chapter 2

The cover of the "Mate Journal" was worn, the texture of old hide still visible. Every page was filled with Dorian's handwriting.

His script carried the sharp, commanding edge of an Alpha, each stroke saturated with love for Rowena.

There wasn't a single blank page.

He even recorded every word of his conversations with Rowena during their relationship, including her favorite things, the places they went, their first hand-holding, their first kiss, and their first embrace.

The entire journal brimmed with the kind of passionate love Dorian had never once shown her.

After hours of reading, Simona had only one thought. Dorian and Rowena were the ones who were truly fated. If they didn't end up together, that would be the real defiance against the Moon Goddess.

Now she had proof of what she always suspected.

Rowena had never been the "sister who needed care" Dorian claimed she was in the pack. She was his first love, buried deep in his heart, the one he could never forget.

Simona's 10 years with Dorian hadn't been born of mutual devotion. They existed only because she was obsessed with the fated bond, every moment earned by her forcing herself closer to him.

She had first met him at a cross-pack gathering after high school graduation.

He was the heir of the Ironclaw Pack, and he subdued a rampaging rogue wolf with his bare hands, his blood-stained face striking and fierce.

The girls from Frostmoon Pack teased her. "He's heir to the strongest pack in the south, the future Alpha of Ironclaw Pack. He stands at the top of our kind and would never give a second glance to someone from our small Frostmoon Pack!"

But she truly liked him—whether it was Dorian's striking face, his cool and distant lips, or the way he spoke so sparingly.

Every part of him felt as if he had been crafted to match her desires.

Every step closer to him made her pulse race.

She wished desperately that Dorian would be her fated mate. Then she could stand proudly at his side.

That was why she couldn't control herself and pursued him relentlessly.

To see him more often, she even moved to the south and enrolled in the same college as Dorian.

Perhaps the Moon Goddess heard her prayers. On her coming-of-age day, she caught the intoxicating scent of cedar from him, a scent that stirred her wolf to frenzy.

When she lifted her gaze, he was already looking back at her. His eyes held shock, and something deeper.

Her wolf, Emma, howled in her mind. "Mate! He's our fated mate!"

Joy surged through her. Her wish had come true—Dorian really was her fated mate.

Across the crowd, their eyes locked, and the rest of the world faded away until there was only the two of them.

That night, Dorian drank heavily, and Simona stayed at his side the entire time.

When the friends celebrating her birthday finally left, he turned to her, his breath thick with alcohol. "You… like me?"

Without hesitation, she nodded. "Not like. Love. You can feel it too—we're fated mates."

"Yes. We are fated mates."

He smiled, then pressed her against the wall and kissed her.

But now, with the "Mate Journal" in her hands, Simona saw the truth. That day had also been the day Rowena broke up with Dorian and left Ironclaw Pack's territory.

On that page, Dorian had written. My heart is torn. I have lost my love forever!

After college, Simona never returned to Frostmoon Pack. She stayed by Dorian's side, helping with Ironclaw Pack's endless tasks—logging patrol reports, tallying healing herbs, even simmering pots of moonleaf stew to ease his fatigue.

She counted the days, waiting for him to ask for their bonding.

But instead of a proposal, Rowena's name reappeared in their lives through a missing-person broadcast.

That day was her birthday.

The restaurant's waiter had just brought out her birthday cake, and inside the cake she had hidden a pair of wolf-bone rings.

Her wish was simple—to set a bonding date with Dorian. The rings were her secret surprise.

But just as everything was ready and she leaned forward to make her wish, Simona noticed Dorian staring blankly at the pack's communication screen.

The screen was showing a missing-person message on the "Pack Assistance Channel."

Rowena sat in a wheelchair, her body frail and trembling, tears streaking down her face. "I… I'm looking for Dorian of Ironclaw Pack. He was my protector when I was a child. Now I've been poisoned by Aconite, and I have only three months left. My only wish is to see him once before I die."

Even Simona felt a pang of pity at Rowena's fragile, broken plea.

But doubt twisted inside her. If Rowena truly wanted to reach him, she could have contacted Ironclaw Pack directly. Why did she have to broadcast it through the "Pack Assistance Channel"?

Just as Simona was about to speak, Dorian suddenly shot up from his chair. His pheromones spiraled out of control, and without a word, he rushed off.

He left her sitting in the restaurant. He didn't answer her calls, didn't reply to her messages.

Simona waited until the restaurant closed for the night, then carried her cake home alone. The pair of wolf-bone rings she had hidden inside now sat in her pocket, pressing hard against her palm until it ached.

Dorian never came home that night. By morning, he returned with Rowena and settled her into Ironclaw Pack territory. He gave her a sunlit cabin fitted with moonstone window frames to ease Aconite in her veins.

From then on, he expected Simona to tolerate Rowena—the packmate he claimed had little time left—and to indulge her every request.

"Rowena had a nightmare. She dreamed she died suddenly. I need to check on her."

"Sorry, Simona, I promised to take Rowena to see the healer today. I can't take you to the pack market."

"Simona, she only wanted to see the ocean. Why would you be so harsh and accuse her of having ulterior motives?"

"Rowena's last wish is to experience a bonding ceremony, to wear the Luna's silver-and-white gown. I'm the only one who can give her that dream."

The list of favors Dorian gave Rowena seemed endless.

At first, Simona was just angry at his lack of boundaries. She resented how his concern for an "old acquaintance" had turned into neglect of her.

Every time, he would look helpless, reaching for her with calming pheromones. "Simona, Rowena is being torn apart by Aconite. What could happen between us?

"I'm only sympathizing with her. You're my fated mate. You know I love you."

But Simona's instincts screamed that it wasn't only sympathy.

It wasn't until today, when she opened Dorian's "Mate Journal", that the last of her self-deceptive hope finally broke apart.

She made up her mind to return to Frostmoon Pack and accept Noah's proposal to bond.

This man, this mate bond she had clung to for 10 years—she no longer wanted it.