Countdown to Leaving the Alpha King

Episode 1

Five days before the wedding, a messenger brings the Vampire King's demand: Shadowpack must prepare a daughter's coffin. The King wants a princess bride, and none of his brides has ever returned alive. Mina's parents panic — refusing means the pack is destroyed. Quietly, they consider sending Mina instead of Elise, since the King never named anyone specific.

But Mina is already promised to Alpha King Lucien, her fated mate, the one carrying the White Wolf bloodline that can awaken the Moon Goddess's power. Elise overhears everything and runs to the deadly Moon Tear Spring, threatening to die rather than marry a monster. Mina steps in and offers to take her place. She will marry the Vampire King. Lucien will never be told.

Episode 2

Mina's heart still holds the boy who promised her mother he would love her forever — until she overhears the truth from Lucien himself. He plans to use her bloodline to summon the Moon Goddess's power, then reject her as his mate so Elise can stand beside him. He says he has only ever loved one woman, and her name is Elise.

Mina is shattered. She never even got to tell him that her wolf Athena revealed they were fated mates. In private, Lucien burns her letters and gifts, dismissing her love as worthless. Whatever she felt for him is now a lie she has to bury.

Episode 3

Mina visits her mother's memory, quietly saying she is getting married in four days — and that soon she will leave Lucien forever. She tells him she dreamed her mother said to marry the man who loves her most, and he answers that the man is him. She doesn't correct him.

Meanwhile, Elise plays weak and wounded, reminding Lucien of the battlefield where he shielded her and his wolf never healed. She worries her beta bloodline holds him back. He swears he will reject Mina after the ritual and mind link Elise when he goes to war with the vampires — so she can shift, break the coffin, and escape. Elise, alone, counts the days until she seals Mina's lid forever.

Episode 4

Mina opens an old wooden chest — the most precious gift her mother left her. Inside is a wedding dress her mother sewed by hand, with a promise: wear it on your wedding day, and it will be as if I never left. Mina vows to keep that promise.

Elise barges in, mocking the dress and demanding it for herself. Mina refuses, and Elise rips the fabric with a careless "oops." When Mina confronts her, Elise sneers that the dress is a rag from a dead mother. The damage is already done.

Episode 5

Lucien walks in on the wreckage of the dress and Elise's tears. She claims she only wanted to touch it and never meant to tear it — it was all her fault. Lucien tells Mina it's just a dress and to let Elise have it, since Elise is about to be sent to the Vampire King. Servants echo the same reasoning: grant her this last wish.

Mina protests that her mother made the dress for her. Lucien offers to buy her ten more and calls her selfish. Elise thanks her with a smirk. Alone, Mina asks her mother's forgiveness — she couldn't keep her word. Even Lucien's promised gift means nothing to her now.

Episode 6

Mina confronts Elise over the destroyed dress and slaps her. Elise, unrepentant, says Mina's mate and her wedding dress are both hers now. When Lucien appears, Elise spins the story: Mina cut the dress and struck her. He believes Elise instantly.

Then Lucien brings up a necklace — Mina's mother gave it to him when she entrusted Mina to his care, asking him to give it to her on her wedding day. He twists it into a weapon: kneel and apologize to Elise, or lose the necklace forever. Mina accuses him of forgetting she once saved his life. He coldly says the one who saved him was Elise.

Episode 7

Mina realizes the truth: Elise stole the credit for saving Lucien on the battlefield. Elise taunts her — how will she prove it? Mina's wolf is still in agony from that rescue. Lucien, unmoved, says he saw Elise care for him after her wolf took the hit, and dismisses Mina as a disappointment.

He takes the necklace back and orders Mina to switch seats with Elise at the banquet, so Elise can sit beside him. At the feast, a guest murmurs that Mina is really the one marrying the Alpha King. Lucien shuts the rumor down and insists the wedding proceeds as planned. Then rogue wolves attack, and the fight begins.

Episode 8

During the rogue attack, Lucien uses Mina as a shield — and his wolf recoils, crying that he wounded his own soul by harming his mate. He tells himself it was the right call: Elise has no alpha blood and couldn't survive a hit, while Mina will heal by morning.

Mina wakes with Athena wounded again. Elise visits to gloat: Lucien came to her room, promised to make her his Luna after rejecting Mina, and called her his one love. Then Elise cuts her own hair and frames Mina for it, weeping that she sees her sister holding scissors whenever she closes her eyes. Lucien orders Mina sent to the Moon Tear Spring to pray for Elise.

Episode 9

Mina begs not to go — everyone in Shadowpack knows the Moon Tear Spring is where the worst criminals are punished, and its water can kill her. Elise insists it's a place of prayer. Lucien, trusting Elise, says Mina's alpha blood will protect her even if the spring is dangerous.

Elise tells the guards the more water touches Mina, the stronger the blessing. Lucien orders her thrown in and walks away, certain the shallow spring won't drown her. In the water, Mina's wolf Athena dies protecting her. Guards debate saving her, but Elise told them to leave her. They head back.

Episode 10

Mina survives the spring, thanking her mother for watching over her — but Athena is gone. She is alone now. The scars the water left on her body are ugly, and she hides them.

Elise, meanwhile, wakes refreshed, bragging that Lucien will arrive any moment. She accuses Mina of putting on a performance, confident he will never see the truth. Mina carries the loss of her wolf and the weight of a betrayal no one else can see.