My Alpha Chose My Sister, So I Chose Someone Else Chapter 09
The first time I met Caleb, I was eight years old.
My mother had not been gone long, and my father had scolded me over Vivienne so many times that I ran out of the house in a fury.
I sat by the river alone and cried.
That was when Caleb turned up.
He was still a boy then.
Covered in wounds, he washed ashore right in front of me.
He scared me so badly that I ran.
Pack nights were bitterly cold. Injured as Caleb was, he would certainly die if I abandoned him.
After a long hesitation, I stole some medicine and treated him the way I had seen the pack’s healers do.
Back then I did not even know his name.
The boy actually lived.
He told me that his family’s enemies couldn’t defeat his parents, so they had ambushed him instead.
Once he healed, he moved into a run-down hut by the river.
I had my first friend.
Every time my father shouted at me, I would run to that boy and pour it all out.
More than a year went by like that, and then he told me he was leaving.
That day, I had just fought with my father about my mother, and the boy didn’t listen to a word of it before telling me he was leaving. I assumed he no longer wanted me as a friend and ran off without hearing him out.
By the time I calmed down and went back, he was already gone.
As I grew older, I buried the memories of my father’s favoritism and of the boy, and I never spoke of either again.
It never crossed my mind that we would meet again, let alone as mates.
Wait. I was only eight when I met Caleb.
My eyes went wide.
“You’re barely two years older than me. You could fall in love at first sight at ten?”
Caleb opened his mouth, startled.
“Of course not.
“At first, you were only a friend I remembered. We never exchanged names back then.
“After I became Alpha, I found ways to ask about you. I learned your father wanted to arrange a mating for you and that life in your pack was difficult.
“I went to find you. I wanted to ask whether you needed my help. But a wolf in the Nightfall pack staged an accident and pinned it on me.
“He wouldn’t let me go, no matter what I said. You showed him a video proving what had happened and made him apologize.
“You didn’t know me at all, yet you still helped me. That was my real love-at-first-sight moment.”
I tilted my head.
“And if I had not helped you?”..
Caleb pushed a plate of peeled shrimp toward me as if it were nothing.
“But you did help me, just like you saved me when we were small. You have always been you, and I was always going to fall in love with you in the end.”
I looked at that plate of peeled shrimp, and I remembered Pavel peeling shrimp and crab for Vivienne while all I could do was watch and envy her in silence.
I used to hint that I wanted Pavel to do the same for me, and he always gave the same answer.
“Vivienne isn’t well. There’s nothing wrong with your hands. Peel your own.”
And now, without my having to say anything, Caleb had peeled them and set them in front of me.
I put a shrimp in my mouth. My eyes stung, but warmth filled my chest.
That was the moment I decided to open my heart to Caleb.
That night, we climbed the tallest tower in the territory to enjoy the breeze.
Caleb asked if there was anything I wanted to do. If I still wanted to be a healer, he said, he would find a way to help.
I shook my head.
“I can handle this myself. I’m going to be a healer again, and I’ll walk back into that academy with my head held high.”
The next day,
A message came from a warrior I trusted.
“All of them have been moved.”
At last, the anxiety that had been hanging over me eased.
Right after that, I went to the Healers’ Academy, named Vivienne as the one who had destroyed my serum, and submitted the recording of Pavel threatening my family to protect her.
The academy reported the case to the Council of Elders. The warriors moved fast, and both Vivienne and Pavel were taken into custody for a hearing.
I heard that when the warriors came for her, Vivienne was threatening to kill herself unless Pavel agreed to be mated to her.
Pavel went with the warriors without a moment’s hesitation.
If she got to stand next to him now, maybe Vivienne ought to be thanking me for it.
The instant she was brought into the hearing room and saw me, Vivienne knew exactly what had happened.
Her tears came on command.
“Ashlyn, I know you want to be a healer, but you can’t push the blame onto me! You were the one who lost your grip on the serum that day.
“Honored Elders, I can’t cover for my sister any longer. Ashlyn had another healer make that serum for her, and I have a video to prove it!”
Not only had she framed me, but she had also fabricated a video to make the accusation stick.
I smiled coldly.
“What a coincidence. I have audio evidence. Let’s submit both and have the experts tell us which one is real.”
Surprise flashed through her eyes and turned quickly into something vicious.
She clearly hadn’t known I had a recording.
