When I turned eighteen, everything shifted. My father, consumed by ambition for power and territory, began to disregard my mother, who had once been just an ordinary she-wolf before becoming Luna. He sought out the daughter of a powerful Alpha from another pack, lured by the promise of dominance and prestige. Without hesitation, he cast my mother aside, rejecting her as his mate, and instead bonded with this other woman, ultimately claiming the position of Alpha in the Phantom Moon Pack.
That was the kind of man he was—selfish beyond measure.
Without looking back, he abandoned us. "You and Adeline should come with me," he had said, his voice void of affection or concern. "There’s nothing for you here."
But I couldn’t leave my mother behind. "I’m staying with Mom," I had responded with unwavering resolve. "She needs me."
Adeline, however, was different. She craved the status, the influence, the life that came with our father’s new rank. Without hesitation, she chose to follow him, leaving me and our mother behind without so much as a second thought.
I watched her leave that day, standing at the very edge of our pack’s borders. "Adeline," I had called out, my voice raw with desperation. "Don’t go."
She had turned back only once, her gaze distant and devoid of warmth. "This is our opportunity, Anastasia," she had said, her tone eerily detached. "I’m not wasting it."
In the years that followed, I became the target of Ronan’s resentment. He blamed me for everything—for keeping him from following Adeline, for trapping him in the Obsidian Howl Pack, for holding him back from the future he thought he deserved. And when I became his mate, his hatred for me only deepened.
As a child, I had always admired Ronan, trailing after him like his shadow. I adored him. He was my world. So when I turned eighteen and discovered that he was my mate, I was overjoyed. I thought it was fate—that we were meant to be together.
But Ronan didn’t see it that way. The moment I told him we were mates, his reaction crushed me.
"No," he had said, his voice cold and final. "This isn’t right. I was supposed to be with Adeline."
His words shattered me. "Ronan, please," I had begged, tears streaking down my face. "We’re fated to be together. You can’t just leave me."
But he had been ready to walk away, prepared to abandon me, to follow Adeline and pledge himself to the Phantom Moon Pack.