[Autumn, have you lost your mind?]
He waited ten seconds. No response.
[What kind of good life do you think you’ll have without me?]
Thirty seconds. Nothing-
[If you come back now, I might reluctantly stay with you!]
A minute passed. His anger morphed into something closer to panic.
[Don’t worry, I didn’t have the Mating Ceremony with Victoria. You’re still my only Luna.]
Ethan waited restlessly all night, sending message after message. Each one growing more desperate than the last.
No response.
When he called for the twentieth time, he always heard the same message: “The number you are trying to reach is currently
busy…”
“DAMMIT!” he roared, hurling his phone across the room. It bounced off the sofa cushions, undamaged.
His wolf was pacing inside him, agitated and confused. The animal recognized what the man had failed to
–
see his mate was
gone.
Ethan couldn’t wait any longer. He grabbed his keys and drove to another apartment, where I usually stayed when we had an argument, pressing the accelerator to the floor, taking corners so fast the tires screamed.
The streets were extremely quiet in the early morning, with only one bakery open.
The shop owners, a husband and wife, worked together–one kneading dough, the other baking bread.
Through the window, Ethan could see the man brush flour from the woman’s cheek, her laughter visible even if the sound
couldn’t reach him.
In the rising steam, they moved in perfect harmony, like the embodiment of a warm, domestic life.
“We used to be like that,” he whispered, slowing the car slightly.
Ethan suddenly remembered that back in Silver Crescent territory, he and I once shared such moments.
Back then, before his ambition consumed him.
I had ignored my family’s objections and insisted on opening a crystal shop with him. The Silver Crescent elders had been furious that their heir was “playing shopkeeper” with an outsider wolf.
2/3
+15 Bonus
“You don’t need their approval,” he had told me then. “You only need mine.”
The irony of those words hit him now, like daggers to his chest.
I had taught him the business step by step–I would handle sales, he would manage the money. I knew crystals better than
anyone, could sense their power with a touch.
We had been happily busy, working side by side from dawn until dusk.
Some people even called him a house–husband, but he didn’t care. When a Shadow Moon pack member had made a snide
comment during a visit, he had proudly responded:
“I’m spending my wife’s money. How is that any of your business? At least I have a mate who loves me.”
We had our arguments in the past, but I would always cool down after a few days. I would bring him his favorite dinner, touch his
arm softly, and the fight would be forgotten.
Ethan’s hands trembled on the steering wheel, his knuckles white from gripping it too hard.
“This is different,” he told himself. “She’s never left before.”
It seemed I was truly angry this time. He had crossed a line he didn’t even know existed.
“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “She’s just trying to scare me.”
This time, he would humble himself and coax me properly. He would bring Lily a belated birthday gift. He would make promises he had no intention of keeping.
Whatever it took to bring his mate back under control.
As he approached the apartment, he saw a warm yellow light glowing from within. His heart leapt in his chest.
His entire body relaxed, tension draining from his shoulders.
“I knew it,” he said, a triumphant smile spreading across his face. “I knew she wouldn’t leave.”
Ethan parked the car haphazardly, half on the lawn, and rushed to the door. His heart racing with anticipation of my forgiveness.
He fumbled with his keys, dropping them twice before finally managing to unlock the door, and burst inside.
