Silence fell between us. Heavy. Painful.
Elder Elisse closed her eyes briefly, as if gathering her thoughts.
“I don’t know what went wrong,” she whispered.
Neither did I.
That was the cruelest part. There was no clear moment where everything shattered.
No single mistake I could point to and fix. Just a slow, painful unraveling of something that once felt unbreakable.
“I’ll help you,” she said finally.
My breath caught.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
It was the first time in a long while that I felt something close to relief.
But it didn’t last. Because the moment I returned to my room and turned on the television, the world reminded me exactly why I needed to leave.
The news flashed across the screen.
“Alpha Cain caught in another scandal.”
I froze. Images filled the screen. That woman. The same one from the livestream. Laughing. Dancing. Kissing.
My stomach twisted violently. But then the headline changed. And my entire world stopped.
“Alpha Cain gifts the most precious moonstone to his rumored lover.”
My heart skipped. The screen shifted, showing a familiar object. A glowing stone, radiating a soft, ethereal light.
The most precious moonstone in the land of wolves. The one he had once promised me.