Chapter 5

Kaitlin's POV

Phillip's face darkened as he stared at us.

"Our Alpha is the strongest in the borderlands. Every she-wolf dreams of him. You don't get it. Kaitlin's never been marked. Our Alpha doesn't touch her!"

Amid their piercing laughter, Phillip strode toward me. "Who is he?"

I kept my expression neutral. "None of your business."

His anger flared. He grabbed my chin, his gaze sharp as a blade on my face. "Kaitlin, can't live without a male, can you?"

Jack tried to explain. "No, I'm actually-"

I cut him off with a raised hand, smirking coldly. "Yeah. Since you, my mate, won't fulfill your duties, should I waste my life waiting? Why not find someone else?"

The corridor fell silent. The wolf warriors gaped, stunned.

They thought their taunts were just to humiliate me. No one expected me to bite back.

Phillip's eyes turned to ice. "Say that again."

I laughed harder. "Was I wrong? If you don't care about me, what's wrong with me finding someone-ah!"

Before I finished, he hoisted me over his shoulder and carried me into an empty room nearby.

He pinned me against the wall, his face blank. My heart raced. "Phillip, what are you doing?"

He leaned in, voice cold. "You say I can't satisfy you? I'll make your wish come true today."

He kissed me hard.

It wasn't our first kiss-before I became his Luna, we had sweet moments.

But in five years of marriage, not once had he kissed me. The familiar yet strange sensation left me dazed.

His movements grew urgent, forcing me to bend, his posture radiating possession and punishment.

"Ah-" As his heat closed in, I braced to fight back.

His phone buzzed in his pocket.

Phillip glanced at the number, froze, and answered.

"What?" His face changed instantly. "Rosalyn's in the emergency room?"

On the way to the clinic, I learned what happened.

Someone leaked a video across the northern and southern tribes' networks.

In it, Rosalyn spoke privately with a northern tribe warrior, handing over a scroll with southern border patrol routes under his guidance.

My parents defended her at the elder council, claiming it was just a travel guide, not classified.

But the whistleblower produced council records proving the scroll held this month's patrol plans.

This was worse than any identity dispute-betraying the tribe and leaking military secrets was a death sentence.

For Rosalyn, with millions of followers on social media and a polished "tribe's fairest daughter" image, being branded a traitor would destroy her reputation, status, and safety overnight.

Insults and accusations flooded in.

She had never experienced such a situation, and she attempted to take her own life at home.

The car stopped at the clinic.

Phillip hung up from a call updating him and turned to me. "Kaitlin, go live now and tell everyone the patrol routes in that scroll were fake-a trap we set. Say you gave it to Rosalyn to pass to the Ember Tribe."