Chapter 3

?

I spent the rest of the day handing over my work.

Near dusk, the Gamma came into my treatment room and placed two tickets to the Moonlight Theater on my desk.

“You know the Alpha. He isn’t good at apologizing, and sometimes he acts without thinking, but he does care about you.”

“You’ve wanted to see The Moon Goddess’s Daughter for ages. The moment he heard it was being performed, he reserved the best seats.”

“Nine tonight, outside the Moonlight Theater. Please be there, Charlotte.”

I studied the tickets thoughtfully.

I knew they were Callum’s way of extending an olive branch, and I understood that the show was his attempt to make amends.

I had no intention of going until the Gamma told me Callum also wanted to discuss our Marking Ceremony.

There were things that needed to be said face-to-face.

At nine, I arrived outside the Moonlight Theater.

Callum appeared in a long black coat.

But he was not alone. Isabella was right behind him.

When he saw me looking at her, he immediately explained.

“The envoys from the Silver Ridge Pack are still here. Isabella is not only the Beta’s daughter but also our Saintess. She needs to help me maintain relations between the two packs.”

The moment I saw them standing side by side, I suddenly had nothing left to say to the man in front of me.

I calmly entered the theater and took my seat.

During our nine years together, I had often wanted to enjoy the Moonlight Festival with Callum like any ordinary couple and see a performance at the theater together.

He would take my hand and coax me gently.

“Once I’ve persuaded the elders, we’ll be able to sit together openly.”

“I’m only trying to protect you. If I push them now, they’ll direct all their anger at you.”

Yet all these years, he had taken Isabella to every pack banquet and stood beside her while welcoming every visitor from Silver Ridge.

As the Saintess chosen to serve the Moon Goddess, she even presided over the Moonlight Festival and Marking Ceremonies.

The excuses Callum had once dressed up as protection echoed in my head, mocking the trust I had placed in him.

Halfway through the performance, Isabella suddenly leaned close to his ear.

“The Silver Ridge envoys were attacked by rogues at the border. The Beta needs us in the council chamber immediately.”

For years, Isabella had used her dual status as the Beta’s daughter and the pack’s Saintess to stand openly at Callum’s side. She attended council meetings with him and helped him handle pack affairs.

Everyone believed she belonged beside the Alpha.

Only I—the woman he had personally promised to make his Luna—was expected to wait in the shadows, unacknowledged.

“We have to go,” Callum told me. “You can make your own way home after the show.”

He did not ask what I wanted. He simply left with her.

I remained in my seat and quietly watched the performance to the end.

I would not suffer over a man who refused to keep his promises anymore. I would not be anxious every time he walked away.

Whatever time and love I had left would belong to me.

After the performance, I went to the pack hospital alone.

The pain from my failing wolf spirit made sleep impossible. Only injections of powerful painkillers could offer temporary relief.

I breathed in the hospital’s harsh medicinal scent while the television on the wall aired a report on the attack against the Silver Ridge envoys.

Callum and Isabella had handled the attack on the Silver Ridge envoys together. Standing side by side beneath the moonlight, they looked perfectly matched.

I fell asleep before the report ended, dimly aware of the phone in my pocket vibrating again and again.

It was late at night by the time I returned home.

From a distance, I saw a tall figure standing outside my door.

It was Callum.

Whenever he returned wounded from a dangerous border patrol, I had waited at the infirmary to treat him.

He was the Alpha. There were always too many people and too many responsibilities demanding his attention. He had never had time to wait for me.

I never imagined there would come a day when he would be the one waiting for me to come home.

?