Chapter 10

Ashton's condition was critical, his moments of lucidity growing increasingly rare.

Marcus, fearing his son wouldn't survive the delay, forcibly pressed Ashton's unconscious hand against the bond-severing crystal.

At that moment, I felt the connection that had been lingering tenuously finally snap.

I am free.

I took the nullified magical parchment that had recorded our mate bond and left without looking back.

Before leaving, I wrenched my baby's urn from Eleanor's trembling arms.

The previous generation's Moon-blessed she-wolf looked at me with profound grief etched across her face.

She probably never imagined in her entire life that her son would commit such a foolish, devastating act.

Her blessed bloodline ensured she wouldn't perish alongside the Silver family's curse.

But the taste of dying alone would be no less bitter.

For failing to raise Ashton properly, they all bore responsibility.

"If you want Ashton to live, you'll need to replace every drop of blood in his body through complete transfusions."

I clutched the urn and left, traveling deep into the northern forests until I found a place of stunning natural beauty where wild roses bloomed year-round. There, I buried my baby.

"I'm sorry. Mommy failed to protect you."

"If there's a next life, could you give mommy one more chance?"

I settled near the burial site at a sanctuary for abandoned wolf pups—orphans whose parents had died in territorial wars or been executed for crimes.

Here, I treated every parentless pup as if they were my own precious child.

I taught them to shift, to hunt, to survive. I healed their wounds and nightmares.

The days passed peacefully enough.

The next time I heard news of the Silver family, it came through the Continental Wolf Council's official broadcasts.

The Silver-Moon Pack had been completely decimated in just a few months. Their territories seized, their wealth dissolved, their bloodline nearly extinct.

Marcus aged decades seemingly overnight.

Fearing he would drag Eleanor down with him into the curse's final destruction, he followed my example and severed their mate bond.

Shouldering hundreds of millions in tribute debts alone, he climbed to the Sacred Cliff where Alphas had been crowned for generations, and threw himself off the edge.

After three complete blood transfusions, Ashton gradually regained consciousness.

But his mind had shattered.

After waking, he would laugh and cry simultaneously, constantly screaming that he could hear a baby crying—that our pup was calling for him.

Eleanor, lacking the strength to care for her broken son any longer, committed him to the Pack's dungeon for the insane—a place where dangerous, mad wolves were kept in silver-lined cells. Then she fled across the ocean to distant lands, abandoning this place of endless sorrow.

During his rare moments of lucidity between episodes of madness, Ashton managed to escape the dungeon.

The guards, exhausted from his violent outbursts, didn't bother pursuing a wolf they considered already dead.

I never expected Ashton would be able to track me down.

He had become a rogue—a wolf without pack or territory, surviving on scraps and sleeping in mud. He lurked around the sanctuary's borders for days, too broken to approach.

The moment he finally saw me, Ashton shifted back to human form and crawled forward on his knees, collapsing at my feet.

"Lainey! I've missed you so much!"

"Now that I've become this pathetic creature, are you finally happy?"

I stared down at him with complete indifference. "Ashton Silver, whatever you've become has nothing to do with me."

"In my eyes, you're worth less than the mangy dogs that scavenge near the sanctuary."

Ashton flinched as if I'd struck him, lowering his head. After a long silence, he finally gathered the courage to ask:

"Lainey... could I visit Leo's grave?"

"I want to apologize to him."

"I keep seeing him in visions. Sometimes he's newborn, the way he was when... when he died. Other times he's grown—he calls me daddy and reaches for me with tiny hands..."

I cut him off sharply. "Enough!"

"Ashton Silver, what right do you have to even speak his name!"

"I will never tell you where our baby rests. You don't deserve to see him!"

"A creature like you would only pollute his path to the Moon Goddess's realm for rebirth!"

I called the sanctuary's patrol wolves to drive Ashton away.

Ashton never appeared again.

Weeks later, while I was teaching the young pups their first hunting techniques, two of my colleagues walked over and showed me a magic newspaper.

"Lainey, look at this! How horrifying!"

"They found a rogue's body in a ravine filled with stagnant water and mud. By the time they discovered him, decomposition had already set in!"

I glanced at the screen. Ashton's face was still relatively intact in the newspaper.

I felt nothing and looked away.

My coworkers continued chatting casually. "Every wolf meets their destined end. To die like that—maybe he committed some unforgivable sin in life. Perhaps it was divine justice."

I smiled faintly.

A newly rescued pup in my arms was blinking up at me, his eyes gleaming with innocent joy.

The purity and clarity in a young wolf's gaze held the power to heal all wounds.

The Silver family's expectations had controlled my entire first life. In the end, even they couldn't escape the curse they'd brought upon themselves.

At least it was finally over.

I needed to release the past and move forward.

After suffering comes rebirth. After darkness, the Moon Goddess always brings new light.

——The End——