I Drank Silverwolf’s Bane for His Sake, but He Thought It Was an Act Chapter 01
On the tenth day of the siege — rogue werewolves and the enemy clan closing in around our territory — I left the last energy bar and the last vial of coagulant for my Alpha, and walked out of the underground safe house alone.
A pack of rogue werewolves in Blackrock armor tackled me to the ground. Their fangs snapped down toward my shoulder and throat.
In that moment, I thought: if I died now, they could no longer track Ethan through my mate mark.
Then I heard the tactical instructor strike his signal board.
“Cut! Good take. Pack — take five!”
The “rogue werewolves” scattered, ripping off their masks and gulping down air.
Behind me, the door of the underground safe house swung open.
My Alpha, Ethan Walker, stepped out.
Sophia Bennett — the A-list actress out of Silver Lake Pack — laughed as she pushed open the half-broken door of the ruined supply station beside the safe house.
“Mr. Walker, that was a wicked little trick,” she said. “Telling her rogue werewolves and Blackrock had teamed up to wipe you out, and she actually believed it.”
Ethan gave a cold laugh.
“She’s the one who tried to push you out of the production — even pressured the director to cancel your audition. I just wanted her to taste what being abandoned feels like. A little hardship might teach her something.”
I lay on the ground and watched the Pack warriors strip off their scent-blocking masks.
Tears slid down my face, mixing with the blood at the corner of my mouth.
They didn’t know how much I feared pain.
They didn’t know how terrified I had been that the enemy clan would track Ethan through my mate mark. They didn’t know that before I’d ever stepped out of the safe house, I had already swallowed wolfsbane.
When I came back to myself, I was drifting above it all.
I looked down.
The “rogue werewolves” had pulled off their masks. Drenched in sweat, they passed bottles of water around, chatting between gulps of air.
“God, this heat is killing me. Mr. Walker pays well, though. Think we can come back for another job?”
“Of course. To keep Miss Sophia happy, Mr. Walker rented out the whole abandoned training camp.”
So there had never been a rogue werewolf uprising.
There had never been a blood moon hunt.
For two weeks, all the fear, hunger, and despair had been fake.
My Alpha had sealed off an abandoned training camp for his first love, hired a hundred Pack warriors, and staged a fake siege around me.
I looked down at my body.
Dried foam still clung to the corner of my mouth from the wolfsbane. My eyes were wide and unseeing with agony. My fingers had clawed bloody streaks into the concrete.
Ethan walked over with an iced coffee and nudged my leg with his shoe.
“That’s enough. Quit acting. The instructor called cut. You’re still lying there? You’re laying it on thick.”
I didn’t move.
I couldn’t.
Sophia hooked her arm through his and leaned close, smiling.
“Ethan, Olivia’s acting really isn’t bad. She’s probably just too embarrassed to get up.”
“When she gave you the last energy bar and walked out to die — I almost cried.”
Ethan snorted. His eyes were full of disgust.
“She’s always been good at playing pitiful. Just trying to get my attention, that’s all.”
“She went behind my back and messaged the director to ruin your audition. A selfish woman like that deserves to be punished.”
Sophia covered her mouth and laughed.
“Oh, I wasn’t even that angry.”
Ethan didn’t spare me another glance. He pulled Sophia toward the exit.
“If she wants to lie there, let her lie there and think about what she did. Leave two guards on her. When she admits she was wrong, bring her back to the lake estate.”
The iron gate of the abandoned training camp shut with a heavy clang.
Then it locked.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to ask him why.
But I was already a ghost.
An invisible cord seemed to wrap around me and yank me into Ethan’s black SUV.
He sat in the driver’s seat, one hand on the wheel.
Sophia rode shotgun, touching up her makeup in the visor mirror.
“Ethan, I have a shoot tomorrow. The director said we still need a location.”
“Take whichever you want. Any estate or training ground under the Pack’s name is yours.”
Sophia leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“You’re so good to me. Olivia really doesn’t know how lucky she is. She picks fights with you every single day.”
Ethan loosened his tie. He said nothing, but irritation flickered in his eyes.
“Ethan,” Sophia said softly, sliding lipstick across her mouth, “we left Olivia all alone back there. What if something happens to her?”
Ethan scoffed.
“The training camp’s crawling with werewolf guards. What’s going to happen? I’ve spoiled her too much. She thinks any little inconvenience is torture.”
“But she coughed up so much blood.”
“Fake blood packs. You know how dramatic she is. She’d do anything to fight for attention.”
He hit the gas.
“Leave her be. Skip her meals for a day or two. She’ll cave.”
“She’ll come crawling back inside of three days.”
I floated in the back seat and stared at the back of his head.
Ethan, I will never come looking for you again.
