moon Goddess had chosen for me and saw only a thing of rot and ambition.

"I'll play your game," I whispered, my voice a hollow rasp. "But I swear to the Moon, when this is over, I will carve our bond from my very flesh."

Hunter laughed arrogantly and dragged me toward the bright lights of the altar.

I let him. Because every second he humiliated me was another second I memorized the faces of everyone who would kneel when I returned.

Chloe POV:

I stood beside the altar, forcing my facial muscles into a stiff, painful smile.

Hazel stood opposite me, looking beautiful in the repaired white dress.

But her inner wolf was restless, whining softly and pulling away every time Hunter tried to hold her hand.

Hunter shot me a cold, warning glare.

I leaned in and whispered to Hazel, my voice dry. "It's fine, Hazel. Hunter is merely on edge from the moon phases. He has forgotten his manners."

Hazel's eyes cleared for a brief second, and a dark, victorious gleam flashed in her pupils.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

The crystal projection above us shifted to a new set of memories.

It showed Hunter, the proud and arrogant Alpha, doing things he considered beneath him.

He was walking through dirty human markets, eating leftover food, and even bowing his knees in front of a Moon Goddess statue to pray for Hazel.

He had broken all his own rules for her.

The crystal overhead gave a hiss, like an overcharged wire, and the clear edges of the projection began to fray, the image tearing itself into a thousand glaring white fragments.

The romantic music stopped, replaced by the steady, terrifying beep of a heart monitor.

The screen changed.

It showed the inside of the Pack's exclusive hospital.

My Elder Grandmother's pale, wrinkled face filled the massive screen.

She was awake, staring at the live feed of the altar.

Her eyes widened in absolute horror as she saw Hunter holding Hazel's hands, with me standing to the side like a servant.

"No..." Grandmother gasped through the screen.

She clutched her chest, her face twisting in agony.

The heart monitor flatlined into a long, endless scream.

Beep-

The connection to her mind vanished, and the screen went black.

"Grandma!" I screamed, the sound tearing my throat apart.

I ran toward the control panel, but the technicians had already cut the power.

Panic consumed me.

I turned and sprinted out of the grand hall.

As I ran, my body began to shift.

My bones cracked and reshaped, thick white fur bursting from my skin as I entered my half-wolf form.

I reached the heavy wooden doors, but a massive figure blocked my path.

Hunter stood there, his muscles bulging, his Alpha aura pressing down on me like a mountain.

"You aren't leaving until we finish the final toast," he demanded, grabbing my shoulders with bruising force.

Deep inside me, something ancient and powerful snapped.

My eyes, usually a soft brown, suddenly ignited with a brilliant, glowing white light.

It was the hidden bloodline of the White Wolf, the rarest and most powerful descendants of the Moon Goddess.

A low, vibrating growl ripped from my chest, carrying a threat of absolute destruction.

Hunter's hands flinched.

His inner wolf whimpered, sensing a predator far greater than an Alpha.

He let go of me, stepping back, but his pride made him yell, "You'll regret this, Chloe!"

I didn't look back. I ran on all fours through the dark streets until I reached the hospital.

The Healer nurses were gathered outside the emergency room, their faces grim. "She is critical, Chloe," one of them whispered, handing me a clipboard. "We need your signature."

My hand trembled so violently I could barely form the letters as I signed the Do Not Resuscitate form, a document that felt as heavy as a tombstone.

I slid down the wall to the cold floor, the warmth draining from my fingertips until my hands felt like blocks of ice.

As I waited, a commotion erupted down the hallway. A patient, half-mad with his own wolf's degeneration, was screaming at the staff. "The letters! She faked the letters! A traitor in our midst!" His ravings were nonsensical, but the words struck Hazel, who had followed me, like a physical blow.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway. Hunter and Hazel walked in, their fingers locked together. They had changed into matching dark red celebration outfits.

I turned my head away, shuttering my senses, feeling nothing but a vast, hollow space inside me.

"The letters..." Hazel began to babble, her eyes wide with a terror that had nothing to do with the madman. "The recommendation... I didn't want you to leave me, Chloe! I did not mean for them to catch you!"

The words struck me like lightning.

She stumbled backward, her face turning pale as snow.

"No... no!" Hazel babbled, her mind fracturing under the stress. "I didn't mean to! I just... I intercepted the recommendation letter! I changed it! I didn't want Chloe to pass the Healer exam and leave me!"

The hallway's fluorescent lights seemed to flare to an unbearable brightness, and the sound of the distant monitors became a single, piercing whine in my ears.

My ears rang loudly.

Years ago, a fake report letter had accused me of treason.

Because of that letter, I was banished to the borders, where I was kidnapped by bloodthirsty Rogues.

"You ruined me because you were afraid of being alone?" I whispered, staring at the woman I had called my sister.

Hunter stepped in front of Hazel, shielding her.

I didn't answer him. My fingers brushed the wolf-tooth necklace at my throat-the last thread of our bond.

Tonight, I would snap it. And before dawn, he would understand what loss truly meant.