Chapter 1

The Battle of Crimson Creek was a massacre. My senior packmate, the woman I had loved for centuries, searched through ten thousand corpses before finding me at the edge of death.

I foolishly believed she had finally been moved by my years of devotion.

Instead, she took advantage of my shattered state and reached into my chest, brutally ripping out my Alpha Spark.

Xaviera looked down at me with cold, piercing eyes. "You were born with the divine bloodline. Ripping this out is just a temporary setback for you; you can always regrow a Spark. But Caden has struggled for a thousand years to reach this level."

"Once we return to the pack, I will help you recover. Do not be ungrateful."

It turned out this had been her plan all along.

I watched with my own eyes as she fused my life's essence into Caden's body.

Eight hundred years. It took me eight hundred years to finally admit that I could never warm her frozen heart.

"Elias, here is your medicine."

My pack-sister dropped the bowl onto the nightstand with a look of pure disgust. The hot liquid splashed onto my scarred arm, stinging my skin, but she didn't even blink.

Ever since we returned from the Crimson Creek disaster, the younger wolves who used to beg me for combat training had changed. Now, they treated me with nothing but cold glares and insults.

I weakly called out to her as she turned to leave.

"Please... tell Xaviera I need to speak with her."

The girl let out a sharp, mocking laugh.

"Lady Xaviera is at the Lunar Spring helping Caden heal. She has no time for a failure like you! I don't know how you have the nerve to ask for her. The battle was lost because of you! Saving your life was already an act of too much mercy!"

She slammed the door, her words echoing like thunder in my mind.

Xaviera was at the Lunar Spring with Caden. Everyone in the Silver Moon Pack knew that when a man and a woman entered those waters together, they were performing a dual-soul bond.

The defeat at Crimson Creek happened because Caden fell for the Shadow King's traps.

Yet, to protect Caden, she had shifted every ounce of blame onto my shoulders.

The pain in my chest flared, making it impossible to breathe.

Despite her harsh words, the pack-sister must have delivered the message. Xaviera arrived at my chambers, but she wasn't alone. She was supporting Caden.

My eyes turned red with fury.

"Xaviera! That is our bed! How can you let him lie there?"

She ignored my protest, her brow furrowed in annoyance. She gently helped Caden lie down on the silk sheets, her voice turning incredibly soft.

"Rest here tonight. This wing is closest to the Lunar Spring. It will be easier for me to take you there for your treatment tomorrow."

I had rarely seen her smile with such warmth.

Yet Caden received that warmth every single second.

Caden gripped her hand weakly. "Will you stay with me tonight? Since the battle... I've been having nightmares. I'm scared."

"I'll stay. I won't leave your side."

She pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. But the moment she turned to face me, her expression turned into a mask of ice.

"Quiet. If you wake him up, I will magically bind your tongue."

I stared at her, my eyes hollow. My anger was slowly being replaced by a bitter, self-mocking realization.

This was my room. But since my return, I had been relegated to a servant's cot in the corner while he took my bed.

She hovered over Caden, who had only lost some spiritual energy, yet she left me―who had lost his very soul-core―to rot.

"Xaviera, the defeat wasn't my fault. Tell the Elders the truth. I won't be the scapegoat for Caden's cowardice."

Xaviera's eyes narrowed, her voice dropping to a deadly chill.

"Caden has been looked down upon since he was a pup because he lacked a strong bloodline. He was bullied for years. If the pack finds out he made a mistake, how will they treat him?"

"You've been his mentor since he joined. Do you have no empathy at all?"

I began to shake, my heart feeling as though it were being shredded by a dull blade.

"So I'm the one who has to endure the hatred of our siblings?"

She spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"This is your burden to bear."

The agony in my chest forced a violent cough out of me.

Xaviera covered her nose and waved her sleeve in disgust. She flicked her wrist, casting a silencing spell on me.

"I told you. Stop making noise. You're disturbing Caden."

As I met her cold gaze, the copper taste of blood filled my mouth. It burst past my lips, staining the floor.

There was no pity in her eyes. Only revulsion.

"Disgusting. Clean that up yourself."

A faint cough came from the bed, and she immediately rushed to Caden's side, her face full of worry.