It’s been five years since Zuri and I were transported into the werewolf world, and we ended up mated to the Grant brothers. I became the mate of Houston Grant, the Beta of the Silver Moon Pack, while Zuri bonded with Jimmy Grant, the Alpha. Back then, the brothers had been cast out of their pack, stripped of their titles and power. Zuri and I stood by them, becoming their strongest allies as they fought to reclaim their positions.

The journey was far from easy. Pack politics were brutal—betrayals, sabotage, and even rogue attacks threatened us at every turn. There were moments when I thought we wouldn’t make it, but we did. After five years of struggle, Houston and Jimmy finally regained their rightful place in the Silver Moon Pack.

I thought the story was over, that we’d finally completed whatever mission brought us here. But we’re still stuck, unable to return to our world. Still, I wasn’t entirely upset. Houston and I had found love, and our life together was sweet, filled with the kind of warmth I’d never imagined possible.

As for Zuri, her relationship with Jimmy was... different. She’d saved his life more than once, and though their bond lacked the passion Houston and I shared, Jimmy respected her deeply. He gave her authority within the pack, publicly acknowledging her as his Luna and training her to take on a leadership role.

There were plenty of werewolves—especially high-ranking ones—who tried to replace us, but Jimmy made it clear that Zuri was his chosen mate. Houston, on the other hand, adored me to the point of obsession. He’d promised me the world, and for a while, it felt like he’d delivered.

Houston loved me. Jimmy respected Zuri. We’d all fought so hard to get here, and the brothers vowed that no one would ever hurt us, that our family would remain unbroken.

But Zuri once told me something that stayed with me. “Ariyah,” she said, her voice steady, “I don’t believe in love. It’s the most fragile thing in the world. I believe in power, in loyalty, in the promises Jimmy has made to me. If he keeps his word, I’ll give him my loyalty in return. But if he betrays me, I’ll make sure he regrets it.”

I laughed it off at the time. Zuri’s always been the cautious one, the one who protects herself fiercely, while I’ve always been the optimist, the one who believes in the good in people. I told her that positivity attracts good fortune.

But I was wrong.

When Kiara Mitchell returned—Houston and Jimmy’s childhood friend—everything changed. The love Houston had shown me, the promises he’d made, shattered like glass.

The first time Houston used his Alpha tone against me, when he accused me of framing Kiara, of being jealous of her, I felt my heart break. He believed her over me, humiliating me in front of the pack, forcing me to kneel before her and apologize.

It didn’t matter how many times I’d fought for him, how many times I’d nearly died for him. Kiara’s return erased it all in six months.

The mate bond between us, once so strong, now felt like a chain, binding me to a man who no longer saw me as his equal. And as I knelt before Kiara, I realized that the love I’d cherished was nothing more than a fragile illusion, one that had shattered at the first sign of pressure.

Zuri was right. Love is fragile. And in the werewolf world, where power and loyalty reign supreme, it’s a luxury few can afford.

It seems that in every Alpha-dominated story, there’s always a white moonlight that the male leads can’t have, a staple of the angsty drama. The Grant brothers are no exception.

Kiara Mitchell is the adopted daughter of the Mitchell family, the so-called "fake heiress," abandoned by the family at the age of fifteen. The Mitchells and the Grants have been close allies for generations, and the three of them grew up together as childhood friends. Later, when Jimmy and Houston Grant were caught in a pack plot and kidnapped, it was Kiara who stepped forward to protect them, allowing herself to be taken by the rogues instead.

Even though she returned unharmed, whispers followed her. After all, a young, unmarked werewolf taken by rogues for three days and nights—how could anyone believe nothing happened? The Grant brothers were consumed by guilt, kneeling before their father until their foreheads bled, begging for ways to compensate Kiara. They sent her abroad with a fortune to study, hoping to distance her from the scandal.

Now, Kiara has returned from her studies, and it’s inevitable that she would become the center of the brothers’ attention. But I never imagined that the first to lose his rationality would be Houston—the one who swore he loved me more than anything.

Since Kiara’s return, she’s been playing the victim, telling the Grant brothers how the kidnapping ruined her reputation and made her unwelcome in pack society. So Houston has been taking her to every pack gathering, defending her whenever she’s slighted. He even attacked a business partner over her, breaking a contract and costing the pack billions, all because Kiara told him the partner had been leering at her.

Of course, the partner had connections and wasn’t going to let the insult slide. After some back-and-forth, he demanded that Houston bring me to his private lounge to apologize. The room was thick with smoke, making my throat burn. Houston shoved me down next to the partner, ignoring how the man’s foul breath was practically in my ear.

He leaned in, his voice a low, furious growl. "Kiara told me the truth. This is all your doing, isn’t it? You caused this mess, so you’re going to fix it."

I froze, unable to believe what I was hearing. When the partner tried to take advantage of the situation, I screamed and bolted from the room. After that, I was so shaken that I ran a high fever for three days straight. Meanwhile, Houston was busy accompanying Kiara to a pack banquet.

When Zuri came to see me, her eyes were red with anger. She told me she’d slapped Jimmy hard across the face. "They called it an apology, but they really sent you there to be humiliated! They were protecting Kiara’s reputation! Even Jimmy went along with Houston’s plan!"

This wasn’t the first time Jimmy had hurt me or Zuri. His actions played no small part in my eventual demise.

A month ago, I had told Jimmy I wanted to dissolve the mate bond. I didn’t want the house, the cars, or the compensation—I just wanted to leave. But by then, the media had already spread rumors of Houston’s infidelity with Kiara. To keep her from being labeled a homewrecker, Jimmy tricked me into signing a severance agreement that would cost me billions.

If I had been able to leave earlier, I wouldn’t have gotten tangled in Kiara’s kidnapping scheme, and I wouldn’t have been used as a bargaining chip by Houston. By the time Zuri arrived, I was already gone. She stared at my body for a long time, then looked at Jimmy, who was still busy comforting Kiara. She smiled faintly, as if speaking to me across the void.

"Wait for me," she said. "I’ll make sure they pay for what they’ve done. Then, we’ll go home together."