But now, standing in the present, watching Alpha Alaric’s fingers move with effortless grace, there was no warmth left in me. Only a cold, merciless irony. His hands, which once felt like a lifeline, now mocked me with every fluid gesture. He had taken the gift of my silence, twisted it into a mask behind which he bared his soul, not to me, his Luna, but to another woman. He had used my deafness as a shield for his betrayal.
His signs were calm, attentive, masked with the tenderness that used to make me ache with love.
“Kaia, Nyra, your sister’s birthday banquet is about to begin. We should leave now. If we’re late, the pack will gossip.”
But the spark in his eyes wasn’t for me. His wolf thrummed beneath his skin, restless and eager, as if the thought of seeing her filled him with vitality I had never given him.
A dull ache bloomed in my chest, coiling tighter with every beat of my heart. I forced a smile, the curve of my lips trembling, and gently pulled my hand away.
“Then wait for me a moment. I’ll go change my clothes,”
I said, my voice steady though my throat burned with the weight of unshed tears.