She Rejected the Alpha and Became Her Own Moon Chapter 07

She Rejected the Alpha and Became Her Own Moon Chapter 07

Meanwhile, far away on the West Coast, Ethan’s 

days were a mess. 

For the first two months there, work and Iris filled 

every hour, and he had no room to think about anything else. 

At seven each morning, he took Iris to the healing sanctuary for her treatment, handled Pack 

business online in the afternoon, and after work rushed back to soothe a moody, unpredictable Iris. 

The Healer said Iris’s wolf was recovering better 

than expected, that with steady treatment it could 

wake in half a year, that the wolf’s return would 

heal her injured leg, and that a comeback to the 

stage within a year wasn’t out of the question. 

But as Iris’s leg slowly improved, Ethan only felt 

more and more worn down. 

Iris had always been spoiled. 

The moment treatment hurt, she’d cry and refuse 

to go on. If a meal wasn’t to her taste, she’d throw 

the plate, and if a Healer’s apprentice moved a little too slowly, she’d berate them until their eyes 

went red. 

Every day, he dragged himself home exhausted, 

only to face a wrecked apartment and a stream of 

complaints that never ended. 

One night, he was sent out on short notice and got 

into a clash with the local Pack. 

His old stomach trouble flared up again, and the 

pain broke him out in a cold sweat. 

By the time he got back to the apartment, it was 

one in the morning, the kitchen was spotless, and 

the fridge was empty. 

Iris was curled on the couch scrolling through her 

phone, and when he came in, she only glanced up 

and tossed out, “Why are you back so late? I’m hungry. Go make me a salad, and put ginger in it.” 

Ethan stood in the entryway, bracing himself against the wall to catch his breath, and all at 

once the old days at the Pack apartment came 

back to him. 

No matter how late he came in, there was always 

a bowl of stew kept warm on the table with sliced 

bread and fruit beside it, and Aurora always sat 

waiting under the living room lamp. 

At the sound of the door, she’d look up with a faint 

smile and say, “You’re back? The soup’s just 

warmed. Drink it while it’s hot. Your stomach’s 

bad, don’t let it get cold.” 

His stomach medicine always sat in the first 

drawer of the entry cabinet, and Aurora always 

reminded him to take it before he left. 

His shirts were pressed sharply every day, not a 

crease at the collar or cuffs. 

His ties, his cufflinks, and his watches were all 

sorted by occasion and set in their fixed spots in 

the closet. Even the temperature of his shower 

water was set just right. 

Back then, he’d taken all of it for granted, as the 

plain duty a mate owed. 

He’d even vaguely felt that Aurora was too dull, too 

quiet, nothing like the vivid, dazzling Iris who could 

make his heart race. 

Only now did he see that all those small daily 

things he’d overlooked had long since folded into 

his life like the air itself. 

He’d grown so used to them that he never noticed, and only once they were gone did he learn how 

hard it was to do without them. 

That night, he didn’t make Iris her pasta. 

He poured himself a cup of hot water, searched 

the whole apartment, and couldn’t find any 

stomach medicine. In the end, he curled up on the 

couch and gritted it out until dawn. 

Iris threw a fit over it for a whole day besides, 

saying he didn’t care about her at all, slamming 

the door and hiding in her room, refusing to come. 

out. 

Sitting in the empty living room, Ethan began to 

wonder for the first time whether he’d chosen Iris 

so readily all those years ago out of love, or only 

out of an obsession with what he hadn’t been able 

to have when he was young. 

What finally woke him up for good was the day he 

left work early. 

The branch wrapped its meeting early that day, and remembering Iris had said she wanted food 

from the south side, he drove halfway across the 

city to pick it up as a surprise for her. 

But the second he reached the foot of the building,‘ 

he saw Iris step out of a cab in heels, steady on 

her feet, several shopping bags in hand, laughing. 

and chatting with a friend beside her, light on her 

feet, without the slightest sign of any trouble 

walking.