Two Star Healers And A Forgotten Fated Mate Chapter 08

Two Star Healers And A Forgotten Fated Mate Chapter 08

I turned and walked away without a single glance back after speaking the rejection vow, leaving Cameron doubled over clutching his chest, his face ashen white.

I could feel the brutal agony tearing through his mate bond and his wolf, but none of it mattered to me anymore.

The next morning, Amelia showed up at the Pack House at dawn.

“Penelope!”

I’d been halfway through breakfast, and I stared up at her, shocked by how thin and worn she looked.

“You—”

She cut me off quickly, her eyes flooded with tears, voice frantic. “Just listen to what I have to say.”

“I’m so sorry for everything. Ever since high school, when you and Cameron became fated mates, I haven’t been able to shake this ugly jealousy eating at me.”

“You were always the quiet little pup I’d step in to protect, but the healer I’d looked up to my whole life chose you as his Moon Goddess-given mate instead of me.”

“I spent every single day tormented by it. I couldn’t stop wondering what made you worthy of his bond, why I wasn’t the one tied to him.”

“I lost focus mid-surgery that day because I was terrified you’d cut me out of your life completely.”

“I’m truly sorry for every cruel thing I did to hurt you.”

The second she finished confessing, all the strength drained out of her body, and she sank to the floor beside my dining table.

I finally understood that faint, constant unease I’d felt whenever the three of us hung out together. It wasn’t my overthinking, wasn’t my sensitivity—it was Amelia’s hidden jealousy, buried under years of our friendship.

A tight, aching squeeze wrapped around my heart watching her break down. We’d been inseparable childhood best friends.

She’d shielded me from cruelty when I was young, but she’d also spent years secretly hurting me out of envy.

I didn’t know how to untangle all the tangled threads of our history—the years of protection mixed with quiet resentment.

But I’d already moved on, and so had my inner wolf.

I set my silverware down, stepping forward to pull her gently back onto her feet, my tone calm and final.

“Amelia, let all of that stay in the past. I’m happy with how my life is now.”

She stared at me, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks, whispering my name one last time.

There was too much unspoken damage between us—too many conflicting memories to ever fix things. I had no desire to try anymore, and neither did my wolf.

Our friendship ended right there.

She left the Pack House, and Sebastian stumbled out of the guest bedroom a minute later, still half-asleep.

He pressed his forehead against my back, voice thick with sleep.
“Baby, who was that?”

“An old friend,” I paused, correcting myself softly. “A friend from a long time ago.”

A full week slipped by quickly.

Sebastian and I spent every day hunting down bakery supplies and furniture for my shop.

I’d swapped my phone number after blocking Cameron, so I had no idea how he’d tracked my new digits down—but one afternoon, my phone rang with his name on the caller ID.

I answered, and an unfamiliar male voice came through the line instead.

“Hey, sorry to bother you. This guy’s completely wasted at Silver Fern Tavern, and he won’t stop begging for you to come get him.”

I drove to the tavern address they’d given me to find Cameron hunched over a booth table, his head hanging low.

The second he caught sight of me, all the dark misery lifted from his face like snow melting in sunlight.

His fingers clamped tight around mine, his skin burning hot against my palms.

“Penelope, you came.”

“I had a nightmare last night. Dreamt you left me and found a new boyfriend.”

“Thank the Moon Goddess it was only a dream.”

Cameron never touched alcohol normally, yet he’d drunk himself into a haze, repeating my name over and over like a prayer.

A dull headache throbbed behind my eyes. I grabbed a damp towel from the bartender and draped it over his forehead, then hailed a rideshare to drop him off at his place, handing the driver the license plate number to pass along to the tavern staff.

When I turned to walk out, his grip locked onto my wrist to stop me from leaving.

I sighed, calling his bluff plainly.

“Drop the fake drunk routine. You’re nowhere close to wasted enough to lose your senses this badly.”

“I’ve never seen you touch liquor before, and you’ve got clinic rounds tomorrow morning—you wouldn’t sabotage your schedule like this.”

Silence hung thick between us for a beat. Cameron pushed the towel off his face, his eyes dark and raw with pain.

“You knew I was faking, so why did you come?”

“My boyfriend didn’t know your history with me, and he worried I’d need backup coming here alone.”

I slung my purse over one shoulder and headed for the exit without another word.

I barely made it to the tavern’s front door before his broken voice echoed out behind me.

“Penelope, I’d give anything to rewind time. I wish we were back in Healer Academy, you sitting right beside me like nothing had ever broken us apart.”

My inner wolf heard his plea, only flicking her tail once, completely indifferent.

I didn’t turn around to look at him as I spoke my final reply.

“Unfortunately for you, this isn’t a dream.”