Not only that.
The silence was deafening. No soft humming that usually accompanied my evening routines. No patter of Lily’s small feet
running to greet him.
Throughout the entire villa, everything related to me had vanished. He moved from room to room, his movements becoming
increasingly frantic
The closet was half empty. The colorful dresses and playful children’s clothes were all gone. Not even a stray sock remained to
prove we had ever lived there.
“This isn’t happening,” he growled, yanking drawers open, finding them all empty.
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Where a family portrait of the three of us had hung in the bedroom, only a stark white wall remained. The nail was still there, a
silent accusation.
He touched the wall, remembering the day we took that photo. Lily had just turned three, her smile showing her tiny fangs for the first time. I had been so proud, so happy.
The metal box containing one hundred love letters that I had treasured for five years was now just a blackened container. He’d seen me reading them on nights when he was late coming home from Victoria’s room.
Inside, nothing but ashes. He touched the remnants, the residue staining his fingertips black.
“She burned them,” he whispered, disbelief coloring his voice. “Every single one.
He stared blankly at the burnt remains, suddenly remembering with startling clarity what those letters had contained.
How much effort he had put into pursuing me back then. The words he’d written, promises of eternal devotion, of a love that
would transcend pack boundaries.
He had written over a hundred love letters just to earn the chance to climb through my window. Each one carefully crafted, bearing his heart and soul to a woman he’d been determined to make his.
“I’ll never look at another wolf,” he’d written. “You are my moon, my stars, my everything.”
He had climbed that window for nearly half a year before I finally let him in. Through rain, through snow, through rival pack territory. Nothing had deterred him.
“What happened to us?” he whispered to the empty room.
Ethan covered his face and collapsed to the floor. Everything seemed to have spiraled out of control. His wolf whined inside him,
sensing the loss of its mate and cub.
Footsteps sounded from the doorway, the click of heels against hardwood.
Ethan sat up abruptly, his heart pounding. A wild, desperate hope seized him.
He desperately hoped that the person coming through the door would be me. That this was all a misunderstanding, a bad dream.
But fate doesn’t listen to the prayers of the insincere. Ethan had made his choices, day after day, for six long months.
It was Victoria.
“Ethan…” Her voice was cautious now, seeing his distraught state. She lingered in the doorway, one hand resting protectively
over her belly.
Ethan’s expression darkened instantly, not a trace of tenderness left. His eyes flashed gold, wolf rising
the surface.
He glanced at her sideways. “What is it?” The words came out as a near growl.
Victoria paused, seemingly surprised by his tone, but continued anyway. She took a tentative step into the room:
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“Since we had our Mating Ceremony, and Autumn isn’t coming back, why don’t you move into the master bedroom?” Her voice
turned sultry at the end, an invitation in her eyes.
The master bedroom was Victoria’s room. Where his brother had once slept. Where he had spent nights betraying everything he’d ever promised me.
Ethan let out a cold laugh that held no humor. “Are you that desperate? That eager?” He rose to his feet, towering over her petite
His voice was completely devoid of warmth. Victoria couldn’t believe her ears. She took a step back, suddenly afraid.
“Ethan what… what did you say?” Her voice trembled.
“You didn’t understand?” His tone was mocking now, cruel in a way he’d never shown her before.
Ethan grabbed Victoria’s throat in one swift motion, pinning her against the wall. His claws extended slightly, pricking her skin just enough to draw pinpoints of blood.
“You’re just my brother’s leftovers. What makes you think I would ever want you?” The words were venomous, delivered with precision to wound.
