You Can Have My Mate and My Children

Lillian stared at me in disbelief. I was actually handing her the place every woman dreamed of having.

But the seriousness on my face left no room for doubt that I meant every word.

“You’re the one they love. There’s no reason for me to keep making myself miserable.”

“Just get Felix to sign this, and I’ll find the right opportunity to leave.”

She studied the agreement for a long time, as though she were hesitating, yet the excitement in her eyes was impossible to conceal.

In the end, she accepted it. “Since you’re offering them to me so willingly, I won’t turn you down.”

“But you should understand one thing. Once you give them to me, I’ll never give them back.”

I only smiled at her warning.

In this life, I would never regret my decision. Anyone who wanted to be a Luna in name only was welcome to the title, because I certainly didn’t want it anymore.

“Give what back?”

Felix’s voice suddenly came from behind me.

The man who was always too busy whenever I called appeared leisurely inside the café.

My son, Toby, and my daughter, Amy, acted as though I wasn’t even there. They walked straight past me and threw themselves into Lillian’s arms.

“Lillian, Dad helped us pick this out especially for you.”

A sharp ache pierced my heart.

In seven years as mates, Felix had never once given me a gift.

The only exception had been on my birthday, when he unexpectedly brought home a cake. But it was a strawberry cake. I was allergic to strawberries.

There wasn’t a trace of apology on Felix’s face. Instead, he looked straight at me and asked, “What did you take from Lillian this time?”

The children heard him and, without even asking what had happened, immediately assumed I had bullied Lillian again.

They crowded around me, one gripping my hand tightly while the other searched through my clothes.

“Bad Mommy! Give it back to Lillian!”

They kept shouting the same thing at me.

My mate and my own children had chosen another woman’s side against me.

All I could think was how ridiculous it was. Apparently, I had been the outsider from the very beginning.

Lillian seemed to be enjoying my humiliation and deliberately let the silence drag on before finally saying, “Nothing happened. We were just talking.”

Then she turned to Felix. “Oh, right. Since I’m moving back here, there’s a document that needs the Alpha’s signature.”

She casually flipped the agreement to the signature page and handed it to him.

The moment Felix heard that Lillian was staying, he signed his name without even looking at what was written above it.

His eyes immediately lit up as he asked excitedly, “You’re really not leaving this time?”

Under his expectant gaze, Lillian nodded.

Toby grabbed her hand and shook it excitedly. “That’s great! Lillian, you should just come live with us.”

“If you move in, you can stay in the big bedroom with Dad. Mommy likes cooking anyway, so she can sleep in the kitchen.”

Amy happily wrapped her arms around Lillian’s waist. “Please stay. I want to live with you.”

“I wish you were my mommy. Then I could see you every day.”

Their pleading seemed to carry real weight, every word pressing down on my heart until it became difficult to breathe.

Felix clearly approved of the idea, though as their father, he couldn’t openly encourage such childish nonsense.

In a gentle voice, he said, “The house next door belongs to me too. You can move in there.”

It was such a warm, loving scene, yet watching it made my eyes ache.

In my previous life, not ending up with Lillian had always been Felix’s greatest regret.

They had parted ways after an argument.

Lillian left to live with another pack, while Felix accepted an arranged mating alliance between our families and formed a mate bond with me.

Perhaps his love for her had simply been too deep, because somehow even our children seemed to have inherited his affection for Lillian.

For years, I had comforted myself with the thought that none of it mattered as long as they were still by my side.

But when I grew old and could no longer walk properly, they left me alone at home to recover.

On Christmas Day, I leaned on my cane and spent hours preparing a table full of their favorite dishes.

When I called, they told me, “We’re not coming home. We’re staying here with Lillian. She’ll be all alone for Christmas otherwise.”

They felt sorry for her spending Christmas alone. What about me?

Distracted and heartbroken, I lost my footing on the stairs and fell, striking my head so hard that blood spread across the floor in a horrifying pool of red.

I tried desperately to call for help, but the only sound coming through the phone was Felix’s laughter.

He had never laughed like that around me. Even on the day we formed our mate bond, there hadn’t been the slightest curve to his lips.

In despair, I closed my eyes.

If I could ever live my life again, I would never waste it on them.

The pain of my previous life seemed to overlap with everything I was feeling now, until I could no longer bear to watch the happy scene in front of me and turned away.

After returning home, I began sorting through my things.

The sight of an old stuffed rabbit made my heart stir again.

I had made it myself for Amy’s third birthday. She had loved it so much that she refused to fall asleep unless she was holding it.

Unfortunately, one of its arms had been torn open in the washing machine. Sewing it back together would be the last thing I did for my daughter before leaving.

I had just picked it up when a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind me.

“What are you doing?”