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Home / Werewolf Short Story / My Alpha Said I’d Crawl Back in Three Days / Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

All Chapters of My Alpha Said I’d Crawl Back in Three Days: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

On the night of our eighth anniversary, I cooked everything Ethan loved.He didn't come home.I sat alone at the table until the food went cold.Then I did what I always did.I opened Selene's profile on the pack network.New post.One hour ago.A photo of Ethan, shirtless, building a fire in her den.Her hand on his shoulder.Her face turned toward the camera with a smile that showed too many teeth.The caption read:Grateful for old friends who drop everything when you need them. Even their marking anniversaries.I stared at it until my eyes burned.Then I liked it.Filed the bond-dissolution request.And started packing the trunk I'd kept ready for months.Ethan didn't believe it when he found out."She's throwing a fit," I heard he told his packmates."Give her three days.""I'll crook my finger and she'll come running back.""She always does."What he didn't understand was why I always came back.It was because I loved him.That was gone now....The Blood Moon rose at dusk.Elena

Chapter 2

Midnight came and went.Ethan didn't.Once, that would have kept Elena awake until dawn.She would have lain in bed replaying everything, looking for what she'd done wrong, waiting for the bond to tell her he was on his way home.Tonight she slept fine.Maybe letting go of someone who was never really yours is its own kind of rest....He came back in the morning.She woke to the sound of him in the kitchen.She found him with his sleeves pushed up, reheating the venison she'd cooked the night before.All of it.Every dish, still arranged on the table like she'd left it."I'll stay with you today," he said, not looking up."Make up for last night."He tasted a piece of the venison off the serving fork."Good," he said. "You've gotten better."She looked at him.Ethan never ate leftovers.It was one of his things — fresh kills only, food prepared the same day.The fact that he was standing here reheating yesterday's meal and calling it a gesture told her everything about how seriously h

Chapter 3

She didn't go to the gathering place in the lower valley to find them.She went because she was leaving in three weeks, and she'd wanted to go with Ethan for two years.Every time she'd suggested it, he'd had somewhere else to be.Now she went alone.She saw them the moment she walked in.They were sitting close, the way people sit when they've stopped being careful.The table between them was covered in dishes — everything spiced, everything she liked.He didn't eat spiced food.He'd always told her it affected his sense of smell for tracking.He was eating it now.Neither of them had seen her.Selene was laughing, and she picked up a piece of meat from her plate and held it to his mouth.He took it.She let her fingers brush his jaw when she pulled her hand back.He didn't flinch.He looked young.That was the thing she couldn't stop staring at.Ethan always looked controlled, self-contained, the Alpha's son who'd been raised to hold everything in.But sitting across from her, watchi

Chapter 4

The next morning, she went to the pack archives.She found it in the third file.Territory transfer application.Alpine Pack, effective next moon.Companion request attached.Not her name.Selene's.She folded the record into her pocket.Evidence, if she needed it.Three weeks passed.She filed the formal separation.Resigned as Luna.Arranged transport to the River Pack.Ethan didn't believe any of it.He sent gifts.Messages through Kael.He treated her departure like a mood that would pass.She treated him like furniture.The night before she left, she heard footsteps in the corridor.His and hers, and the rhythm of his gait when he'd been drinking.She opened the door before they reached it.Ethan stopped.Selene was beside him, her hand on his arm, her eyes bright with victory.Behind them, Kael and two ranked wolves, carrying documents."Elena. We're discussing the Alpine transfer. You're invited.""I declined.""You don't decline pack business."He stepped closer.Wine on his br

Chapter 5

The silence woke him.Ethan opened his eyes to gray dawn.He was still in her room.He didn't remember sitting down.He didn't remember the night passing.He just remembered reaching for the bond.Again and again.Getting nothing.He'd run through the eastern woods until his paws bled.Shifted back at the territory line.Come straight to her room.Like she might be there.Like the bond going silent was a mistake.She wasn't there.It wasn't a mistake....Her bed was still made.Her closet still full.He stood in front of it for a long time.Dresses he'd bought her.Colors he'd chosen.He'd told himself at the time he was being thoughtful.Paying attention to what she liked.Now he looked at the colors.Lily white.Soft gray.The particular pale green Selene had always worn in summer.Not Elena's colors.Never Elena's colors.He'd been dressing her like a replacement for eight years and never once noticed.The silver chain was still in his pocket.He took it out.Held it.Still warm fr

Chapter 6

He found her on a Tuesday.Three weeks after she left.The River Pack's eastern market.Open stalls, late morning, wolves doing ordinary things.Elena was buying herbs.Standing at a stall with a basket over her arm.Talking to the vendor.Completely ordinary.Completely fine.That was the first thing that stopped him.He had spent three weeks unable to sleep.Unable to eat.Running the eastern woods until his paws bled.She was buying herbs.She looked — lighter.That was the second thing.He had known her for eight years.He knew the way she held herself when she was bracing for something.The particular set of her shoulders when she was waiting to be disappointed.That was gone.She was just standing there, in the morning light, and she looked like someone who had put something heavy down and wasn't picking it back up.She saw him before he reached her.He watched her face.No fear.No anger.Not even surprise, really.Just recognition.The way you recognize someone you used to know

Chapter 7

He gave Selene one hour to leave.He put the file on the table between them.Witness statements.Bank records.The photograph of her, alive and unmarked, three months after her supposed death.He didn't shout.Didn't threaten.He just said: "You staged your death. You watched me search for you. You came back when you decided you wanted something."She tried the soft voice.The wounded eyes.The voice that had worked on him for years.He thought about Elena's blood on his hands.Nothing Selene did moved him anymore."The Alpine Pack has already been notified," he said."You have money. You have an hour."She left in forty minutes.He didn't watch her go.He sat in Elena's empty room and waited for something to feel better.Nothing did....Two months later, he went back to the River Pack.This time he asked properly.A formal request, through the right channels.A ranked Alpha requesting a meeting.They kept him waiting for two hours in a small room near the gate.He waited.He had nowh

Chapter 8

The River Pack smelled different.Not bad. Just different.Pine instead of cedar.River water instead of mountain stone.Elena had stopped noticing after the first month.That was how she knew she was healing....She had her own room.Not a Luna's quarters.Not a shared space full of someone else's preferences.Just a room.Her books on the shelf.Her maps on the wall.Her window facing east, because she asked for east and they gave it to her without question.No one had ever asked her which direction she preferred.She hadn't known she had a preference until someone asked.Eight years.Eight years and she'd been sleeping on whatever side of the bed was left.Eating whatever he didn't want.Facing whatever direction she was given.She hadn't noticed because she'd been too busy making herself small enough to keep....His name was Rowan.The River Alpha's youngest son.Quiet, like her.Careful with words, like her.The first time they hunted together, he asked what she liked to track.

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