Luna, Who No Longer Recognized Him Chapter 03

Luna, Who No Longer Recognized Him Chapter 03

I threw myself against the edge of the yacht and looked down.

It leaped out of the water again and again, pressing its forehead to my hand.

Just like every morning before.

It couldn’t keep up with the yacht, but it hurled its body against the speed anyway.

All for one fleeting second of contact.

Declan stood behind me, his voice as cold as frozen sea.

“Aurora, have you lost yourself in this fantasy?”

“It’s a beluga. Is it really worth crying like this?”

I looked at him through burning eyes.

“It can feel that I’m in pain. That I don’t want to leave.”

“But can you?”

“You’re my Alpha. My mate. Can you even see it?”

Declan went rigid.

For one instant, his pupils flashed wolf-gold.

Maybe for the first time, he finally realized that the other end of the mate bond had gone cold as dead water.

The beluga broke the surface once more and gently pressed its forehead to mine.

Declan saw it. His feet stumbled beneath him.

“No.”

“This isn’t right.”

But Isolde’s eyes were shining.

“It’s actively following a human.”

“This isn’t an ordinary beluga. It might be the moon-white beluga that escaped from Evans Marine Park.”

“Declan, its behavior is beyond anything I’ve seen in this species.”

“If we could bring it back to the marine park, I could study why it’s formed this attachment to Aurora.”

“Understanding the whale might even help us unlock Aurora’s trauma response.”

My blood ran cold.

So it had been a prisoner too. Locked in a tank, just like me.

No wonder it understood human gestures so well.

No wonder it knew to leave food on the shore.

No wonder it had tried so desperately to lead me away from that artificial island.

It had escaped its cage.

And then it came back, again and again, into human waters to save me.

Declan had never been able to refuse Isolde anything.

He was silent for a few seconds, then turned to his Beta.

“Callum. Prep a capture dart.”

Callum’s face changed.

“Alpha, Luna has been staying close to it. This dosage isn’t lethal for a werewolf, but if it hits her by accident, combined with the residual wolfsbane suppressant in her system, the risk is significant.”

Declan’s eyes burned redder.

He watched me press my forehead against the beluga’s, and something between jealousy and rage incinerated whatever reason he had left.

“Then aim better.”

“Don’t make me say it twice.”

The crew still hesitated.

Declan snatched the capture rifle from the nearest hand.

“Useless. I’ll do it myself.”

I heard the trigger pull.

In that moment, there was no time to think.

I only knew one thing: it had saved me so many times.

This time, it was my turn.

I threw myself in front of the beluga and took the dart.

The entire yacht went silent.

Declan’s face drained white. He lunged toward me with a ragged scream.

“Aurora!”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“You’d throw away your life for a whale?”

He ripped the dart out.

But the sedative was already spreading through my bloodstream. My body went limp almost instantly.

The next second, the ocean exploded.

The enraged beluga clamped its jaws around Declan’s pant leg and dragged him off the yacht.

It dove straight into the deep.

Declan thrashed in the water, his wolf eyes dimming from oxygen deprivation.

Isolde screamed at me.

“Make it stop!”

“Any wild sea creature that kills an Alpha will be put down by the Pack enforcement squad!”

“If you don’t want them both to die, make it stop!”

I used every last shred of strength I had, mimicking the beluga’s call, crying out to it over and over.

“Let him go.”

“Please.”

“Don’t dirty your ocean for someone like him.”

I don’t know how long it took. But finally, the beluga pressed its head against Declan’s back and pushed him to the surface.

It was still kind.

Even after everything humans had done to it. Caged it. Hunted it. Hurt it.

The love and freedom inside its heart were still bigger than the hate.

I watched Declan get hauled back onto the yacht, and the relief hit me all at once.

Then everything went black.

In my dream, I was wearing that soaked wedding gown again, sinking into the deep blue sea.

The beluga caught me, steady and sure, and spun me through the water.

But this time, after it carried me to shore, it didn’t stay like it always had before.

It just touched its forehead to mine, gently.

Then it turned and swam toward deeper water.

Like a silent goodbye.