Chapter 2

2.

I was the Alpha General of the Silver Pack, a man with a legacy of being undefeated.

Under my lead, the pack was peaceful and the people lived well.

Since I ascended to my rank, I had treated Elara, my fiancée and the Priestess, with nothing but devotion.

She wanted a rare Fire-Glow rabbit, so I dove into a volcanic pit to find it for her.

She wanted to see the front lines, so I stayed in the shadows to protect her.

I would have handed her the sun and the moon just to see her smile.

People used to say that Alaric Blackwood's only weakness was Elara Whitlock.

They were right.

Everything changed when she "rescued" a heavily injured Jaxen from the battlefield.

I told her many times that the Shadow Clan was full of tricksters and couldn't be trusted.

But she looked at Jaxen, who had disguised himself as a low-level omega, and felt nothing but pity.

"He may be Shadow Clan, but he's just an innocent civilian caught in the crossfire!" she told me.

"How can you judge everyone so broadly? Look at him! Does he look like a villain to you?"

"If you won't let him stay, I'll leave with him. My life will have nothing to do with you anymore!"

I couldn't let her go alone with a dangerous enemy, so I gave in.

I was right, though. I was always right about him.

The moment Jaxen recovered his strength, he went straight back to the Shadow Clan to gather an army.

When he returned to our borders, he wasn't a victim; he was a king sitting atop a dark stallion.

Elara wasn't even mad about being lied to. Instead, she admired his "courage and wit."

She even said, "A man who can endure such hardship to win is a true hero."

She didn't even wait for Jaxen to interrogate her. She volunteered our pack's secrets.

Jaxen used that information to rewrite his strategy, leaving our warriors helpless.

When I confronted her, she didn't show a single ounce of regret.

"If Jaxen didn't win this war, his own people would have torn him apart for failing. They would have cursed his soul forever!"

"I worked so hard to save him. I couldn't just watch him die!"

"Besides, a man as great as Jaxen was born to be a winner."

Looking at her self-righteous face, I felt a chill run from my head to my toes.

"What about me? Did you ever think about what would happen to me if I lost?" I asked, my fists shaking.

But Elara didn't answer. She just turned around and ran toward Jaxen without a second thought.

She didn't even have the patience to hear me finish my sentence.

Watching her smile at the enemy king was like watching her stomp my thousand years of love into the dirt.

The anger made my internal energy spiral out of control, making my organs feel like they were being shredded.

Later, Jaxen led his army deep into our territory, using Elara's tips to suppress my men.

When he finally stood before me, ready to wipe out the Silver Pack, I had only one choice.

I had to ignite my origin soul and sacrifice my life to save the bloodline.

As my soul burned away, my life flashed before my eyes like a movie.

At the very end, I thought I heard Elara's voice.

I hoped she was saying something to me, so I strained to listen.

All I heard was her voice full of pure disdain.

"I've been sick of Alaric for a long time. They call him a hero, but his heart is smaller than a grain of sand."

"He lost the pack because he's incompetent, yet he blames everything on poor, innocent Jaxen."

"He has no compassion. He doesn't deserve to be a General or have the people's respect!"

"Jaxen, I promise you, the next time I see him, I'm breaking off the engagement..."

She was trashing my name just to make her lover happy.