Chapter 5
1283 Words
Vicky~
I remembered the first time I was injured after becoming Rowan's mate.
A rogue wolf had slashed my shoulder during a border dispute. The wound wasn't even deep, yet Rowan had abandoned an Elder Council meeting and carried me straight to the Healing Hall.
The entire pack laughed about it afterward wondering why the mighty Alpha was acting as though his Luna were made of glass.
He hadn't cared.
"If she's hurt, nothing else matters." He stated.
Back then, it felt as if those words had once made me feel cherished and now, they felt like a curse because tonight, I had watched him hold another she-wolf with those same words.
Only then did I bury my face in my pillow as hot tears soaked the fabric. I didn't even realize how much time passed because for a long time, I simply lay there.
A few minutes later, I was mind-linked which signified a message from Rowan.
The Elders called an emergency meeting. Rest. I'll come see you after.
Instead, I read those words as I scoffed with a sniff.
Don't bother, I sent back.
I got up, walked to the calendar by the fireplace, and drew a line through today.
Twenty-six days.
Twenty-six days until I was free and would no longer have to watch my mate love someone else while he pretended as if he did nothing wrong.
***
The next morning, I woke up feeling strangely weak and suddenly, my wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin. That was the moment I realised that something wasn't right because for weeks, Lyra had been unusually quiet and now, even standing felt exhausting.
Concerned, I made my way to the Healing Hall. Immediately, the old healer barely glanced at me before frowning.
"Luna Vicky?" She said it politely, and let out a long sigh before she'd even examined me.
"When was the last time your mate spent a full night beside you?"
My heart skipped because I wasn't expecting that.
How was I supposed to answer this question?
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked her while she clicked her tongue, the way people do when they already know the answer will hurt.
For a while, she said nothing which made me wonder if she was worried about how I would feel.
"A mated wolf's health is tied to the bond and your wolf is distressed; your mating mark has gone pale.” she finally said.
Something cold moved through my chest. I thought of every night this month he hadn't come home before I'd already fallen asleep.
"Your wolf is entering rejection and you need to revive it. You need your mate home, and not for one night. ” she said and handed me several herbal sachets.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe and suddenly, a bitter laugh escaped me.
If it were that simple, I thought, I wouldn't be counting down the days to end it.
I thought as I left the Healing Hall through a side corridor.
Halfway down the hall, familiar scents reached me while I turned around to see Rowan and Selena.
It was bad enough that they were hiding their secret from me. Now, they couldn't hold it anymore and decided to flaunt it outside?
I thought as I watched Rowan stood beside her as his hand rested on her back gently while she smiled at him.
"You didn't have to come yourself. To be honest, I'm fine…”
Rowan's expression softened, holding her hands.
"I wanted to."
The words sliced straight through my chest as I smiled sadly. Not wanting to get hurt by the scene, Selena spotted me.
A triumphant smile flashed across her face before vanishing behind a mask of concern.
"Luna Vicky!"
She called out while Rowan spun around and the moment he saw me, his hand dropped from Selena's waist as if it never belonged there.
However, it was too late.
“It's not what you think. I …”
I said nothing as I turned around and left, leaving him hanging.
By evening the whole pack had gathered at the tree line. I could hear it from my room before Mara burst through the door.
"Luna. Have you seen what's happening outside?"
"Should I have?"
"Rowan ordered a Moon Run. He released the fireflies himself."
My stomach dropped before she finished the sentence.
The Moon Run wasn't decoration. It was the oldest claim a wolf could make — a jar of fireflies opened under a full moon, and the Alpha running the tree line beside the one wolf he wanted the whole pack, and the Goddess herself, to watch him choose.
He'd done it for me once. Years ago, a thousand fireflies rising out of the dark like the forest had learned to glow, and Rowan running beside me until our feet found the same rhythm, until the whole territory understood what that meant without either of us saying a word.
I still remembered how it felt to run next to him and know, completely, that nothing could catch us.
I walked to the balcony anyway. I don't know why. Maybe I needed to watch it happen to someone else to finally believe it was over.
Light rose first — hundreds of fireflies lifting off the tree line in a slow gold cloud, drifting up like the dark itself had come loose. A few pack children shrieked with delight and chased them barefoot through the grass, too young to know what the display actually meant.
Then Rowan and Selena broke from the crowd and ran.
Side by side, fast, laughing, the pack howling around them the way they used to howl for me. Fireworks cracked open somewhere past the ridge, gold and green scattering over the treetops, timed like someone had planned every second of this to be unforgettable.
"Whoever earns that kind of devotion is lucky."
"I've never seen an Alpha do that twice."
"Maybe the rumors were true after all."
Wolf hearing carries too far to unhear anything.
Immediately, I shut my hearing ability and rushed inside because each word drove another nail into my heart.
Later that night, Rowan came to my room that night with tea, pastries, and flowers. The exact things he always brought when he knew I was upset, arranged the exact way he always arranged them, like devotion was a routine he could run without thinking.
The sight almost made me laugh because how could he be a hypocrite?
A wolf could betray someone completely and still act like a devoted mate and it was sickening!
He sat beside me and gently placed them on the table.
"Vicky." He said gently and continued, "You're still angry."
Instead, I said nothing while everywhere suddenly became silent. After a while, Rowan moved closer.
"I know things have been difficult lately."
He said as his hand reached for mine while I pulled away and for the first time, genuine panic flashed across his face.
That moment, he made me realize something. Rowan wasn't afraid of losing me because he loved me but he was afraid because he had never imagined I would actually leave and that hurt more than anything else as I swallowed hard.
Then, I asked the question that had haunted me since the festival instead.
Selena's title was already gone. Suspended, pending review, and everyone knew what that really meant. By pack law she had until tomorrow's moonrise to be off Silver Ridge land.
"What time is Selena leaving tomorrow?" I asked.
However, he froze as if he never expected that. Yet, I continued coldly.
"When exactly," I said, "are you going to ask her to leave?"
Her or me.
- Writer
