I Won’t Reject You the Sixth Time Chapter 03

I Won’t Reject You the Sixth Time Chapter 03

Harlan’s POV

I froze, unable to believe what I’d just heard.

“Ivy?”

I looked at her. She had liked me since we were children. How could she say something like “forbidden from entering my den?”

But the cold distance in Ivy’s eyes sent a chill through me.

I wanted to ask why, but then I realized my hand was still tightly holding Liora’s.

I let go as if burned. Ignoring Liora’s hurt look, I only wanted to comfort Ivy.

Ivy was my fated mate. I’d known that since childhood. Seeing her in pain pained me, too.

“You have ten minutes to get out of my manor,” Ivy said coldly.

I breathed a small sigh of relief. At least she wasn’t throwing a fit or complaining to the Wolf King. That meant she wasn’t that angry, just annoyed that we’d messed up her bedroom.

“Okay, Ivy,” I said quickly. “We’ll leave right away.”

I grabbed Liora and headed out, but then I heard Ivy say, “Bring me the sage. I need to purge the scent those two wolves left behind.”

Purge even the scent? That was a bit harsh.

But when I looked at Ivy, I thought of all the sacrifices she’d made for me.

According to tradition, the mate of a royal wolf had to be chosen by the Moon Priestess in a lottery.

The ceremony was held during the full moon: wolves of age carved their names into crystals and threw them into the sacred fire, and the Moon Priestess would reach into the flames to pull out the crystal bearing the fated mate’s name.

And Ivy, to prove her love for me, went to the Dark Abyss herself every year, braving countless dangers to pick Moonflowers, hoping to sway the Moon Priestess into drawing my name.

Year after year, she never drew my crystal.

But Ivy didn’t give up. She begged for another ceremony, willing to endure the pain of rejection.

I watched her get rejected by five different strangers.

But none of them were her fated mate, so the pain of rejection wasn’t that great.

Still, it gave me a deep sense of security. It showed me that no matter what, she would always choose me.

Ivy had sacrificed so much for me. Now that she was upset, the least I could do was go comfort her.

I walked toward Ivy…

Ivy’s POV

I stripped the pillows and sheets Liora had touched.

Then Harlan came back, stopping in front of me and sighing helplessly.

“Ivy, stop being so stubborn.”

“The only reason I care about Liora is because you said she was your sister.”

“If you don’t want to see her, fine. She won’t come to the manor anymore.”

He reached for my hand.

I pulled away and repeated, “It’s not just her I don’t want to see. It’s you too.”

Harlan froze. “You’re still angry?”

His gentle tone reminded me of the past. He once waited in the snow all night just to avoid being late for our date the next day. When I worried he’d catch a cold, he said his love would always keep him warm.

Now he used a similar voice to say, “If you’re still angry, I’ll sneak into the temple and swap all the crystals with my name. I’ll make sure you draw me.”

I laughed scornfully. “Fine. Go do it. Then I won’t have to risk my life going to the Dark Abyss anymore. The legend is wrong. Picking Moonflowers doesn’t move the Moon Goddess at all.”

Harlan stiffened. He stammered, “I’d like to, but tampering with the Moon Priestess’s crystals is a grave sin. It’s deceiving the Moon Goddess.”

“I don’t want to end up burned at the stake before I can even become your mate.”

His expression darkened, as if it were truly beyond his power.

I just stared at him silently. I almost wanted to laugh.

“He knows it’s a sin to deceive the Moon Goddess?” my wolf snarled inside me. “Then how dare he break the crystal five times and stop you from drawing his name? He’s lying cheat!”

Maybe Harlan noticed how cold my face had become. He suddenly said, “Ivy, trust our bond.”

“This year, you’ll definitely draw my crystal. The past few years were just the Moon Goddess testing us.”

“If not this year, then next year I’ll tamper with the crystals, even if it means defying the Moon Goddess. I will become your mate.”

“Don’t bother,” I said with a cold laugh.

After all, my father had already told me: even as a princess, I couldn’t defy wolf tradition again and again.

By the sixth lottery, I would no longer have the chance to be rejected.

And from the moment he destroyed his own crystal, there was no future for us.