Chapter 3

His brows furrowed tight.

"Where’s your mate, then? What kind of male lets you end up looking like this?"

I stayed silent, and he suddenly let out a dry, mocking laugh.

"What, trying to use a fake mating to get me to chase after you? Even if you told me you had a pup, I wouldn't buy a single word of it."

"After all, everyone knows you're just a shameless gold-digger who’d do anything for money."

He kept calling me a shameless gold-digger.

Yet back then, he was the one who confessed first.

I turned him down time after time, but he refused to give up.

It wasn't until a gang of rogue wolves harassed me on the street and he took a blow to protect me that I finally agreed to be with him...

How on earth did I become the desperate, manipulative parasite in his story?

Thinking back on it, I just gave an indifferent shrug.

"Believe whatever you want."

Clara put on a delicate act and took half a step back.

"Alex, the smell over here is unbearable. Let's just go. It's not like she appreciates your help anyway."

Yet Alex kept his eyes locked onto me, making no move to leave.

Clara shot me a frigid glare.

"How about this? We're meeting our investor today, and we could use an assistant to serve drinks. If you take the job, I'll pay you fifty grand."

"That kind of money should be enough to keep someone like you fed for a whole year, right?"

Alex finally chimed in, putting on a caring front.

"Mia, you won't accept my handout, but this is honest work. Swallow your ego and earn something to get yourself off the streets."

I almost laughed out loud from pure frustration.

"Are you two really that bored? I don't have time to play rich-people charity games with you. Please back off."

To spend this summer break with my pup, I had explicitly turned down several high-paying, multi-million-dollar healing requests from top Alpha clans just to squeeze out these three days off.

And they wanted me to serve drinks? Absolutely ridiculous.

My repeated refusals left Alex's face dark and stern, and even the ever-elegant Clara couldn't help rolling her eyes.

The surrounding crowd instantly erupted into whispers.

"Alpha Sterling, she's as broke as she is stubborn. You really dare to let someone like her serve such an important guest?"

"If you ask me, forget it. If she offends the VIP, our whole trip today is wasted."

The waiter panicked completely and hurriedly motioned for security.

"Get her out of here, fast! The investment pitch is about to start, and the royal VIP staying in the top-floor presidential suite could come down any minute!"

He glared at me through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with rage.

"Listen to me, lady! Every single person in this lobby is a high-ranking Alpha from the territories. We even have the royal heir of the Lycan bloodline here with his mate and pup! This hotel has never hosted a crowd this powerful!"

"Any other day, I'd turn a blind eye if you wanted to dig through trash or sell cardboard. But today? You making a scene here ruins our reputation with every elite pack present!"

"I'm just a nobody working a shift—I'll lose my head if this gets ruined! I am begging you, just leave!"

The security guards, who had been somewhat restrained, immediately stepped forward to drag me out by force.

I yanked my arm back fiercely. "I can walk myself!"

Seeing that I was finally leaving, everyone present let out a long sigh of relief.

"Wait!"

Alex's sharp voice cut through the air.

His eyes were pinned dead on the crystal pendant in my hand, his hands clenched into fists at his sides so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Mia," he said, his voice raspy and harsh. "Why still don't you get it... I stopped needing these useless trinkets years ago."

I looked down at the bright crystal pendant resting in my palm, my mind drifting backward.

When we first got together, he wasn't the powerful head of the Sterling Pack—he was just a weak, struggling rogue wolf trying to build a business from scratch.

He suffered failure after failure. Every rejection from investors crushed his spirit, leaving him sitting in silence for days like a hollow shell.

I was too worried to leave him alone, so I often sat by his side in silence.

Once, after a devastating business failure that nearly crushed him completely, he held me and wept like a child.

I reached into my pocket, pulled out a crystal pendant and pressed it into his hand.

"Alex, I know you'll overcome all these failures and become the most formidable Alpha in the pack world."

"So don't give up. Believe in yourself."

"I'm giving you this crystal because it brings good luck. I want to see you smile again, okay?"

With bloodshot eyes, he clutched the crystal tightly, nodded, and finally let out a smile.

From that day on, he regained his resolve and rebuilt his business step by step.

I even set aside my own dream of becoming a top pack Healer to pour myself into learning finance and accounting.

I carefully budgeted every single cent, analyzed every risk detail for his projects, all just to save him from being humiliated by investors.

And after every major milestone, I'd buy him another crystal in a different color to pray for our future together...

So many years had passed. If he hadn't brought it up today, I would have completely forgotten about that past.

Seeing my silence, Clara suddenly burst into a light laugh.

"Alex threw out that box of old crystals years ago. You aren't seriously trying to use such a childish trick to win him back, are you?"

Alex glanced at me sideways, his tone utterly flat.

"Mia, Clara and I are holding our mating ceremony soon. There's nothing left between us."

I didn't bother wasting another breath on them, turning around toward the elevators.

Just then, the phone in my pocket began to ring.