Chapter 8
Michael POV
"Selene!"
In that instant, my mind went completely blank. One second, Selene was still standing there. The next second, she collapsed forward. I didn't even know when I had rushed out. When my palms caught her, I smelled the heavy scent of herbs, the unique smell of the Healing House, so strong it inexplicably irritated me.
"Selene. Wake up." I frowned, speaking in a low voice, "Stop pretending."
I didn't even know if I was saying this to her or to myself. The person who usually liked to defy me was now so quiet it annoyed me. I grabbed her shoulders, the force in my hands even heavier, "Selene! I'm telling you to get up!"
But she still didn't respond.
In that instant, an extremely absurd thought suddenly flashed through my mind - what if she couldn't wake up? The moment this thought appeared, even I was stunned. Impossible. She just fainted, she was just too tired. People from the Healing House were always like this, pushing themselves to the limit while pretending nothing was wrong. She was the same. That was all.
But another voice kept emerging - but what if it wasn't? What if something really happened to her? What if she just disappeared like this?
My chest felt like something was gripping it tightly, making breathing difficult.
"Now you're worried?" My wolf Max roared fiercely, "I told you long ago something was wrong with her. Her scent gets fainter day by day. You know nothing!"
I instinctively tightened my arms, that irritation suddenly becoming more intense, almost making me lose control. My arms had already locked more tightly around the person in my embrace. Her body was still so weak without any strength, too light - so light that if I loosened my grip even slightly, she would slide out of my arms.
"Shut up, Max." I gritted my teeth.
"Why shut up?" Max roared, "Because you're finally afraid? Because even if your mate died in front of you, you'd remain indifferent?"
"I said shut up!" I repeated through clenched teeth.
"Michael." Evelyn's voice came from beside me. She hurried over, her face showing just the right amount of concern, "Let me help you. She looks very bad right now, I can..."
Her hand reached toward Selene. Just approaching, not yet actually touching her. But in that instant, something inside me snapped.
"No one is allowed to touch her." I growled.
The sound that rushed out of my throat was like that of a wild beast - low, hoarse, carrying an aggressiveness even I hadn't expected. The entire hall fell silent. Evelyn's hand froze mid-air, the elders' gazes all fell on me, and several Pack members who had originally wanted to step forward to help also stopped. The air seemed to be pressed down by an invisible weight.
Even I was stunned for a moment. I rarely spoke to Evelyn like this in front of others. No, I almost never had.
Evelyn's face paled slightly, but she quickly recovered her usual gentle, dignified appearance, saying softly, "Michael, I just wanted to help."
I looked up at her. That irritation hadn't subsided, but instead became heavier because she spoke again.
"I said." My voice seemed to be squeezed out through my teeth, "No one touches her."
My Adam's apple rolled once, rationality seeming to belatedly return to my body.
I was Storm Pack's future Alpha. I couldn't lose control at Grand Alpha's funeral, couldn't release pressure on Pack members, and especially couldn't behave like an out-of-control beast in front of everyone because of Selene.
I forcibly retracted the leaked pressure, but my voice was still unnaturally heavy, "Notify the Healing House to prepare a room."
My gaze swept over everyone around until I confirmed no one was approaching Selene anymore, then squeezed two words out through my teeth, "Thank you."
I carried Selene outside. Her head rested powerlessly on my shoulder. The familiar herbal scent pressed close to my neck, mixed with the faint cold fragrance on her body - so faint it made my chest inexplicably heavy.
Max's voice was low like a beast grinding its teeth, "Her scent shouldn't be this faint."
I didn't answer, but my pace grew faster and faster. The elders' voices, Pack members' discussions, Evelyn's footsteps - I left them all behind. I only heard Selene's breathing, so shallow it barely existed, one breath after another.
Damn.
She'd better wake up and look at me with that cold face like usual. She'd better refute me with that stubborn, sharp tone. She'd better annoy me. Because her being this quiet annoyed me even more.
When I carried Selene into the Healing House, the healer organizing potions looked up, nearly dropping the glass bottle in her hands.
"Michael Alpha?" Her gaze fell on Selene, her expression instantly changing, "Selene?"
Several assistants immediately surrounded us. My arms instinctively tightened. Their steps simultaneously paused.
The healer reacted first. She didn't reach out to touch Selene, just softened her voice, "Michael, we need to examine her."
I looked down at Selene. Her face was so pale it almost blended with the white sheets here.
Max growled lowly, "Don't let them hurt her."
I didn't answer. I just carried Selene toward the nearest ward, placing her on the bed. I watched them take Selene's temperature, check her pulse, and confirm her wolf's reactions. The herbal smell, disinfectant smell, the healers' lowered voices - every movement inexplicably irritated me. And Selene was too quiet, quiet as if all the sounds here had nothing to do with her.
The healer looked up at me, her expression very cautious, "No fatal injuries found, and it's not wolfsbane poisoning."
The stuffiness in my chest seemed to ease a little.
"But her physical condition is very poor." The healer looked at her record board, her tone becoming heavier, "Long-term sleep deprivation, mental exhaustion, weak wolf responses. She should have been under high stress recently."
I stared at her, "That's all?"
The healer was silent for a moment, "This isn't 'that's all,' Alpha."
My expression darkened. The healer seemed to realize her tone was too heavy and quickly lowered her head, "What I mean is, Selene didn't suddenly collapse today. She should have been holding on for a long time. It's just that today's emotional pressure was too great, and her body finally couldn't take it."
I was almost laughing from anger. Wasn't she always like this?
She would only shoulder everything alone, then collapse in front of everyone. Always stubborn, always not needing anyone. Not explaining when questioned by elders, not fighting when Evelyn took her potion, and when everyone was watching, just standing there quietly as if those words couldn't hurt her at all. Wasn't she best at pretending not to care, pretending indifference, pretending the whole world had nothing to do with her?
Max spoke coldly, "You're angry."
I stared at Selene on the hospital bed, my fingers tightening bit by bit, "Shut up."
"You're not angry because she's troublesome." Max's voice was terrifyingly low, "You're angry because you don't know anything."
The irritation in my chest felt like it was being violently torn open. My expression instantly turned cold, "I know enough."
"You don't know when she started becoming like this. You don't even know if she really betrayed you." Max continued coldly, "You only know how to hate her."
"She didn't." Max's voice was heavier than before, "She didn't betray you."
That black wolf was staring at me intently, those eyes showing no hesitation, no doubt. Like it had known the answer from the beginning. This made the irritation in my chest suddenly become sharper.
I asked coldly, "What makes you so certain?"
Max growled, "Because she's our Mate. Mates don't betray their own wolves like that."
I tugged at the corner of my mouth, coldness spreading from my chest bit by bit, "But I saw it, I smelled another wolf's scent!"
Mate. What a ridiculous word.
If Mate really meant something, then what was I?
From the day she chose to betray me, from the day she treated me like a joke she could casually discard, I should have hated her. And I had been doing exactly that - ignoring her, avoiding her. Never asking about anything concerning her, because those things shouldn't have anything to do with me. She had already made her choice back then, and I had no reason to continue putting her in my heart like an idiot.
Max's voice was low like a warning, "You believe what you smelled. But you never believed our mate."
Selene lay there - pale, quiet, fragile in a way that didn't seem like her. I looked at her, that irritation in my heart gradually transforming into something more unfamiliar.
I should not care, just like every time before - turn around, leave her to the Healing House, then stay away from her. But my feet seemed nailed to the spot, not moving a step.
My throat tightened, "Everyone out."
The door was gently closed. The ward finally became quiet.
I stared at Selene for a long time, long enough for that stuffiness in my chest to press down bit by bit until I could barely breathe. I stepped back, my whole body heavily falling into a chair, the chair legs scraping against the floor with a harsh sound. I closed my eyes, raising my hand to press against my temples, but the image of Selene collapsing was still stuck in my head. I suddenly bent over, hands braced on my knees, burying my face in my palms.
Damn. What the hell was I doing?
"Idiot." Max sneered.
My elbow accidentally hit the small table by the bed. Several documents slid off the edge, scattered on the floor. I opened my eyes and bent down to pick them up. On the top page was Selene's handwriting - calm, clear, just like her, without any excess emotion.
Some wolfsbane patient's recovery response, side effects after a suppressant failure, page after page of revised experimental plans.
Every page told me Selene wasn't just killing time at the Healing House - she had really put everything into this place. The more I read, the darker my expression became, until I saw an application form pressed at the bottom of the file folder. The paper was new, but the edges were creased from being picked up and put down, as if someone had hesitated many times.
My movements suddenly stopped.
Independent Laboratory Application.
Applicant: Selene.
Application Direction: Wolfbane Inhibitor Research.
Proposed Location: Storm Pack External Cooperation Zone.
The application date wasn't even today or these past few days. She had been preparing to leave long ago - long enough for me to understand this wasn't temporary spite.
The ward was terrifyingly quiet. I stared at those words, my mind blank.
Max roared, "She's our mate! She can't leave."
The stuffiness in my chest suddenly became something sharper, like a thorn stabbing fiercely into me. I jerked my head up, looking at Selene on the hospital bed. My breathing grew heavy, the application in my hand gripped tighter, the paper crumpling in my palm.
The next second, the application in my hand was violently torn apart by me. The sound of ripping paper was particularly clear in the quiet ward. I tore it forcefully, as if just by shredding these pages, Selene wouldn't leave.
She would stay where I could see her.
Max panted lowly, like a trapped beast, "Tearing it up is useless. She's already decided to leave."
My movements suddenly stopped. Torn paper slipped from between my fingers, scattered on the ground. The ward was so quiet only Selene's faint breathing remained. I stood there, chest heaving violently, my fingers still maintaining the posture of tearing paper.
But that anger didn't make me feel better at all. Instead, something colder settled deeper.
Clearly she was the one who pushed me away first. Clearly she was the one who brought another's scent to me first. Clearly she was the one who made me look like a joke, standing there, watching that so-called evidence, crushing all my expectations bit by bit.
I should have rejected this Bond that day. Should have personally severed everything related to her, made her completely disappear from my world!
These years, I didn't ask, didn't investigate, didn't deny her position as future Luna. I just stayed away from her, stopped myself from circling around a woman who didn't want me like some lovesick puppy. Every day pressing down that ridiculous instinct until Max went crazy in my consciousness daily. Pressing it down until I thought as long as I didn't look at her, didn't touch her, didn't care about her, this Bond would eventually become unimportant.
But now, she wouldn't even leave me this distance. She wanted to leave completely.
Max growled lowly, "Keep our mate."
I looked down at the scattered paper fragments, slowly clenching my fingers.
"Selene." My voice was so low it was barely audible. I stared at her pale face, the emotion in my chest that couldn't be suppressed finally completely transformed into something more dangerous, "You will never leave me!"
If she wanted to leave, then I'd give her reasons to stay. If she forgot whose Mate she was, then I'd make her remember.
One way or another.
