Too Late to Claim Me, Uncle Alpha

The text kept scrolling, line after crowded line.

[He only pulled Vivian behind him because he was scared you'd go after her before your wounds had healed. And that cold look? He's mad at the guards for not looking after you and letting you come to the ceremony before you'd healed.]

[After you took those arrows for him and passed out, he sat in the medical tent for three days straight. You lost so much blood he nearly gave you all of his. How could Kane not love the little white wolf he raised himself?]

I swallowed the ache in my chest and pretended I hadn't seen any of it.

As if nothing had happened, I held my hand out to Kane and smiled, even though my eyes stung.

"Since you have your own Luna now, Uncle Kane, could I have my moonstone necklace back?"

The floating text went wild.

[That's the love token you gave him when you confessed your love at 18. Why take it back? Kane treasures that thing. He won't let anyone else so much as touch it!]

But the next second, Vivian spoke up, her voice timid. "Ms. Hawthorne, is this the one you mean?"

The one-of-a-kind moonstone was hanging around her neck.

It felt like a slap in front of everyone. My ears wouldn't stop ringing.

Even the noisy text in front of my eyes went quiet for a second.

Vivian fumbled with the clasp. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was yours. I'll take it off and give it back right now..."

But as she held it out, she let go right before my fingers touched the chain.

It hit the floor with a crack, and the fragile moonstone shattered.

Gasps went up all over the council hall.

Everyone in Moonbridge remembered the ceremony where I'd declared my love at 18. I'd put the necklace around Kane's neck myself, lifted my chin, and announced, "Take my moonstone, and you're my wolf from now on. As long as this stone is whole, so are we. If you ever dare break it, I'll never want you again!"

Kane had laughed and called me a little tyrant, but he never once took it off.

Now it had ended up around Vivian's neck first, and then in pieces at my feet.

Vivian's eyes went red at once. She tugged on Kane's sleeve and cried, "I'm sorry, Alpha. I've caused you trouble again..."

She scrambled to pick up the pieces. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, Ms. Hawthorne. I'll find someone to fix it, I promise..."

"Don't touch it!" I shouted.

A second later, a sharp shard sliced her finger, and blood dripped onto the moonstone.

Kane grabbed my wrist, and his face went cold. "Sandra, I'm the one who put that necklace on her. If you're angry, take it out on me. Don't hurt her over something this small."

I looked at him for a moment.

"I was only trying to warn her. The stone's sharp."

I opened my hand. In my palm was one of the bandages I always carried.

Kane froze.

I crouched down and gathered the pieces of moonstone into my pocket, one by one.

"It's just an old necklace. It doesn't matter that it broke. But Ms. Cole's hand is another matter. You should bandage it for her, Uncle Kane."

Kane stared at me for a long time without a word.

Only when I turned to go did he call after me, his voice low. "Your arrow wounds haven't healed. Go back and get some rest."

I smiled. "Thanks for worrying about me, Uncle Kane."

His brows drew sharply together. The floating text rushed back in.

[Kane's panicking! No matter how mad you used to get, you'd still cling to him. Now you're being this good, and he's already scared of losing you!]

I didn't look back.

It wasn't until I was out of earshot of the council hall that the tears came pouring out.

Mae, the housekeeper, caught up with me. She looked at the broken moonstone in my palm and sighed. "If it hurts this much, why not fight for him one more time? The Alpha's kindness to you all these years was real."

She wasn't wrong.

When I was 13, my parents died in the war. The relatives who'd always been so close to us were scared the vampires would come after them, so not one of them would take me in. But every one of them wanted the land and mines my parents left behind.

Only Kane, who'd just become the Alpha, stepped in front of me and told everyone that no one was touching what belonged to me.

He brought me home to Moonbridge. At night he sat up with me when I was too scared to sleep, and during the day, after he'd dealt with pack business, he always checked whether I'd eaten.

In front of everyone else, the Alpha was cold, hard, and quiet. With me, his patience never ran out.

That was exactly why I believed the floating text in my last life. I cried and screamed at the wedding until Kane called off the ceremony.

Vivian couldn't take the gossip. She left Moonbridge alone and died at the hands of rogues.

Kane came back carrying her ashes. In front of the whole pack, he named her Luna after her death. Then he sent me into rogue territory himself.

Every time I got away, he tracked me down through the Moonbridge mind-link and handed my location to the rogues.

The last time, I screamed myself hoarse asking him why. He only asked, coldly, "Is this how hopeless Vivian felt when they hunted her down?"

Only then did I understand. When he loved me, he could treat me like the most precious thing in the world. When he hated me, he could really stand there and watch me die.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the hunting grounds.

The ambush happened exactly as before. Three arrows flew at Kane, and I still took them for him.

Moonbridge took me in. Kane raised me.

Those three arrows were how I paid them back.

But I was done begging him to choose me.

I wiped my eyes and told Mae, "I'm going to see Kane's parents right now."

When I saw them, I bowed deeply.

"I'll marry into the South on behalf of the North. They want a purebred white wolf. I'll go."

Eleanor's grip tightened on her staff. It was a long time before she sighed.

Edmund handed me the token proving my claim to my parents' territory. "Moonbridge has kept this safe for you all these years. If you've made up your mind to leave, take everything with you. We'll have your dowry ready too."

I bowed again and thanked them.

"One more thing. Please don't tell Uncle Kane I'm going south. Not yet."

They exchanged a look and nodded.

I straightened up and opened the door of the inner room, only to find a tall figure waiting outside.

Kane was staring right at me. His voice came out low and rough.

"What can't you tell me?"