My sister ran away on her wedding day, so my uncle forced me, a lowly Omega, into her dress to marry the ruthless Alpha Kaelen.
The moment we met, the intense bond revealed we were fated mates, but he was utterly disgusted by my weak status and rival bloodline.
He forced me to my knees in front of his entire pack, declaring I would only be a despised prisoner, never his Luna.
He locked me in a freezing room, almost claimed me during my heat, but violently pushed me away like I was a disease.
Later, a jealous rival framed me for treason using stolen maps and my blood.
Without a single investigation, Kaelen publicly severed our fated mate bond, causing me to cough up blood as my soul shattered.
"Throw her out."
He gave the order coldly, letting assassins hunt me down in the freezing rain.
As the assassins' jaws snapped at me, a protective warmth flared in my womb, and I realized I was pregnant with his child.
I didn't understand how he could be so blindly cruel to his other half, but the sheer injustice and maternal desperation ignited a dormant power in my veins.
I didn't die in that forest, but awakened as the legendary, extinct White Wolf.
Five years later, his estate was breached by enemies, and he was on the brink of death.
I returned not as his pathetic mate, but as the ruthless mercenary commander he just hired to save his life.
Looking at me and the five-year-old boy beside me, Kaelen finally fell to his knees in the mud.
Chapter 1
Elara POV
The carriage door of the black, armoured sedan closed with a heavy, final thud, sealing me within.
I kept my head bowed, my gaze fixed upon my own worn shoes.
Beside me sat the Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack, my uncle. He was a cruel man who ruled our pack with an iron fist.
As an Omega, I was the lowest ranking member of our society. I was the dirt beneath their boots, meant only for serving and taking abuse. Yet, despite the constant beatings, my bruises always faded with an unnatural celerity-a strange resilience my uncle hated, a secret I kept buried deep within my bones.
My older sister was supposed to marry the Alpha of the Shadow Fang Pack today. It was a political treaty between two rival billionaire werewolf families.
But she ran away with her lover last night.
To save his own life and the treaty, my uncle forced me into her wedding dress.
The car drove through the dense, ancient forest and finally passed through the towering iron gates of the Shadow Fang estate.
It was a massive gothic mansion, a composite of nineteenth-century dark architecture and modern glass and steel.
The car stopped. A guard pulled my door open.
I stepped out into the cold night air, shivering in the thin silk dress.
My uncle grabbed my arm tightly, dragging me up the stone steps and into the grand hall.
The moment I crossed the threshold, the great crystal chandelier hanging from the vaulted ceiling seemed to lose its focus in my eyes, and all the surrounding noise was abruptly silenced by some invisible hand.
A scent reached me. It was not merely a smell, but a presence with physical weight.
It was the scent of a winter gale moving through a forest of cedar, mingled with the potent, bitter aroma of dark chocolate.
My heart began to beat a frantic, wild tattoo against my ribs. A raw, ancient power I did not know I possessed flared to life in the hollow of my chest.
My blood boiled, rushing through my veins with a sudden, impossible heat.
For the first time in my miserable life, a deep sense of peace washed over my wandering spirit. I felt like a lost ship finally dropping anchor in a safe harbor.
My inner wolf, who had been silent and weak for twenty years, suddenly clawed at the walls of my mind.
She let out a deafening, possessive roar.
Mine!
I looked up, gasping for air.
A man was descending the grand marble staircase.
He wore a tailored black suit that seemed a mere breath away from yielding to his massive, muscular frame. His jaw was set, the line of his throat moving with a mechanical stiffness when he swallowed, and even the sweep of his gaze was bereft of any superfluous curve.
He froze halfway down the stairs, and those golden amber eyes found mine.
In that suspended heartbeat, I knew-the Moon Goddess had just sealed my fate.