Chapter 2
When Lucius returned, Olivia was with him.
She was wearing his black shirt, and on her wrist was that bracelet — the one he crafted last year.
I had asked him for it.
He refused.
“She’s still recovering,” he said.
“You’ll sleep in the guest room these next few days. Let her have the master bedroom.”
“The guest room’s blinds are broken. It’s drafty.”
“Get an omega to fix it.”
His fingertips brushed lightly along Olivia’s neck. Her skin was flushed a strange red.
“Your constitution is weak. You can’t handle too much.”
Olivia curled into his arms, timid and soft-spoken. “Wouldn’t this be too much trouble for Leina? I heard she just graduated… She probably has her own things to deal with.”
“She’s fine,” Lucius replied, his voice suddenly gentle. “Taking care of you is what I should do.”
I woke at 5 a.m., shivering.
Just as I was about to get up to close the window, I heard footsteps in the hallway.
It was Alpha Lucius.
He wore a dark robe, holding a glass of warm water and pills.
“Olivia has a fever. Go check on her.”
“I’m not a doctor,” I said, fingernails digging into my palm.
“I told you to go.”
His voice carried that oppressive Alpha tone.
“Don’t forget your place.”
I pushed open the master bedroom door.
Olivia was curled under the covers, her cheeks flushed unnaturally.
The moment she saw me, her wolf ears drooped. “Leina?”
“Alpha Lucius asked me to check on you.”
She suddenly started coughing and reached clumsily for the glass on the nightstand.
But she accidentally knocked over the tray —
Glass shattered across the carpet, and one shard grazed her ankle.
A bead of blood welled up.
“Ah!” she gasped, eyes instantly welling with tears.
Alpha Lucius burst in at that very moment.
His wolf tail bristled, golden eyes locked on me. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t—”
“Enough.” He cut me off sharply. “From today on, you are not to enter this room without my permission.”
The next morning, Lucius knocked on the guest room door.
In his hand was a set of keys, the metal glinting in the morning light.
“Go clean out the south-facing room on the second floor. Olivia will stay there.”
“That’s my room.”
“She needs sunlight.”
He tossed the keys into my hand.
“Anything in there you don’t need — throw it out.”
That room held ten years of my memories:
The baby tooth I lost the first time I shifted into human form.
The first wolfstone he ever taught me to polish.
And the scarf I secretly knitted for his birthday last year — even though he never wore it.
When I pushed open the door, the sunlight stung my eyes.
The nightstand drawer was slightly ajar, revealing the corner of a diary.
It was Olivia’s.
Without thinking, I pulled it out.
The first page was her handwriting — delicate and bold:
“A diary handmade by Lucius. The wood came from the Black Forest. He cut himself carving my name.”
Below was a little sketch of a bloody paw print.
As I flipped through the pages, it was filled with gifts he had given her:
A silver bookmark engraved with her name, with a note: “He stayed up late carving it. Got stabbed by the chisel.”
A wool scarf: “His first time knitting. The stitches are messy, but it’s warm.”
A smooth river stone: “He said it looked like my eyes. He searched the creek for three days to find it.”
Every item held his warmth.
That awkward gentleness — the kind I had never seen from an Alpha.
Tucked at the end was a photo.
Lucius in his youth, dressed in a black school uniform, silver-grey wolf ears peeking from his hair, wrapping a scarf around the girl in his arms.
Sunlight spilled over their entwined hands, and his wolf tail quietly coiled around her wrist.
A tear splashed onto the photo, leaving a blurred mark.
“What are you looking at?”
Olivia’s voice suddenly rang from the doorway.
I hurriedly shut the diary, but a paper edge sliced my fingertip.
A drop of blood landed on the photo.
She stepped inside gracefully, her wolf tail sweeping elegantly behind her. Her tone was calm, even kind:
“Does it feel strange?”
She picked up the messy scarf, fingers gently brushing the rough stitches.
“He’s clumsy, you know. Never good with fancy things. But he always tries his best for me.”
Then she turned, voice suddenly cold.
“Did you know? The reason he brought you back that year… was because when you cried, your wolf tail would twitch like a little fan. Just like mine when I was young.”
“What are you trying to say?” My voice was shaking.
“I just think…” She took a step closer, eyes narrowing, “Some things don’t belong to you. It’s best to let them go. Look around this room — is there anything here that’s truly yours?”
I staggered back, hitting the edge of the bed.
The dull ache in my lower back snapped me back to reality —
She didn’t need to act pitiful.
Just one gentle push, and I saw how ridiculous I truly was.
That evening, Lucius came home early.
He sat in the living room reading documents. Olivia leaned against him, peeling an apple.
“Is the second-floor room ready?”
“Mm.”
Suddenly, Olivia let out a soft cry — she had nicked her finger.
Before the blood could drip, Lucius brought it to his lips.
“You’re so clumsy,” he said with mock blame,
but his wolf tail gently wrapped around her waist.
She rested against him. “I just think… Leina doesn’t seem very comfortable here. Maybe she could… go back to the Southern Border for a while?”
My heart sank.
Lucius finally looked at me.
His golden eyes were unreadable.
“She’s my niece. She has every right to live here.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Olivia quickly said, her wolf ears drooping pitifully.
“I just thought… she just graduated. Shouldn’t she have her own life? Following us around all the time—it’s not healthy, right?”
Lucius was silent for a moment, tapping his finger on the file cover.
“We’ll talk when you’re feeling better.”
He didn’t agree. But he didn’t refuse, either.
As I looked at their intertwined hands, I finally understood Olivia’s cunning.
She never needed to cry or scream to force him to choose.
She simply simmered him slowly — like boiling a frog.
And made him believe, on his own,
That I was the one who didn’t belong.
