Chapter 35
Kael’s POV
I didn’t sleep that night. I could not rest, not after what had happened at the engagement party.
Even after my parents agreed to punish Roxanne, I couldn’t calm the storm in my chest. I had waited, eavesdropping on their argument, thinking it would bring me peace. It hadn’t. It just made me angrier.
They had summoned Roxanne to the study. I wasn’t allowed in the room, but I stood just outside, pretending to be on my phone. I heard everything.
“Roxanne,” my mother said coldly, her eyes narrowing, “you will apologize for what you did and promise that something like this will never happen again. You are never to take anything that doesn’t belong to you. Do you understand me?”
Roxanne lowered her head. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Yes, Luna Grace. I promise it won’t happen again.”
“And,” my father added, “you will write a personal apology to Luna Grace. You will deliver it in person. With
sincerity.”
That was it.
That was her punishment.
I wanted to laugh. Or scream. Or shift and break something.
A promise? An apology? A letter? That was a slap on the wrist. That wasn’t justice. That wasn’t nearly enough. She lied to me, betrayed me and made a fool out of me. And now she got to walk away with a fake “sorry” and a little letter?
Valric, my wolf, growled in my mind.
“This is nothing,” he snarled. “She deserves more.”
“I know,” I muttered while pacing inside my room.
“She made us look like fools. We should have demanded exile. Or at least rejected the engagement.”
I ran a hand through my hair. I agreed. Every word Valric said rang true. But I was trapped. The pack didn’t know about Roxanne’s betrayal. If we called it off now, people would talk. Rumors would spread.
Weakness would be seen.
And now, to make matters worse, I was being forced to attend the Crescent Pack’s celebration that evening. With Roxanne.
I had protested, argued and even raised my voice.
“I don’t want to go,” I said to my father. “I am not feeling well.”
“You have to,” he said firmly. “You’re going to be the next Alpha. This alliance with the Crescent Pack matters. Your presence matters. You and Roxanne will attend together. End of discussion.”
I hated it. Every second of it.
Hours later, I found myself dressed in a crisp navy-blue shirt and black pants, with Roxanne clinging to my side like a leech. She smiled brightly, her red lips too perfect, too fake. Her fingers were curled around my arm and I resisted the urge to shake her off.
“You look so handsome tonight, Kael,” she said sweetly while pressing close.
I said nothing.
We arrived at the Crescent Pack’s event. Lights shimmered. Music played. Warriors and Lunas danced gracefully across the polished floor. I felt like I was choking.
I walked beside Roxanne, smiled for the sake of appearances, nodded when people greeted me. But
inside, I was numb.
At some point, I walked away from her. I needed air.
I found a quiet corner of the grand hall and grabbed a glass of lemonade from a passing tray. The tartness
bit my tongue. I stared down at it, wondering if spilling it on Roxanne’s new green dress would be
considered an accident.
I almost chuckled.
That’s when I saw her.
Lisa.
She stepped through the crowd like a ghost from my past. My breath caught in my throat.
I blinked.
No. It couldn’t be.
But it was.
Her long brown hair was braided over one shoulder. She wore a red gown that hugged her curves modestly. Her eyes were wide and uncertain. She was scanning the crowd. And standing beside her was
Alpha Rylan.
My blood froze.
I stared. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
Valric stirred inside me.
“It’s her,” he said, voice hoarse. “She’s alive. She’s real.”
“She’s here,” I whispered.
She hadn’t noticed me yet. She looked radiant. She was different and stronger. There was something in the way she held herself now. Like she wasn’t the same girl who cried after I rejected her.
And then I realized that she was now with him. He must have given her shelter at his pack after she had
run away.
“She is with another Alpha,” Valric growled. “You let her go. And now she’s his.”
“No…”
But yes.
I remembered the boutique. The dress shop in the Frostbane territory. That moment when I saw a flash of
someone who looked like her. It had been her. I hadn’t imagined it.
She had been there.
She was there now.
And she didn’t even glance my way.
I gripped the glass tightly. My hand trembled.
I had hoped… some foolish, hidden part of me had hoped she might come back. That she might forgive
- That I might get a second chance.
But how could she?
I rejected her.
I humiliated her in front of everyone. My family helped. I turned my back on her, made her feel like she was
nothing.
She had every reason to hate me.
“You were a fool,” Valric snarled. “You pushed away your mate. You chose pride and power. You chose that
b***h, Roxanne. You disgust me.”
I clenched my jaw. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run to her. Fall to my knees. Beg her for another
chance.
But she wouldn’t give it. Not after what I did.
She deserved better.
She had found better.
“Valric,” I whispered. “What have I done?”
“We lost her. You lost her. And now, we suffer.”
I lay in bed. My arms were folded behind my head. My eyes were fixed on the ceiling as if it held answers
to questions I didn’t even know how to ask.
Sleep wouldn’t come.
Not since I saw her.
I kept seeing her face, the way she stood beside Rylan like she belonged there. The way he looked at her as if she was the most important thing in the world.
That should’ve been me.·
It was supposed to be me.
But I had ruined it. I had pushed her away and rejected her like she was nothing, when in truth, she had
been everything.
I turned onto my side. The sheets felt suffocating. My thoughts were worse.
Rylan had said it so easily.
“She’s under my protection now.”
And Lisa didn’t flinch. She didn’t protest. She let him say it like she had accepted it. Like she wanted it.
The ache in my chest spread deeper.
Rylan had stood so close to her. I had seen the way his hand hovered near her lower back, the way she leaned ever so slightly toward him. She was so comfortable with him.
How long had they been like that?
How close had they become?
I clenched my jaw, trying to push away the image, but it kept replaying. Over and over. Her soft smile. His easy confidence. Their quiet understanding.
It made my blood boil.
And yet… I had no right to be angry.
I was the one who gave her up.
I was the one who chose Roxanne.
I rolled back onto my back with a heavy sigh and covered my face with both hands.
Stupid. I was so stupid.
I thought rejecting Lisa would be the easiest path. I thought I was choosing what was best for my pack and my future. Roxanne was strong, favored, respected by everyone, and I was too blinded by
expectations to see what was right in front of me.
And now? All I could see was her.
And worse, I was even hearing her voice.
“Am I really your daughter?”
The words had been unsure. But they had hit like a hammer.
Why would Lisa ask something like that? What made her question her own blood?
And even stranger, why hadn’t her mother answered?
I remembered the silence. That long, telling pause. Her mother hadn’t said yes. Hadn’t said no. She had
just… stared.
Like she had been caught.
Like the truth was too heavy to speak aloud.
It unsettled me.
Was there something about Lisa, something none of us knew?
Something even she hadn’t been told?
My wolf stirred inside me. “She’s not just anyone,” Valric murmured. “There’s something different about
her. You felt it. I felt it. You still do.”
I swallowed hard and stared harder at the ceiling as if I could burn the truth into my skull.
Lisa was changing. She was becoming stronger. Her eyes were sharper and her presence more grounded.
She wasn’t the broken girl I had humiliated that night.
She was becoming something more.
And Rylan saw it.
He was by her side as she discovered it.
That should’ve been us, Valric growled.
“I know,” I whispered into the dark. “I know.”
I rolled over again, dragging the pillow over my head like it could shut my thoughts out.
It didn’t.
Nothing helped.
Because no matter how hard I tried, I kept thinking of her-her voice, her scent, the pain in her eyes when I
said the words she’ll never forget.
I, Alpha Kael Blackthorn, reject you as my mate.
And now?
Now I was the one haunted.
Now I was the one lying alone in the dark, staring at the ceiling, wondering how I had been so blind.
Lisa should’ve been here with me in this bed. In my life.
But instead, she was out there with Rylan.
Because I had thrown her away.
And I had no one to blame but myself.
