He Pretended To Prepare An Elaborate Luna Ceremony But Secretly Marked Another Omega Chapter 03

He Pretended To Prepare An Elaborate Luna Ceremony But Secretly Marked Another Omega Chapter 03

I looked down at the floor.

It was for a romance movie that had just premiered yesterday.

Yesterday—

Gabriel claimed he was stuck at the office running tactical drills, and he hadn’t come home all night.

I bent down to pick up the ticket stubs.

Gabriel’s face drained of color the moment he saw them in my hand.

He snatched them away from me, his movements fast enough to border on panic.

“What are these…?”

“My Beta gave them to me,” he cut me off, speaking rapidly.

“They didn’t have time to go, so they gave them to me. I forgot to throw them away.”

Right in front of me, he crumpled the tickets into a ball and tossed them into a nearby trash can.

“Let’s go. Time to head back to the packhouse.”

He threw an arm over my shoulder, gripping me tighter than usual.

I didn’t fight it, submissively walking out of the restaurant with him.

The night wind whipped through the mountains, making me shiver.

Gabriel smoothly took off his suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders.

The cloyingly sweet scent of perfume on the fabric grew even stronger.

I pulled the jacket tightly around myself.

“Gabriel, what’s that smell on your jacket?”

His footsteps halted for a fraction of a second.

“It’s probably just the incense from the restaurant.”

“Is it?”

I didn’t press further.

He let out a quiet sigh of relief and opened the car door for me.

The car drove smoothly through the dark night.

I leaned back against the seat, watching the neon signs flash past the window.

My mind was terrifyingly sharp.

I had seen it with absolute clarity—

The seat numbers printed on those two tickets.

They were side-by-side seats in the very back row.

The next day was Monday.

Gabriel got up early to head to the council hall.

Before leaving, he pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“I have to entertain some Alphas from other packs tonight, so I won’t be back for dinner. Have the pack staff make you something nice.”

“Okay.”

I kept my eyes closed, pretending to still be asleep.

The moment I heard the door click shut, I snapped my eyes open, staring blankly at the ceiling.

On the nightstand sat a catalog of rings he had his Beta deliver last night.

The top page had one specific ring circled in bold ink.

“This one suits you best,” he had told me last night.

I swept the catalog into a drawer and got up to get ready.

By afternoon, I received a phone call from the priestess at the Moonlight Temple.

“Miss Flora, there’s a slight issue with the venue for your ceremony with the Alpha. We might need you to come by and confirm a few things.”

“What’s the issue?”

“Well… it was originally set for the Moonbeam Hall in the main temple. But the Alpha’s Beta called this morning asking to move the venue.”

My grip tightened around the phone as I forced down my rising anger.

“I understand. I’ll be over this afternoon.”

Moonbeam Hall was the official venue where generations of Dewmoon Pack Alphas and Lunas held their ceremonies.

Celestial Hall, on the other hand, was the exact place Samantha had posted about multiple times on social media, wishing she could hold her marking ceremony there.

Ha. Gabriel really did adore Samantha, didn’t he?

When I arrived at the Moonlight Temple, the priestess looked at me with an apologetic expression.

“Miss Flora, the Alpha said the Celestial Hall is more romantic, so…”

“Is it finalized?” I cut her off.

“It’s still in processing. It requires signatures from both you and the Alpha to confirm.”

“Then don’t change it.”

I sat down on the sofa, taking a slow sip of the coffee that had been served.

The priestess blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean—cancel it entirely.”

The priestess’s eyes widened, looking as though she had misheard me.

“Can… cancel it? Miss Flora, are you joking? The date of the ceremony has already been announced to the entire pack.”

“I’m not joking.”

I set my coffee cup down, my voice perfectly level.

“Cancel the venue, along with the ceremony and all the decorations. Cancel everything.”

“But the Alpha…”

“I’ll explain it to him myself.”

I stood up, ignoring the stunned look on her face, and walked straight out of the temple doors.