I stormed out of the bridal suite, my ruined wedding dress dragging behind me.

All three hundred guests in the cathedral turned to stare—the elite of the Manhattan pack, Wall Street tycoons, and the socialites who always gave me fake smiles.

Right now, their faces were a mixture of pity, embarrassment, and glee.

"The wedding is canceled," I announced from the altar, my voice echoing through the massive church. "Because my fiancé has, once again, chosen his ex-wife."

Whispers erupted through the crowd. Someone pulled out their phone and started recording.

"The ninth time," I continued, my vision blurred by tears. "He's canceled our wedding nine times. And like a fool, I forgave him every time, believed him every time he said, 'next time will be different.'"

I looked into the crowd and found Marcus—Aiden's best friend, his Beta.

"Tell him," my voice turned to ice, "that I'm breaking this fucking engagement. And as for this—"

I reached for the temporary mark on my neck.

According to wolf law, only an Alpha could remove a mark. But I didn't care anymore.

My nails grew long and sharp as a silvery-white light emanated from my fingertips. It was my Moon-Descendant bloodline, suppressed for so long, now awakened by my rage.

"No!" Marcus shouted, rushing forward. "Chloe, you can't remove the mark yourself! It'll—"

Too late.

I clawed the mark on my neck.

Pain.

Unimaginable pain.

It felt like someone was branding my skin with a white-hot iron, like my very soul was being ripped in two. I heard myself scream, heard the gasps from the crowd, and then—

A blast of silver light erupted from my body.

Every wolf in the cathedral instinctively recoiled, stunned by the ancient, pure power of the moonlight.

The temporary mark burned away in a flash of agony, dissolving into silver dust.

I collapsed to the floor, my consciousness fading.

The last thing I saw was Marcus's terrified face as he frantically dialed his phone.

"Aiden, it's bad. Chloe... her Moon-Descendant blood has awakened."

I woke up in a VIP room at the Lunar Shadow Medical Center.

It was the most exclusive hospital in the werewolf world, disguised to humans as a "rare disease research institute."

"You're insane," Emma said, sitting by my bed with red, swollen eyes. "Do you know how dangerous it is to forcibly remove a temporary mark? You almost died!"

"But I didn't," I said, my voice hoarse, my throat feeling like it had been scorched. "And I feel... good."

It wasn't a lie.

Though my body was weak, I felt a sense of freedom I'd never known. The shackle that had weighed me down for nine years was finally gone.

I touched the back of my neck—where the mark had been, there was only a faint scar, already healing at a visible rate.

"The doctors said your Moon-Descendant blood has fully awakened," Emma said cautiously. "Chloe, your pheromones... every Alpha in this hospital can feel them. They're too strong."

"How strong?"

"Strong enough that even the hospital director—an ancient Alpha who's over two hundred years old—had to show you respect."