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หน้าหลัก / What I Saw When I Touched You / Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

ผู้เขียน: Ethereal
The next afternoon, I brought lunch to the Blackridge Pack Administration Center.

A new employee sat at reception. After checking Ronan’s schedule, she said, “You can’t enter the Alpha’s office without an appointment.”

“Tell him Serena is here.”

Before she could respond, the glass doors opened behind me.

Lydia entered the lobby. When she noticed the insulated lunch bag in my hand, she smiled.

“Are you here to see the Alpha too?”

She clearly had no idea who I was.

The receptionist immediately stood.

“Miss Ashford, the Alpha is still in a meeting.”

“That’s fine. I’ll wait in his office.”

Lydia used her access card to open the secure door. She did not sign in or ask permission.

I followed her inside.

The meeting had just ended. Ronan sat alone behind his desk.

Lydia placed a cup of coffee beside his hand.

“Black, no sugar. Meetings longer than three hours upset your stomach.”

Then she took out a sandwich.

“No cheese. I know you can’t eat it after a long meeting.”

Ronan accepted both without hesitation.

Only then did Lydia realize I had followed her into the office.

“I’m sorry. Who are you?”

Silence filled the office.

“Serena,” Ronan said. “The Luna of Blackridge—and my mate.”

Lydia’s surprise looked carefully measured.

“So you’re Dom’s mate. I’m sorry. He never talks about his personal life.”

She glanced at the lunch in my hand.

“I wouldn’t have brought him anything if I had known you were coming.”

Her voice remained polite, but she still called him Dom.

“Now you know,” I said calmly.

Lydia smiled, collected her folder, and left.

Once the door closed, Ronan frowned.

“Why did you come here without telling me?”

“I needed to confirm something.”

I set the lunch on his desk without opening it.

“How long has Lydia been your assistant?”

“Six months.”

“Is your relationship with her limited to work?”

“Yes. She’s my late friend’s sister. I promised him I would look after her.”

“Was that what you were doing on our Bonding Anniversary?”

Ronan fell silent.

“She was upset. It was one dinner.”

“And you lied to me.”

“Because I knew you would misunderstand.”

“You chose to deceive me, then blamed the deception on my reaction. That isn’t a misunderstanding.”

Ronan rose and took my hand.

“Serena, I don’t love Lydia. You are my fated mate. You’re the woman I love.”

I closed my eyes.

Lydia’s face had grown clearer, while mine had faded to a thin outline.

It did not mean he was in love with her.

It meant his guilt and need to protect her had taken up so much of his heart that our bond was being pushed aside.

He might never have touched her sexually, but he had already given her the honesty, intimacy, and priority that belonged inside our relationship.

To me, that was still betrayal.

I pulled my hand away.

“I understand.”

Ronan assumed the argument was over and returned to his desk.

I did not ask him to fire Lydia. I would not compete for the loyalty of a mate who had to be reminded to choose me.

After leaving the Administration Center, I drove to the Moon Council’s regional office.

The elder handling my case placed three documents before me.

A petition to dissolve the Mate Bond.

A declaration withdrawing from the Blackridge Pack.

A formal renunciation of every right I held as Luna.

“Once these are approved, reversing them will be almost impossible,” he warned. “Are you certain?”

I rested a hand over my still-flat stomach.

“Yes.”

I would not raise my child inside a relationship built on lies.

Ronan had made his choices.

Now I was making mine.
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  • What I Saw When I Touched You   Chapter 11

    Two years later, the Moon Council certified me as one of its senior Moon Seers.I had participated in six negotiations between Packs, helped recover eleven missing young wolves, and evaluated several cases involving coercive mates.My jewelry brand had grown as well. I created a complete lunar cycle after New Moon, and I called the final collection First Light.The studio now employed twelve designers, most of them women who had left controlling Packs or broken mate relationships. I never asked them to turn pain into art. I only gave them a place where their work belonged to them. Some designed paired pieces, while others created single rings, pendants, and cuffs. Completion had no required shape in my studio.Maya brought three year old Lyra to the gallery on the last day of my First Light exhibition.Lyra ran around the central display, then pointed at a silver necklace."Mommy, why does this one have only one moon?""Because one is enough."She nodded as if she understood, then noti

  • What I Saw When I Touched You   Chapter 10

    After Lyra's first birthday, Ronan requested one private meeting through my representative.He had respected every Council restriction during the previous year. He had never appeared at my home or studio without permission, and he had never used his visits with Lyra to send private messages to me.I agreed to give him twenty minutes.We met in a conference room at Moon Council headquarters. Ronan arrived early. He had not brought flowers, gifts, or anything connected to our former Mate Bond.He had lost weight. Only a pale scar remained where my mark had once rested on his neck."Thank you for seeing me," he said."You have twenty minutes."Ronan studied me for a long moment."Lydia left Blackridge.""That was her choice.""I haven't blamed everything on her. I know I was the one who betrayed our Mate Bond."I said nothing."I believed that being fated mates meant you could never leave. I treated your patience as something I owned, and I called your pain jealousy. You told me that you

  • What I Saw When I Touched You   Chapter 9

    Seven months later, I gave birth to a daughter at the Silverpine werewolf hospital.She arrived five days early, but her cry filled the entire floor. The nurse placed her in my arms. Her small hand closed around my finger, and her silver gray eyes opened briefly before drifting shut again.I named her Lyra Vale.I chose Vale because it was the name I had been born with, not because I wanted to erase Ronan from her life. His identity remained on her bloodline record. I simply refused to let the first word attached to my daughter be the name of a Pack that had nearly cost her life.Maya waited outside the delivery room and cried harder than I did when the physician announced that we were both safe. She entered with white tulips and immediately denied it."I was not crying. The disinfectant irritated my eyes.""I can't smell any disinfectant.""It was here earlier."I decided not to expose her lie.Under Moon Council regulations, my representative sent Ronan the health report, bloodline r

  • What I Saw When I Touched You   Chapter 8

    I did not return to Blackridge for the Mate Bond dissolution hearing.My attorney submitted the hospital records, Ronan's false border schedule, the Moon Lake photograph, and our communication history. The evidence showed that Ronan had repeatedly abandoned a medical appointment after learning I needed him and had made himself unreachable while I faced a threatened miscarriage.He requested another meeting before the hearing.I selected No on the response form.Maya watched me sign it from the sofa in my studio."You don't want to see him regret everything?""No.""You loved him for most of your life.""That is why I know what he would say. He would talk about our twenty one years together, our fate, and how he never meant to hurt me." I handed the form to my representative. "None of that changes the fact that I protected our child alone in a hospital."I was not responsible for teaching Ronan why he had been wrong.The hearing lasted three hours.My attorney called after it ended and

  • What I Saw When I Touched You   Chapter 7

    The Luna Office officially closed during the third week after Serena left.The medical program for young wolves lost its director, and two assistance programs with neutral Packs were suspended. Blackridge did not collapse, but its members finally saw how much responsibility Serena had carried.Reports that once arrived organized on Ronan's desk began to pile up. Two partner Packs demanded new negotiations because Serena had personally built the agreements, and her departure had weakened their trust in Blackridge.Several families also requested transfers to Silverpine. They did not accuse Ronan of abusing them, but they no longer trusted an Alpha who had ignored his pregnant Luna's medical crisis. Ronan approved every request because refusing them would only confirm their fears.A Pack Council elder confronted Ronan during a meeting."Alpha, when will you appoint a new program director?"Ronan looked at the empty Luna seat and gave no answer.Lydia entered his office after the meeting

  • What I Saw When I Touched You   Chapter 6

    A physician examined me again on my second day in Silverpine."The baby is stable," she said as she put away the monitor. "The dissolution may continue to affect you for some time. You cannot shift, and you must avoid any intense emotional pressure from the former Mate Bond.""The Moon Council has blocked his calls through the Bond.""Good. You need rest more than anything else."Maya rented an apartment for me in the center of Silverpine. It was not large, but the windows overlooked a public garden. Young wolves played downstairs every day, and sunlight crossed the living room from morning until late afternoon.I placed my clothes in the wardrobe and stored the pregnancy reports and Council documents in the bottom drawer of my desk.I kept only the possessions that had belonged to me before Blackridge or that I had chosen for myself. I left the ceremonial Luna jewelry behind. Those pieces had never been gifts in the ordinary sense. They belonged to an office I no longer intended to ho

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