A week has passed since that night and I haven’t seen Alpha Francesco again since that night.
I guess we just two people in pain who share same lone feeling, I can’t disturb him just because I feel lonely. I am used to this loneliness.
I sat on the balcony of the small apartment I now shared with Audrey, legs pulled up to my chest, a blanket loosely draped over my shoulders. The soft hum of the city had quieted down, replaced by the occasional rustle of wind and the distant hoot of an owl.
The moon, still days from reaching its full form, hung bright and ghostly in the sky, casting silver shadows on the buildings around us.
It had been several nights like this.
No sleep. Just me, the moonlight, and the growing ache in my chest.
Another birthday is near. The full moon. Two events that used to feel like milestones–like something magical. Now, they were only reminders of the night everything changed. The night I got my wolf. The night I was rejected.
I clenched my blanket tighter, the cold wind brushing against my bare feet.
I’d tried everything to sleep. Tea, warm baths, books, even lying in bed with my headphones in. But nothing worked. My mind was too loud, filled with memories I didn’t want, and pain I couldn’t silence. Sol came out here instead, every night, to let the moon bear witness to my sleepless sorrow.
What I didn’t know–what I never noticed–was that I wasn’t alone.
Across the rooftop from another shadowed forest, a pair of silver–blue eyes watched me. Since that night, he always come.
Night after night.
He never interrupted. Never moved. Just sat there, his aura cloaked so carefully not even my wolf–silent as she was–could sense him. He knew pain. He recognized it in the way my shoulders trembled when I thought no one could see, in the way I hugged my knees like I was holding myself together.
He knew because he’d felt it too. But I didn’t know that yet.
I hadn’t slept in almost a week.
Not properly, anyway.
Each time I closed my eyes, I felt it–her. The wolf inside me, Miká, still silent. Still unreachable.
And it was almost time.
Tomorrow was my birthday. The full moon would rise, casting its silver light across Florence, reminding every werewolf of who they were–what they
were.
But not me.
Not since that day.
My birthday never mean excitement, even I spend it alone last year so this year will be the same.
Once I can’t wait form my birthday to come, because it was the day I had dreamed of receiving my wolf for years, imagining her strong and graceful, our bond instant and powerful. Instead, I got rejection.
I got Ruben.
My hands trembled as I sat up slowly, pushing the blanket off my legs and slipping on the light sweater I kept near the bed. The soft hum of the city at night floated faintly through the open balcony doors.
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The night air was cool against my bare legs as I stepped onto the balcony. The sky was clear, the stars bright, and the moon—nearly full–hung above me like an all–seeing eye.
I gripped the iron railing and let out a shaky breath.
It always started with a chill. A cold that had nothing to do with the breeze, but the echo of something deeper. Memory.
Pain. Loss.
“You don’t belong here.”
“I reject you, Ellaine Aurora Rollin…”
My fingers tightened on the railing, knuckles turning white.
I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the words to disappear. But they never did. Not truly.
Night after night, I stood here like this, watching the moon rise higher and feeling the weight of my broken bond like a bruise on my soul. And somewhere deep inside, I could almost feel her. Mika. Like the faint whisper of a dream. A presence lost in fog..
And still, she didn’t speak.
Still, she remained quiet.
I didn’t know I was crying until I tasted salt on my lips, mourning her.
There was no sound. No sobbing. Just quiet tears that slid down my cheeks and vanished into the wind.
Unseen. Or so I thought.
What I didn’t know was that I was never truly alone.
Across from my building, in the shadows, someone watched. Always silent. Always still. A sentinel who never left when the moon rose and my light flickered on. He came each night like a phantom, slipping through the darkness unseen by others.
Francesco…
Alpha of the Florence Pack.
The need to make sure her safety is his priority. Truth is he dislike the distance that he could just watch her, but he knew she need time, that he can’t
make a sudden move. Not yet.
He needs to be patient until she’s ready. That was what he told himself.
Something in her already called to something long–buried in him just like what he realizes it now. Yet, she didn’t understand the true meaning of it, her sadness put a barrier to the truth.
The first time he saw her cry beneath the moonlight, his breath had caught in his throat. The way she sat in silence, her shoulders shaking from emotions she wouldn’t let anyone see. She tried so hard to stay composed in the day–silent and strong–but at night, she unravelled. Then the way she bravery help him, not only him but putting herself in danger to safe everyone. He was in awe.
In her way she’s stronger than she thought.
And every night, he stood in the shadows, watching. Because he couldn’t look away.
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At first, he’s watching because seeing her pain made his own quieter. Because her presence stirred something he had thought died with Anastasia only to realize that she is his second chance.
His chosen mate..
Tonight he just finds out that it’s a night before her birthday–but it felt different. Deeper. Sadder.
Why?
He could feel it in the air, in the tremble of her fingers as she wiped her face, in the way her tears didn’t stop. Her whole body shook as she leaned against the balcony wall, and her lips moved–but no sound came out.
He knows something must be happened on her birthday that make her in that grieve.
He took a step forward from the shadows. And then stopped.
Not yet. She wasn’t ready.
But oh, how he wanted to cross that distance. To do something–anything–to stop that pain from stealing her light.
Back to Ellaine point of view:
Inside, I sank to the floor of the balcony, curling into myself like I was trying to fold the pain away. My knees pressed to my chest, and the sob I’d been holding in finally broke free.
“I just… I want her back,” I whispered. “I want… me back.” How can I move on knowing my wolf still hurting?
The wind carried my words into the night, but something else answered.
A flicker. A warmth in my chest.
‘Ellaine…‘
I gasped, sitting up straight. My eyes wide, heart thundering.
“Mika?”
There was no voice, not truly. But the feeling was unmistakable.
It was her!!
She was still weak–far away–but for the first time in months, I could feel her reach for me.
‘I’m here… I’m sorry… I’ve missed you…‘
I choked on a sob, my arms wrapping around myself. “I thought I lost you.”
‘You didn’t. I was… healing. We both were. But I’m still yours!
The bond shimmered like silver thread in my soul, faint but pulsing.
“I’ve been so alone,” I whispered, tears falling freely now. “I didn’t know how to go on.”
‘But you did.‘ Her presence was warm, steady. ‘You’re stronger than you think?
The warmth grew, not just from Mika, but something else. The awareness of another heartbeat. A second presence just beyond the edge of my senses.
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Something… someone familiar.
And then I felt it.
Arms… Strong, warm arms around me.
I froze–but only for a second–because everything in me knew.
I didn’t need to turn my head to know who it was.
The scent of forest pine and rain.
The steady, grounding heartbeat. The feeling of safety.
Francesco…
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He didn’t speak. He just held me. Let me cry.
His arms were a fortress around me, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I let myself fall. I buried my face against his chest and sobbed–freely, openly.
He didn’t flinch. Didn’t pull away. He simply stayed.
And in that stillness, I understood something without words.
He had been watching. He had seen me fall apart night after night.
But this time, he came. This time, he caught me.
When the worst of the storm had passed, I blinked through wet lashes and looked up.
The moon framed his face in pale light. His eyes, golden and unreadable, met mine with a softness I had never seen before.
“Why…?” I whispered.
His thumb gently wiped a tear from my cheek. “Because no one should cry alone on their birthday.”
My breath caught.
“You knew?”
He didn’t answer that directly. Just tilted his head slightly, his voice low.
“You’re not alone, Ellaine. Not anymore.”
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