One: Played The Perfect Wife For Five Years

ONE: DAHLIA

If I try hard enough, then he'd finally notice and love me.

That was my mantra for the last five years.

So I tried really hard. I tried my hardest. I built his pack. I ensured that I built diplomatic relationships with other packs. I strengthened our defense. I created numerous programs and schemes that involved people at the grassroots level, and in turn, improved our finances, making the Shadow Claw Pack one of the most reputable packs in the country.

I attended diplomatic meetings, memorized the names of all the important personnel in the country, built relationships with them, sent them gifts on anniversaries and birthdays just to leverage on that to get contracts and investments in my husband's company.

I did all of these while my husband, Aaron Campbell was still mourning his dead ex-wife.

I did all of that while my husband drank occasionally, staying up in Lilith, his dead ex-wife's room… While mourning her, he forgot how to be an alpha, he forgot how to lead his own people, forgot how to be anything but a man mourning a dead wife.

And of course, he forgot he had a new wife. Both in public and in private. My husband only performed his husband duties during full moons because he needed me to conceive and have his heir. In public, he doesn't even remember me at all. We never attended social gatherings together. He doesn't even know my birthday or our anniversary, not to mention celebrating it.

But I never complained. In a way, I understood his grief. Lilith was after all his fated mate. I was patient. I knew he'd one day come to accept me and appreciate all I've done for his pack.

I didn't have to wait for long because almost five years after our wedding, Shadow Claw Pack was picked as one of the top five packs in the country. It was a rare feast and something that had never happened to the pack before. I was of course named as the main influence over the immense growth. I attended the award show alone, gave a speech where I thanked Aaron, my husband even though I felt a crumbling shame inside.

All the other attendees were coupled up but I was the only single one. I was certain that Aaron was in Lilith’s room, probably drinking and moping at her death but to my greatest surprise, when I got back home, Aaron was in our matrimonial bedroom watching the award show that I had just arrived from.

He was awfully quiet and still as I walked into the open closet to take off my clothes.

“We were awarded the top five packs under the direction of the Lycan King,” I told him when the silence got too loud to bear. He didn't say anything.

I didn't even know he had moved until I felt a presence behind me. I turned back and there he was, my husband, looking at me with eyes so full of guilt and shame.

“I haven't been good to you, Dahila,” he started, his voice sounding equally wounded.

“You've been my wife for five years and I've never really looked at you once. I've never appreciated you and you never complained. Five years ago, Shadow Claw was nothing as a pack. We weren't just struggling, we were far behind completely, and now, you worked so hard to get our pack into being one of the best packs in the country.”

I opened my mouth to talk but he pressed on, “earlier today, my beta bought me a list of everything you've done since you became my Luna. The jobs you've created, the diplomatic relationships you've forged, and the way you've improved our finances by 500%. If it wasn't for you, this pack would probably be nothing by now.”

“I just did what I had to do as your Luna,” I replied softly because I was caught off guard by everything. I couldn't even recall the last time he was in our matrimonial room.

“No, you didn't have to, Dahila, especially not for a man who was so caught up in his grief and forgot to appreciate what was right in front of him.”

My breath got caught in my throat, “What are you talking about?”

“I'm talking about how I'm going to do right now with you. I'm going to treat you like my wife and Luna,” he intertwined our hands and slowly raised them to his mouth. He planted a soft kiss on my palm with his eyes still locked on me.

“I'm going to love and worship you as you deserve.”

This must be a dream, I thought to myself. There was no way the man who had never looked at me once in the past five years was suddenly professing his undying love to me. It shouldn't be possible but I realized it was when he kissed me as his life depended on it.

He took me to bed and made sweet, languorous love to me all night long.

It didn't end there. It didn't end the next day. It continued for weeks till I could tell that Aaron was genuinely falling in love with me. He has always forgotten about our anniversaries but this year, he made sure to plan everything to perfection. It was a grand party and would serve as our first public event together. Invitations were sent to all the important personnel in the country, including the Lycan King.

I was currently getting my makeup done for the party when Maeve, my handmaiden, walked in with a bouquet of Dahila flowers. A blush rose to my cheeks because I already knew who the flowers were from.

“You're truly lucky,” Maeve told me after I finished inhaling the smell of the flowers, “I never thought he'd come around one day and I'm glad your patience paid off.”

I smiled at her. Over the years, Maeve had grown from just my handmaiden to a close confidant and each time she saw how Aaron discarded me, she'd urge me to just leave him.

“Is everything in order though?” I asked her for the umpteenth time and she went on to recount how everything was going on perfectly. The hall was in order. The food was ready. The decorations were impeccably done and the guests were starting to arrive.

The makeup artist finished working on my face and we were in the middle of fitting my body into the blue gown when we heard a commotion outside.

It started suddenly like a collective gasp of shock before loud and incomprehensible murmurs broke out.

I looked at Maeve, “That doesn't sound like a pleasant shock of seeing an important person arrive for the party, right?”

“No, my Luna, it doesn't sound like it. Give me a minute, I'll go and see what's happening outside.”

She disappeared and she appeared minutes later, face ashen with shock. Her expression made me stop.

“What is it, Maeve? Who is it?”

“It is… It’s… Luna Dahila, you need to see this.”

I didn't even wait for her to finish talking before I was already on my way outside where a crowd was already gathered downstairs.

I walked around the open courtyard and climbed down the stairs in a trance. I was at the foot of the stairs when the crowd parted and I saw who it was that had shocked everyone with their arrival.

It was Lilith Campbell, my husband's supposedly dead ex-wife and she wasn't alone. Holding her hands was a boy who was Aaron's carbon copy and who looked like he was around 4-5 years old.

The world stopped completely around me. Behind me, someone yelled Lilith, and the person who was running to her with so much speed they bumped into me, and the force pushed me to the ground.

It was Aaron and he was now holding his dead ex-wife like she was all of his dreams come to pass.