Chapter 2

He advanced on me, step by step, his voice rising sharply, as if he wanted everyone to hear this sentence:

"It was you who threw yourself at me, begging me to accept the mate bond! What? Have you forgotten how you groveled so pathetically, like a dog wagging its tail?"

"And now you're here, playing the pure goddess, acting all coy. Who are you putting on this show for?"

I gazed at him with indifference.

My heart ached until only numbness remained.

"Damon, I'll say it again. My father never killed your father."

"And besides, Damon, I don't love you anymore."

Damon's pupils constricted.

In an instant, a cruel look flashed across his face.

"Don't love me?"

He sneered.

"Elliana, what gives you the right to say you don't love me?"

"When you were desperately throwing yourself at me to atone for your father's sins, you were madly in love with me!"

It was true.

Damon and I were childhood sweethearts; we grew up together.

And he knew better than anyone that I had loved him since we were children.

But that year, there was an accident.

Damon's father died during a pack patrol mission.

He was the top warrior in our pack. On the day it happened, he had planned to return early for a joint hunting. But just as he was about to return, a hostile wolf pack suddenly invaded the border. Within a mere three minutes, the situation spiraled out of control, and the entire defensive line was forced into an emergency lockdown.

My father, as it happened, was the commander of that defense mission.

Even more coincidentally, on the day of the defeat, the defense team illegally used a batch of unapproved silver weapons. And that batch of weapons was supplied by the defense contractor owned by our family.

After the battle, the Elders Council's investigation concluded it was a case of "command error and managerial negligence."

But because of issues like an unauthorized equipment swap, vague management records, and the questionable origin of the weapons, my father was thrust into the eye of the storm.

I still remember it to this day.

The night was dark, and the rain was heavy.

Damon stood in the rain and told me with chilling finality:

"It was your father who got my father killed."

"Elliana, this is a debt your family owes, and I will make you repay it yourself."

At that moment, it felt as if my entire being had been hollowed out.

I desperately wanted to tell him that the faulty silver weapons hadn't come from my family at all.

It was the subordinate in charge of the defense team who had secretly purchased cheap "black market goods," bypassing the official procurement system to cut costs.

My father submitted all the evidence, but the investigation vanished without a trace—Damon's family was backed by a titan of the warrior class, and no one dared to touch the matter again.

To preserve our family's reputation, to avoid implicating more people, my father chose silence. He withdrew from all military-industrial collaborations and even went to their home to personally apologize, proposing a mate union.

It was my suggestion.

"Dad, I love him."

That's what I had told my parents with such certainty back then.

I even told them with unwavering conviction:

"Damon developed lupine bipolar disorder because of his father's death. He used to adore me, and I'm willing to spend the rest of my life helping him walk out of this shadow."

But I never imagined.

That this love from our youth, when we were childhood sweethearts, would ultimately become the greatest punishment of my life.

For three years, he has vented his violence on every human girl resembling me that he brings home.

As if to mock me, and as if to run from himself.

"Elliana, do you see? This should be your fate!"

"But you aren't even worthy of my mark!"

My parents have urged me to break the mate bond, saying they have already arranged another match for me.