I live in the muted grey zone of the Gyeonggi outskirts, commuting two hours into the gleaming territory of the Apex Pack just to file their tax returns. My destined mate, Min-ho, was the Alpha heir. He didn't reject me with a growl or a public shaming. He did it with a sigh. He checked his watch and told me I was too heavy to carry. He needed a Luna who shone, not one who merely survived. He severed our bond in a convenience store while buying cigarettes, leaving me with a hollow chest and a receipt for gum. I didn't scream. I didn't beg. I just went back to work. That summer, I met the stranger. He was a wolf with no scent, working manual labor at the docks, living in silence. Everyone ignored him. I walked up to him and said, "Worship me." Not love. Love is a transaction for high-ranking wolves. I wanted something he couldn't take back. While Min-ho slowly suffocated in his perfect, loveless political marriage, realizing his palace was actually a cage, the stranger and I built a sanctuary out of silence and cheap soju. The stranger wasn't weak; he was a catastrophe the Council had exiled, and he bowed only to me. When Min-ho eventually came crawling back, drunk on regret and begging for the warmth he threw away, he expected me to be angry. Instead, I looked at him and felt nothing. That indifference was the knife that finally killed him."