Chapter 1
When I was eighteen, Lorenzo Valerius shifted into a massive wolf and broke into my home. His gleaming fangs glinted under the moonlight as he snarled and lunged at my father, tearing into him again and again — bloodstains painted a dozen horrifying marks on the floor.
That night, it wasn’t just blood that stained the floor, it was my coming-of-age night.
Moonlight fell on me, and for the first time, I fully awakened as a wolf.
In the instant when blood and moonlight intertwined, a rift tore open in my soul. I knew then — he was my fated mate.
When the Pack Enforcers dragged him away, he smiled.
“Why would I regret it? From now on, no beast will ever hurt her in the name of ‘family’ again. Starting today, Molly is free.”
His voice, like a mental link, echoed directly in my mind, making the wolf instinct within me roar wildly.
Years later, when he was released from prison, I had nothing to my name, not a cent in my pocket, nor a single job offer.
He crushed the cigarette in his hand, looked up at the moon, and threw himself into the pack’s brutal struggle for survival.
With the unyielding genes of an Alpha and his hunting instincts, he fought his way out of countless territory battles, moonlit challenges, and elder council trials — until every pack knew him as Alpha King Valerius.
After we married, every password he had was set to my birthday.
That was the instinct of an Alpha toward his Luna, ever since the marking ritual.
Yet when I flipped through his photo album, all I saw were pictures of another woman — hundreds of them, not a single one of me.
It was only then that something seemed to click.
He said nothing, deleted all those photos, tossed his phone aside, and said flatly:
“All of this is in the past. Just act like you never saw them.”
I slid the divorce papers across the table to him, said coldly.
“I told you already. Sign them.”
He threw the pen away and narrowed his eyes.
“And I told you too — between us, there’s no such thing as divorce. Only death.”
Lorenzo didn’t sign.
He whispered the vow we’d spoken on our wedding day, repeating it.
“Between us, there is only widowhood—never divorce.”
In that moment, the wolf inside me roared, craving to speak the true incantation.
But I held it back.
Not long after, an unfamiliar number sent a voice message.
The girl’s name was Aria.
“You must have seen them by now, right? He’s been saving my photos since he was still doing the moon trials. Lorenzo loves me, not you. If you don’t step back, he’ll make you regret it!”
Her voice was young and naive, like an untamed wolf cub.
Maybe Lorenzo had just protected her too well.
Before I could even reply, a string of photos came through.
She had a flawless figure and a slender waist.
That hand — the one that sometimes forgot to take off our wedding ring — rested casually on her bare skin.
But once her belly started to swell, that hand disappeared.
“Molly, you’ve been married to Lorenzo for five years and haven’t given him a pup. But he let me have his baby. Can’t you see? What’s the point of holding on? If you don’t give up, I’ll move into your house. Then we’ll see which side Lore takes, yours, or mine.”
When Lorenzo came home, he found the shattered crystal bowl scattered across the floor, and me standing there, phone in hand.
He just raised an eyebrow and said, “Don’t you have anything to say?”
My heavy breaths mingled with the smoke from his cigar.
He chuckled softly, then let out a sigh.
“She’s just an Omega girl, why lower yourself to pander to her?”
“That’s right, she’s young and a bit foolish,”
I said, slamming a medical report down on the table.
His body froze instantly.
“She’s pregnant,” I stated flatly.
“So I taught her a lesson to grow up.”
“Molly!”
He gripped my shoulders tight, so tight I thought my bones might break.
My back slammed against the wall.
I pressed my lips together, savoring the fiery red heat in his eyes.
In all my life, he’d only shown anger in his eyes twice.
Once it was on my 18th birthday, when he saw my father grab me by my hair, half-naked, and drag me onto the street, trying to drown me in the river.
That very night, he unleashed his wolfish rage and attacked my father.
The second time was over a girl’s miscarriage.
He pinned my shoulders down hard, demanding to know about my cruelty.
“How rare,” I scoffed, “to see Alpha Valerius truly lose control.”
“You’re a woman too! How could you do this to her?” he roared in fury.
“You said it yourself,” I leaned in closer, whispering, “between us, there’s no such thing as divorce. Only death. If you can’t kill me, I’ll just kill you both.”
The wolf in my heart was screaming—this was betrayal.
And betrayal can only be paid for with death.
