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00:00At the Celebration Moon Banquet, someone asked my alpha husband a question.
00:04Kale, how can you still in the mood to drink? Shouldn't you be at a funeral today?
00:08Kyle Blackhead looked completely lost.
00:10Whose funeral?
00:11The vault nobles in the hall fell dead silent.
00:14You're Luna's adoptive mother, Maeve Vale. She died five days ago.
00:17She was buried today at Silver Lake. You did not know?
00:20The silver cup slipped from Kale's hand and smashed on the floor.
00:24Moonberry wine splashed across his black formal coat like blood that had arrived too late.
00:28He did not know. Of course he did not know.
00:30Five days earlier, I had knelt in the corridor of Moonwell Infirmary, pleading repeatedly for Moonwell Serum.
00:37Rain ran from my hair into my collar. My moon robe clung coldly to my shoulders.
00:41Maeve was burning with moonrot fever. She was not a pure-blood wolf of Ironpoint Cat.
00:45Only the human woman who had taken me in, raised me, and turned a mud-covered street girl into a
00:51Luna who could stand beside an alpha.
00:52The healer said a timely injection could still save her. So I requested 50,000 moon silver from the Luna
00:59treasury.
00:59Sienna Frost sent the request back with a gentle, polished smile.
01:02Mira Moonwell is not a charity house for outsiders.
01:05You can't just use pack resources to subsidize a bloodless woman.
01:09Simply because you became Luna.
01:14I told Sienna it was life-saving money.
01:17She asked me to resubmit proof of kinship, a treatment plan, council authorization, and the alpha's written approval.
01:27So I called Kale.
01:29He did not answer.
01:31I called a second time, then a third.
01:36It wasn't until the 11th call that he finally cut the connection.
01:41Only later did I learn that he was comforting Sienna.
01:44That morning, I had rushed into Pack Hall to question the approval process, bringing her to tears in front of
01:51everyone.
01:52She only said one thing to Kale.
01:55Alpha?
01:57Mira may still not be used to being Luna.
01:59She lacks discipline.
02:01I only want to help her learn the rules.
02:05Then she took a moonstone pendant from her drawer and hung it against the inside of his wrist.
02:13My grandmother left me this calm stone.
02:17It filters out intense emotional fluctuations.
02:20Alpha, you've been under a lot of border pressure lately.
02:25You shouldn't be bothered by the Luna's domestic trivialities.
02:29Kale did not refuse.
02:32From that day on, the pendant hung on the chain of his communication stone, silently severing every sharp pain that
02:41should have reached him through the mate bond.
02:48So when I knelt in the rain, when my chest felt as if it were tearing apart, all he sensed
02:54was a distant, dull noise he could ignore.
02:57When the call finally connected again, he interrupted me coldly.
03:03Listen to Sianna.
03:05She understands Pac rules better than you.
03:08Kale, please hear me out.
03:10Maeve can't hold on.
03:12Do not use your adoptive mother to guilt drip me.
03:15You always have a new excuse when asking for money.
03:18The connection died.
03:19The rain was deafening.
03:26I stared at the closed gates of Moonwell Infirmary and suddenly felt that my five years as Luna felt like
03:32a prolonged fever dream.
03:34Outsiders believed I was Iron Peak's Luna.
03:36Protected by the Alpha's mark, the Black Pine Palace and the respect of an entire pack.
03:41In truth, I had to ask Sianna for approval before I could wear a decent dress.
03:45When I married into Iron Peak, the council issued a Luna resource allocation charter.
03:51It said a Luna from outside the pack needed a steward appointed by the Alpha to review all resources during
03:57her adaptation period.
03:59Kale acquainted Sianna.
04:01The adaptation period was five years.
04:03My mother did not survive to the end of it.
04:06Every banquet, diplomatic meeting, and pack council required me to fill out a Luna supply form.
04:11Sianna always held the approval until the last moment.
04:15Mira, your reason is not sufficient.
04:18This cloak is too expensive.
04:20You are only accompanying the Alpha.
04:23Do not steal the spotlight.
04:25A moon carriage until 11?
04:27A Luna should know restraint.
04:29When I arrived late, Kale would frown.
04:32Mira, do you have no sense of time?
04:34Look at Sianna.
04:35She always knows how to keep everything orderly.
04:38Yes.
04:38Of course she did.
04:39She locked me piece by piece into procedures she had designed herself, then let Kale watch me look helpless.
04:47Until Maeve died in a hospital bed.
04:52Only then did I understand.
04:55This mate bond was never shelter.
04:58It was a cage.
05:03That day, the rain gradually faded.
05:06I stood beside my mother's cold hospital bed, and held the hand that had already gone still.
05:12Her last words were not, I love you.
05:16They were, I'm sorry.
05:18She said she had failed to protect me, failed to see his true colors before I married him, failed to
05:23carry me out of that palace one more time.
05:25She did not know that she had already saved me, not because she had lived three more days in the
05:30infirmary, but because she had shown me the truth.
05:32The place I thought was home had never treated me as family.
05:35I pressed my face into her palm and wept silently for a very long time.
05:40Then I wiped my eyes and asked Kale for severance.
05:46He replied with only three words.
05:49Stop being ridiculous.
05:51At that moment I remembered the first rainy night after I married him.
05:55He had wrapped a cloak around me with his own hands, led me through the black pine path and told
05:59me Iron Peak would be my home.
06:01He said the alpha's mark would protect me.
06:03He said no one would ever make me lower my head again.
06:06I had believed him.
06:07So I learned pack etiquette, moon hall banquet rules, and the ancient family's convoluted titles and subtext.
06:13The first time Sienna smiled as she returned my dress application.
06:17I simply thought I wasn't familiar enough with the procedure.
06:21The second time, she made me wait three hours in a downpour just to get a temporary silver pass into
06:26pack hall.
06:28Even then, I told myself that as a newly appointed Luna, I really did need to tread more carefully.
06:35Then I discovered all those rules were strict only for me.
06:39The ladies of the beta families could take carriages and jewelry whenever they pleased.
06:44The council wives could summon Moonwell's private healers at will.
06:48Yet I, the Luna personally marked by the alpha, had to wait at Sienna's desk just to get an approval
06:55signature, for a bottle of painkillers for my adoptive mother.
06:59Sienna was not teaching me manners.
07:00She was showing Iron Peak that its Luna had no real power.
07:04Ironically Kale saw it.
07:06He simply thought that was best.
07:07Because a Luna trapped by procedures is the quietest, the most obedient, and the least likely to cause him any
07:13trouble.
07:17When he spoke to me in his study, his eyes never left the patrol map in his hands.
07:22Border rogue activity, winter hunting grounds, pack council resource allocation, and everything was more important than me's.
07:30I stood there with my rain-soaked skirt sticking to my calves.
07:34I mean it.
07:36I want to sever the mate bond.
07:38Kale finally set the map down and looked at me.
07:41His expression was not concerned.
07:43It was impatience.
07:45Your mother's treatment pause was temporarily held by Sienna, according to the charter.
07:50I have already had her treatment access restored.
07:53I already signed it yesterday.
07:55Mira, my patience is limited.
07:57Stop using this method to compete for attention.
08:00Restored the treatment permission.
08:02He said it so lightly, as if my mother could rise from her coffin and thank him for his late
08:07mercy.
08:08I looked at him and suddenly laughed.
08:13Kale, she is dead.
08:18His brows tightened.
08:19I know you are angry, but do not joke about death like that.
08:23I stopped explaining.
08:24I had explained too many times.
08:27I had told him Sienna locked my clothes, food, travel, and medical needs inside the Luna ledger.
08:34He said it was to help me learn pack etiquette.
08:37I had told him Sienna released approval at the last second so I would embarrass myself.
08:43He told me to reflect on why I was never prepared.
08:46I had told him Sienna was full of malice towards my adoptive mother.
08:50He said Sienna came from a beta family and wouldn't be as petty as I was.
08:55In his eyes, I was still the poor girl Maya had picked up from the streets.
09:00Even after becoming his fated mate, I was still someone who needed to be disciplined, molded, and reminded she did
09:06not deserve too much.
09:08And I was truly tired.
09:12After leaving the study, I saw at Sienna had posted a public update.
09:16She stood beside at Kale, wrapped in the silver-gray shawl that should have belonged to the Luna.
09:21The caption was short.
09:22Thank you for the Alpha's trust.
09:24Guarding Iron Rex order is my honor.
09:26I looked at the photo and calmly gave it a like.
09:29Minutes later, at Kale messaged me.
09:31Sienna only performed well at work.
09:33I rewarded her on behalf of the pack.
09:35Do not overthink it.
09:37Then another message arrived.
09:39Since you left a like, drop a comment.
09:41Do not let people think you are jealous.
09:44I had not planned to answer, but in that moment I felt sick.
09:47So I commented under Shanna's post.
09:49Indeed, very responsible.
09:51You held back the Luna's medical funds, dragged out the process until her adoptive mother died, and still made the
09:56procedure airtight.
09:57Iron Peak is blessed to have you.
09:59Please keep guarding the Luna treasury.
10:01Every moon silver coin you save today may become your own wealth tomorrow.
10:09After posting, I started packing.
10:12There was hardly anything to pack.
10:14In the Alpha and Luna's main residence, almost nothing truly belonged to me.
10:19An old raincoat.
10:21A research notebook.
10:23A copper ring may have had left me.
10:26That was all.
10:28I took one last look at this room I had lived in for five years.
10:33On the wall hung our bonding portrait.
10:35The girl in the silver-white gown still looked naive enough to believe in the future.
10:40That gown had later been locked away.
10:43Shanna said it was too grand, and would give a young Luna unnecessary vanity.
10:50She even confiscated the old blanket my mother gave me, saying such cheap items didn't belong in the main residence.
10:58That was the blanket Maeve had stayed up late knitting for me.
11:02I fought with At Sienna over it once.
11:05At Kyle only said one thing.
11:08She's just trying to maintain the image of the estate.
11:11After that, I never kept anything of my own in this room again.
11:15Because I finally understood that in this place, the real me wasn't allowed to exist.
11:21Only an empty shell of a Luna that fit their perfect image.
11:27I pulled a heavily folded piece of paper from the bottom drawer of the nightstand.
11:35Maeve had written it a week before she passed.
11:49She was already running a low fever by then, her hand trembling violently as she held the pen.
11:56I had smiled that day, folded the note, and told her she was worrying for nothing.
12:01I thought I could still protect her.
12:04I thought the title of Luna could buy at least a single vial of serum.
12:10I pressed the note to my chest, and sat in dead silence for a long, long time.
12:17Outside, the moonlight slanted down from the despires of the estate.
12:22Like a blade that was five days too late.
12:28Kale returned quickly.
12:30Whenever Sienna was involved, he was always on time.
12:33He strode into the bedroom with a dark expression.
12:37Mira.
12:38Since when did you become such a bitter woman?
12:41I zipped my bag.
12:43When you made me apply to another woman for the money that could save my mother.
12:48He looked as if he had heard something absurd.
12:52You are still talking about that.
12:54What was wrong with Sienna following procedure?
12:56I dumped the bag onto the floor.
12:58Only the old raincoat and a few wrinkled notebooks fell out.
13:02Take a good look.
13:04This is the superior life you say an alpha gives his Luna.
13:08I had to fill out a form just to buy a dress.
13:10To step outside.
13:12Even to get treatment for my dying mother.
13:15The manager of Iron Peak Stables lives with more freedom than I do.
13:18There was no guilt on Kale's face.
13:21Only confusion.
13:22Because of these things?
13:24In that instant, I understood that every word I said had fallen on deaf ears.
13:30It was not that he did not understand.
13:32He simply believed I should not rebel over things he considered small.
13:36I lowered my eyes.
13:38Contact the PAC Tribunal.
13:39I am applying for bond severance.
13:43Kale did not agree to severance.
13:45But he could not refuse directly.
13:47Under Iron Seek's ancient law, when Aluna requested severance alone, the alpha had only two choices.
13:53Accept it in court, or call the council to vote against it.
13:57He chose the latter.
13:58He wanted me to admit defeat in front of the council.
14:01After all, all of Iron Peak believed Aluna who left her alpha would live with less dignity than a stray
14:07wolf.
14:08Kale was certain I could not leave Iron Peak.
14:10He was certain I could not leave her.
14:12In the PAC's eyes, Aluna leaving her alpha was like the moon leaving the night sky.
14:16But they had forgotten that before I met Kale, I had survived alone for many years.
14:21After leaving the main residence, I dragged my bag to Professor Alara Hayes.
14:26She had been my university mentor.
14:28And now she led the Northridge Wild Wolf Reserve.
14:31Years ago, when I gave up a border ecology project to marry Kale, Alara had opposed it the most.
14:37The night before my wedding, she sent me one message.
14:40Mira, poverty is not a dead end.
14:42Dependence is.
14:43Do not hand over your whole life just because an alpha's halo dazzles you for a moment.
14:48I had not listened then.
14:49Five years later, I knocked on her door at midnight.
14:52Carrying rainwater and the cold scent of my mother's funeral.
14:55Come in.
14:56No judgment.
14:57No questions asked.
14:59She set a cup of hot tea in front of me.
15:01Only after I had cried myself hoarse did she finally take her time to speak.
15:05Tell me you haven't completely forgotten your field tracking skills.
15:09I froze.
15:10She pulled out a project file.
15:12The border wolves at Northridge are showing abnormal migration patterns.
15:15We need someone who knows pack dynamics inside and out.
15:18You in?
15:19I stared at the file.
15:21Tears welling up all over again.
15:25I'm in.
15:28Ready to get your hands dirty?
15:30I can survive anything now.
15:32Allura smiled faintly.
15:34Good.
15:35Then stop crying.
15:37We head out at 5 a.m. tomorrow.
15:39Science doesn't wait around just p.m. because it's your heart broken.
15:42The next day, I followed the reserve team deep into Northridge.
15:46Out there, there were no alpha commands, no Luna etiquette lessons,
15:49and no application forms handed back with Sienna's perfectly sweet smile.
15:53Just mud, rainforests, sample kits, and the distant howls of wolves in the dead of night.
15:59At first, it was an adjustment.
16:01But the knowledge I had buried beneath my marriage,
16:03soon found its way back into my bones, piece by piece.
16:07I could identify migration tracks, log pack dynamics,
16:11and sense danger the moment the wind shifted.
16:14Mira, were you really just a Luna before?
16:19I smiled.
16:22No.
16:26Once, I almost became myself.
16:30Just when I thought life was beginning again,
16:33Sienna appeared at the reserve camp.
16:35She wore a spotless white cloak,
16:38and stood at the edge of the mud with disgust in her eyes.
16:41So you left Kale to mix with these rogue researchers?
16:45My face cooled.
16:49Sienna, are you a sewer rat?
16:51Can't I go anywhere without seeing you?
16:54Her expression changed.
16:57Around us, the researchers all stopped working.
17:00Sienna probably never expected that I would leave her so utterly humiliated in front of a group of outsiders.
17:06In Iron Peak, she had always used rules to press me down, but this was not Iron Point.
17:12There was no Luna Ledger here, no council ladies judging me, no Kale standing behind her.
17:17I picked up a sample bottle and looked at her coldly.
17:20North Ridge is a reserve, not your pack hall.
17:23If you want to putcher as a beta family lady, go back to your silver carpet.
17:29Sienna's eyes instantly whelmed up with tears.
17:33Mira, I'm just worried about you.
17:36You've been so emotionally unstable since leaving the Alpha.
17:41What if you get taken advantage of by these people who don't even know the rules?
17:47The young research flushed red with anger.
17:49Professor Allura stepped out of the tent, a clipboard in hand.
17:53Miss Frost, the research station does not entertain unauthorized personnel.
17:57You are currently standing right on the migration tracks we just marked.
18:00Take one more step and I will have you escorted off the reserve.
18:04Sienna's perfect facade finally cracked, back in Iron Peck.
18:07She was used to everyone stepping aside for her, but here, she didn't even have the right to step on
18:13a patch of wet mud.
18:14That was when Kale came from behind her.
18:16What is going on?
18:18Kale asked.
18:19Sienna's eyes reddened instantly.
18:22Alpha, I only saw Mira with these low-level wanders and worried she was being used.
18:27Kyle looked at me and frowned.
18:30Mira, are you making things difficult for her again?
18:34I was too tired to explain.
18:35I turned back to my sample box.
18:37A researcher whispered.
18:40Who is he?
18:41I answered calmly.
18:44My arrogant former Alpha, who has no idea what respect is.
18:52Kale's face darkened.
18:54You have already hidden here.
18:55How long do you plan to keep making a scene?
18:58Your mother is still in Moonwall Infirmary.
19:01Are you really going to ignore her too?
19:04My hand stopped.
19:05I turned and looked at him, then stop the treatment if you want.
19:09You are good at that.
19:10Perhaps my gaze was too cold because Kyle finally sensed something was wrong.
19:15In front of everyone, he connected to Moonwell Infirmary.
19:22Restore Maeve Vale's full treatment permission.
19:25The healer on the other end was silent for a long time.
19:30Alpha, Maeve, Vale passed away last month.
19:33What did you say?
19:35Wind moved through the camp.
19:38Kyle looked as if a blade had struck him in the face.
19:41The healer's voice trembled.
19:44We reported it to you, but you said private matters involving Luna should not disturb you
19:48when you were in a good mood.
19:49That order was drafted by Miss Frost.
19:51You gave oral authorization.
19:53Kyle looked down at the calm stone on his wrist.
19:55It was still warm and quiet, like a meticulously considerate shell.
19:59For the first time, he grabbed the pendant.
20:01He wanted to rip it off, only to find the knot had been tied into a dead knot long ago.
20:07He finally understood that what he couldn't hear over the past five years was never Mira's capriciousness.
20:12It was her cries for help, time and time again.
20:17When he raised his head, his gaze slowly turned to Sienna.
20:24Kale demanded to see Sienna's approval logs for the first time.
20:28I only learned later what those logs contained.
20:32I had submitted seven emergency treatment applications.
20:36Sienna had returned all seven.
20:39The first time, she said non-pure blood relatives could not use Moonwell resources directly.
20:46The second, she said my Luna authority required council review.
20:51The third, she said Maeve's diagnosis was not formal enough.
20:56The fourth, she said Moonwell serum was limited, and PAC warriors came first.
21:01The fifth, she said I was emotionally unstable, and possibly exaggerating the illness.
21:09The sixth, she demanded the Alpha's handwritten permission.
21:14The seventh, she gave no reason.
21:17Because by then, Maeve was already dead.
21:20What silenced Kale most was the copy path on the logs.
21:27Every rejected application had been sent to his private communication stone.
21:32He had not read a single one.
21:35Sienna had classified them as Luna domestic trivia.
21:39And on the day he first wore the calm stone, he muted that entire category of messages.
21:45After reading the logs, Kale came to the edge of the camp at midnight.
21:50When I stepped out of my tent, the wolf shape in the shadows startled me.
21:56He shifted back quickly, his voice worsening.
22:00Mira.
22:01I stepped half a stess back.
22:04He saw it, and the color drained from his face.
22:06I removed Sienna from her steward position, and froze her family authority.
22:11I truly did not know about your mother.
22:13Give me one chance to make it up to you.
22:18Hearing him say that only made me tired.
22:22Kale.
22:24Do you think the problem between us is only Sienna?
22:27He froze.
22:28She lied to me.
22:29She lied to everyone.
22:31No.
22:33You gave her the power to lie to me.
22:36I looked up at him, his breath caught in the night.
22:39I continued.
22:41You made me apply to her for clothes, carriages, and treatment money.
22:45You let her manage me for you, then used the mess she created to accuse me of not being dignified
22:51enough.
22:51You called me Luna, but you never treated me as your mate.
22:55I was not your pack member, not your subordinate, and not a pet you needed to tame with rules.
23:01Kale reached for my hand.
23:02I avoided him.
23:03His fingers froze in the air.
23:05Mira, I never wanted to sever from you.
23:07You are my mate.
23:10Then why did you never listen to me?
23:13He could not answer.
23:15I said quietly,
23:16I gave you many chances.
23:19But you wasted every single one of them.
23:26The next morning, Kale arrived at the reserve with warriors and a large supply canvoy.
23:32He said Iron Peak would fully support the Northridge project.
23:35He said he was willing to learn respect from the beginning.
23:39He said he wanted to pursue me again.
23:42Then he opened a warmer and took out a honey cinnamon roll.
23:46I remember you bought this every morning.
23:48I looked at the steaming pastry and suddenly laughed.
23:51That was Sienna's favorite.
23:56Kale's expression stiffened.
23:58I crossed half the city, every dawn, to buy it.
24:01Because you said she was tired from night duty and wanted one.
24:05Later, she told me to buy two, saying you liked them too.
24:09I never liked this, Kale.
24:11I am allergic to cinnamon.
24:13There was a note in the infirmary's old file.
24:15It was accidentally deleted the same week Sienna took my medical form.
24:19He opened his mouth.
24:20Then what do you like?
24:21I lowered my head and continued sorting sample bags.
24:23It is not important anymore.
24:28But he acted as if he had finally found the doorway to atonement.
24:31From that day on, he kept sending me things.
24:33Silver leaf brooches.
24:35Expensive moon dew cream.
24:37White moon lilies that made my skin burn.
24:39Every item was something Sienna had once showed off in a public post.
24:43The researchers began to whisper.
24:45Is the alpha chasing Mira?
24:47Or chasing Sienna through her?
24:49Maybe to him, they've always been interchangeable.
24:52I did not explain.
24:54Because some truths, he just had to figure out for himself.
24:58On the last day of the project, Kale arrived with a solemn expression in a velvet box.
25:02You will like this one.
25:04I did not open it.
25:05It is a custom watch, right?
25:06His eyes lit off.
25:07How did you know?
25:07Because Sienna likes watches.
25:09I looked at him and found the whole performance almost absurd.
25:11His face slowly turned pale.
25:13Since you remember all her preferences, why didn't you just be with her?
25:16I asked him.
25:17Kale almost answered without thinking.
25:19Her Frost family background is too complicated.
25:21The council would never accept her as Luna.
25:22The instant the words left his mouth, even he froze.
25:25I did not.
25:26I only zipped the sample bag shut.
25:28What I heard in that sentence was everything he had never said in five years.
25:32He liked Sienna's taste, Sienna's manners and Sienna's polished pack-bred dignity.
25:37But what he needed was a Luna the council would not oppose.
25:41I was perfect for that.
25:43An orphan.
25:44No family.
25:45No political ties.
25:46A blank sheet clean enough for anyone to stay.
25:49And Sienna was clever enough to know she could not be Luna.
25:52So she turned Luna into an empty shell and stuffed me inside it.
25:55She occupied every place a Luna should have held except me.
25:58His mornings, his preferences, his trust, the inside of his wrist.
26:02She left me with nothing but the empty title of Luna.
26:04I looked at Kale.
26:05I accepted the mate bond because only Ironpix Moonwell could keep my mother alive.
26:09At that time she had already been ill for three years.
26:12Every year she survived on serum from your pack.
26:15I did not love you.
26:16I was grateful.
26:17I thought gratitude would be enough to last me a lifetime.
26:23Now she is dead.
26:24My gratitude to you is paid off.
26:28He stumbled half a step back, as if someone had shoved him hard in the chest.
26:32I do not need your privileges, your late concern, or you.
26:39After we returned to Blackwood Territory the bond severance went unexpectedly smoothly.
26:44Kale withdrew his council objection.
26:46At the meeting someone suggested keeping the mate bond and letting me remain in Ironpix as a Luma in name
26:52only.
26:52Kale stayed silent for a long time.
26:55Then he placed seven rejected emergency treatment applications in the center of the long table.
27:01If a Pax Luna cannot save her own mother, then that position should not use my name to keep trapping
27:06her.
27:08I withdraw my objection.
27:10It was the first time he spoke for me in front of the council.
27:13It was also the last.
27:15Kale did not come.
27:16His conciliare brought the signed documents, compensation money, a mountain cottage, and the silver pine forest near the main residence
27:23that had once belonged to the Luna.
27:24Everyone thought I would be moved.
27:27I only signed calmly.
27:29When the mate bond severed, my chest felt as if a fine thread had cut through it.
27:35It did not hurt.
27:36It was only empty.
27:38In the Pax Tribunal Hall, twelve moonlamps burned.
27:41By ancient Ironhead custom, both Alpha and Luna should press their palms to the moonstone so it could witness the
27:48mark retreat.
27:49Kale had sent only one drop of Alpha blood in a silver vial.
27:53The elder poured it onto the stone.
27:55The blood dropped quickly and seeped in, and a ring of cold white light illuminated the stone surface.
28:02I pressed my palm down.
28:04The mate mark on my chest felt as if ice water had washed through it.
28:08I heard low sighs ripple through the hall.
28:11Hushed whispers quickly followed.
28:13She's really walking away from the Alpha's bond.
28:15What is she even going to be without Iron Peak?
28:18A former Luna without a pack.
28:20She'll be more pathetic than a rogue wolf.
28:23I didn't look back.
28:24For the past five years, I had cared far too much about those voices.
28:28Cared that people said I wasn't good enough for Kale.
28:30Cared that the council wives despised my low birth.
28:33And cared that Tiana mocked my lack of manners.
28:35And cared about that faint look of disappointment in Kale's eyes whenever he looked at me.
28:39But now, I was finally done caring.
28:42When the light faded, the elder announced,
28:44Mate bond severed.
28:46I did not cry.
28:47I simply let out a soft breath, like a drowning person breaking the surface,
28:51finally taking that first real breath of air.
28:53That emptiness confirmed it.
28:55I had finally stepped out from under Iron Peak's moonlight.
29:01I donated half the compensation to Moonwell Infirmary's fund for non-PAC patients.
29:07With it, I submitted one final proposal, under my name as former Luna.
29:12It contained only one rule.
29:14Emergency treatment applications for non-pure blood relatives could no longer be approved or rejected by a single steward.
29:20If no decision was made within 24 hours, the application would pass automatically.
29:27I named it the Vale Clause.
29:30Vale was my mother's surname.
29:32It was the only trace of her I wanted to leave, in the second half of my life.
29:39With the other half of the compensation, I founded an independent research station at North Ridge.
29:46As for the Silver Pine Forest and the Mountain Cottage, I listed them for sale on the pack exchange.
29:52The buyer placed an order quickly at a ridiculous price, without asking a single question.
29:58I did not check.
30:01I already knew who it was.
30:04That evening, Kyle sent a message.
30:08Why sell those? Is the money not enough?
30:11I did not reply.
30:17After dark, his assistant came to my door with a Moonsilver card.
30:21The Alpha says the previous compensation was too little.
30:28I saw Kyle sitting in a black vehicle across the street, and returned the card to him.
30:33Kyle, I do thank you for not making the ending uglier.
30:37His eyes were red.
30:39Mira, I only want to compensate you.
30:41No need.
30:42We are even.
30:43He suddenly lost his composure.
30:46How can we possibly be even?
30:47Your mother's death?
30:48Everything I put you through?
30:50How can one sentence just wipe all of that clean?
30:52I looked at him.
30:54I did hate you.
30:56Words failed him.
30:59Maeve's husband abandoned her.
31:01Her biological son called another woman mother for money.
31:05She spent her entire life being left behind.
31:08But in her most desperate moments, it was Ironpock's medical resources that gave me three more years.
31:13So I am done hating.
31:18I thought of my mother's frail, withered hand on her deathbed.
31:22How she had gently covered my eyes.
31:26Mira, don't spend the rest of your life paying off a debt of resentment.
31:29The rain will stop eventually.
31:32You have to keep moving forward.
31:34In that moment, the person I hated most wasn't Kale nor was it Sienna.
31:38It was myself.
31:39I hated myself for having to kneel at the gates of someone else's power just to buy my mother more
31:44time.
31:44I hated myself for not listening to Alara sooner, for never taking my mother to see the ocean she had
31:50always dreamed of.
31:50And I hated myself for trapping my mother's final days between a hospital bed and a moon well.
31:57So now, I only want to move forward.
31:59I said to Kale,
32:01You have compensated me more than enough.
32:04The rest is between me and myself.
32:06He sat in the car, looking as if those words had utterly shattered him.
32:11We lingered in the freezing wind and a long, suffocating silence.
32:15Finally, I turned and walked away.
32:19No goodbyes.
32:21And no looking back.
32:26After that, I put all my energy into Northridge.
32:29The reserve's research station was built.
32:32I started mentoring students, making migration models,
32:36and helping small border packs create independent medical aid networks.
32:40Once, Alarta patted my shoulder and said,
32:43Choose your students carefully.
32:44I am old.
32:45I refuse to train your students after training you.
32:48I laughed for a long time.
32:50It was the first time since leaving Ironpeat that I felt light from the heart.
32:53I thought my story with Kale had ended there.
32:56Then, half a year later, Sienna crossed the line and appealed at the PAC tribunal.
33:00Kale had sent her to the Alaska border outpost for closed reflection.
33:03Under Ironhead's ancient law, if a former steward's guilt was deemed a work mistake,
33:07she could ask the council to reduce the punishment.
33:10Sienna plied.
33:10She claimed she had only following procedure.
33:13And that I had abused my Luna title to spread rumors, destroying her place in the PAC.
33:18She asked the council to review whether the VAL clause was legal.
33:21That clause was the last influence I had left in Ironpoint.
33:24It had already saved more than one child.
33:26Sienna's target was not me.
33:27It was the last bit of influence I had left behind this clause.
33:31She wanted to completely eradicate me from Ironpox memory.
33:34The council notified me to attend the hearing.
33:37I did not have to attend the hearing.
33:40But it was Maeve's name.
33:42So I put on a gray coat and took the night car back to Ironpeat.
33:48In the hearing hall, Sienna looked more haggard than I expected.
33:52She had lost weight, and there were dark shadows beneath her eyes.
33:55But her gaze was still the same as the day she returned my applications.
33:59Gentle, polished, certain.
34:02She cried before the council.
34:04I admit my approvals were strict.
34:06But I never deliberately delayed treatment.
34:09Mira's own materials were flawed.
34:12Now, she is using a clause named after her mother to make me carry all the blame.
34:18This is unfair.
34:19The council turned toward me.
34:21I did not cry.
34:22I took a stack of printed files from my briefest.
34:24Before leaving Ironpeat, I had copied two sets of data from the old medical archives.
34:28The first, over five years, Sienna reviewed 142 emergency Luna applications.
34:33138 were returned.
34:34The second, during the same period, she approved 67 applications from Frost family members as stewards.
34:42Approval rate, 100%.
34:45I pushed the data to the center of the tables.
34:47Miss Frost says she never delayed anything on purpose.
34:50She only treated my 138 pleas for help as flawed materials.
34:54Yet in 67 applications from her own family, not one material was flawed.
34:59The hall stayed silent for a long time.
35:02For the first time, Sienna's pistol finally cracked.
35:05Then she raised her head and smiled.
35:07Mira, do you think you won?
35:10Everything Kale sends you now is something I touched first.
35:13He is not chasing you!
35:14He is chasing the me he never dared to admit wanting for the past five years.
35:18You only carried the empty name of Luna for me for five years.
35:21I looked at her and said calmly.
35:22I know.
35:23Sienna's smile froze.
35:25I knew from the first day, I said.
35:26I only needed that empty name then to buy my mother three more years of life.
35:33Now my mother is gone.
35:36And I do not want the name either.
35:41It was never yours.
35:42And it was never mine.
35:44It was a check Ironpoke wrote to an orphan.
35:47Now it has expired.
35:49And it should be void.
35:50When I turned to leave the hearing hall, Sienna screamed behind me.
35:55The words were ugly.
35:56I did not hear them clearly.
35:58I did not need to.
36:00When I walked out of Pack Hall, Kale stood below the steps.
36:03He did not stop me.
36:05He only said quietly as I passed.
36:12Mira, thank you for coming back.
36:14I did not pause.
36:15I did not come back for you.
36:17I came back for my mother.
36:22After the hearing, the council rejected Sienna's appeal.
36:26The veil clause was written into Ironpoke's permanent charter.
36:29Sienna was sent back to Alaska for indefinite confinement.
36:33I thought the story should truly end there.
36:35Three months later, news came from the border.
36:45Kale had been ambushed by rogue hunters during patrol.
36:48He was gravely injured and taken to Moonwell Infirmary.
36:53I held my coffee cup and hesitated for a very long time.
36:58In the end, out of the humanity owed to someone who had once been my mate, I went to see
37:03him once.
37:04Moonwell Infirmary looked the same as ever.
37:07White stone walls, silver water veins, and the cold herbal smell that sank into the bones.
37:14Kale lay on the hospital bed.
37:16Half his arm was locked inside a heavy support frame.
37:19The healers whispered that even if he recovered well, he might never fully shift into his battle wolf form again.
37:25Mira.
37:26When he saw me, a bitter smile struggled onto his pale face.
37:31I stood by the bed, as if visiting an ordinary old friend.
37:36I heard you woke up.
37:39I didn't ask.
37:41But he continued speaking anyway.
37:44His assistant had testified at the tribunal, and recounted the whole truth.
37:49During her confinement in Alaska, Sienna secretly contacted a team of rogue hunters once hired by the Cross family.
37:56She leaked the route of the only winter pass patrol Kale would lead personally that month.
38:03Then, she altered the map.
38:05Changing the retreat point, to an abandoned watchtower.
38:10When Kale led his team into the ice gorge north of the Black Pine Forest, silver nets sealed every exit.
38:26The assistant testified that Alpha could have forced his way out in wolf form.
38:30But he stopped and went back for two young warriors.
38:33A silver hook pierced through his shoulder blade, and half his arm was burned by poison silver.
38:42They survived.
38:43The price was that Kale might never become a complete wolf again.
38:51Sienna later said during interrogation that she had not wanted Kale dead.
38:56She only wanted him to lose his strength.
38:59A man who lost his Alpha battle form could only depend on the person who best understood the rhythm of
39:04his life.
39:05She thought that person was her.
39:07She had miscalculated one thing.
39:11The first sentence Kale spoke after waking was not about her.
39:15And not about me.
39:17He asked for the names of the two young warriors he had saved.
39:20The healer told him they were alive.
39:22Kale closed his eyes and exhaled for a long time.
39:25His assistant said that in that moment, Alpha looked as if he had finally done one thing right.
39:31When I first heard the news, I was organizing pup migration data at the research station.
39:36A young researcher asked carefully whether I wanted the report turned off.
39:42I shook my head.
39:45No.
39:46I no longer felt pain just because he was in pain.
39:50That sounded cold.
39:52But it was freedom bought with an entire marriage.
39:55In the hospital room, Kale looked at me for a long time.
40:01Sienna will be exiled for life.
40:04Mira, everything you once had, we failed to keep.
40:09My hand rested on the door handle.
40:11I did not turn back.
40:12I only said one thing.
40:14Kale, we never had anything.
40:18You had a woman you thought was Luna.
40:20I had a contract you thought was love.
40:22Aspired the night may have died.
40:25I opened the door and walked into the long corridor of Moonwell Infirmary.
40:30Outside, rain had started again.
40:33But this rain was no longer falling for me.
40:40Three years later, the North Ridge Research Station was officially upgraded into a joint border
40:46reserve.
40:47The first students I had trained could now track wolf migration routes on their own.
40:54When Professor Alara tossed me the badge of the new director, her tone was as disdainful
40:59as ever.
41:00Do not look so shocked.
41:02You are younger than me and you've got more stamina.
41:06Who else is going to do it?
41:08I caught the badge and laughed.
41:09And you?
41:11Retirement, obviously.
41:13She lifted her coffee and looked out the window.
41:16And to make sure you don't bankrupt my research station.
41:21Outside, rain began again.
41:24North Ridge rain was different from Iron Peak rain.
41:27Iron Peak's rain always pressed down until people could could barely breathe, like a gray
41:33cage over the main residence.
41:35Here rain fell on pine needles, soil and grass crossed by wolf packs.
41:41Its sound was light and clean.
41:44I stood under the ears, watching several wolf pups chasing each other through the rain in
41:49the distance.
41:50One of them took a tumble, but quickly scrambled back up, shook out its fur, and kept running
41:55forward.
41:59A student handed me an application.
42:01Mira, Silver Lake has a mixed-blood wolf pup who needs a medical transfer.
42:05Her mother is not a PAC member.
42:09Under the old rules, they might not get Moonwell resources.
42:12I looked up at the cover of the charter.
42:14Printed across it was a small line of text, Veil Claws applicable to all non-pure-blood relatives.
42:20I lifted my pen.
42:22The moment I signed, the rain suddenly seemed very far away.
42:26I remembered the rainy night five years earlier, when I knelt outside Moonwell Infirmary begging
42:31for serum.
42:34That application had been returned seven times.
42:38My mother never waited for the eighth.
42:40Today, the approval in my hand took less than 30 seconds.
42:45My student noticed my hand trembling.
42:47Professor, what is wrong?
42:50I returned the signed form.
42:53Nothing.
42:55Someone waited for her this time.
42:58At dusk, the mother and daughter from Silver Lake were brought to the research station's
43:02temporary medical room.
43:04The little girl curled beside the stretcher, clutching her mother's hand, looking so much
43:08like the me from years ago.
43:10She asked timidly,
43:12Are you a Luna?
43:13I shook my head.
43:14No.
43:15She asked again,
43:16Then why are you helping us?
43:17I crouched down and draped my coat over her shoulders.
43:21Because someone once helped me.
43:23That person never waited for repayment.
43:25So this time, I am repaying it for her.
43:29The rain softened little by little.
43:32Lights came on inside the medical room.
43:34I stood at the door and watched the healer inject the first dose of serum into the girl's
43:39mother.
43:39In that moment, I suddenly felt that many things had truly ended.
43:43Not because Kale regretted.
43:44Not because Sienna was exiled for life.
43:47Not because Iron Peak no longer dared look down on my name.
43:50But because I had finally turned the pain that once trapped me into a hand that could hold
43:54someone else up.
43:57Late that night, I received an unsigned letter.
44:00There was only a black pine peen wax seal on the envelope.
44:08I did not open it.
44:10I did not need to.
44:13I placed it in the fireplace and watched the flames slowly swallow that familiar mark.
44:21When the paper ash rose, the rain outside the window stopped completely.
44:27Many years later, a student once asked me during field research.
44:32Professor, what does that line mean, the one about the rain fading?
44:38I looked at the migrating wolves in the distance and smiled.
44:43It means some women are trapped by rain for many years.
44:46Then one day, they walk out on their own.
44:49They do not wait for the rain to stop.
44:52They walk and walk until they realize they no longer need an umbrella.
44:56Yesterday, the leather.
44:59After the春.
45:00Their hands on their hands, they won't be the same.
45:00You know, of course, the blue.
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