"She is Catriona." Roderick gave this simple introduction indifferently, then looked away without adding another word.
He did not introduce who those men were to Catriona.
The man Catriona found familiar had a tall nose and a serious expression. He looked at her, gave a slight nod, but said nothing.
Beside him sat a man with dark blue hair and delicate features—his face so finely crafted it was almost androgynous. He offered Catriona a slight smile but remained silent.
The third was a muscular man with a buzz cut; he was more direct, casting her a quick, intense glance before shifting his gaze away.
The fourth...
Catriona forgot. In any case, their attitude was indifferent. She didn't mind; she came here to accompany her son and fill her stomach.
Their attitudes towards her didn't matter.
Throughout the whole time, she either ate or helped feed her son, occasionally checking her phone to handle work.
During this time, she heard Roderick patiently introducing the werewolves to his son.
The familiar-looking man in the white shirt was called Magnus Wynthrope.
The man with the dark blue long hair was called Silas Ravenshade.
The muscular man with the crew cut was called Rowan Brown.
The fourth...
She forgot again; she didn't bother thinking too much about it.
Seeing that her son was also full, Catriona suggested leaving, and Cedric followed his mother out.
After they left.
The handsome man with dark blue long hair spoke up, "Wasn't what you did earlier a bit too much?"
He was talking about how they had ignored and treated Catriona earlier.
"Silas, why are you pretending to be good? Are you siding with your fellow pure human?"
The muscular Rowan carried a heavy air of hostility in his brow. Blunt and unfiltered, he sneered coldly, "That was already my best attitude. We should just take the cub, toss her some human money, and be done with it. If she hadn't shamelessly seduced Roderick that night, he would have already found a true mate by now."
Compared to Rowan's anger, the calm man in the white shirt, Magnus, was much more composed. Looking at Roderick, he asked, "Do you know what you're doing?"
"Clear." Roderick nodded, thinking of the child's soft and cute face, his eyes slightly curved, "The cub is adorable, isn't he? With him, I don't mind living alone for the rest of my life."
"As for Catriona..." His tone turned indifferent, "She is the cub's mother and my business partner."
Rowan seemed even angrier, even more indignant than Roderick himself. "Have you really forgiven her just like that? What she did back then was truly out of line. I don't hate pure humans—I just can't stand her. When we came to get Roderick from the room that night, she'd already vanished without a trace."
That incident from back then caused both pain and hatred among Roderick's friends. A decent and excellent werewolf had been taken advantage of by a pure human woman who then ran away, spreading the story throughout the werewolf community.
Roderick wasn't a pure werewolf; he had a small portion of human genes. However, his werewolf form was exceptionally tall and majestic, with smooth and beautiful fur. Regardless of which form he took, he was recognized as a handsome werewolf.
Then, a pure human woman tainted him and left without a second thought.
As Roderick's friends, they once hated that woman as much as he did.
Now, it seemed Roderick didn't care anymore.
But they couldn't bring themselves to show her any kindness.
"Silas, although you are a pure human, don't forget that it was our werewolf that raised you," Rowan said sternly.
In other words, don't take the side of pure humans.
Silas smiled good-naturedly, "I'll never forget."
Then he added, "My brother."
He was saved and raised by Rowan's parents and only returned to his biological parents at twelve. His biological parents had some status in the human world, with endless wealth, and he was an only child, living a comfortable life.
Rowan was his non-blood-related younger brother, who wasn't bad-hearted.
However, his emotional and intelligence levels weren't very high, and he had a short temper. He always went along with his brother, unwilling to argue over trivial matters for days on end.
At this moment, his smile faded slightly, feeling reluctant to go along with his brother.
"Rowan, you were one of the wolves who went to fetch Roderick from the hotel back then. I've always been curious—how did you determine that Catriona just slept with him and ran off?"
Silas was a playboy, drifting through countless romances, and even his adoptive parents hadn't curbed his flirtatious nature. He'd encountered all kinds of human women, each exuding a different aura.
There were the frivolous and wild types, the cool and aloof, the classic homemaker types, the sweet and innocent, and the adorably playful... He could judge their type by instinct alone.
Catriona, to him, felt like the cool, distant girl-next-door type.
Earlier, she'd sat across from them, completely uninterested in their conversation, appearances, or identities. Her world seemed to revolve only around the one person she cared for—the cub.
Four years ago, was she really the type to hook up with a stranger and then leave?
If she were truly lustful, would she look at them like they were stone statues?
Silas clicked his tongue, recalling how women usually squealed at the sight of him.
"After finding Roderick, did you even look for her?" he asked, watching the anger in his brother's eyes intensify.
"You... you really have completely taken the humans' side," Rowan said, incredulous. "Why are you defending her? Because you're just like her, going after humans for your own pleasure, right? You've ignored everything our parents taught us!" By the end, his eyes had reddened slightly with frustration.
Silas sighed. "Rowan..."
"I don't know you!!"
Silas: "..."
As the tension between the brothers escalated into a "war."
"They went to look for her," Roderick interjected.
After regaining consciousness in the snowy mountains that year, he'd been deeply shaken. Having been with a human woman he despised had tormented him. But eventually, he convinced himself to look for her...
"Rowan and the others found her thirty kilometers away."
Roderick spoke flatly, a trace of ridicule in his gaze.
Soaking in a cold pool when he'd heard the news, he hadn't wanted to admit it, but a part of him had felt a twinge of anticipation.
And then, what did he hear?
"That woman would stroll by the river, watching the scenery, watching people fly kites. She went there every day for a week, sometimes even laughing and chasing after the kites humans flew. She'd run and laugh until tears came out. She's totally carefree, completely forgetting about Alpha!"
"We approached her and asked if she remembered someone with whom she'd shared the world's most intimate connection."
"What did she say?" Rowan sneered. "I remember it clearly. She gave me this hollow, terrifying look and said, 'So what? Does it matter? Did you think I'd care? I don't care about anything anymore.'"
The more Rowan spoke, the angrier he got. "She did that and still had the nerve to question me. Honestly, I was disgusted with her to the extreme."
Rowan took a deep breath, stood up, and glared at his brother. "Silas, we werewolves only have one mate for life. You'll never understand the hurt she caused Roderick."
With that, Rowan walked away.
And after that?
With his strong pride and constant arrogance, Roderick didn't want to hear anything about that woman again.
Anyone who mentioned her was met with a bite.
Yes, he actually bit them.
In his pure wolf form, he was the largest wolf the pack had seen in recent years, exceptionally strong. The werewolves no longer fought for territory or dominance, trying instead to coexist peacefully like humans. But if it had been years earlier, Roderick would have been the unquestionable Alpha.
He was followed by dozens of werewolves and respected as the Alpha—not just because of his human-world status.
