A Ceremony, A Ghost, And A Lost Wolf Pup Chapter 04

A Ceremony, A Ghost, And A Lost Wolf Pup Chapter 04

“I can’t just swallow this, Mom.”

I looked at her, my eyes red and raw.

Every word was laced with grief.

“He betrayed me, not the other way around.”

“We were together for three years. He lay beside me every night, but his heart was with another woman.”

“So what does that make me?”

Seeing my state, my mother’s tone softened slightly.

“That’s how a mate bond works.”

“If you want to keep it, you have to turn a blind eye sometimes.”

“Besides, Alpha Aaron didn’t cheat.”

I shook my head desperately.

No. That wasn’t true.

Emotional cheating hurt far more than physical cheating.

It cut deeper. It was so much worse.

Aaron would carry Juliet in his heart for the rest of his life.

The moment anything happened to her, he would leave me behind.

Our mate bond would suffer over and over because he could never truly let her go.

—

Fiona, my poor inner wolf, would have to live like she was standing beside a ticking bomb.

Never knowing when her mate would abandon her.

Never knowing when he’d choose another she-wolf instead.

Both of us would spend the rest of our lives enduring the agony caused by our fated mate’s betrayal.

When my mother realized I wasn’t listening, her attitude hardened again.

“Stop overthinking.”

“I don’t care what happens between you two, but you’re not breaking the mate bond.”

“It’s disgraceful. The Moon Goddess will punish us.”

For the first time in my life, I defied her.

“I am going to break it.”

She stared at me with disappointment and frustration.

When she spoke again, her words were laced with venom.

“When it comes down to it, isn’t this your fault?”

“If you were good enough, would he still be pining for his ex?”

“Mom—” I broke down and cut her off, covering my ears.

“Stop. Please. Just Stop.”

—

Why?

I wasn’t the one who did something wrong.

So why was my own mother blaming me?

The whole world felt absurd.

In the end, I went back to the pack house with Aaron.

My mother threatened to kill herself. I couldn’t stand by and watch her take wolfbane.

Inside the pack house, Aaron handed me his phone.

“See for yourself.”

“I never contacted her again after we broke up.”

I didn’t take it.

“Does that prove she’s not still in your heart?”

Aaron didn’t answer.

His grip tightened around the phone, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.

After a long silence, he opened a PackNet group chat and searched for Juliet’s name.

The latest message was from him.

[I’m having my Mate Ceremony.]

Someone in the group asked: [With Juliet?]

—

Aaron replied: [Not her.]

The chat instantly went silent.

A few minutes later, Juliet Summer @-ed him.

[Congrats. I definitely won’t be missing your Mate Ceremony.]

He didn’t say no. He replied: [Okay.]

So she came.

She sat below the stage in a white dress that looked just like a wedding gown.

As Aaron stood beside me saying his vows, he choked up several times, barely holding it together.

Back then, every she-wolf in the audience envied me.

“Alpha Aaron is crying. He must love his Luna so much.”

Now, thinking back on it, I wanted to laugh.

Aaron wasn’t emotional because of me.

He was worried about Juliet, who was sitting below the stage crying her heart out.

Aaron’s voice pulled me back to reality.

“See? There’s nothing between Juliet and me.”

I closed my eyes.

I was about to tell him to get out.

—

Then Beta Dylan called. His voice was urgent.

“Alpha Aaron, Juliet has been admitted to the pack hospital.”

Aaron’s entire body stiffened.

He looked at me, his expression conflicted. “I…”

We hadn’t even broken the mate bond yet.

And he was already about to run to another she-wolf right in front of my eyes?

I grabbed his arm.

“Don’t you dare go!”