Chapter 1

The hunt ended early, so I grabbed my prey and took a shortcut back to the cabin.

Suddenly, muffled panting came from deep in the grass.

I pushed aside the bushes. My husband Gideon was pressing his sister-in-law Sera against that old birch tree.

Sera's silk dress was half-pulled down, bunched at the pale roots of her thighs.

She moaned and wrapped her legs tightly around his muscular waist.

Gideon's hands gripped her hips, the sounds coming from his throat low and hoarse.

Nothing like the mild-mannered act he put on in front of me.

I sneered and raised my wrist, recording the whole thing on my phone.

With one click, I sent the package to Sera's husband, Black Pack's Alpha Killian.

"Your brother who's been faking impotence at home for three years is having a wild workout with your wife. Sent you the location."

"Honey, you're really putting in effort with this outdoor workout."

I stepped out from behind the bushes, tossed the deer I'd just hunted onto a tree stump, my tone as light as if I were discussing what to have for dinner.

The two people under the birch tree froze instantly.

Gideon let go of Sera's legs and stared at me like he'd seen a ghost, stuttering for ages without managing a complete sentence.

My dear best friend Sera didn't even have time to pull down her dress. She just collapsed in the pile of fallen leaves with her legs spread,

fresh marks my husband had just sucked all over her skin below the collarbone.

"Elara, how did you—"

"Don't rush." I pulled out my phone and waved it.

"Let me take a couple more shots. Three years of marriage, first time I've seen my husband with this much stamina. Worth commemorating."

Gideon suddenly snapped to his senses and lunged at me, trying to grab my phone.

I sidestepped to the left. He missed and nearly tumbled into the bushes.

I looked at him and sneered. As the only daughter of White Pack's Alpha, I'd been receiving combat training since childhood.

Dealing with trash like Gideon who only knew how to hide under his brother's wing was more than easy.

"Take it easy." I held my phone up high. "You always told me you couldn't perform, wouldn't even change clothes in front of me. Three years, turns out you were saving yourself for my best friend."

Sera's cheeks instantly flushed red. Tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke with a sob in her voice:

"Elara, let me explain. This was just an accident."

"Explain what?" I lowered my head and swiped open my phone screen, pulling up the video I'd just shot to the best part, then turned it to show her.

In the footage, she was riding on Gideon's waist, the sounds squeezing from her throat sluttier than a she-wolf in heat.

"Explain how you ran to my husband in the middle of the night to practice squats?"

Her face went completely white.

She was Black Pack's Luna, and also my best friend since childhood.

I'd thought it was the most perfect arrangement—we married the two brothers of Black Pack, two packs with generations of good relations.

Turns out she occupied the Luna position and still wanted to drag her brother-in-law to the northern slope grass to roll around.

Two brothers, and she didn't want to let either one go.

"Elara!" Gideon roared. Birds in the forest scattered in fright.

Someone else might not be able to withstand Gideon's dominant pressure, but I'd been trained by my father since childhood. This level of intimidation couldn't suppress me.

I stared at him. "What are you yelling about? You dared to pin your sister-in-law against a tree, but I can't stand here and watch?"

Sera stumbled and crawled over from the pile of leaves, grabbing my legs. Tears splattered on my boots:

"Elara, please, don't tell Killian. I know I was wrong, I really know I was wrong."

I looked down at her, this best friend who'd been with me for twenty years.

"Get up first." I crouched down and patted her shoulder. "Your legs will go numb if you stay down too long."

She lifted her head, teardrops hanging from her eyelashes, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

I continued, "Look how hard you're crying. My husband must feel so bad for you."

I stood up, shook off her hand, and turned to leave.

Gideon grabbed my arm from behind, his knuckles digging into the crook of my elbow.

"Where do you think you're going? You want to expose this? You want to destroy the alliance between our two packs?"

I looked back at him, almost laughing out loud.

Now he remembered the alliance. When he was pulling his sister-in-law's pants down, why didn't he think of it then?

"Already exposed."

His fingers tightened, his breathing suddenly heavy. "What do you mean?"

I pried his hand off and turned to face him.

"Your brother should be on his way by now. I just sent him the video, with live location tracking."

Gideon's pupils contracted sharply. Those eyes that always carried a mild smile were now full of shock:

"What did you say? You sent it to Killian?!"

"Is there a problem?" I tilted my head at him. "As Alpha, he naturally has the right to know what's happening in his Pack."

"You're crazy!"

"No." I stepped back, landing precisely on a dead leaf that crunched softly. "I think you're the ones who are finished."

A sound that didn't belong to this hunting ground came from the distance.

That deep, resonant howl tore through the silence of the northern slope night sky, carrying an Alpha's unique oppression, rapidly approaching the cabin.

Sera collapsed to the ground, her face deathly pale.

When the massive brown-black wolf burst through the tree line, I was leaning against the hunter's cabin doorpost drinking beer.

Killian shifted to human form and walked toward me.

He scanned the two people slumped by the grass without expression, then turned to me and said,

"Nice video work. Good lighting and composition."