She Rejected the Alpha and Became Her Own Moon Chapter 08

She Rejected the Alpha and Became Her Own Moon Chapter 08

Ethan stood in the shadow of a sycamore, the takeout box in his hands slowly going cold, and his heart sank right along with it. 

He remembered how just last week the Healer had made a point of warning that Iris’s leg lacked 

muscle strength, that she should walk as little as 

possible and rest in bed. 

He remembered how every morning she’d ask him. 

in a soft voice to carry her downstairs, saying she 

couldn’t keep her balance. 

He remembered how every night she’d rub her leg 

and moan that it hurt, needing him to knead it until 

midnight before she could sleep. 

She’d been fine for a long time. She’d only been 

putting on an act. 

He carried the box upstairs, and when he opened 

the door, Iris was sitting on the couch with a face. 

mask on. 

The instant she saw him, she knit her brows and 

rubbed her leg, her voice going frail. 

“You’re home? Treatment was so exhausting 

today. My leg hurts so much I could die.” 

Ethan set the box on the table, watched her 

practiced performance, and suddenly felt like he was looking at a stranger. 

The Iris in his memory had been the most dazzling 

thing on any stage, proud and free and blazing with light. 

When had she turned into this, faking illness to milk sympathy and trampling other people’s devotion underfoot? 

He didn’t call her out on the spot. He just watched the last of the rosy filter he’d kept over his first love shatter completely. 

In the days that followed, he gave nothing away and quietly kept track of what Iris was doing. 

He found she’d been secretly reaching out to ballet companies in Europe. 

Her inbox was full of audition invitations and back–and–forth emails, and nowhere in her plans was there any item called “bond with Ethan.” 

Her coming back to him had only ever been about a dormant wolf, a crippled leg, and a career at rock bottom. 

With nowhere left to turn, she’d grabbed him as a 

lifeline, nothing more. 

She loved her freedom and loved to shine, so she 

was never going to settle down in the Pack and 

become his Luna. 

The reckoning came on a weekend afternoon. 

Ethan printed out her treatment evaluation and her 

emails about going abroad and laid them on the coffee table. 

Iris saw the papers, went pale for a beat, then quickly composed herself and simply dropped the 

act. 

“Fine. I’ve been able to walk normally for three months now.” 

She leaned back on the couch, a finger painted bright red tracing the rim of her glass. 

“Ethan, I never actually intended to bond with you.” 

“The reason I ran from the ceremony back then was that I didn’t want to be tied down by a bond. My stage is somewhere far bigger.” 

“If I hadn’t hurt my leg this time and had no one to 

take care of me, I never would have come back to 

you at all.” 

She paused, looked at the darkness on Ethan’s 

face, and let out a scoffing laugh. “The truth is, you never loved me all that much either, did you?” 

“What you loved was just the regret of not getting 

me back then.” 

“You really didn’t notice these past couple of years?” 

“Your shirts have to be pressed at one exact 

temperature, you won’t eat ginger, your stomach 

medicine goes down half an hour before meals, 

you sleep with a night–light on.” 

“Aurora is the one who gave you every one of 

those habits.” 

“Who you think about every day, you know perfectly well in your own heart.” 

“Go find her, and stop getting in the way of me chasing my dream.” 

With that, Iris picked up a suitcase she’d packed 

long before and left, the door shutting behind her 

clean and final, exactly as it had five years earlier 

when she’d rejected him and run, without a shred 

of reluctance. 

By rights, he should have been a wreck, an Alpha 

rejected by his mate. 

But it was right then that the thought of Aurora 

surfaced, quiet and gentle. 

The huge apartment held only Ethan now, and the setting sun poured through the floor–to–ceiling 

windows and stretched long shadows across the 

floor. 

He sat on the couch, and he sat there the whole 

night through. 

Iris’s words were like a fine needle, jabbing at his 

heart again and again, forcing him to admit the 

truth he’d dodged for so long. 

He’d been in love with Aurora for a long time.