This Time, I Refuse to Be His Luna Chapter 06

This Time, I Refuse to Be His Luna Chapter 06

I took a taxi to the small town at the foot of the mountain, then transferred to a long-distance bus heading up.

The mountain road was old, and the bus kept rattling.

In the past, I had taken buses like this with Ethan.

Back then, we were still poor and lived in a small cabin in the mountains.

I got carsick, so he would lean close and use his cedar scent to soothe the wolf inside me.

He held my hand and said that one day, he would rebuild the Blackthorn Pack and make me the most honored Luna.

I believed him for many years.

Now, I had come back alone.

The cabin was still there.

The eaves were old. The wooden door was cracked. The yard was full of weeds.

I pushed the door open, and dust floated in the light.

“Dad. Mom. I’m home.”

No one answered.

I put down my luggage and went to my parents’ graves beside the cabin.

—

The rain came quickly.

I knelt before the graves and finally cried out loud.

I told them Ethan had not treated me well.

I told them I really did not want to go back this time.

After the rain started, I remembered many old things.

When I was seven, my parents found Ethan under an interstate bridge.

He was seven too.

The Blackthorn Pack had been torn apart by infighting. His parents had been forced to their deaths, and he had been driven out of the territory, so thin that only his bright eyes seemed alive.

My parents brought him home.

The four of us squeezed into the little cabin in the mountains, warming ourselves with one old stove through winter.

Back then, he always rushed to do chores.

One time, I was scratched by a poisonous vine in the mountains.

That poison could burn through the body with fever and eventually kill a person in bed. The nearby clinic had no medicine.

My parents went up the mountain in a storm to look for moonroof and silverleaf.

They never came back.

—

Thirteen-year-old Ethan was afraid I would die.

He forced himself into an early partial shift and went into the mountains.

He brought back the antidote.

He also brought back my parents’ bodies.

When we were eighteen, we went to Seattle together.

Before leaving, he swore in front of my parents’ graves.

He said he would rebuild the Blackthorn Pack.

He said he would take back the power that belonged to him.

He said he would complete the mate-bonding ceremony with me and protect me for the rest of his life.

At first, we lived in a damp basement apartment.

The best dinner we could afford was instant ramen with slices of hot dog in it.

He always picked the hot dog pieces out of his bowl and gave them to me, while he drank the broth himself.

Later, he really became the wealthy and powerful Alpha of Blackthorn.

And I really was kept by him inside the estate.

I did not have to face the storms outside.

—

But I forgot one thing.

When a person loses the ability to stand on her own, she also loses the courage to leave.

My phone rang.

I answered.

Ethan’s voice was cold and urgent.

“Are you done throwing your tantrum?”

Rain ran down my chin and into my collar.

I looked at my parents’ tombstones.

“Ethan, I’m not throwing a tantrum. I no longer crave your scent, and I no longer need you to steady my wolf. This is not anger. This is freedom.”

The other end of the phone stayed silent for a long time.

His voice trembled.

“Olivia, what are you talking about? Where are you? Give me the address. I’ll come get you. We can start over.”

I closed my eyes.

“The promises you made to me, I’ll pretend I never heard them. The Luna title you kept for me, I don’t want it. This is where we end.”

After saying that, I hung up and turned off my phone.

When I turned it back on that night, there were many new messages

—

on the screen.

Ethan had sent two.

“Answer the phone, please. I saw your diary, Olivia. I was a bastard.”

Logan had also messaged me.

“Where are you? The Alpha is about to search the entire Seattle Pack territory. We shouldn’t have said those things. Come back first.”

Mason said,

“He can’t control his scent right now. All the lower-ranking wolves in the Blackthorn main hall are kneeling. Ask for whatever you want, but please reply first.”

Caleb said,

“Sophia went to see him and was thrown out by the guards. If you don’t come back, he really will lose control.”

I looked at those words and felt nothing.

In the middle of the night, Ethan sent another message.

“I know where you are. I’m coming now.”

I placed the phone on the table.

Rain hammered against the eaves outside.

I lay on my parents’ old bed and listened to it fall.

I was so calm that even I found it surprising.