Chapter 1

"Grandma Rose, I've made my decision. I'm leaving the Silver Moon Pack to come live with you in Canada."

On the other end of the line, Rose Miller's voice trembled with surprise and excitement. "That's wonderful, Elara! I'll contact the Human Immigration Bureau immediately to handle your paperwork. It should take about a month."

"Use this time to say your goodbyes to the pack. Once you cut ties with the wolves and settle in a human city, it will be very difficult to return to the forest."

"Especially your Alpha, Uncle Kieran. He raised you after your parents sacrificed themselves. You must express your gratitude properly and say a formal farewell."

Elara Vance responded with a soft hum of agreement.

After hanging up, she left the terrace and returned to the living room of the main house. Her gaze instinctively landed on an old photograph resting on the mantelpiece.

In the photo, the morning light gilded thirty-six-year-old Kieran Blackwood and fourteen-year-old Elara with a divine halo. Kieran stood beneath a giant redwood, smiling brightly as he instructed Elara—who had just completed her first shift—on how to control her balance. Her small silver wolf form lay clumsily on the ground, her eyes filled with adoration for him.

Despite the years that had passed, Elara still remembered the sense of security she felt that day. However, time had changed everything. She and Kieran could never go back to how things were.

A trace of sorrow flitted across Elara's eyes. She looked away, her thoughts drifting to the distant past.

The Vance family had once been the most loyal Betas to the Blackwood family. Kieran was twenty-two years older than Elara, the youngest and most powerful Alpha in this forest.

When Elara was eight, her parents died tragically while defending the pack from an invasion of rogue wolves. It was Kieran who, against all objections, brought her into the Alpha's mansion to raise her himself.

Perhaps out of pity for her being orphaned so young, Kieran kept her by his side, teaching her with great care. Every night, he taught her to identify the dangers of the forest; he trained her physically through bitter cold and scorching heat, and whatever prey she fancied, he would help her catch.

In this way, he single-handedly raised that little wolf pup who had lost her shelter into a resilient, beautiful woman.

It was precisely because of Kieran's meticulous care that Elara had harbored a deep attachment to him since childhood.

When she reached the age where the mate mark awakened, she fell hopelessly in love with the man who had always guarded her. Everything seemed so natural, so inevitable.

On Elara's sixteenth birthday, Kieran threw a grand party for her as usual. At the bonfire party that night, he drank some strong spirits, and Elara helped him to the study to rest.

Looking at the man she loved so close at hand, and feeling the blood within her stirring due to the mate bond, Elara couldn't control herself. She leaned down and kissed him.

Kieran's eyes snapped open. His golden pupils contracted, and he shoved her to the other side of the room.

At first, Elara didn't understand what had happened. She thought it was a signal, a chance to confirm they were fated mates. But to Kieran, her action was simply a transgression.

"Elara! Do you realize I am your guardian?" he growled, suppressing his rage.

"I know, but we aren't blood-related, and... I felt it. You are my mate," she argued, trying to release her calming pheromones.

Faced with her confession, Kieran's expression turned cold, and he instantly withdrew his aura.

"You are my best friend's daughter! I am a full twenty-two years older than you! You are only sixteen, Elara. You can't distinguish between gratitude and love. That is an illusion, not a mate bond!"

Elara had always respected him, but on this matter alone, she refused to yield an inch.

"So, you're rejecting me just because you think I haven't grown up? It doesn't matter. One day I will prove that I am qualified to stand by your side and become your Luna!"

She couldn't remember clearly how that argument ended. But from that day on, every full moon, she would express her feelings to Kieran. And every time, he coldly rejected her, even using his Alpha pressure to force her to retreat.

Even so, Elara never thought of giving up.

She had thought that once she turned eighteen, Kieran would accept her pursuit. Now, with only a month left until her long-awaited eighteenth coming-of-age ceremony, she no longer planned to try.

A month ago, Kieran had introduced Serafina Stone from the Northern Pack to everyone.

Elara's heart felt as if it were being twisted by a knife, yet she held back her tears and asked him if he had found a girlfriend just to make her give up.

Kieran merely glanced at her faintly and said indifferently, "Don't flatter yourself. I simply need a powerful mate to consolidate the pack's alliance. This is normal."

His careless gaze completely shattered her.

That night, Elara ran through the forest until dawn, her mind filled with the bits and pieces of the past years. At daybreak, she received an email from her human grandmother in Canada.

Rose wrote: "Elara, do you want to come to the human world and live with me? I wanted to take you away after your parents' accident, but pack law didn't allow it then. Now that you're an adult, if you're willing to give up your identity as a wolf, we can be reunited."

Elara didn't reply at the time. She still didn't want to leave Kieran; she wanted to try one last time.

However, over the past two weeks, Kieran seemed to be deliberately showing off, constantly appearing before Elara with Serafina.

They patrolled the territory side by side, whispered intimately in plain sight—doing all the intimate things only fated mates would do.

Just last night, he let Serafina stay over and took her into the Alpha's master bedroom.

Elara sat in the guest room downstairs until three in the morning, watching the lights in his room go out and listening to the faint sounds from above.

She covered her mouth, tears sliding silently down to soak her pillow. In that moment, she finally decided to stop loving Kieran.