Synopsis：The Northern Pack had one iron rule: the Alpha heir could never take a human girl as his mate. Yet Kieran Wolfe, the next Alpha, still forged a fated bond with me. To claim me, he defied the Elders in front of the whole Pack, endured ninety‑nine lashes, and was forced to kneel at the altar for three days and nights. Blood soaked through his shirt, but he still smiled up at me and said, “Elise, don’t be afraid. I only want you.” In the end, the Elders finally relented and allowed Kieran to leave with me—on one brutal condition: he had to leave a pure‑blood heir behind for the Pack. From that day on, the words I heard most from him were, “Wait for me.” First, he asked me to wait while he found another she‑wolf to carry his pup. He slept with Cecelia Donati thirty‑three times until she conceived his child. Then he told me to wait again, because the first pup was a girl and the Elders demanded a male heir. Kieran went back to Cecelia, sharing her bed ninety‑nine more times until she was pregnant again. Just when I thought the nightmare was finally ending, their daughter, Tyra Wolfe, accidentally ingested wolfsbane at her Meet the Pup party. Everyone was certain I had poisoned her. They threw me into the freezing cold storage room. Kieran stood in the doorway, eyes bloodshot. “I told you to wait…” His gaze was like ice, sharp enough to cut. “You know what wolfsbane means to our kind. Why would you hurt my pup?” Those two words—“my pup”—stabbed straight through my heart. My nails drove into my palms as the pain ripped me apart. When the storage room door opened again, I loosened my blood‑stained fingers. This time, I wasn’t going to wait anymore.