Chapter 1

To test Ethan Vance’s ability to resist temptation, Chloe Bennet had drugged him with an aphrodisiac and then shoved me into his room.

“Willow…” Ethan was panting heavily as he looked at me through hazy, golden eyes.

I knew that he had always loved Chloe. However, since they were not yet mated, his wolf could not bear to touch her recklessly.

To survive the potion's heat, he would pick the lesser evil; he would sacrifice me.

In the previous timeline, I could not control the feelings I had held for my childhood Alpha friend since I was young. Thus, I spent the night with him to soothe his raging wolf.

The next morning, Chloe spotted the bite marks and scent-marks on my neck. She threw a massive tantrum, threatening to reject her wolf and join a rogue pack.

After we stopped her, she ran off in a fit of pique and married the cruel Alpha of a rival pack in the Bloodmoon pack. Soon after that, she died under mysterious circumstances, becoming that brutal Alpha’s fourth dead Luna.

After I got pregnant, Ethan was forced by the Pack Elders to mate with me out of responsibility. However, he treated me and our daughter as though we were strangers.

I knew that he resented me for letting Chloe discover what happened between us that night.

If Chloe had remained clueless about us, she would never have left for the Bloodmoon Pack.

At that point, I snapped back from my thoughts. I brought Ethan the suppression herbs and a bucket of ice water. After forcing the herbs down his throat, I applied a cold compress to his chest.

After all, in the previous timeline, he had sacrificed his life to protect me during the Rogue attack. I had to repay that debt.

“Where’s Chloe?”

The herbs and ice water helped his wolf regain some sanity.

He no longer growled my name while panting. Instead, his first instinct was to ask about Chloe.

“Don’t worry. The pack driver has driven her back to the pack.”

“Good. About tonight…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone in the pack what happened. Besides, we didn’t mate, right?”

Ethan stared at me in surprise because I was acting completely different.

From the time I was a pup, I loved chasing after him and calling his name. I was his most loyal admirer.

Eighteen years had passed in a flash, though, and we had both grown into adult wolves.

Still, I had never once hidden the love I felt for him.

The self-control and distant coldness I showed now were clearly outside his expectations.

Since I was no longer as eager and proactive as before, he huffed in annoyance and turned away.

I left the room and contacted Ethan’s Delta to come and take care of his Alpha.

Back at the Pack House, Chloe was picking through the newest fur coats and silk dresses of the season.

When I walked in, she smirked. “Didn’t Ethan ask you to stay and be his release, Sis?”

“Don’t call me that,” I said icily.

As if she had expected my hostile response, Chloe stepped closer and leaned into my ear.

She whispered in a low tone, “I’m only calling you that because I pity you. So what if you’re the Alpha’s oldest daughter? Your mother’s dead, and Father doesn’t love you. My mother and I are the true Luna and Alpha female of this pack now.

“And let’s not forget Ethan. You really want to be his Luna, don’t you? You were practically thrown into his bed tonight. But you weren’t even worthy enough for his wolf to touch. You can never beat me.”

I smiled faintly at Chloe’s arrogance.

“I’m not interested in beating you at anything. Everything you have in this pack, you took from me.”

Footsteps sounded at the entrance. Father was home.

The vicious expression on Chloe’s face instantly vanished. She slapped herself hard on the cheek and collapsed onto the floor, whimpering like an injured wolf pup.

Father walked in on the scene. Instantly, his wolf instincts flared, assuming I had been attacking Chloe.

“Willow, how long will you keep acting so petulantly? All these years, you’ve never given this pack a single day of peace!”

“Peace? Ever since she and her mother invaded this Pack House and drove my mother to her death, this pack was never destined for peace!”

Father ignored my tears and gently lifted Chloe from the floor.

“I’ll fulfill the alliance marriage with that cruel Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack.” I handed the pack treaty to my father. “I’ve already signed my name on the parchment. You don’t have to scheme anymore to get me to go.”

Father looked at me in shock, unable to hide the relief in his eyes.

The Bloodmoon Pack was extremely powerful, so Father did not dare break the alliance agreement. However, he was unwilling to send his precious younger daughter to an Alpha whose past three Lunas had all died.

The glare Chloe shot me became even more jealous and spiteful.

She had always been this way. She craved wealth and status, but she was too terrified to take any real risks.

She whimpered pitiably, “Father, Willow doesn’t really want to marry him and go all the way to the Bloodmoon Pack. I saw her drugging Ethan with an aphrodisiac with my own eyes last night. She locked herself in his room all night…”

I opened my mouth to refute her, but Father raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face.

“Nothing happened between Ethan and me.”

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re scheming, Willow. This alliance marriage is a done deal. Stop trying to use Ethan to escape it. Besides, Ethan’s wolf has never accepted you.”

Chloe shot me a triumphant sneer.

“Since you’re so shameless, you must be disciplined according to pack law. You know the rules.”

I took the signed treaty and walked out. I knelt on the bitter, frozen floor of the pack's ice chamber for the entire day.

According to pack rules, if an unmated wolf refused to admit their fault, they had to kneel in the freezing ice pool for a full day. If they confessed, the punishment lasted only two hours.

My legs had gone completely numb, and my body trembled with frostbite. Just then, Ethan arrived in a rush. He glared at me furiously before striding inside to see my father.

When he came back out, the urgency in his face had faded, replaced by cold detachment. He walked over to my side.

“Willow, I know our mothers made a betrothal agreement between our families when we were pups. But I can’t marry you right now. I can’t let Chloe be sent away to the Bloodmoon Pack.”

I sneered internally. He still had no idea that I was the one going to the Bloodmoon Pack to fulfill that deadly alliance.

“If she doesn’t go, then I have to.”