I came back to life.

The first thing I did was sever the Mate Bond with Alpha Asher.

At his coronation.

In front of thousands.

Last lifetime, he publicly accused me of impersonating his mate in front of everyone, saying I didn't carry a Mate's sweetness but reeked of Wolfsbane that made him sick.

For Elena, his first love, he sent me to the black market where they stripped away my wolf. Without my wolf, I died in a rogue attack shortly after.

This lifetime, when he furrows his brow and tells me to get out of his sight, I don't shed a single tear. I just turn and leave.

He says my existence makes Elena unhappy, so I move to the border cottage.

He says he doesn't want to live in the same Pack with me, so I submit my transfer application.

I thrive in the neighboring Pack and meet a powerful wolf with a hidden identity.

When we appear hand-in-hand at the Northern Alliance Summit, Alpha Asher loses control.

He catches my scent,another male's mark on my skin,and his sanity shatters.

He blocks my path, a low growl rumbling from his chest.

"Wash that male's scent off you, Rhea."

"Weren't you disgusted by me?" I smile and step back.

"Now I belong to someone else, and suddenly I smell good to you?"

I came back to life.

The first thing I did was sever the Mate Bond with Alpha Asher.

At his coronation.

In front of thousands.

Last lifetime, he publicly accused me of impersonating his mate in front of everyone, saying I didn't carry a Mate's sweetness but reeked of Wolfsbane that made him sick.

For Elena, his first love, he sent me to the black market where they stripped away my wolf. Without my wolf, I died in a rogue attack shortly after.

This lifetime, when he furrows his brow and tells me to get out of his sight, I don't shed a single tear. I just turn and leave.

He says my existence makes Elena unhappy, so I move to the border cottage.

He says he doesn't want to live in the same Pack with me, so I submit my transfer application.

I thrive in the neighboring Pack and meet a powerful wolf with a hidden identity.

When we appear hand-in-hand at the Northern Alliance Summit, Alpha Asher loses control.

He catches my scent,another male's mark on my skin,and his sanity shatters.

He blocks my path, a low growl rumbling from his chest.

"Wash that male's scent off you, Rhea."

"Weren't you disgusted by me?" I smile and step back.

"Now I belong to someone else, and suddenly I smell good to you?"

...

Staring at the bold sign outside Moonstone Pack's banquet hall, my wolf Lucy releases a long, relieved exhale.

Right now, my own Mate publicly groups me with homeless Rogue wolves.

Pack members around me throw mocking or pitying glances my way, but none of them know how fucking happy I am,because I've been reborn.

I'm back on the day of my fated Mate Alpha Asher's coronation ceremony.

In everyone's eyes, I'm that ungrateful, clingy Omega orphan.

Whether it's bloodline or status, Alpha Asher and I exist in completely different worlds.

He's the heir to a powerful Alpha bloodline. I'm an orphan the former Alpha couple adopted,no background, no one.

Just because we sensed the Mate Bond when I turned eighteen, I thought that meant forever.

Everyone pitied Alpha Asher, thought the Moon Goddess played a cruel joke on him.

He thought so too.

So on his coronation day, he put up that sign,locked me out while I stood there in my best dress, hoping to stand beside him.

"Rhea, this isn't us being difficult. This is Alpha Asher's order."

"You know what today is. Elena's inside. You going in only makes everyone uncomfortable."

Alpha Asher's most loyal Gamma stands at the entrance, his face cold as he delivers the message.

On either side, guards strengthened by Alpha Asher's dominant aura form a defensive line.

All this,this entire fortress of protection,erected to keep out me and an Omega with zero attack power.

Everyone knows Alpha Asher's hatred for me runs bone-deep. So deep he claims I carry the stench of Wolfsbane.

Last lifetime, I didn't enter the banquet either.

Like an abandoned rabbit, I waited outside from daylight to darkness, desperate for even a scrap of warmth from my Mate.

Later, I collapsed from fever in the freezing wind, nearly triggered my wolf's collapse.

When the former Alpha couple found out, they scolded Alpha Asher and tried to force our bonding ceremony.

The day before the ceremony, Alpha Asher's first love Elena suddenly "got poisoned" and collapsed.

In Alpha Asher's eyes and his inner circle's judgment, I was the one who poisoned her. Because I always carried that scent he found revolting.

Alpha Asher wanted revenge for his beloved Elena.

He used his Alpha command to suppress me, severed my connection with anyone in the Pack, locked me in a basement filled with silver dust.

I begged him countless times to break the Mate Bond and let me go. Every time, he refused.

Alpha Asher snarled that if the Moon Goddess cursed him with me, then I had to endure it.

That pain,being rejected by your Mate while silver poison ravaged your body,I lived through it for five whole years.

In the end, my sanity shattered. My wolf Lucy chose self-destruction to protect me, and I followed her into death.

The laughable part? In my final moment, as my wolf dissolved into nothing, I saw Elena.

She was not suffering from poison's aftermath, but glowing with health as the Pack's new Luna.

She was never poisoned. It was all some witch herb she used to frame me.

Her love story with Alpha Asher got celebrated as true love that broke fate's chains.

From beginning to end, I was just the villain blocking their romance.

This time around?

I'm going to live well. I'm going to get far away from Alpha Asher. I'm going to take my wolf Lucy and find real freedom.

I turn and leave under countless shocked stares. No hesitation. No regret.

Coming back to life, the first thing I wanted to do was sever the Mate Bond between me and Alpha Asher at that high-profile coronation ceremony.

But I can't enter the banquet. I'll have to find another opportunity.

Back at the Pack house, I strip off the blue dress I specifically chose to match Alpha Asher's eye color.

I'm Alpha Asher's pathetic follower,everyone in Moonstone Pack knows this.

Anything involving Alpha Asher, I'm always the first to notice, the first to give without asking for anything back.

I'd arrange every tiny detail for him, just hoping he'd look at me once.

Alpha Asher complained more than once about how exhausting managing the Pack was, how he wanted to relax in the northern mountains.

So I matched his schedule, secretly arranged all the supplies and routes for the northern mountain trip.

Because he said the moonlight there was purest, perfect for wolves to run.

But last lifetime, Alpha Asher never actually went to the mountains with me.

He chose to vacation on a southern island with Elena instead.

I got ordered to stay behind and organize old Pack archives.

That night, Rogues attacked the Pack. I got clawed protecting the archive room, and the wound got infected with silver poison.

I spent two months in the medical ward. When he came back, he just complained that I reeked of medicine.

That feeling,life plunging into hell while your Mate finds you disgusting,I never want to experience it again.

Getting away from Alpha Asher is step one.

I pack quickly, taking only my documents and a few clothes, preparing to head downstairs.

Alpha Asher charges in, black formal wear still on, reeking of alcohol.

Seeing me with my suitcase, he laughs coldly. Using his Alpha speed, he lunges forward, rips my luggage from my hands, and hurls it against the wall.

The crash echoes. The suitcase splits open. Clothes scatter everywhere.

I frown. "Asher, what are you doing?"

"Rhea, I should be asking you what you're doing!

"How old are you, running away from home?

"What's next? You gonna starve yourself? Hurt your wolf to threaten me again?"

Alpha Asher's breathing hard, golden eyes full of disgust as he accuses me.

"Rhea, you're not a pup anymore. Stop thinking you can threaten me into accepting you by leaving the Pack!"

I stare at my luggage on the floor. The last ripple in my heart goes still.

"Who told you I'm threatening you?"

People like him and Elena—one fake, one cruel—live just fine.

I finally get a second chance at life. Why waste emotions on them?

Alpha Asher sneers. Doesn't speak. His eyes full of contempt, like he's convinced I can't leave him.

Elena, who’s followed him in, wears a white dress, looking like an innocent little flower.

"Rhea, if you wanted to attend the coronation, you could've talked to Asher nicely. You two have a Mate Bond,he wouldn't really keep you out."

"Running away from home like this, once is okay. Twice is just being dramatic."

Elena's words drip with implication, mocking the stupid things I did before to get his attention.

Alpha Asher's gaze grows more disgusted. There's even a trace of killing intent.

My memories churn.

I suddenly remember something.

After Alpha Asher got together with Elena, he changed toward me completely.

Like I was some kind of filth.

In my anger, I once prayed to the Moon Goddess, begged Her to sever this agonizing Bond.

Elena twisted this into me cursing them.

After that, Alpha Asher hated me, ignored me, refused to communicate through Mind-link.

Elena's clique isolated me, bullied me during training, and he turned a blind eye to all of it.

I meet Alpha Asher's eyes, my voice steady. "You're overthinking. I'm not threatening you. I'm packing because I'm moving to the border cottage and applying to leave the Pack."

Alpha Asher scoffs, like I'm making up clumsy excuses to save face.

Elena tugs on Alpha Asher's sleeve, voice sickeningly sweet.

"Asher, why not let Rhea stay? She's just an Omega,the border's too dangerous. What if she runs into Rogues?"

Asher's brow furrows, like he's weighing pros and cons. After all, his parents,the former Alpha couple,still care whether I live or die.

I refuse again. "No need. I've already filled out the application."

Asher's handsome face shifts. He scoffs. "Hear that? She wants to go to the border and get herself killed!"

"Rhea, stop being ridiculous. Your wolf's so weak, you won't survive three days out there."

Elena sighs, steps forward, and loops her arm through mine with fake intimacy.

Sharp nails dig into my flesh where Asher can't see,deliberate wolf claws.

My wolf Lucy snarls in fury. Pain shoots through me. I shove Elena away.

She staggers backward, collapses on the floor, looks at me with wounded eyes.

"Rhea, you... I was just trying to care about you..."

"Rhea, you're asking for death!"

Alpha Asher's reaction is violent. His wolf aura explodes. He shoves me with even greater force.

My head slams into the stair railing. Pain explodes, vision swimming.

I hear Asher's furious shout,that distinctive Alpha roar.

"Rhea, you're addicted to bullying people?!"

"Being around a vicious Omega like you makes the whole Pack house reek. You disgust me!"

I hold the wall, stand slowly, try to stop his increasingly vicious words.

"I'll move out. Right now. Don't worry."

"You better mean it."

Alpha Asher's anger lodges in his throat, like he didn't expect me to agree so readily.

He glares at me, then scoops Elena up and walks away, cradling her like some priceless treasure.

I touch the sticky warmth at the back of my head. It's blood,red, fresh blood. Not Wolfsbane juice.

Back when things between Alpha Asher and me weren't this bad, when we learned we were fated Mates, when we knew we'd bond eventually,I always clung to him.

He was rebellious. Snuck into bars to drink. I followed.

Later, he got into a territorial dispute with wolves from a rival Pack.

I tried to break up the fight. Got hurt by accident. Cut my finger.

In that instant, Alpha Asher turned into a vicious beast.

Beat a guy twice his size until he begged for mercy,all because someone made me bleed.

But the man who once panicked over a paper cut on my finger now hurts me for someone else. Calls me worthless. Tells me to die.

Doesn't matter anymore.

When the former Alpha couple returns and my transfer application gets approved, I can finally end this mistake of a Mate Bond.

I glance at the Omega servant nearby, force my lips into something resembling a smile.

"Can you call the Pack doctor for me? I can pay you."

The new young maid moves forward, but an older servant yanks her back.

Their hushed conversation, despite their efforts to whisper, reaches my wolf ears crystal clear.

"Are you insane?!"

"Don't you know Alpha Asher hates this woman?"

"If he sees you helping her, you'll lose your job and get exiled from the Pack!"

The young maid freezes, glances at me once more, then lowers her head and runs.

I shake my head, bitter smile on my lips. I crawl to the corner, pick up my shattered phone.

The former Alpha couple travels year-round, searching for ways to strengthen the Pack.

They're home maybe three or four days a month.

Alpha Asher's the only master here. He's said it more than once.

I'm not true Moonstone blood. My problems are my own.

So no one dares come near me.

Every time I come home, leftovers get dumped and tied up in the trash, even if I haven't eaten yet.

The plates on the table sit empty. Not even a mouthful of hot soup.

But I'm used to it.

I drag myself to the Pack's healing center.

The Pack doctor examines my wound, shakes his head. Says I have a head injury—not severe, but I need to stay for observation for two days. He applies herbal dressing.

After discharge, I return to the Pack house to gather my things. This time, no one stops me.

The servants watch coldly as I struggle alone, like I'm invisible.

That afternoon, I pack everything, load it onto a secondhand pickup truck.

I bought it with years of saved pocket money.

I'm going to the border. It's near Rogue territory, but it's freedom.

Three days after leaving the Pack house, Alpha Asher calls. His voice sounds drunk, background noise chaotic.

"Where are you?"

"Moonlight Bar. Top floor VIP room. Come pick me up."

I'm busy repairing the border cottage roof. The interruption breaks my focus. Irritation flares.

"Alpha Asher, what do you want?"

Silence on the other end. Like he didn't expect me to use his full name.

Even the playful noise around him quiets down.

I say hello again. No answer. I'm about to hang up.

Alpha Asher speaks suddenly, voice tinged with anger.

"Rhea, where are you?"

I set down the hammer, wipe sweat from my forehead, answer casually.

"Didn't you say living under the same roof with me made even the air disgusting? So I moved out."

"Don't worry. I won't come back. I already submitted the application to the Pack transfer administration center."

The man's breathing grows heavier. He laughs coldly.

"Rhea, since when are you so obedient?"

"Wasn't it you who used to cling desperately?"

"Since you're so fucking obedient, I told you to get out of my sight. Can you actually disappear for good?!"

"Rhea, I don't care what game you're playing. If you keep doing inappropriate things to Elena, I won't let you off!"

The wind on the roof is strong. It makes me cold. I stare at the distant forest.

After a moment, I realize how absurd Alpha Asher's words are.

His mocking voice continues.

"What, nothing to say?"

"Playing these little tricks every day,aren't you bored?"

"Apologize to Elena. Then I'll allow you to come back and sleep in the servant's quarters."

I speak slowly, voice so calm even my wolf Lucy seems surprised.

"Fine. I promise, Alpha Asher. I'll leave completely."

I hang up before he can respond. Turn off my phone.