The Rejected White Wolf

On our third anniversary, I went to the Pack Registry to submit a design portfolio, hoping to surprise my husband.

The clerk looked at me with pity and whispered, "Honey, the system won't let me. Your Mate Bond was severed three years ago."

I stared at the screen in horror. Not only had Alpha Bennet quietly rejected me, but he had also registered a "Companion Contract" with Gianna—my former best friend who had maimed my right hand in an "accident."

I tracked them to the Sacred Lake. Hidden behind a tree, I heard Bennet laugh.

"I love that she's helpless," he told Gianna, pushing her on the swing he built for me. "I love that she can't Shift or draw. It makes me feel like a god."

He wasn't protecting me; he was clipping my wings to keep me in a cage.

When Gianna later framed me as a Rogue intruder, Bennet didn't recognize me in the dark. He whipped me five times with a silver lash, savoring every scream, unaware he was flaying his own wife.

He thought he had broken me. He thought I would die in that basement.

Instead, I severed the bond myself and vanished across the ocean.

One year later, I returned to Paris as a renowned architect with a mechanical arm and the Lycan King by my side.

When Bennet saw me and fell to his knees begging for a second chance, I simply turned my back and revealed the scars he gave me to the cameras.

"You didn't love me, Bennet. You only loved my pain."

Chapter 1

Harper POV:

The fluorescent lights of the Pack Registry office buzzed overhead, a low-frequency hum that drilled straight into my migraine. I sat on the hard plastic chair, my left hand white-knuckled around my handbag. My right hand—or the ruin that remained of it—was buried deep in my coat pocket.

"Name?" the clerk asked. She was a middle-aged Beta, smelling of stale coffee and indifference.

"Harper Cline," I said. "I need to update my biometrics. I'm submitting a portfolio for the Royal Moon architectural bid."

The clerk typed, her gum snapping softly. Then her fingers stopped. She squinted at the terminal, then up at me. The boredom in her eyes curdled into pity.

"Luna Harper," she whispered. "Honey, the system won't let me."

"Why not?"

"It says here... your status is restricted. Your Mate Bond was severed three years ago."

The floor seemed to tilt. "That's impossible. I am the Mate of Alpha Bennet Crosby. Today is our third anniversary."

The clerk turned the screen. The text glowed in aggressive red: STATUS: BOND SEVERED. INITIATED BY ALPHA BENNET CROSBY.

Below it, a secondary entry burned into my retinas. On that same date, a "Companion Contract" had been filed.

Name: Gianna Skinner.

My breath hitched. Gianna. My former best friend. The woman who handed me the silver-laced drink the night of the "accident." The woman Bennet swore he'd locked in the dungeon for maiming me.