Chapter 2
Chapter 2
+ 5 Points
Once home, I sat by the kitchen table, meticulously working through the agreement. to dissolve the mate bond. Jameson might have hidden more assets than I’d managed to uncover. Men like him usually do, but I had ceased chasing what was rightly mine. Like the sale of the house, this agreement was enough for a simple, quiet life where I could live on my
own terms.
My wolf paced the room, occasionally stopping to gaze at the walls-walls I’d cleaned, repaired, painted, and decorated for forty years. She sniffed at each piece of furniture, as if making her final farewells. This home encased me like
a second skin. Each creaky floorboard, each chipped cup hidden in a cupboard, held a story. My story. I’d always believed this story was a happy one.
Before Alice arrived, I didn’t know Jameson could be a romantic. Not once in forty years did he send me flowers. My requests for small gestures were always met with sighs, scoffs, or resounding silence. Yet when it came to
1/9
Chapter 2
5 Points
significant matters-mortgages, hospital bills, our son’s tuition-he showed up. He took care of those. I told myself that’s how he showed he
cared.
When I gave birth to our son, he was thoughtful, even tender, holding my hand through the hardest moments, taking leave to care for me as I recovered. I thought my mate was just stoic. Practical. Not one for sentiment, but reliable. Then Alice came along and everything changed.
She’d sworn she’d never marry, claimed she didn’t believe in the mate bond, always
laughing, calling herself a free spirit. For a long time, I thought I was lucky. I thought I had what
others envied. Until Alice slid into the cracks of
my mate relationship. At some point, she and Jameson began to grow… close. Too close.
Every time I tried to mention it, even vaguely, Jameson would explode, accusing me of paranoia or jealousy. He said he was merely being courteous, and that Alice was my best friend, treating her as she deserved. Alice played her part well, acting wounded, shocked, even pained at the mere suggestion. I believed them, convincing my wolf that it was merely
2/9
Chapter 2
insecurity.
+ 5 Points
But now I know better. Jameson may never have truly cheated. Perhaps there was no
physical affair. But he gave me the domestic version of himself-grocery shopping, bills, chores. He offered her romance. He sent her
flowers. He remembered her favorite things. He would vie for tickets to concerts, just because Alice loved music.
I was the convenient choice. The default
selection. The backup. It took me forty years to realize I’d been chewing on half-cooked rice all
along. Chewing until I developed early stomach. cancer. Yet now, despite all the bitterness, I still think-maybe it’s not too late.
I’m packing up the house, ready to hand it over
to its new owners in a week. I haven’t touched
Jameson’s belongings, nor my son’s. I’m taking only what’s mine.
As I sift through stacked memories, a voice breaks the silence behind me. “Look at you, this is your pace. Packing, cleaning… Do you really think you should be at a concert?” Jameson
sneers, his eyebrows furrowed, the same.
3/9
Chapter 2
5 Points
permanent dissatisfaction etched on his face since his thirties.
I don’t respond. I simply hand him the signed. mate dissolution papers. He takes them. roughly, until his eyes scan the words, and his expression shifts in an instant. “You must be joking,” he barks, tossing the papers to the
floor. “Dissolve the mate bond? For this? You’ve
thrown a fit, and now you want to burn the
whole house down over a damn concert?”
Just then, our son walks in and catches sight of the papers. His sigh is loud, long, filled with disdain. “Really, Mom?” he groans. “You’re still fixating on this? You really think missing
a concert is like the end of the world? We’ve
never gone to any concert together. What’s changed now?”
I look at him-the pup who once promised to take me to concert halls around the world, holding my finger with his tiny hand. Said he would be rich one day, and I would sit front row, the band playing just for me. He’s forgotten all of it. Now he fully resembles
Jameson’s son.
4/9
Chapter 2
+5 Points)
“You really think you can compete with Aunt Alice?” he adds, snickering, “She’s your age but still looks incredibly beautiful. When she attends a concert, nobody questions-they think she belongs there. But you? You step in and people wonder if you snuck in as the
janitor.”
He laughs like he’s uttered the joke of the century. I gaze at him-the man my son has become, bitter and rotten, and calmly reply, “I didn’t become this overnight. If I hadn’t spent. my life in the kitchen, scrubbing floors, washing dishes… If I hadn’t given everything to raise you, to keep this household running, perhaps I might have-”
“Oh, Moon Goddess, my mom paints herself as a tragic figure,” he rolls his eyes. “You did some chores. So what’s the big deal? If Aunt Alice married Dad, she’d do better. Balance it all. She wouldn’t complain now.”
And then, without hesitation, he adds, “Mom, cut it out. You’re too old for this. At your age, you want to dissolve the mate bond with Dad? No one cares. You think anybody would support a she-wolf like you at your age? You don’t even
5/9
Chapter 2
+ 5 Points
know if you’ll be alive next week.”
The room falls into silence. I stand there,
numb. My wolf roars inside my chest, her
heart breaking, seething with anger. That was our pup. The pup I carried, nurtured, the pup through high fevers and nightmares. Now… he just wishes for me to die.
My hands tremble. My throat tightens. For a moment, I fear my heart might stop. Jameson looks uneasy, even a bit ashamed.
But there was no shame in his voice.
He never would feel it.
Years of my sacrifices had allowed him to forget
who had built the foundation beneath his feet.
Instead, he gently pushed me toward the
kitchen.
“You know his temper,” he murmured. “Don’t take it to heart. Just wash the dishes, then go to bed.”
Almost simultaneously, he bent down, picked
6/9
Chapter 2
+ 5 Points
up the mate contract termination papers, and waved them in front of me.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t see the termination papers, okay?” he said, as if he were doing me a favor. “There’s no need to make a scene. You’ll only
regret it.”
His tone made it sound as if staying in this cage was a privilege he was granting me, something I should be grateful for.
He turned his back on me. I faced the sink.
It was a mess.
Dishes crusted with hardened food, sticky
counters, red plastic cups from two days ago.
Our son had thrown another little gathering.
I hadn’t cleaned up-hadn’t had the strength
So no one did.
Because no one would.
7/9
Chapter 2
+ 5 Points
Because in this house, I was the one who
cleaned.
The maid.
The ghost in the background.
I picked up the sponge, but then I stopped.
In the murky dishwater, a golden object floated.
I fished it out. My fingers trembled as I lifted it into the light.
It was a necklace.
My necklace.
It was the one Jameson had given me during
our binding ceremony.
He couldn’t afford a ring, so he gave me this
necklace instead.
He said he spent every penny he had on it.
He promised that one day he would give me
more.
8/9
Chapter 2
I believed him.
+ 5 Points
Now, it lay in the filthy water, forgotten-just like everything else he had ever promised me.
In that moment, I understood.
This mate bond had always been a lie.
Jameson had never loved me.
To him, I was nothing more than free labor-
a convenient choice.
A mate he could control without question.
9/9
