Chapter 1
“Beta Nadia, Alpha Roland has approved your resignation. However, I don’t think he realized it was you. Should I tell him?”
I glanced down at the resignation form in my hands and shook my head softly. “No need.”
The Pack Elder sighed lightly, as though making one last attempt. “Beta Nadia, you know… he still cares about you. The members of the Pack all thought the two of you would be together forever. Perhaps… reconsider?”
I couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh. How could they understand? My relationship with this Alpha had never been just office gossip. We had already signed the mate contract, and while the mate bond was legal, we kept
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it a secret.
Creating a mate bond was one thing; being cared for was another. Three months ago, I painfully realized this truth. After a car accident left me with a broken spine, I needed my mate to sign the consent form for surgery at the Pack hospital.
But by the time he finally picked up the phone, I had already lost count of how many times I had tried to reach him. Worse still, when he answered, he sounded annoyed. “It’s just a car accident. You’ll be fine. Wait a bit–I’m still at Brianna’s birthday party.”
Brianna, my “best friend.” In that moment, I realized my mate had betrayed the bond we shared.
In the end, as I fought for my life in the ICU, I had to sign the surgery consent form on my
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own.
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Just before they wheeled me into the operating room, Roland finally showed up -but he was holding my “best friend” in his arms. She had supposedly cut her finger while cooking. He actually had the audacity to pull the doctor aside and asked them to treat her injury first.
That brief delay–the minutes I lost–cost me more blood. The next week, I spent in the ICU, unsure if I would ever walk again.
It was then that I truly understood. Some things, once they rot, need to be discarded- like the mate bond. Now that I’ve recovered, it’s time to move on.
I lifted my gaze and looked at the Pack Elder, calm and steady. “Time changes everything” I said softly. “I stayed by his side through
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the toughest three years of his life. That’s enough.”
During those years, Roland had always loved C Brianna. I was nothing more than a product of a misunderstanding from three years ago. At that time, Roland had been drugged with mating pheromones, and in a haze, he ended up in my bed. When the scandal was unavoidable, he agreed to become my mate -but on the condition that no one in the Pack ever found out.
Now, the she–wolf he truly loved had returned to Rhoskar Pack. I didn’t want to hold on to a mate who was mine only on paper.
Before I left, I had one final task. I would leave him four gifts, each a celebration of the bond we were finally freeing ourselves from.
With the paperwork for dissolving our mate
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bond in hand, I pushed open the glass door to Alpha Roland’s office. Inside, Roland was rolling up his sleeves, trimming the stems of a bunch of white lilies. He had never been the romantic type, and in fact, he often mocked those who bought flowers for their girlfriends. “Those things are meaningless. They’ll wilt in a week.”
In our three years as mates, I had never received a single daisy. And these lilies? They were Brianna’s favorite.
A few flower stems fell into the trash can, and only then did Roland look up at me. “Back at work already? How’s the recovery?”
He stood and placed the bouquet into a crystal vase, adjusting the petals before adding, “About what happened… I didn’t mean for things to turn out like that. Brianna’s different from you. You know her
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constitution is weak, a small cut can send her into shock. And that night, only one doctor was on duty.”
“But I knew you’d be fine.” He smiled at me. “You’ve been through worse, right? Growing up with nothing, a little surgery’s nothing to you, right?”
My wolf nearly laughed aloud in my mind. He knew nothing about me–I was, in fact, the sole heir of the wealthiest Amavorn Pack in the Southern Pack Alliance, an Alpha in my own right. My only hardship began the day I became his contracted mate.
He should have known, had I not severed ties with my pack to marry him.
But I let him believe whatever he wished. After all, to Roland, silence had always meant consent. So, to him, I was always
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the one with such a gentle temperament- perfect for playing the part of the supporting role.
He walked toward me, smiling, lifting the lilies like a trophy before my face. “Hey, do you think these flowers are pretty?”
As their fragrance hit me, my throat instantly began to itch. I turned away, coughing violently, unable to control it.
When his mate’s allergy flared up, the first thing he did was shove me aside. My back collided with the sharp edge of the desk, and the healing wound tore open, blood seeping through my shirt.
The pain blurred my vision, yet Roland’s concerned gaze remained fixed on the lilies.
“You nearly ruined them!” he shouted. “Do
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you know how rare they are? They were airlifted! Professionally cultivated!”
Realizing that even the flowers were more important than my health, my wolf laughed mockingly in my mind. “We’ve been putting up with this asshole for three years? Fuck, we must’ve been blind to choose him!”
I had severe pollen allergies–something he’d never bothered to understand. Had he cared even a little, he would have known my wound wasn’t fully healed.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself, and pulled a file from my bag.
“Alpha Roland,” I said, offering the file. “I need your signature.”
This stopped him in his tracks. For the first time, it seemed like he truly looked at me.
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There was something different about me. When we were alone, I’d never referred to him as “Alpha Roland, only using his first
name.
“You just got out of the hospital. You should rest,” he said softly.
But still, he reached out to take the file. Just as his fingers brushed the papers, his phone
rang.
The name on the screen flashed by, and I caught a glimpse.
[Sweetheart]
He’d saved Brianna’s name with such a sweet nickname, while my name had always been formal.
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That said it all.
He answered the call with a smile, the bouquet still in his hand as he walked toward the door.
“I won’t be home for dinner tonight. You can go home after work,” he said.
I stood in his way, flipping to the last page and shoving the pen into his hand.
“Sign this first.”
Roland’s brow furrowed slightly. He’d always been cautious, never signing anything before reading every word carefully.
But just as he was about to glance through the file, the phone rang again.
Even at a low volume, Brianna’s voice leaked
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from the speaker–playful and enticing.
“Roland, I’ve been waiting for you so long! Hurry up and come over…”
And just like that, the ever–cautious Alpha didn’t read a single word. He just waved his hand and signed his name carelessly.
“Done. Are you satisfied now? Can I leave?” he said, his tone laced with sarcasm.
I looked at his signature, nodding slightly. “Yes, you’re free to go.”
This time, I did as he wished and let him go.
As he left, he casually threw over his shoulder, “My office hasn’t been cleaned in months. Since you’re here, why don’t you tidy up while you’re at it?”
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With that, the door slammed shut, the sound echoing in my ears long after he was gone.
Roland’s office had always been his sacred space–immaculate. Only I knew where the spare key was hidden, which drawer held the wet wipes, how neatly he liked his papers.
When I approached his desk, my attention was drawn to the photo frame.
Brianna’s smiling face stared out at me from behind the glass. That frame used to hold my photo. As I turned away, my eyes caught sight of the trash bin beside the cabinet. There, discarded like trash, was a photo of mine–crumpled, face down.
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, but it didn’t reach my eyes. It was sharp, almost like a blade.
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Once, I had called Brianna my “best friend.” But to Roland, my “best friend” had always been his wolf’s only choice.
Though I had always loved Roland, for the sake of that friendship, I buried my feelings deep inside… until graduation.
At that time, Brianna was swept away by a rich Pack Alpha and a one–way ticket, vanishing beyond the Northern Pack Alliance.
That night, Roland drank too much, unaware that someone at the bar had drugged him. What followed was a mistake–a reckless night with his first love’s best friend.
The memory flashed in my mind like a sad movie, tears welling in my eyes.
I wiped the tears from my cheek with one
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hand while the other reached for the drawer. Inside was a photograph, the edges faded from time, along with a love letter–still pristine as if never opened.
For four years, I loved Roland so deeply that I wrote him ninety–nine love letters.
But since Brianna’s return six months ago, every time Roland chose my “best friend,” I marked off a matchstick.
The ninety–ninth letter was burned in the hospital. The one in my hands now was the last, the one I should finally let go of.
Carrying a box of my belongings, I walked out of the building and dialed a number in the car.
“Marcus,” I said calmly, “didn’t you say you liked me? One month from now, once I have
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the proof to dissolve the mate contract, we’ll hold the bonding ceremony
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