Jian is an Omega with no wolf and heavy debt, working the night shift cleaning the glass floors of the Blackwood Pack's corporate headquarters in Gangnam. Dominic is the Pack Alpha, bound by a high-stakes treaty marriage to a rival heiress. In the silence of a mirrored elevator, he recognizes Jian as his true mate. He sees her worn sneakers and the scent of bleach clinging to her uniform. He looks at her, then looks at the closing doors. He chooses his duty. He severs the bond without a word. Jian does not cry. She does not beg. She simply bows and returns to her mop. Her absolute lack of reaction haunts Dominic more than a scream would. Over the next thirty chapters, Dominic watches from his high-rise office as Jian navigates poverty, abuse from supervisors, and threats from loan sharks with terrifying stoicism. He tries to help anonymously, but she returns every gift, refusing to be a charity case for the man who rejected her. As Dominic's political marriage crumbles into betrayal and treason, he realizes his empire is hollow. He broke his own soul to protect a legacy that is rotting. When a rival pack targets Jian to get to him, she doesn't wait for a savior. She disappears into the labyrinth of the underground metro system, leaving no trace. Dominic tears Seoul apart to find her, destroying the treaty and his reputation in the process. He finds her three years later in a small fishing village in Pohang. She is safe, fed, and calm. She looks at him and feels the pull, but she doesn't need him anymore. He falls to his knees in the sand. She offers him a hand up, but she does not offer him her heart-not yet.
