Chapter 3

If Sebastian wanted to leave, be my guest. If Leo wanted to be close to someone else, that was his choice. I wouldn't dwell on it anymore.

"Mm." I nodded and turned to head inside, but Leo called out to me again.

"Mama!"

This time, there was an edge of urgency in his voice.

I thought he had something to say to me, so I looked back at him.

His little face was still composed, but his eyes were bright. "Papa taught me how to control my claws today."

I had already seen it.

I was about to nod in acknowledgment when memories from the past surfaced.

In the past, I would always ask Leo how his day went whenever he came home. Then, I would praise him enthusiastically for every little thing he learned.

If he awakened a sharper sense of smell, I would tell him how amazing he was, how he could help me find my lost keys in the future.

Every time, Leo would keep a straight face and say, "These are just the most basic instincts of a werewolf. Silly Mama, your bloodline is too weak. You'll never understand."

Yet, I could see the pride hidden beneath his childish temper, so I let it slide.

But that day, I showed no reaction at all.

If anything, I was lukewarm to anything he had to say. I looked as though I didn't care that he had learned to control his claws. So, it wasn't surprising that Leo brought it up himself.

That said, something in my chest ached faintly.

Still, I simply forced it down. "Mm. Keep up the good work."

The light in Leo's face dimmed instantly. He huffed before turning to Elina instead. "Ms. Elina, am I strong?"

"Of course. You're a born Alpha," she affirmed with a bright smile.

Leo asked if she could take him into town to buy ice cream. Elina nodded, and he took her hand as they passed by me.

"I want three. One for Papa, one for you, and one for me."

I knew that he had said it loudly just to make sure I heard it.

In the past, I would have hidden in my room and cried over something like this. But now… I didn't care about that sort of thing any longer.

…

I went inside and placed the pawned money into a drawer.

When I started packing, I first sorted out Sebastian's and Leo's clothes. Just as I was about to set them aside, Sebastian walked in.

He looked at what I was doing and said in a low voice, "Everything is custom-made in the territory. There's no need to bring these old clothes."

I looked up at him in surprise and immediately realized that he had misunderstood.

Sebastian stepped closer, his imposing presence pressing down on me. His gaze settled heavily on my face. "Faye, we're leaving tomorrow," he said.

I knew that already.

He had said it on the day his bloodline awakened. He had told me he needed three days to settle things in the human world. After that, he would have to return to his territory.

In my previous life, I had still assumed that Sebastian would surely take Leo and me with him now that he had become an Alpha. At the time, I'd been confused because what other unfinished business could he possibly have here if we were both going with him?

Only later did I realize that the "unfinished business" he spoke of… was me. And the people he intended to take were Leo and Elina.

Leo, I could understand—he carried Sebastian's werewolf bloodline. But Elina… I had never been able to understand why.

In my previous life, Sebastian explained that Elina had once saved his life, and he owed her a promise. Elina herself said that her family had fallen. She was a lone wolf seeking protection, hoping to join the Silverfang Pack.

"Elina has nowhere else to go. The Silverfang Pack has strict rules—only by entering as a sworn loyalist can she be allowed into the territory."

And so, I became the one left behind in the human world.

In my previous life, I had argued fiercely with Sebastian over this, but in the end, Leo's words shattered all my illusions.

"You can't do anything in the territory," he said. "You can't even protect yourself. Are you expecting the entire pack to assign people just to guard a useless weak-blood?"

Under Sebastian's guidance, Leo had grown up believing in the werewolf law of survival of the fittest. He thought that rather than clinging to the position of an Alpha's mate and becoming a laughingstock, I should step aside for Elina—someone who could actually fight alongside his father.