Moonlight After Goodbye Chapter 03

Moonlight After Goodbye Chapter 03

Declan and Laura had taken photos striking the same pose in the same spot.

My fingers trembled slightly.

I opened Declan’s PackGram page.

Caption one: [Off we go! I’m gonna get better photos than Princess Laura!]

Caption two: [Chased the aurora successfully with my lucky Princess Laura.]

Caption three: [This black sand beach feels so lonely, but I’m glad Princess Laura is here with me.]

Princess Laura.

It was a nickname I’d never known he used.

Beneath the posts was a comment from a mutual friend.

[Declan, where’s Celeste? Why didn’t she come along?]

Declan’s reply was blunt and brief:

[She got unlucky and caught a fever, so she’s stuck in the hotel.]

My oatmeal arrived.

I set my phone down and stirred the steaming bowl of oats with my spoon.

I recalled the high fever I’d caught back when we graduated high school.

Declan had panicked completely.

He stayed up all night watching YouTube tutorials to make the oatmeal I wanted himself.

He’d blown each spoonful cool before feeding it to me bite by bite.

Over those two days of fever, he’d insisted on bringing me to the pack healer, asking the pack healer to hold a bed for me to be monitored.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

On the walk home, he’d carried me on his back down the trail through the back woods, quiet and sullen.

I’d pressed a light kiss behind his ear.

“Hey, I’m all right now.”

He’d mumbled, “It just hurts to see you sick.”

I ate the lukewarm oatmeal and finally got a little energy back.

Toward evening, the pair came back.

The second Laura stepped through the door, she held her phone right up to my face.

“Celeste, look! Declan made my face look huge in this shot!”

The screen showed a photo of the two of them.

Laura stood in the foreground, while Declan held the phone out with one hand to snap the selfie.

My eyes stung with sorrow.

Back in our school days, we’d never owned a selfie stick, and this was exactly how we’d taken our photos together too.

We’d even filled an entire wall with pictures shot from this exact angle.

My voice trembled before I hurried away to my room.

“I still feel terrible. I’m going to lie down some more.”

Silence hung in the hallway for a long while before Declan walked into the room.

He reached out to check my temperature.

“Your fever’s broken—you’re doing better.”

I tilted my head away, dodging his hand.

His hand hovered in the air, then he pulled it back with frustration.

“Celeste, even if you’re unwell, you’re being way too unreasonable.”

I lifted my head to stare at him.

“Me being unreasonable?”

“Laura felt bad you couldn’t join us, so she went out of her way to show you her photos.”

” Who are you snapping at with that attitude?”

“You were the one who insisted we come to Iceland in the first place.”

“We came along to keep you company.”

“Now you flip out on us out of nowhere.”

“Celeste Voss, can you act mature for once?”

I stared blankly at him.

“That’s enough.”

Laura had slipped inside without me noticing, tugging at Declan’s sleeve.

“Declan, don’t say another word. This is my fault—”

“Don’t stick up for her.”

Declan’s expression darkened sharply.

“You didn’t dress warmly enough and gave yourself a fever—no one blamed you for it.”

“Does everyone have to coddle you just because you’re feeling under the weather?”

“You’re meant to be the future Luna, not a spoiled child.”

He grabbed Laura by the wrist.

“Let’s go.”

“Let her have time to think about her behavior.”

Laura shot me a worried glance, then followed Declan out of the room.

The door slammed shut behind them.

Inside my chest, my wolf curled up softly, as if she’d finally realized something.