Mai’s P.O.V.
I never thought I’d find peace. Not like this. Not in a sleepy town like Wood Falls.
Liam and I did everything together now. It was easy, natural. We woke up in the sa house, on the sa bed, worked at Becky’s café, wandered the woods in the evenings, and fell asleep under the sa roof at night. I no longer felt the need to keep my distance or guard myself. And the best part? The whispers in my head had finally fallen silent.
Because Liam was always by my side.
He didn’t push away anymore. He didn’t look at like the crazy person who used to always stalk him. Instead, we laughed, we talked, we lived—just the two of us in this little town. There were no judging eyes, no murmured warnings about the dangerous Alpha’s daughter. Here, I wasn’t the nace people whispered about. I was just Mai.
And Liam was mine.
My birthday ca and went like any other ordinary day. There were no grand ceremonies, no carefully curated rituals of the pack, no prayers whispered to the Moon Goddess, whose favor I was supposed to seek. A few months ago, my parents had told the truth about the witch that resided in my eyes, and how my eighteenth birthday was going to be a very special day. I was supposed to et the goddess, undergo a purification ritual to cleanse my soul, and finally rid myself of the curse that had left my eyes silver and haunting and best of all, finally get to et my wolf. But none of that mattered to anymore.
I had Liam here.
I didn’t need anything else.
I could feel the Moon Goddess’s presence in the wind, but I wasn’t concerned. I could almost hear her chuckling as if she understood. Maybe she’d even approve. Maybe she knew that, in that mont, I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
"Mai," Liam called softly as he leaned against the counter of the café, where I was wiping down the counters, "you know you could’ve taken the day off, right? I an, you’ve been spacing out all day."
I paused, glancing up at him with a smirk. "Yeah, but if I took the day off, you wouldn’t have here to keep you company. And you know how you get when I’m not around."
He grinned, his eyes rolling with amusent. And with a voice dripping with sarcasm, he said, "True. The day’s a lot less fun without you."
I couldn’t help but laugh. I was happy, I felt no desire to seek out the goddess, no hunger to cleanse myself or discover the mysteries of my silver eyes. I was just... content. And Liam’s presence was all I needed.
After we closed the café for the night, we did what we always did—what made everything feel normal. He shifted into his wolf, his gray fur streaked with silver, glinting like liquid rcury under the twilight sky. He was used to the transformation by now, the way his body morphed effortlessly between human and beast. The wolf had beco an extension of him, as natural as breathing, and yet... everyti he changed, he always had the look of awed in his eyes.
"You ready?" I asked, a playful growl rumbled in his chest as he lowered himself, his back arched in an invitation to hop on.
I grinned, straddling his massive form with practiced ease. "Such a good boy."
As we tore through the forest together, the world around us blurred into a streak of colors—trees whipping by, the golden light of the setting sun mingling with the dusky shadows. His wolf form was fast, faster than anything I had ever imagined, a blur of silver and gray against the fiery sky.
I clung to his fur, my heart racing, the wind in my hair, and my laughter ringing out freely, mixing with the howl of the wind around us. We ran for miles, the world ours in that mont. No pack, no expectations, just him and , and the wild freedom of the forest.
We later settled down beside a large tree to catch our breaths. We sat beside each other like always, and I let my mind wonder off to what was going on in the pack right now, and hoping my parents and Ollie weren’t freaking out too much. Liam’s turned his head slightly as if sensing my thoughts. "Mai... what are you thinking about?"
I hesitated. The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them back. I could tell him about our ho, my curse, about what the Moon Goddess really ant for . I could tell him about the truth I carried inside , about why my eyes were so different from everyone else. But every ti I tried to voice it, sothing held back. Fear. Fear of losing this. Losing him.
"I’m thinking about how incredible you are," I said instead, my voice soft but sincere. "How lucky I am to have you in my life. You make everything feel... easier."
Liam stared at for a mont, he didn’t say anything, but the shift in his energy spoke volus.
After a long while of both of us sitting in silence, , Liam finally spoke. "Mai, I don’t get why I’m like this," he murmured, his voice quiet, as if unsure how to express himself. "Why I can change to a wolf, why you can do all this strange stuff... teleporting, moving things with your mind. You once told we’re... different. But sadly, just like , you don’t rember, and now we’re both stuck."
I didn’t et his gaze, instead, I rested my head against his shoulder and sighed, "I don’t have the answers, Liam. Not yet, anyway. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to explain. But not now. I don’t rember."
The quiet lingered between us, a secret I was keeping. His questions about the magic, the power we both carried, hung in the air like an unspoken promise. One day, I’d have to tell him the truth. One day, I’d have to reveal everything—who we really were, what I was running from. But I wasn’t ready.
Not yet.
Because the fear of losing him, of losing this, was too great.
The plan had been simple: get close to Liam, make him rember, make him love so that when we went back, he wouldn’t leave no matter what the pack said. But now? I didn’t want to go back. I wanted this small-town life, just us, just Liam and .
But the guilt was suffocating.
His birthday was approaching, only two months away, and I hadn’t even told him about that too. He had no idea that his entire past was waiting just outside this town. If I told him, if I admitted that I had my mories, everything would change. He’d hate for lying, for keeping the truth from him.
I told myself I needed more ti. Just two more months. Two more months of pretending. Two more months of laughter and stolen monts, of movie nights and café shifts, of peaceful days before the storm.
But the storm ca earlier than I expected.
A week after my birthday, I convinced Liam to have a movie night with . He agreed, rolling his eyes like I’d forced him into so unbearable torture.
"You’re lucky I don’t have better plans," he muttered, flopping onto the couch beside .
I smirked. "Liam, you never have plans."
He shot a look but didn’t argue. Instead, he stretched his arms behind his head, his long legs taking up most of the couch.
"Go make the popcorn," I ordered, flipping through the channels.
"You could say ’please,’ you know," he grumbled but got up anyway.
I snorted. "That’s not how our relationship works, and you know it."
He muttered sothing under his breath as he disappeared into the kitchen.
I continued flipping through the channels, half paying attention when sothing made my blood run cold.
A news broadcast.
My face.
Liam’s face.
Missing Persons.
The words glared back at from the screen, and my chest tightened. There was a reward. A huge reward for anyone with information about our whereabouts.
I felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.
I had erased every trace of my footprints and any trace of my whereabouts when leaving ho. Thanks to Elizabeth’s teachings, I knew the right magic spell to use. My mother, my father, Ollie, Papa and Auntie Juliette, Elizabeth, the pack—they wouldn’t be able to find using magic or pack trackers; so of course they would settle for missing persons posters.
This was bad. If people in this town found out... Liam and I wouldn’t be safe.
Panic clawed at my throat as I grabbed the remote, my fingers trembling as I hurriedly changed the channel.
I barely had ti to collect myself before Liam walked back in, a bowl of popcorn in his hands.
"What’d you pick?" he asked, settling beside .
I forced a smile, ignoring the way my hands shook. "Uh... sothing dumb."
He quirked an eyebrow. "That narrows it down."
I elbowed him. "Shut up and eat your popcorn."
He huffed, shoving a handful into his mouth, but I barely heard him. My pulse was pounding in my ears, my mind racing.
They’re looking for us.
I wasn’t ready to let go of this life. I wasn’t ready to let go of Liam.
So I made a decision.
I just need more ti.
I would hide it for two more months. Two more months before I told him the truth. Before I admitted that I knew who he was. Before I told him that his life wasn’t ant to be here in this town.
I leaned into Liam’s shoulder, letting myself pretend—for just a little longer.
But I knew.
The clock was ticking.
And when the truth finally ca out... nothing would ever be the sa.
Reviews
All reviews (0)