99 Times He Left Me Mid-Moon for a Fake Omega – The 100th? I Marked His Rival Alpha Chapter 13
Finnian stared at the healer for a second, then let out a harsh laugh.
“Are you seriously trying to tell me she’s dead? No way. You guys obviously messed up the reports.”
But when he saw the genuine prry in the healer’s eyes, something in his chest clenched tight-like his welf was trying to claw its way out in part
“I need to see her body. RIGHT NOW!”
The healer flinched at the Alpha command radiating off him and handed him a slip of parchment.
“If you don’t believe me, you can verify with the cremation grounds yourself.”
“How much did she bribe you to go along with this stupid act? Tell Lupa if she doesn’t come back to the packhouse soon, she shouldn’t bother coming back at all!”
Morrigan appeared out of nowhere and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
“What’s wrong, babe?”
“The healers are claiming Lupa died and got cremated. Can you believe that bullshit?”
His sarcastic tone couldn’t quite hide the worry creeping in. Morrigan’s eyes flashed with pure venom, but her voice stayed sugar-sweet.
“I bet she’s just jealous you saved me. She’s probably throwing a tantrum to get your attention through the mate bond.”
Finnian looked at her, uncertain.
“You really think so?”
“Of course! I barely even touched her during that whole thing. How could she possibly be dead?”
“Don’t stress about it, Jax. She’s not even a Shadowhowl anymore-where else is she gonna go except back to you?”
That thought settled his panic considerably.
Yeah. I’d loved him way too much to actually leave. I always had.
His mind drifted back to our second year at the pack academy, when that silver poisoning outbreak hit half the young wolves. The entire training grounds got quarantined, and he’d been one of the unlucky ones who got it bad.
He’d honestly thought he was going to die from the fever and convulsions. But I’d snuck past the pack guards, risking exposure myself just to stay by his side.
“If you die, I’m dying with you.”
Those fierce words, mixed with my tears, had hit him right in the chest. His wolf had recognized its mate in that moment.
That’s when Finnian decided he wanted to spend forever with me.
But now…
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He remembered the look in my eyes when I was lying in that pool of blood, staring up at him. His chest tightened with sudden panic, and he pushed Morrigan away.
“You should rest up. I’m gonna head back to the packhouse and check things.”
Morrigan tried to grab his sleeve, but he was already gone.
Finnian shifted and ran back to the packhouse like his life depended on it, pushing his wolf to the limit. But when he got there, it was just the omega staff-no sign of me anywhere.
He sprinted upstairs to our den and found all my stuff was gone. My scent was fading fast.
His wolf started pacing anxiously inside his head.
“Where’s Lupa’s things? What happened to all her stuff?”
The omegas exchanged nervous glances. Finally, one spoke up hesitantly:
“I think I saw Luna Darkfang burning something in the ceremonial grounds a couple nights ago. When I was cleaning up after, it looked like… bonding ceremony photos maybe?”
“A couple nights ago?”
Finnian’s eyes went wide. He grabbed our mating ceremony albums and flipped them open-completely empty.
His hands were shaking, face going pale.
Every single one of those photos had been taken by me. I’d treasured them so much I never let anyone else handle them.
And now I’d burned them all with my own hands.
Finnian couldn’t figure out what he’d done to make me destroy every memory of our bond.
Then it clicked. He frantically searched through our bonding documents and found our mate registration certificate in the ceremonial chest. It looked like it had been crumpled up and smoothed out again-definitely handled roughly.
It all made sense. I must have discovered something was off about our bond registration. That’s why I burned everything and disappeared.
No big deal. He just needed to sweet-talk me a little through the mate bond, and I’d come running back.
Back when we were courting, whenever he pissed me off, all it took was some charm or a nice gift to get back in my good graces.
Finnian reached out through the pack mind-link to his Beta:
“Commission the best craftsman in the territory-I want a full set of moonstone jewelry. Necklace, bracelet, everything. Have them delivered to the packhouse.”
“Should I send them to Miss Bloodclaw’ den?”
He froze. Now that he thought about it, after we completed the Mating Ceremony, he’d barely gotten me anything. Meanwhile, Morrigan got a steady stream of presents.
“No. Send them to Luna.”
After cutting the connection, his Beta’s question left him feeling guilty as hell.
Five years of being mated, and somehow we were less close than when we were just courting. Everyone thought we were the perfect bonded pair, but he knew damn well most of his energy and affection had gone to Morrigan.
“I’ll make it up to her tonight.”
Finnan had his Beta take Perrin to his grandfather’s pack, then sent me a message through the mate bond:
“Stop being mad. I’ve got a surprise waiting for you tonight. Come home to the den.”
The band felt wrong Cold Like trying to reach through a wall. His wolf whimpered in confusion. His face went ashen as he realized-
