When my mate Colby Cruz was caught stealing from the Lycan royal vault, I didn’t defend him. Instead, I ordered the pack enforcers to take him straight to the Silver Cage, the most dreaded prison for traitors among werewolves.

From that day on, I severed our mate bond and avoided him at all costs.

On his birthday, I secluded myself in my quarters.

When he participated in the annual pack trials, I feigned illness and withdrew.

Wherever he was, I made sure to stay far away.

In my past life, I loved him for three hundred years.

Yet in all that time, he never truly looked at me.

When rogues attacked our territory, I fought desperately to protect him and our son, Mylo.

They escaped unscathed, while I was left gravely wounded, my reputation tarnished, and branded a traitor by my own pack.

The son I had poured my strength into raising turned away from me, running into the arms of Colby’s mistress, Laylah Jacobs.

“Mother, don’t feel guilty. This woman destroyed your happiness with Father. She deserves this!”

And Colby, without a glance at my dying form, clung to Laylah.

“At last, we can be together openly.”

Rage consumed me, and my wolf howled in agony as my spirit shattered.

But when I opened my eyes, I found myself back at the moment Colby was caught stealing from the vault.

This time, I would let him face the consequences.

---

“Report!”

“Your Highness, Colby Cruz was caught trespassing in the Lycan royal vault. The evidence is undeniable. We await your orders to have him arrested!”

I blinked, taking in the sight of the angry pack enforcers and Colby, restrained and furious, standing before me.

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog in my mind.

Looking around, I was stunned.

This was my old chamber, from three hundred years ago, before I inherited my mother’s title as Lycan Queen.

Back then, I was merely a Lycan Princess, with far less authority.

After Colby and I mated, this place had been abandoned.

Seeing my silence, Colby looked up, his face filled with indignation.

“Eleanora, believe me, I was just passing by…”

In my past life, I had used my influence to cover up his crime, out of loyalty to our bond.

But this time…

“Summon the enforcers. Investigate thoroughly. Take him to the Silver Cage!”

Colby’s eyes widened in shock, but before he could protest, the enforcers arrived.

A quick search revealed stolen items from the vault on his person.

With the evidence clear, they dragged him away without hesitation.

Seeing the severity of my decision, one of the pack members dared to speak up.

“Your Highness, isn’t this too harsh? The Silver Cage is for the worst offenders. Colby may have stolen from the vault, but he’s your mate. Surely this punishment is excessive…”

“If anyone else speaks in his defense, they can join him in the Silver Cage!”

I shot a cold glance at the speaker, then turned and left without another word.

In the gardens of the Lycan palace, I watched the falling leaves, my mind drifting to memories of my past life.

Colby had once been a rogue, a lone wolf with no pack.

My mother, the former Lycan Queen, had found him on the brink of death during one of her travels.

Moved by pity, she brought him into the Lycan world, nurturing and training him.

I had treated him like family, sharing everything with him.

When my mother proposed we mate, I was overjoyed. Colby, too, seemed eager.

But in my past life, when I discovered he had broken into my mother’s vault, I covered for him, even opening the vault for him to take what he wanted.

I never imagined that the man I had devoted myself to would already be in love with another—Laylah Jacobs, a rogue Delta from a distant pack.

He even convinced himself that my mother and I had torn him away from his true mate.

Even our son, Mylo, who had been born with a rare defect and nearly cost me my life to save, grew to hate me under Colby’s influence.

When rogues attacked our territory, I fought alone to protect them, only to be left dying and betrayed.

They stood by, cold and indifferent, as my life slipped away.

“If it weren’t for you forcing Father into this bond, none of this would have happened. You brought this on yourself!”

And Colby, his voice filled with venom, spat, “Why aren’t you dead yet? You and your wretched mother disgust me. You claimed to care for me, but all you wanted was to keep me as your slave. Laylah saw through your schemes!”

The last flicker of hope in my heart died, replaced by rage, bitterness, and despair as my wolf howled in agony.

They didn’t even wait for me to die before moving Laylah into my chambers, flaunting their betrayal.

I closed my eyes in fury, my spirit shattering.

But perhaps the Moon Goddess had taken pity on me, for I was given a second chance.

This time, I would not repeat my mistakes.

If he loved thieving so much, he could spend his days in the Silver Cage, surrounded by the “treasures” left by other traitors.

After Colby Cruz was imprisoned in the Silver Cage, I didn’t let my guard down. To rewrite my fate, I immediately announced the severance of our mate bond and publicly rejected him in the grand hall of the Lycan court, using the formal vow format. I even gave up the opportunity to join the pack run in the Forbidden Forest, a rare chance for Lycans to strengthen their bonds. My plan was to leave the Lycan realm with my mother and explore the human world.

But five days later, at the Moonlight Banquet, I saw him again.

It was my mother, the former Lycan Queen. She couldn’t bear to see Colby suffer in the Silver Cage and had intervened to release him. Despite her efforts, his presence at the banquet was met with disdain. Word of his attempt to steal from the Lycan royal vault had spread, and most of the guests regarded him with contempt.

I paid him no mind. He was no longer my concern.

Yet, when our eyes met briefly, I saw the deep-seated resentment and murderous intent in his gaze. It was then I realized—he remembered. Just like me, he had retained the memories of our past.

The banquet continued, with werewolves mingling and exchanging stories, the air filled with laughter and the scent of roasted meat and fresh herbs. But the atmosphere shifted when a commotion broke out at the edge of the crowd.

At my signal, two warriors from the Lycan guard dragged forward a strikingly beautiful woman.

“Princess Eleanora,” one of them said, bowing slightly. “We found this rogue lurking near the Lycan borders. She’s been causing trouble. We’ve brought her to you for judgment.”

The woman lifted her head, her eyes blazing with fury as they met mine.

“Eleanora Vasquez!” she spat. “You heartless wretch! Do you have no fear of the Moon Goddess’s wrath?!”

It was Laylah Jacobs, Colby’s so-called true love. A rogue who had once been a Delta in a distant pack, she had been living off Colby’s resources, barely scraping by.

I glanced at her coldly, refusing to let her provoke me. But out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Colby’s expression. His eyes were soft, filled with a warmth I had never seen directed at me.

In our past life, for three hundred years, he had treated me with nothing but cold indifference. No matter how much I sacrificed for him, he never looked at me with anything other than disdain. Even after our son Mylo was born, his eyes remained hard and resentful.

I had always thought his coldness was a result of his tragic past—the loss of his pack, the betrayal he had endured. I had tried everything to win his affection, even opening my mother’s vault to let him take whatever he wanted.

But his response had been the same.

“Just material possessions,” he had sneered. “Are you trying to flaunt your status?”

I remembered the look in his eyes—the contempt, the dismissal.

Now, Laylah continued to shout, her voice rising above the murmurs of the crowd.

“Eleanora! Answer me!”

She struggled against the guards, her face flushed with anger.

“You know Colby has struggled to regain his strength since he lost his pack! He only took from the vault because he didn’t want to be a burden to you! If you were so unwilling to share, you could have just taken it back! Why did you have to lock him up in the Silver Cage?!”

“He’s your mate! Everything in the vault would have been his eventually! He just took a little early! What’s the harm in that?!”

“You threw him into the Silver Cage and nearly destroyed him! Do you have no heart?!”

Her voice cracked, tears welling in her eyes.

Her words stirred whispers among the guests. Some looked sympathetic, others disapproving.

“I heard Alpha Colby was once a rogue,” one murmured. “His pack was destroyed by a rival, and he barely escaped with his life. His strength has never fully recovered.”

“Still, stealing from the royal vault is unforgivable.”

“But if he was doing it for Princess Eleanora, maybe he had good intentions…”

I ignored their whispers. They didn’t understand what I had been through. In my past life, I had pitied Colby for his suffering and tried to help him at every turn. But when I was gravely injured by rogues and left to die, I finally realized—not every pitiable soul deserves compassion.

I stepped forward, towering over Laylah as she knelt on the ground.

“If you’re so generous,” I said coldly, “why don’t you offer up your own pack’s treasures to redeem him?”