His Gentle Voice, His Cruel Thoughts Chapter 09
After the debut exhibition ended, I declined all interview requests from the media and art brokers.
I walked out the back exit and stood alone in the quiet alley behind the gallery.
Soon, heavy footsteps came from behind me. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.
“Maeve.” Alder’s voice was terrifyingly hoarse.
I turned on my heel to face him. “Yes?”
“Why… didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” I calmly countered. “That I’m Stardust, and that I created ‘Moonfall on Leviathan’?”
He pressed his lips into a tight line, and his inner thoughts were a confused, chaotic mess.
[I gave her a life free of worries and the prestigious title of Luna of the Noirwood pack! Why would she hide the truth from me?]
“Drop the high-and-mighty act, Alder,” I said, coldly looking at his face. “Ask yourself-in the last five years, did you ever respect me for even a second?
“If you truly saw me as your mate, why did you spend five years turning a blind eye to Danika’s provocation and overstepping? Did you genuinely feel nothing for her, or were you quietly enjoying the vain thrill of having two she-wolves fight over you?”
Alder was completely frozen as I continued, “When we bonded five years ago, you knew how much I loved to paint, yet you acted as if it were only natural that I put my brushes away.
“You said, ‘I’ll provide for you, and you don’t need to work hard anymore.’ But deep down, you thought my art was just a collection of useless doodles, didn’t you?”
Alder’s face drained of its color.
“You used your identity as my mate to lock me by your side and took for granted that I’d be a complimentary maid and decoration. You always assumed that, as long as you tossed me a few crumbs of dismissive attention, I should be grateful.”
As I stared at him, every word I spoke hurt as though a blade plunged into his chest.
“The truth is, you don’t know what love actually is. You were just used to owning an accessory that would never fight back.”
Alder’s massive frame violently shuddered. The lights behind him cast his shadow long against the hallway.
His inner thoughts finally revealed despair from the crumbling of his final walls of defense.
[No. That’s not true…
[I’ve grown so used to her scent and meals she prepared for me every single day… I just can’t live without her… Why didn’t I see it sooner?]
His eyes were completely bloodshot. It was the first time I had ever seen such a broken look on his face, but my heart didn’t soften.
If I weren’t the “Stardust” who could bring him massive commercial profits, and instead was still the Maeve who
only knew how to cook, would he still stand here, shedding tears of regret?
He wouldn’t. He would just find me annoying.
“Alder, I didn’t reveal my identity today just to see you regret it.”
I pulled our mate bonding contract from my bag and announced, “I don’t want a single dime of your assets. Everything in the villa belongs to you, while I’m only taking my paintbrushes and myself.”
Staring at the contract, Alder staggered backward. “No… I won’t sign it! We can start over, Maeve. I swear I’ll change-
11
“It’s too late,” I said, shoving the contract into his hands.
“Father sacrificed his life to save the former Alpha five years ago. I have officially paid back that debt with interest, through a thousand days of humiliating devotion.
“Now, we’re even.”
When I turned and walked out of the alley, Randall’s car was parked at the curb, waiting for me.
I didn’t cast another glance back at the wolf standing frozen in the shadows.
The next day, Randall delivered the news. Danika was officially exiled from Noirwood Enterprise by Alder, under the charge of “repeatedly overstepping boundaries and insulting the Luna.”
According to Randall, Danika sobbed hysterically and begged to meet the Alpha when she was hauled out of the corporate headquarters. But Alder never spared her a glance.
Three days later, Alder showed up at my studio in Westfield.
His eyes were deeply sunken, and a dark layer of stubble covered his jaw. His former indifference and arrogance
were gone.
In one hand, he clutched the signed dissolution contract, and in the other, he held a bouquet of roses. But he had no idea that I was severely allergic to rose pollen.
Back at the villa, I had bought roses and set them up on tables every day, silently enduring the discomfort, all because he had casually remarked, “These flowers look nice.”
“It’s signed,” he added in a hoarse voice.
I took the contract from him and verified the seal stamped onto the page.
“These flowers… are for you, too,” he added and extended the bouquet forward.
I took half a step back. “Thank you, but I’m allergic.”
Alder went completely still. His thoughts collapsed into silent despair.
[Allergic? She’s allergic? How could I never have known? What exactly have I been doing these past five years?]
“Goodbye, Alpha Alder,” I said and closed the door in his face.
That night, the studio was exceptionally peaceful. I sat before the easel, picked up my palette, and began sketching the concept for my next painting.
Outside the window, bright and peaceful moonlight spilled across the rough wooden floorboards.
Meanwhile, dozens of miles away in the ultra-luxury villa, Alder sat alone on the massive, empty bed in the master bedroom. His fingers gripped a hand-stitched sachet tightly, its edges worn with time.
It was a piece I had crafted by hand during our first year of bonding. To help treat his insomnia, I had spent ages embroidering the fabric stitch by stitch and meticulously blended a mix of herbs.
On the fabric, there was a painting I had painted myself. It showed the two of us leaning tightly against each other, smiling with pure bliss.
Back when he accepted it, he had muttered a careless thank you, then tossed it into the corner of a drawer without another glance.
For five years, he had never looked at the painting drawn on it, not until tonight. He finally saw it clearly under the moonlight.
Like a Rogue who had lost his home, he buried his face in his palms and broke down in suppressed, agonizing sobs.
For the first time in his life, he finally realized how much I had given him over the past five years.
But unfortunately for him, we no longer had a future.
