Chapter 217
Sarah’s POV
It didn’t matter why Ethan had come.
What mattered was that I still couldn’t let them know about Aria–not yet.
“Aria, stay in your room for a bit,” I said, keeping my voice light, even as tension coiled in my stomach like a warning.
She looked up, immediately sensing something was wrong. “Mom-”
“Just for a few minutes, sweetheart,” I insisted gently but firmly.
The knock came again at the suite door, just moments after Aria reluctantly shut her bedroom door.
“Sarah,” came Ethan’s voice through the door–quiet, firm, and edged with something unreadable.
“We need to talk. May I come in? I know everything… where you’ve been these past five years.”
My breath caught in my throat.
For a heartbeat, I remained frozen, torn between the primal instinct to protect what I’d built and the guilt I’d buried deep within my soul. Slowly, I unlocked the door and pulled it open.
“Beta Ethan,” I said, keeping my voice steady despite the tremor threatening to break thr unexpected.”
‘This is
Then I stepped aside wordlessly, and he entered. Whatever he had come to say, it clearly wasn’t something to be discussed in a hotel hallway where any passing wolf might overhear.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Ethan stared at me as if seeing a ghost risen from the grave.
“Moon Goddess,” he whispered, his typically stoic expression crumbling. “You’re really alive.”
“All this time,” he continued, shaking his head slowly. “All this time,we thought-” His voice broke, emotion cracking through his carefully maintained Beta facade.
“We thought you were dead, Luna.”
The title hit me like a physical blow, stealing the breath from my lungs.
No one had called me Luna in years–not since the day I fell from that cliff and disappeared without a trace, presumed dead by the entire pack.
Not since I’d lost everything, including the mate bond that should have bound me to Alexander for eternity.
“I’m not a Luna anymore,” I said quietly, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. “I haven’t been for a long time.
11
“You’ll always be our Luna,” Ethan insisted, his voice thick with emotion. “Alpha Alexander’s mate.”
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Chapter 217
+25 BONUS
I stood there, words failing me as memories flooded back–the brief, beautiful time when I’d truly been Alexander’s Luna, before everything shattered around us.
“We searched for you,” he said, his voice rough with barely contained emotion.
“After you disappeared… Alpha Alexander had search parties combing every territory within five hundred miles. When we couldn’t find any trace-”
He broke off, shaking his head in disbelief. “But you’ve been alive. Why didn’t you contact us? Contact him?”
I looked away, unable to meet his accusing gaze. “I did try. Once. When I finally felt safe enough to reach out. But by then, Alexander was engaged to Isabella.”
I wrapped my arms around myself, a defensive gesture I couldn’t help. “I didn’t want to disrupt his life. He seemed… happy.”
Ethan made a sound that was half–laugh, half–groan.
“Happy? Sarah, nothing about his life has been right since you disappeared.There’s so much you don’t know— so much neither of you understands.”
I frowned, confusion mingling with the first sparks of hope. “What are you talking about?”
Ethan took a deep breath, as if preparing himself for confession. “Alexander never chose to move on from you. He never wanted to forget you. It was… forced upon him.”
“Forced?” I repeated, disbelief coloring my voice. “What does that mean?”
“After you left–after we all thought you’d died–Alexander nearly destroyed himself looking for you. He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t sleep. His wolf was out of control, feral with grief.”
Ethan’s expression darkened with the memory. “The Council stepped in. They said he was a danger to himself and the pack.”
“What did they do?” I whispered, though part of me already knew, already feared the answer that was coming.
“No, they didn’t do anything. It was me,” Ethan responded, his shoulders slumping with the weight of his
confession.
“I did it to protect the pack. I sought out the Seer and had your memories erased from his mind.”
The room seemed to tilt around me, the floor unsteady beneath my feet. “You took away his memories? How could you-”
“Yes, but I had no choice,” Ethan said quickly, his eyes filled with guilt. “You have to understand—he was destroying himself.
He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t sleep. He kept saying his mate was alive, but the Council believed you were dead, and Alexander was driving himself to madness denying it.
If it continued, they would have stripped Alexander of his Alpha title. I couldn’t stand by and watch that happen.
Chapter 217
+25 BONUS
Tears welled in my eyes as the implications sank in.“So he doesn’t remember anything? Our first meeting? Our mating? All those years together?”
The thought was almost too painful to bear–that everything we had shared had been wiped away, leaving only emptiness where our bond had been.
“Not consciously,” Ethan awkwardly handed me a tissue from a nearby box, looking desperately uncomfortable with my emotional display.
“But his wolf knows. His wolf has always known something was missing. That’s why he’s never been able to truly bond with Isabella, despite the engagement.”
When I finally regained some composure, I looked up at him. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“Two reasons,” he said, settling into the chair across from me. “First, I need to ask for your forgiveness. I’m the reason you two became strangers to each other.”
I nodded slowly, unable to summon anger through my grief. “And the second reason?”
A hint of a smile touched his lips. “Alexander went to break off his engagement to Isabella this morning.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. “Because of me? But he doesn’t remember-”
“I don’t know. Maybe something in him recognizes you,” Ethan said simply. “He still loves you, I know it, even without his memories. You’re the first she–wolf he asked me to investigate.”
Hope–fragile and tentative–unfurled in my chest. “Can it be reversed? The memory spe!
