Chapter4

I spent my first month in the Ashland Tribe.

Those thirty days felt like a long, warm dream, slowly healing my shattered soul.

Ever since that night when Kyle whispered at the cliff's edge, telling me "you're the one it waited six years for," he'd been guarding me with an almost devout restraint.

He gave me the warmest room in the Alpha's quarters, shared half his study with me.

When he reviewed documents, I'd curl up on the nearby sofa reading.

He never forced me to speak, just traced my outline with his gaze over and over, as if wanting to embed me in his eyes.

This restraint was especially evident during treatment.

After examining my body, Old Andrew, the tribe's eldest healer, had privately roared at Kyle, calling the Silver Moon Tribe people animals.

My vocal cords had been corroded by strong acid, my right hand's finger bones cruelly severed and wrongly reset.

More terrifying still, they'd discovered a cold, dark power inside me—a seal Ryan had placed to prevent my awakening.

"Can it be undone?" Kyle's voice was hoarse, fingers gripping the table edge so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Yes, but it will be very painful." Old Andrew's expression was grave. "And once we start breaking the seal, her wolf nature might lose control."

"No matter how painful, treat it." Kyle said decisively. "Use the best medicine. I just need her well."

In the days that followed, I began treatment. Kyle always kept watch by the bed, watching the healer clean my throat scars with specially prepared herbs, watching me tremble from the pain.

Whenever this happened, a trace of violent crimson would flash through Kyle's eyes. He'd suddenly stand, turn his back to the bed, and slam his fist into the wall with dull thuds.

But he never showed the slightest impatience in front of me.

He'd only dare to gently hold my mutilated fingers after I'd passed out from pain, murmuring softly:

"Bear with it a little longer, Ella, a little longer..."

I could feel changes inside me. As the seal was peeled away bit by bit, an unfamiliar yet powerful force awakened in my blood.

At first just my fingertips grew slightly warm. Later, I could hear wolf packs howling outside the window in the dead of night. That sound no longer frightened me—instead it made me feel a blood-connected tremor.

I vaguely sensed my wolf was there, urgently wanting to break free.

Everything was peaceful as a dream.

Until one full moon night.

Silver-white moonlight like flowing mercury covered the back mountain's clifftop.

Using the excuse of being bored with reading, I came here alone to walk.

The night breeze was cool, stirring my thin clothing, yet couldn't calm the sudden heat surging inside me.

That heat rushed straight to my chest, carrying a tearing pain more violent than any previous treatment.

"Ngh..."

I moaned in pain, knees going weak, heavily collapsing onto the grass.

Three years. That wolf forcibly sealed inside me by drugs and fear completely awakened in this moment.

This wasn't a gentle awakening—it was a beast breaking free from its cage.

A dark red power uncontrollably spilled from my palms. The surrounding vegetation, as if sensing a top predator's pressure, moved without wind, swaying wildly.

At the same moment, three hundred miles away in the Silver Moon Tribe, the council hall was brightly lit.

Ryan was holding forth about next month's hunting plans when his wine glass fell without warning, shattering on the floor.

He shot to his feet, hands clutching his chest, face instantly deathly pale, cold sweat rolling in large drops down his temples.

"Chief?" The deputy rushed over in panic. "What's wrong?"

Ryan didn't answer.

As the one who'd cast it, the backlash pain from that power nearly suffocated him.

He knew what this was.

The seal had cracked.

She was still alive.

Her power had broken free from its shackles.