With his support, I moved forward step by step. Evan was clearly losing patience.
Another communication came through.
“Alfred, hurry up. Karen needs to rest.”
When the call ended, Alfred glanced at me, hesitation written on his face.
I said nothing. I simply endured the pain and quickened my pace.
If I displeased Evan, the punishment would ultimately fall on Alfred. He had always taken care of me. I could not drag him down with me.
We were led into the stone chamber where Evan and I had once slept together.
Now, Karen lay on that bed.
He smiled as he played with the moon pearl taken from my body, violet light flowing between his fingers.
The pearl itself was not rare. It was merely a gift Evan had exchanged for his first hunt in his youth.
Before Karen went abroad, he had lost it. Evan later retrieved it and kept it ever since, waiting for the right moment.
He wanted to surprise him.
No one had expected that I would swallow it by mistake.
Evan stood by the bed, his gaze so gentle it bordered on reverence. He lightly pinched his cheek, the one that bore a seventy percent resemblance to mine.
No.
It was not that he looked like me.
It was that I had been shaped to look like him.
They were immersed in their own world, as if no one else existed in the room.
Alfred and I stood quietly in the shadows. After a moment, Alfred cleared his throat softly, reminding them of our presence.
Only then did they turn back.
The first time Karen saw me, a flicker of disgust crossed his eyes. It vanished almost instantly, replaced by a smile whose meaning was difficult to discern.
Evan’s expression returned to the impatience I knew so well.
He frowned, his tone leaving no room for refusal.
“Apologize to Karen immediately.”
I bit my lip, endured the tearing pain in my abdomen, and spoke in a low voice.
“I am sorry.”
I knew very well that if I did not apologize, he would not let me go.
A werewolf who could cut open his mate for the sake of a moon pearl was no longer someone familiar to me.
Karen forced a polite smile in response, his lips gentle and proper.
But his eyes did not smile.
That was the gaze of a victor, calm, confident, and carrying a trace of pity. He had nothing to prove. He was already standing at the end point.
Seeing me lower my head and submit, Evan no longer paid me any attention. His focus returned to Karen, as if I had merely completed a required procedure.
Alfred led me out of the stone chamber and settled me in a guest room in the side courtyard. It was far from the main house and the ritual fires, filled only with the scent of herbs and cold stone.
He laid out the animal hides for me, then spoke softly, saying he would fetch a clan physician skilled in healing to tend to my wounds.
Before leaving, he seemed to recall something and stopped, his voice hesitant.
Tomorrow is your birthday.
Then he added another sentence, his tone turning cautious and serious.
From now on, anything Evan prepares with his own hands, you must not touch. Remember that.
I nodded.
At that moment, there was no anger in my heart. Only a belated, bitter clarity.
If Evan had not once cared for me with such attentiveness before Karen reappeared, how could I have believed that his devotion was meant for me.
I had always been a substitute, chosen from the start.
The first time we met was at a healing camp on the tribal border.
I had been standing by a sickbed, changing herbs for my dying grandmother, feeding her water, praying to the Moon God. Evan passed by that place, and the moment he saw me, he stopped.
He froze, then softly called out a name.
Karen.
Only later did I learn that it was the name of his long lost betrothed.
