Chapter 4

Dead silence filled the line.

The background noise vanished.

Through the glass, I saw Sebastian freeze abruptly. He shoved Amelia away and looked around in panic.

“Evelyn…” His voice changed.

“Why would you ask something like that? Are you still looking for Amelia?”

An invisible hand clenched my heart, squeezing until it bled.

“Evelyn, what are you saying? How could I not love you?” Sebastian’s voice was urgent.

“The mating ceremony is in one week. You’re my only Luna. You know that.”

Only Luna.

How ironic.

“Is this because I didn’t reply to your message?” he continued.

“I was just dealing with some urgent family matters. It wasn’t intentional.”

He kept spinning his web of lies, his voice filled with the kind of tenderness I had once been hopelessly in love with.

“Baby, go home and rest. When I’m done, I’ll come find you and help you look for Amelia, alright?”

Help me look?

You don’t need to look. She’s right beneath you. I saw it with my own eyes.

When I didn’t respond, he added,

“And tomorrow we still have the final fitting for your wedding dress.”

I remembered him telling me,

“My Luna deserves the most beautiful wedding dress in the world.”

It was all an act.

He could be entwined with Amelia and still discuss the details of our mating ceremony with me, without missing a beat.

What kind of acting did that take?

What kind of heart made of iron?

“Alright.” My voice was unexpectedly calm.

“I’ll wait for you.”

This would be the last lie I ever told him.

I hung up before he could reply.

I had heard enough of his lies.

And enough of Amelia’s muffled, broken, nearly spilling-over sounds.

I walked back to my car.

My hands shook uncontrollably on the steering wheel—

just like that fifteen-year-old girl once cornered by rogue wolves.

But this time, there was no Amelia to save me.

This time, Amelia was the one hurting me.

Tears blurred the road ahead.

The harsh scenery outside couldn’t compare to the toxic, filthy darkness poisoning my heart.

I wanted to start the car and escape it all, but my hands trembled so badly they no longer felt like my own.

I couldn’t even get the key into the ignition.

I needed to calm down.

So I dug my nails deep into my palm, trying to claw back a shred of control through pain.

But my vision was soaked, softened, distorted by tears.

All I could do was collapse against the steering wheel, sobbing until it felt like I might suffocate.

At six in the morning, my hands finally stopped shaking.

The tears had dried, leaving my cheeks stretched tight with pain.

I wiped my face and started the engine.

Now.

Leave.

And never look back.

Just then, the heavy steel door of the club creaked open.

Several figures staggered out, cigarettes between their lips, laughter cutting sharply through the quiet dawn.

I recognized every one of them.

Ronan—Sebastian’s most capable peer leader, a high-ranking Beta in the pack, who used to incline his head slightly whenever he saw me.

Kane—the shrewd family accountant. Just last month, we had discussed emerging tech stocks at a dinner party.

Axel—Sebastian’s cousin. His wife had sorted donation supplies for the orphanage with me just last weekend.

I thought they were my friends.

My family.

“Looks like Alpha Sebastian prefers women with a bit of wildness,” Ronan laughed, exhaling smoke.

“No wonder he went at it all night and even postponed the morning meeting.”

Kane flicked ash from his cigarette, his voice dripping with undisguised contempt.

“A sheltered girl like Evelyn—sure, she’s nice to look at. But in bed?”

“Tsk. Probably stiff as a plank. Alpha Sebastian is still a man. He has to find some fun somewhere.”

Axel burst out laughing.

“That little wild mare Amelia—she’s game for anything. No wonder Sebastian’s hooked. If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to resist either.”

Their words, sentence by sentence, were like dull knives slowly slicing into my flesh.

Not fatal—but they scraped away something that had held me upright for years, until nothing remained.

So this was how they saw me.

A beautiful, elegant ornament—

fit to stand beside an Alpha and decorate his image.

A future Luna without “wildness.”

Boring. That was my place.

And Amelia—alive, vivid, brimming with raw ferocity—

able to ignite fire both under the moon and between the sheets.

That was real existence.

That was the kind of woman who matched a powerful Alpha’s instincts.

They all knew.

Every single one of them.

While I lay awake at night worrying whether Amelia had come to harm, they laughed at my stupidity.

When I told Sebastian, I’ll wait for you, they treated it like a farce.

When I believed I was about to become the Luna of the Wellington family, they had already pinned the label boring onto me.

Just then, the club door opened again.

Sebastian and Amelia walked out.

Amelia’s face was still flushed from sex, her eyes lazy and satisfied.

They did look like they’d had a wonderful night.

Amelia swung a leg over her motorcycle.

Sebastian stepped closer, his hand resting on her bare thigh—

naturally, lingeringly.

That kind of public intimacy was something I would never learn.

In that instant, I switched on my headlights.

Sebastian squinted reflexively, lifting a hand to shield his eyes.

When his vision finally adjusted—

through the flowing glare and the filthy glass—

and he recognized my face behind the wheel,

the color drained from his face.

His lips moved.

No sound reached me.

But the shape of the word was unmistakable.

“Evelyn…”