After I left, Carlson stayed by Selena's side for more than 24 hours.
When Selena finally opened her eyes and exclaimed excitedly that she could see again, he looked at the silvery eye on her face that once belonged to me and somehow wasn't able to feel any joy. Instead, he felt an indescribable irritation that only seemed to get increasingly worse inside of him.
The scene from the operating table earlier flashed repeatedly in his mind.
I hadn't been administered a single dose of anesthesia during the surgery, and yet, when the scalpel sliced through my flesh, I had simply bit down on my lip and passed out just like that without even making a sound. I never even whined or begged him for mercy to go easy on me.
It was getting dark out, and Selena still hadn't stopped yapping. Carlson found her too noisy and hurriedly made up an excuse before strolling out of the healing center.
The cold night wind managed to clear his mind a little, somewhat.
He was sure that I was just being stubborn and prideful with him.
Following my old habits, he thought that I would most definitely be hiding in our secret hideaway cave on the back of the mountain, feeling absolutely aggrieved and crying my heart out after suffering so much.
All he had to do was just soften his tone a little with me the same way he'd always done in the past, say a few comforting words to me, and I would obediently give in, lower my head, and follow him home, just like I always did.
With such thoughts occupying his head, he suddenly realized that he'd unintentionally made his way to the cave at the back of the mountain.
"Stop making a fuss, Ayna," he said, calling out into the cave. However, the moonlight shone into the cave through the entrance, and he saw that the cave was empty. There wasn't anyone hiding inside at all.
Carlson's heart suddenly dropped into his stomach.
He still stubbornly went inside the cave. It still had the same layout as before, with a small bed, a worn-out tire seat, a weather doll with a funny face drawn on it, and a superhero figurine that we had found somewhere in the woods.
He couldn't help smiling as he looked at the things inside the cave. However, when his gaze landed on the cave's stone wall, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
There had originally been two little figures holding hands etched into the rocky wall there, which I'd carved stroke by stroke about ten years ago. One of the figures was me, and the other was him.
But now, the figure representing him in the wall had been angrily scratched out by a rock, and the deep, glaring cut marks had completely disfigured the carving's face and hands beyond recognition.
The only figure left was the one that represented me, and she looked very lonely by herself.
An immense sense of unease immediately threatened to drown Carlson. He rushed out of the cave and began searching for me high and low everywhere in the pack, trying to pick up my scent.
Finally, he noticed a tiny figure in a fox fur coat at the watchtower in the far distance. The coat had been a birthday gift from him last year.
His tense body relaxed at once, and his fear was then replaced with anger and annoyance at being fooled.
He thought that he should have expected that I would pull this hard-to-get trick on him after all. Who was I trying to fool with my pitiful act, still climbing up the watchtower in the chilly, biting cold despite being newly blind in one eye?
Carlson immediately strode up the steps and spoke in his usual condescending manner.
"Are you done throwing your tantrum? Hurry up and go home to rest. As for the announcement, I can always explain to the pack—"
The figure suddenly turned around to look at him in confusion.
"Alpha? Were you… Were you talking to me?"
Carlson finally got a good look at the face under the moonlight.
