I acknowledge the bond. But I cannot afford a mate who cannot fight. I reject you for the good of the pack.' He expected me to beg. He expected me to wait in the shadows as his mistress while he married the Busan Alpha's daughter for territory. I did neither. I bowed, whispered 'Understood,' and walked out of the building. I didn't run. I simply erased myself.I moved to a wind-battered coast in Sokcho, suppressed my wolf with illegal beta-blockers, and opened a small noodle shop. Five years have passed. Min-ho is the King of Seoul, but his political marriage is a cold war that has rotted his pack from the inside. His power is absolute, but his wolf is going insane, starving for a touch that no one else can provide. When he finally tracks me down, he expects to find a broken woman waiting to be saved. Instead, he finds me happy. I am laughing with customers, my skin glowing, my scent completely gone. I look at him and feel nothing. No pull. No pain. Just the polite recognition one gives a stranger. The horror on his face is my vindication. He realizes too late that his 'weak' mate was the anchor that kept his soul from drifting away. Now, the most powerful Alpha in Korea must sleep on a plastic chair outside my shop, begging for the chance to be my lowest subordinate, just to hear me say his name with warmth again. He has the world, but he realizes he traded the only thing that mattered for a crown of ash.
