Chapter 1

My Beta, whom I had trained for years, turned his blade against me for an Omega.

Ignoring our past, I immediately ordered my men to sever his tendons with silver blades and threw him out of Silver Creek.

The comments I had been able to see floating in the sky since childhood flared up like crazy:

[Omg! This Victoria Sterling is too ruthless! Liam protected her for ten years, and just because he didn't choose her this once, she ruins him?]

[The love of an Alpha Female is terrifying. If she can't have him, she destroys him. What's wrong with Liam saving his sweetheart?]

[Run, Liam! This toxic woman doesn't deserve your loyalty. Go to Sophie, she is your salvation!]

Me, ruthless?

A traitor who backstabbed his Alpha for an outsider? I actually thought his punishment was too light.

I sneered, publicly rejected him as my Beta, and had all his belongings burned to ashes.

Then, I turned around and went to the underground arena, picking the fiercest, most suicidal rogue I could find.

A month later, Liam heard the news and rushed back, fighting his way through all the guards at the door.

With bloodshot eyes, he knelt on the ground, clinging tightly to my leg: "Alpha Victoria, Kael is a beastly psycho! How is he any better than me?"

The cold blade pressed against my throat, right against my carotid artery.

If Liam pushed it even a millimeter forward, I would bleed out on the spot.

"Alpha Victoria, Sophie didn't mean to! She just accidentally wandered into the study. She had no idea those were the pack's core secrets!"

Liam’s eyes were bloodshot. He shielded the trembling woman behind him, looking at me with a heart-wrenching mix of pain and defiance.

"Why do you have to be so relentless? Will you only be satisfied if you cut off one of her hands?!"

Sophie, hiding behind him, sobbed like a helpless victim, clutching his shirt tightly. "Liam, don't defy Alpha Victoria for me. It's all my fault. I'll give my hand to Alpha Victoria right now..."

"Sophie, don't be afraid. As long as I'm here, no one touches you today."

Liam’s voice was dripping with tenderness. But when he turned his gaze back to me, his eyes instantly iced over.

"Alpha Victoria, you are too cold-blooded. Even if she made a mistake, you could just banish her. Why resort to such cruelty?"

I looked down at the blade at my throat and suddenly found it hilarious.

Ten years of blood, sweat, and resources, and I had raised a white-eyed wolf that bit the hand that fed him.

"Liam." I didn’t even blink. My voice was dead calm. "Did I never teach you what happens to a Beta of the Silver Moon Pack who points a blade at their Alpha?"

Liam froze, a flicker of hesitation crossing his eyes. But as he felt Sophie trembling behind him, his grip on the hilt tightened once more.

"Alpha Victoria, my life was given to me by you. If I have to, I’ll give it back. But today, I am taking Sophie with me."

He raised his chin with a self-righteous, arrogant pride.

He thought I would compromise like I used to, out of reluctance to lose his strength or out of sentimentality for our ten-year bond.

Too bad for him. He miscalculated.

After a long silence, I chuckled.

"Fine."

I took a step back, slipping away from the blade, and snapped my fingers.

Almost instantly, sixteen dark shadows materialized from the corners of the hall like ghosts, surrounding Liam and Sophie.

These were the elite warriors of the Silver Moon Pack, every single one of them once Liam's subordinates.

Liam’s face paled as he finally realized something was wrong. "Alpha Victoria, you..."

"Since you want to play her knight in shining armor so badly, you can return everything the Silver Moon Pack gave you."

I looked at him coldly, as if looking at a corpse. "Do it. Sever his tendons."

The floating comments from those unseen viewers flared up in a frenzy:

[Omg! This Victoria Sterling is too ruthless! Liam protected her for ten years, and just because he didn't choose her this once, she ruins him?]

[The love of an Alpha Female is terrifying. If she can't have him, she destroys him. What's wrong with Liam saving his sweetheart?]

[Alphas are just cold-blooded. So what if it was a secret document? Is that more important than a human hand?]

[Run, Liam! This toxic woman doesn't deserve your loyalty. Go to Sophie, she is your salvation!]

"Victoria Sterling! Are you insane?!" Liam roared in disbelief.

But he didn't stand a chance.

To protect Sophie, his movements were clumsy and restricted. Within three moves, he was pinned to the floor by two elite warriors.

"Ah!"

Along with Sophie’s high-pitched shriek, the sickening sound of silver blades slicing through flesh and tendons echoed through the hall.

Liam let out a muffled, agonizing scream, curling into a ball on the floor, his limbs twitching uselessly.

The comments went absolutely wild:

[Holy crap! She actually did it! That's so toxic!]

[What's the difference between treating a wolf like a dog? This is straight-up abuse!]

[Liam is so tragic. He gave up everything for love. Victoria Sterling, you will regret this!]

Regret?

I stared down at Liam's pale, sweat-slicked face with cold indifference.

The butler, sharp as always, stepped forward and handed me a document.

It was the blood oath Liam had sworn years ago.