4

"Ethan, let's start over," Selene pleaded. "I'll forget that you mated with someone else, and you can forget that I once left you. My heart knows I truly love you. You feel the same, don't you?"

Seeing Ethan's solemn expression, Selene softened her tone.

When it came to coaxing Ethan, Selene was always in her element, and Ethan invariably fell for her tactics.

In contrast, whenever Ethan was angry with me, no matter how hard I tried, he never showed me even the slightest smile.

Love and indifference were so obvious, yet I had been foolish enough to realize it only after death.

The man who never smiled at me was always gentle with another woman. He would lower his standards again and again for Selene.

My heart was riddled with countless pinpricks of pain. Now, I no longer cared how Selene slandered me or how much Ethan despised me.

"You just got out of the hospital. You should rest early," Ethan said, pushing Selene away.

He didn't directly answer her question but simply left.

After Ethan departed, Selene stomped her foot in frustration.

Ethan went downstairs and looked up at the balcony of our home. It was completely dark.

I used to always leave a light on for Ethan. No matter how late he returned, that light would illuminate his path. Ethan visibly paused.

When he entered our home, a chill greeted him from the place that had been empty for over a month. Ethan frowned.

"Aurora, how long are you going to sulk? All I did was bring you before the pack council. If you didn't lie about your white wolf, I wouldn't have treated you that way."

Ethan shouted toward the bedroom, his voice full of disgust and blame.

I followed him, laughing coldly.

Five years of love couldn't withstand someone else's few words. It was fortunate that I had died. Otherwise, there would have been many more days like this ahead.

Today, Ethan could demand my heart for Selene's sake; tomorrow, who knew what else he might do.

Ethan searched the entire house for me. On the table still sat the meal I had prepared before going to the healer's cabin, now moldy beyond recognition. The flowers in the vase had withered and blackened.

That day, I had prepared a surprise for him, wanting to celebrate our fourth mating anniversary. I waited and waited, only to be met with the pack council's forced execution order.

Even without asking, I knew Ethan had spent that day comforting Selene as she prepared for her new life.

Selene said she was afraid of surgery, so Ethan held her hand tightly, telling her not to fear.

Meanwhile, our child and I faced death. In the moment I needed Ethan most, he was praying for someone else's survival.

Ethan frowned at the mess on the dining table. He tried to open our mate bond, only to feel an unbearable pain from the depths of his soul.

Sweating, he blocked the connection again and took out his phone to call me, attempting to contact me by different means.

Once, twice... I couldn't count how many times Ethan called. He rarely showed such persistence. Actually, Ethan never actively called me without a reason.

Today, he seemed unusually patient.

But that call would never be answered.

Seeing that he couldn't get through, Ethan sent me a message, recording his voice.

"Aurora, haven't you sulked enough? Look at the state of the house! I haven't even settled accounts with you, and you've already run off. I'm giving you one hour to get your ass back here, or we're dissolving our mate bond!"

Dissolve our mate bond?

That would have been great. If Ethan had suggested that before, I probably would have agreed, avoiding this fate altogether.

Soon, Ethan's phone vibrated. His eyes visibly brightened, but upon seeing it was a message from Selene, they dimmed again.

I wondered if I was imagining things.

[Ethan, I left something at the healer's cabin. Could you get it for me?]

Ethan replied with a quick "okay." As he put on his jacket, he paused at the door, looking back at the house with an unreadable expression.

I smiled bitterly. It was already late at night, yet Ethan was always like this—always accommodating Selene's every request.

Once, when I had stomach pains in the middle of the night and asked him to take me to the healer's cabin, he complained it was troublesome and told me to endure until it passed.

Now, the healer's cabin wasn't too far away, was it?

Ethan drove to the healer's cabin and found the room where Selene had stayed, only to run into a senior healer.

I recognized the senior healer—she had been next to me during the operation. She had also watched the pack council broadcast about me and felt sympathetic toward my situation.

When the senior healer recognized Ethan, she snorted derisively.

"What? Now you remember to look for your Luna who died on the operating table?"

Ethan froze, staring at the senior healer in disbelief.

"What did you say? Who died?"

The senior healer looked at Ethan as if he were an idiot.

"Your Luna, Aurora. I don't know how you could be her mate. Your mate was the real one who made a deal with the Dark Witch a year ago to save you from silver poisoning. But she asked us not to tell you, so as not to make you feel guilty. "

The senior healer continued. "That artificial heart you prepared would only work with a white wolf's healing powers. Without them, it was just a piece of useless metal."