Third Person's POV The younger wolves whispered among themselves. "Aysel bullied someone again." In their ignorance, they believed Aysel had once more thrown her weight around. Because of that mistaken sympathy, no one dared order Zenia around anymore. Finally, Zenia found a moment of stolen peace-until she discovered, not long after Aysel left, a still-warm platter of roasted meat placed neatly before her tent. She froze for a long time. Then, silently pressing her lips together, she brought it inside. Around eleven that night, the pack's youth gathered near the bonfire to wait for the falling stars. Everyone came wrapped in thick outer pelts against the mountain chill. Zenia hesitated as she held a cheap, worn coat in her arms. She wanted to return Aysel's outer robe-already dirtied because of her-but when she approached, she saw that Aysel was already wearing another jacket... A man's jacket. Zenia wasn't the only one who noticed. Celestine stepped out from another tent, her expression growing frostbitten and dark. Zenia instantly understood who the jacket belonged to. The next morning, when they descended the mountain trail, Zenia suddenly realized someone was missing. "Aysel didn't follow," she said anxiously. Celestine merely gave her a dismissive glance. "She said she wanted to stay a little longer. Told us to go ahead." Zenia's heartbeat slammed painfully. Was that even possible? A young she-wolf, voluntarily separating from the pack, alone in the dangerous Mistyhowl wilderness?Her instincts howled a warning. She drifted toward another class's formation-the one that included Damon Blackwood, the Eastern Dominion's strongest Alpha heir and Aysel's childhood shadow. If anyone would know Aysel's habits, it was Damon. As expected, the moment Damon heard that Aysel was missing, he launched forward to run back up the mountain. Celestine intercepted him midway. "Do you not understand how dangerous it is to act alone? Damon, don't be impulsive. Your parents would never want you risking yourself." But Damon only shoved past her, cold and lethal, his Alpha aura slicing through the air like a drawn blade. His eyes swept her with a dangerous, warning glint-one that made even wolves flinch. Without a backward glance, he sprinted into the forest toward the path they had taken earlier. Celestine stood there, humiliated, fury flickering behind her blackened gaze. Zenia shrank away from her expression, burrowing back into the group for safety. That day, the pack waited at the foot of the mountain for a long, nerve-fraying time. Neither Aysel nor Damon returned. It wasn't until dusk approached that news finally reached them. Aysel Vale had gone searching for Damon after hearing someone claim he was looking for her- only to be pushed from behind and sent tumbling into a hidden sinkhole. By the time Damon found her, Aysel had already crawled out on her own- her hands covered in bloody scratches, her ankle twisted. She was badly injured, but she did not shed a single tear. If Damon hadn't come, she would have kept pushing herself until she got out-or found another way to call for aid. But Damon was not made of stone.His eyes were burning red when he saw her condition, his Alpha wolf snarling with agitation. He carried her step by step, all the way down the mountain. Only after reaching safety did the others realize that Damon himself had many deep slash wounds-earned when he rushed through thorned underbrush to reach her. Both were sent directly to the healer's hall. Despite opposition from many, Aysel insisted on calling the enforcers. Eventually, the truth surfaced: the one who pushed her was a girl from another class, a young wolf from a humble, powerless bloodline. The girl claimed she retaliated only because she believed Aysel had bullied her first-that it was meant as a prank, a moment of petty vengeance. The offender was a minor. And after the Moonvale elders heard rumors that Aysel had supposedly wronged her first, they-under Celestine Ward's gentle persuasion-decided to handle it quietly. The girl apologized publicly. Transferred to another territory. The matter was declared finished. Under the crushing weight of adult power, the fury of a young, powerless she-wolf was treated like a joke. It was only then that Zenia learned something startling: Celestine Ward was not Aysel's cousin, as many believed- but her stepsister, raised in the same household of Moonvale Pack. Yet everyone recognized Celestine as "the Moonvale heiress," while Aysel was often mistaken as some hanger-on, an outsider trying to leech off their family. And the Moonvale parents... compared to Zenia's own cold, son-favoring household, they did not seem much better.Unbidden, sympathy welled in Zenia's chest. She clearly remembered: while Alpha Remus and Fenrir Vale scolded Aysel for "causing trouble again" and told her to "stay low-key" and "stop bullying her peers," she witnessed the light in Aysel's eyes slowly extinguish- replaced by distance... and a certain quiet resolve. Because of that incident, Zenia herself suffered Celestine's retaliation. But perhaps because Zenia always endured silently with no resistance, there was no thrill in bullying her. So the torment stopped quickly. Still, Zenia never regretted warning them. And... if not for Aysel, she would never have escaped the suffocating prison of her own birth family. She pushed away those painful memories and instead wondered- Aysel had vanished from the public eye for years. Had she and Damon Blackwood finally ended up together? Back then, Aysel treated Damon and Skylar Cross almost the same- but as an outsider, Zenia had seen it clearly: The young Alpha heir of Blackwood Pack burned with fierce affection for his little moon-shadow. Even though they remained "just friends" until graduation, Zenia had never doubted that one day... their bond would break through the final veil. But could young wolves, bound by childhood affection, truly walk all the way to the end?