My Stepbrother’s Secret Mate Chapter 08

My Stepbrother’s Secret Mate Chapter 08

At Theodore’s aggrieved words, a memory from my past slowly came back to me.

I had just started college then, and I was still confused by Xander’s pursuit. One day, I went into the forest for

my herbal identification class, and that was when I saved a werewolf covered in blood. He had been

wounded by silver weapons, and there was the unmistakable scent of dark magic on his injuries.

At the time, every pack was still living under the shadow of the Night War. No one dared go near someone

who looked like he had been hurt by dark magic.

So Theodore had endured those wounds for three days and three nights, nearly driven to despair.

And then I appeared.

I cleaned his wounds, applied herbs to them, and told him little stories from school in an easy tone, as if I

didn’t recognize the traces of dark magic.

But I did.

I just believed people shouldn’t be weighed down by the shadows of the past. Everyone deserved to keep

looking toward the rainbow ahead.

I never asked his name, not even after he had recovered enough to stand and walk again.

Before he left, he looked at me with absolute seriousness and said, “Valencia, don’t forget me. I’ll come back

for you.”

Who could have known that the man covered in blood and wounds had been Theodore all along?

The truth left me stunned.

“So you remember now, Theodore said. “I’m glad… but the next time I saw you, you had already become someone else’s girlfriend. All I could do was wait for a better chance to get close to you.”

“Now that you know how we met, let me ask you again. Would you be my mate?”

I didn’t answer.

Theodore lowered his head, disappointment written all over him.

But I said, “I can’t move on from that sadness so quickly… but I should still look at the view ahead. My

answer is no. But I do want to ask you something. Would you dance with me in the garden?”

Light slowly returned to Theodore’s eyes.

He nodded. “I would. And I’ll keep waiting for your answer.”

So we danced in the garden without music. Our wolves had never been so relaxed. We had both carried

wounds from the past, but now, for the first time, we could see that the future held something worth hoping for.

Later, Xander moved out of our house.

And later still, my brother told me that Xander and Pallavi had broken up.

Apparently, on the day Xander was supposed to be discharged from the hospital, Pallavi stormed into his room and started throwing things at him. They seemed to be all the gifts he had once given her.

“Take all this back, you piece of trash! I knew you were two-timing me, but I never thought you were sick

enough to sleep with your own sister!”

Xander struggled to sit up and tried to explain. “Pallavi, just listen to me-”

Of course Pallavi didn’t listen. She slapped him again without hesitation.

“Shut up. We’re done.”

I was delighted when I heard about it. Pallavi wasn’t exactly a good person, but she was a lot more decisive

than I had ever been.

Later, after I graduated from college, I became a pack healer. I realized there were still so many children in

the pack suffering from the aftereffects of the war. They had never fought in it themselves, but their parents

and the world around them constantly reminded them of how terrifying that war had been.

I started traveling from place to place, looking into their situations, and I even founded a support group dedicated to helping those children work through their trauma. Little by little, I forgot about the two-year romance I had in college, until it felt like nothing more than a small and distant part of my life.

During all that time, Theodore stayed by my side as much as he could.

The more time I spent with him, the more I realized he was a mature, dependable man. And every now and

then, that unexpected streak of boyishness only made him more charming.

Then one day, at the bonfire celebration, I asked him to dance again.

He said yes. Firelight reflected in his deep blue eyes like a sunset over the ocean.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” Theodore said softly.

I heard my wolf let out a happy howl.

I smiled, then asked him quietly, “Theodore, would you become Valencia Hale’s mate?”

“I, Theodore Blackwood, accept becoming your mate.”