My Rib Is Her Guitar Pick Chapter 05

My Rib Is Her Guitar Pick Chapter 05

An Alpha burst through the door. The hard edge of his cedarwood scent softened as it enveloped me.

I was deathly pale, and tears slipped down my cheeks when I heard his voice.

“I’m sorry, Sunniva. I should have gotten here sooner.”

After hanging up on me, Malak switched off his phone so I could no longer interrupt him while he accompanied Seraphina through her performance at the Moon Goddess Festival.

At midnight the following night, Seraphina finished her final song at the forest altar and began giving her

thank-you speech.

Only then did Malak turn his phone back on.

Now that the festival performance had ended successfully, he could finally turn his attention to the bonding

ceremony.

He was about to message me and ask me to go pick out our bonding bands the next day when countless missed calls and messages flooded his screen.

Every one of them came from a different Gamma.

On the altar, Seraphina spoke with heartfelt emotion.

“I’ve grown from the Beta’s daughter into the singer/standing before you tonight, offering my music to the Moon Goddess. I owe it all to one person who has supported me without fail for years. He even stayed up all night making the guitar picks I used for tonight’s performance.”

“Malak, will you come up here and share this important moment with me? I have a surprise for you too.”

Every eye turned toward Malak, but he noticed none of them.

His gaze was locked on his phone, and his face was as white as a ghost.

Even through the messages on the screen, he could feel the Gammas’ panic.

Gamma: [Alpha, please answer your phone.]

Gamma: [Ms. Ironcrest was involved in an accident. Her titanium-alloy rib implant shifted and punctured the lining around her lungs, causing severe internal bleeding. She died on the way to the pack hospital…]

Malak’s seat was closest to the altar, leaving everyone with a clear view of his face.

Seraphina’s fans began cheering and calling out.

“So this is the mysterious man Sera is always talking about on social media-the most important person in

er lite. We finally get to see him!”

“Even the Alpha of Ironmoon Pack has fallen for Sera. Their love is one the Moon Goddess herself would bless.”

“I heard Sera made a pair of matching bonding bands herself. Is she about to ask him to accept her as his mate and have him mark her right here onstage? This is so exciting!”

Others began voicing doubts.

“Isn’t that the Alpha of Ironmoon Pack? I heard he has a bonding ceremony scheduled at the end of the month, but his Luna isn’t Seraphina.”

“He’s the Alpha, and she’s the Beta’s daughter. They grew up together. Of course Sera is the only woman in Malak’s heart.”

Seraphina’s expression stiffened, but she forced an awkward smile.

“It looks like my mysterious man is still as shy as he was when we were children. Malak?”

Malak finally snapped back to reality and shot to his feet.

Seraphina exhaled in relief, a smug smile curling across her lips.

So Malak really did care about her.

But her smug satisfaction did not last even half a second.

Malak moved, but not to claim Seraphina as his mate in front of everyone.

Instead, he raced past rows of shrubs and burning braziers, running toward the forest exit as though he had

lost his mind.

Seraphina panicked.

“Malak, where are you going?”

Malak ignored her. He was running so fast that he nearly tripped over someone’s foot.

He abandoned Seraphina alone on the altar, leaving her to face the watching crowd in humiliation.

But he could not spare a thought for any of it.

Malak rushed back to his car and called a Gamma with trembling hands.

“What happened? How could something like this happen to Sunniva?”

“Mr. Ashwood, I looked into it. It was several of Ms. Moonshadow’s fans. They probably wanted revenge on

her behalf.”

“Ms. Ironcrest had already been beaten in the disciplinary dungeon, which loosened the screws securing her

titanium-alloy rib implant. The kick last night displaced it completely, causing…”

Malak cut him off.

“What did you say?”

“Sunniva was attacked in the disciplinary dungeon? Who did it?”

The Gamma sighed.

“She was placed in a detention area next to the one holding several of Ms. Moonshadow’s fans. Someone deliberately spread the story that she intended to use her mate bond to climb the social ladder, so those fans kept targeting her…’

“In any case, her parents have already claimed her body…”

Malak fell silent.

He remembered the injuries on my neck when I arrived at the private guest lounge the previous night.

Now that he thought about it, there had seemed to be faint shoe prints on my pants too.

If those injuries had been real, then so had the blood I had coughed up.

Everything he had forgotten came rushing back at once.

Malak finally remembered the Healer’s warning that I could not drink alcohol under any circumstances.

Yet he had allowed Seraphina to force an entire bottle of hard liquor down my throat.

Then there was the final call I had made to him.

“Malak, save me. It hurts so much…”

It had all been real. But he had refused to believe me, convinced that I was putting on another performance.

Cold sweat coated Malak’s palms.

He could not bear to imagine how helpless and desperate I must have felt.

My parents had treated me as nothing more than a ticket into elite pack society since I was a child.

As my mate, Malak had personally entered his number as my emergency contact and made me a promise.

“Sunniva, I want us to build a family of our own. You have me now. You’ll never have to face hardship alone again.”

“No matter where you are or when you need me, I’ll come to you without hesitation. I’ll protect you.”

But he had failed.