Bryn POV: Cathey Terry threw herself down the last three marble steps of the penthouse staircase, landing in a twisted heap of pale silk. She scraped her knee and elbow against the stone floor, and fat tears spilled from her eyes right on cue. I stood at the top of the stairs, my fingertips trembling from the sheer absurdity of her performance. For ten years, this ambitious Beta woman had used herbal sachets to mask her mediocre scent, pretending to be the fragile angel who saved my husband's life. I didn't reach out to help her. I just curled my lip in a cold sneer. The heavy double doors of the White Enterprises penthouse slammed open. Harden White strode in carrying the freezing chill of the Manhattan night, his tailored suit sharp and imposing. As the billionaire CEO of White Enterprises and the supreme Alpha of the White Pack, he commanded absolute terror. His dark gray eyes locked onto Cathey on the floor, his pupils contracting before a suffocating wave of Alpha aura erupted straight toward me on the second-floor landing. In our world, an Alpha's Command carries a biological compulsion that no lower-ranking wolf in the pack can resist. Because I had spent the last decade suppressing my true royal White Wolf bloodline to live as a "wolfless"—a genetic defect born without an inner wolf—I had to play my part. I dropped to one knee under the crushing weight, my forehead slamming against the iron railing. Warm blood immediately trickled down my temple. "You vicious woman! How dare you push my savior?" Harden roared, taking the stairs three at a time. He lunged forward and clamped his large hand around my jaw, forcing my head up. I was forced to meet the disgust in my fated mate's eyes. Beneath my blouse, the jagged, blackened scar on my left shoulder throbbed with a dull ache—the permanent mark of a silver blade I had taken for him ten years ago, an honor Cathey had stolen while I lay in a coma. I clenched my teeth, my voice devoid of any warmth. "I didn't push her. She rolled down on her own." "Enough! I saw the whole thing with my own eyes!" Blair White, Harden's spoiled younger sister, sprinted down the hallway. She stomped her designer heel, the pink diamond on her ring finger flashing under the chandelier, and shoved my shoulders with both hands. Already pinned down by Harden's aura, I lost my balance completely. My back crashed into a tall antique porcelain vase. The ceramic shattered on impact, and a sharp shard sliced across the back of my hand, spilling bright red drops onto the imported rug. "Don't blame Bryn... It was my own fault for losing my footing..." Cathey sobbed weakly from the bottom of the stairs. She lifted her arm just enough to expose the woven herbal pouch tied around her wrist. That fake, cloying scent drifted upward, making Harden's brow furrow deeper as his fury spiked. Thud. Thud. "Harden! You ungrateful bastard! Let go of your wife this instant!" Grandma Vivienne, the only person in the White Pack who had ever treated me like family, walked out of her bedroom suite. She trembled violently with rage, slamming her wooden cane against the floorboards upon seeing my bloodied face. Instead of letting go, Harden pressed his aura down harder. His icy voice echoed through the grand hall. "Grandma, she is nothing but a wolfless piece of trash without an inner wolf! She doesn't deserve to be the Luna of the White Pack! Today, she will kneel and apologize to Cathey!" Vivienne gasped for air, her chest heaving at his words. Her face drained of all color, and she clutched at her heart before falling straight backward. "Grandma!" My pupils shrank. Ignoring the tearing pressure of Harden's dominance, I wrenched my chin from his grip and lunged toward Vivienne, my fingers only managing to brush the hem of her robe before she hit the floor. Harden froze in shock, instantly retracting his aura. He bolted down the hallway, scooped his unconscious grandmother into his arms, and bellowed at the pack guards stationed outside the door. "Bring the car around! Get us to the Healer clinic!" Chaos swallowed the foyer as the guards rushed in. Blair hurried past me on the stairs and spat viciously at my feet. "If anything happens to Grandma, you wolfless freak, you'll pay with your life!" Harden carried Vivienne out in long strides, while a pack guard carefully supported a limping Cathey behind him. Not a single person looked back at me lying in the pool of my own blood. The heavy front doors clicked shut, leaving the massive penthouse dead silent. The blood on my forehead and the back of my hand began to clot. I deliberately suppressed my White Wolf's rapid healing ability, letting the sharp sting spread through my nerves. Staring at the dark red stains soaking into the carpet, I felt the last shred of my ten-year obsession dry up and turn to ash.

Bryn POV: I pushed myself up from the cold marble floor, leaving the shattered porcelain behind. Ignoring the first-aid kit in the hall cabinet, I walked straight into the master bathroom and turned on the shower. Freezing water poured over my head, washing the dried blood and ten years of humiliation down the drain. Shutting off the tap, I stood before the vanity mirror and stared into my dark, exhausted eyes. I pulled down the wet collar of my shirt to look at the hideous silver burn across my left shoulder. Silver is the only fatal weakness granted by the Moon Goddess to destroy a werewolf, leaving scorched scars that even the strongest healing factor can never erase. I rubbed my temple and let out a bitter, mocking laugh at my own stupidity. I dried myself off, walked out of the bathroom, and knelt beside the closet safe. From the hidden bottom compartment, I pulled out an encrypted black laptop. My fingers flew across the keyboard, bypassing the White Pack's security firewalls in seconds to enter a dark-web frequency. A chat window popped up with a flashing "A" avatar. I typed a quick command to Amir Hebert, my childhood friend from the border territories and a top-tier hacker. "Amir, get the safe house ready. I'm leaving tomorrow." His reply came almost instantly, the text practically vibrating with his usual volatile temper. "What happened? Did those White Pack bastards bully you again? I'm hacking their defense grid right now!" "Don't bother," I typed back. "I'm cutting ties with my own hands. Pick me up at the Healer clinic tomorrow morning at ten." I slammed the laptop shut, severing the signal trace. Walking over to the mahogany desk, I opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a stack of documents I had drafted weeks ago—the Mate-Bond Termination Agreement and a full waiver of pack assets. I uncapped a pen and signed "Bryn Rivers" across the bottom line without a second thought. For the rest of the night, I sat alone on the leather sofa in the living room. I watched the gray morning light of Manhattan slowly creep over the skyline, my chest completely hollow and still. At eight o'clock sharp, the digital lock beeped. Harden pushed the door open, reeking of antiseptic and lingering rage. His bespoke suit jacket hung loosely over his arm, and he yanked his silk tie loose as he stepped inside. When he spotted me sitting on the sofa with a crusted gash still visible on my forehead, his footsteps faltered for a split second. His dark gray eyes flickered with a strange, unreadable tension. Within a heartbeat, his usual arrogance wiped it away. He marched over, towering above the sofa, and narrowed his eyes to release his suffocating Alpha pressure once more. "Grandma is out of danger. Now, get up and come with me to the clinic. You're going to kneel by Cathey's bed and beg for her forgiveness." I didn't cower or drop my gaze the way I used to over the past ten years. I rose slowly to my feet, looking at him as if he were a complete stranger on the street. "And if I refuse?" Harden's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, a low growl rumbling in his chest. "Do you really think a genetic defect like you has the right to bargain with me? Without the shelter of the White Pack, a wolfless woman is worth less than a stray dog in the wasteland!" I laughed out loud. The sound echoed sharply against the glass walls of the penthouse. I looked straight into the eyes of this untouchable billionaire Alpha and spoke each word with icy clarity. "Harden, we're done." His pupils contracted violently, and I could hear the muffled, restless snarl of his inner Dire Wolf beneath his skin. His hand shot out instinctively to grab my upper arm. "Have you lost your mind?" I stepped sideways, easily dodging his fingers, and whipped the signed termination agreement off the side table. I flung the stack of papers straight at him. The crisp pages sliced through the air and scattered right at his polished shoes.

Bryn POV: While Harden stood frozen, staring down at the scattered pages by his shoes, I didn't waste another second. I grabbed my trench coat off the arm of the sofa, strode to the foyer, and pulled the heavy front door open without looking back. Riding the private elevator down to the street level, I stepped out into the biting morning wind of Manhattan. I hailed a yellow cab at the intersection and gave the driver the address of the Pack Healer clinic. Before vanishing from their lives forever, I needed to see Grandma Vivienne one last time. Twenty minutes later, the cab pulled up to the curb outside the clinic's glass entrance. A modified matte-black off-road SUV was already idling in the no-parking zone. Amir leaned against the driver's door, his ash-brown hair messy in the wind. The moment I stepped out of the cab, he straightened up and rushed over. His dark brown eyes dropped to the dried blood on my forehead and the raw cut across the back of my hand. Pure fury twisted his features, and he slammed his fist into the steel door of his SUV, denting the metal. "Did that bastard Alpha do this to you? I'm going in there to rip his throat out!" I grabbed Amir's jacket sleeve, my voice low and carrying an undeniable command. "Shut up, Amir. Don't make a scene here. Come inside with me to check on Grandma first." Amir clenched his jaw, his chest heaving, before nodding stiffly. Together, we walked through the bright marble lobby of the clinic and took the elevator up to the VIP ward floor. Just as we stepped into the quiet corridor, Blair walked out of a lounge carrying a cup of artisanal coffee. She froze when she saw me, then let out an exaggerated, shrill laugh. "Well, well, isn't this our pathetic wolfless beggar who can't even heal a scratch? What's the matter, finally scared of being thrown onto the streets and came crawling back to beg?" Her pale gray eyes raked over my trench coat with pure superiority. As an Alpha-blooded heiress of the White Pack, she deliberately released a weak wave of bloodline pressure, waiting to watch me tremble and embarrass myself in the hallway. I rolled my eyes internally, not even bothering to lift my eyelids. To a purebred royal White Wolf, her pathetic aura felt like a Chihuahua yapping at my ankles. Amir, however, snapped. He stepped in front of me, shielding my body as his eyes turned dark and murderous. "Pack up your laughable arrogance, you idiot. You have no fucking clue who is standing in front of you!" Blair stumbled half a step back under Amir's vicious glare, nearly spilling her coffee. Humiliation quickly flushed her cheeks, and she shrieked at the top of her lungs. "How dare a lowly Rogue bark at me! She's nothing but a useless piece of trash my brother got tired of playing with!" The inner wolf inside Amir went berserk. A low growl tore from his throat as he pointed a shaking finger right at Blair's nose, his voice grinding through his teeth. "Trash? The blood flowing in her veins is something filthy mutts like you aren't even worthy to kneel and—" Right as Amir was about to blurt out my identity as the princess of the supreme Rivers Pack, my hand shot out. My fingers clamped around his wrist like a steel vise, digging into his pulse point to cut him off. I stepped around him and cast a freezing glance at Blair. "My marriage isn't up for a barking dog to judge." Grabbing Amir's arm, I dragged him straight down the corridor, leaving Blair stomping her feet and cursing behind us. When we reached an empty corner near the stairwell, I let go of his wrist and exhaled slowly. "Listen to me," I said, keeping my voice firm. "Until the official Rejection ceremony is over, my White Wolf scent stays locked down. I won't allow any complications before I sever this bond."