Chapter 8

"Miss who?"

The gentle mask on Gianna's face finally cracked.

She slammed her fork down with a clatter.

"Aiden, what is wrong with you tonight?"

She stood up, walked around the table, and slid onto his lap. She cupped his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her.

"Look at me, Aiden. I'm your Gianna. The woman you swore to love for the rest of your life. Your chosen mate."

Her tears came on command, perfectly pitiful.

"The Mating Ceremony is almost here. I'm so excited for our life together."

She lowered her head, pressing a kiss to the column of his throat. Her hand slid under his shirt, seeking the warmth of his skin. A blatant, desperate seduction.

But Aiden grabbed her hand and pulled her off his lap. The movement was almost rough.

"Stop," he said, his voice quiet but laced with steel. "Not yet. Our first time should be sacred, under the full moon."

Gianna froze.

"Why?" Her voice trembled, her eyes filled with suspicion. "Is it really about the ceremony? Or is it because... you don't actually love me?"

Aiden sighed.

He seemed truly exhausted, too tired to even argue properly.

"Don't be ridiculous." He reached out to smooth her hair, his eyes glazing over as he drifted into a memory.

"Bella, do you know why I chose you? Why it had to be you?"

Gianna blinked. "Because... I'm the princess of the Creek Valley Pack?"

"No." Aiden shook his head. "It was because of the candy."

The candy?

My ghostly form jolted.

"That snowy night, after my first shift," Aiden's voice grew low and distant. "The Luna had poisoned me with wolfsbane, and I was left for dead in the manor's garden. I was burning up, so delirious I couldn't even see who you were."

"Just when I thought I was going to die, someone pushed a piece of candy into my mouth."

His eyes softened with a reverence I had never seen before—a look reserved only for the memory of his savior.

"It was a piece of candy. Lemon. So sour it made my eyes water, but it cut right through the fever. It saved me."

He looked at Gianna, his voice thick with emotion. "When I woke up, the only thing I had was a handkerchief with your family's crest on it. From that moment, I swore I would spend my life repaying the girl who saved me in the snow."

Gianna's expression froze.

It was a complex mask of guilt, panic, and then a flicker of triumphant relief.

But I felt the spirit blood in my veins turn to ice.

Eight years ago, on that snow-swept night, I had knelt at the old Alpha's door for three days, begging for the antidote.

My knees were numb with cold, my forehead was raw and bleeding from kowtowing.

The old Alpha still refused.

In despair, I went back to the mountainside and found Aiden, barely breathing.

I had no medicine. No water.

All I had was a single piece of candy a witch had given me out of pity.

I held him in the snow all night, forcing my own warmth into his freezing body, whispering his name like a prayer.

Only after the fever broke did I realize the witch's 'pity' had been a dose of the antidote.

As for the handkerchief...

Gianna had walked by, disgusted by the sight of us. She had dropped it after using it to cover her nose from the "stench of poverty" she claimed we had!

So that was it.

That was the truth behind his love for her.

It wasn't love. It wasn't destiny.

It was a lie. A decade-long lie built on a single, stolen piece of candy.

A silent scream tore through my soul. I wanted to claw at his face, to howl the truth until it made his ears bleed.

IT WAS ME! IT WAS ALWAYS ME!

But I couldn't.

I was a ghost.

"Aiden..." Gianna had clearly recovered.

Her eyes darted around for a split second—a flicker of panic—before they filled with manufactured tears. "Aiden," she breathed, her voice thick with emotion. "You remembered."

She threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest to hide the cunning in her eyes.

"I just couldn't bear to see you suffering... I never thought you'd remember it for so long."

"Even without a fated mate bond, I love you, Gianna."

I started to laugh, a hollow, rattling sound only I could hear.

Oh, Aiden. You absolute fool. You gave your heart to a thief.