Tujuh Tahun Yang Suram

He stood alongside my sister, Lily, and a few pack warriors, craning his neck to peer toward the VIP pathway.

“Eric, isn’t that Selena? She’s actually alive?”

Eric whipped around. For a split second, he looked as if he wanted to reach out and pull me into an embrace, but his eyes caught Lily standing right behind him, and his movement came to a jarring halt.

“I knew it. I knew you wouldn’t die in the ocean that easily.”

Lily covered her mouth and let out a soft chuckle, though her eyes remained entirely cold.

“Where have you been these past three years, Selena? We looked everywhere for you…” She paused, her smile turning sharper. “But your timing really is something. Eric is supposed to welcome an honored guest today, yet he runs into you here first.”

The surrounding wolves instantly caught onto her drift. They jeered, turning their eyes toward me with nothing but undisguised contempt.

“Talk about a stroke of luck! Now that she sees Eric has become an Alpha, she comes running back like a dog, faking a coincidental encounter?”

“If you’re going to try and stage an accidental reunion, why are you dressed so miserably?”

In the past, whenever I went out with Eric, I would dress up immaculately, utterly terrified of embarrassing him.

But things were different now. My mate only ever cared about my comfort. While my current casual clothes looked understated, they were actually custom-made from the finest moonlight silk—a detail these wolves lacked the sophistication to even recognize.

Hearing their insults, it finally dawned on me: they had absolutely no idea that the VIP guest they were waiting for was me.

Seeing my silence, a warrior who used to be close to me tried to smooth things over. “It’s just good that you’re back alive. Honestly, Eric has been searching for you all these years…”

The smile on Eric’s face stiffened awkwardly. Then, masking his discomfort, he threw his shoulders back with arrogant pride.

“Since you’re still alive, you can come back to my territory. For the sake of our past, I don’t mind letting you be my mistress.”

Eric was exactly the same as he was in our previous life—completely consumed by his own self-important arrogance.

But I was no longer the foolish woman who would chase after him at all costs. Seeing him again brought nothing to my heart except deep disgust.

Unwilling to waste another second on them, I prepared to reveal my identity and find my mate. But Lily seized the moment to lean heavily into Eric’s chest, offering a sickeningly sweet, fake consolation.

“Selena, please don’t blame Eric. He’s only doing this to take care of you. After all, you vanished for three years. Who knows what kind of shady, rogue wolves you’ve been messing around with out there?

“Looking as destitute as you do now, it would be hard for him to convince the pack to even grant you a Beta position.

“But don’t worry. As long as you’re willing to return as a mistress, I won’t hold a grudge. The servants’ quarters happen to be empty. You can move in and help me take care of my pup. At least you’ll get a roof over your head and a decent meal.”

Three years had passed, yet Lily was just as insufferably haughty as ever, her words enough to make me knit my brows in pure revulsion.

Eric, however, completely misread my expression, assuming I was burning with jealousy over him. A smug flash of satisfaction gleamed in his eyes.

“Alright, that’s enough. You couldn’t even survive out there on your own, so stop putting on airs.

“Since you’re willing to come back, stop throwing tantrums from now on. My house has plenty of spare rooms.

“Take good care of Lily’s pup, and make sure you understand your current place.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the surrounding wolves burst into mockery.

“Selena, look at how much Eric loves you. He even went out of his way to arrange your food and housing.

“Just helping Lily with the kids is a thousand times better than the homeless, wandering life you’re living right now.”

Lily gently stroked her prominently protruding belly and sighed. “Don’t overthink it. I won’t let you suffer any grievances.”

Eric frowned and cut her off, his voice dripping with impatience.

“What grievances could she possibly have? She was the one who insisted on shoving me away back then, vanishing for three years without a single word. Now that she can’t cut it out there, she finally remembers to crawl back. She should have been left to suffer a bit more, just to teach her a lesson.”

A cold laugh slipped past my lips.

So, in his eyes, that fateful night was nothing more than me throwing a stubborn tantrum and pushing him away.

My drowning in the freezing ocean was just an insignificant, trivial matter to him.

But it didn’t matter anymore.

Reborn into this life, I had absolutely no desire to ever be entangled with him again.

Right now, I was already the Luna of the Crescent Moon Pack. My mate possessed the most noble, exalted bloodline—and even the blood flowing through our little pup was enough to bring every single wolf standing here straight to their knees.