Mira’s POV
I froze, jerking my head up, but all I could see was the mocking line of Cale’s jaw.
I told myself he was just putting on an act, the same way I’d helped him dodge his pursuers last time.
My father’s eyes blazed with anger.
“Put her down! So this is why you rejected Elias? You’ve already chosen another man? Do you have any idea how much disgrace you’ve brought upon the Mooncrest Pack?”
A flicker of disappointment surfaced in my amber eyes.
I’d known since I was a child that my mother had betrayed my father.
She abandoned us not long after I was born, disappearing without a trace.
I couldn’t excuse what she had done, but I wasn’t her.
I hadn’t chosen the woman she became, and I shouldn’t have to pay for her mistakes.
I’d always understood that my father was the only family I had by blood.
In my last life, I’d been reckless and love-obsessed.
I couldn’t really blame him for favoring my stepsister.
This time, I’d tried so hard to repair our relationship, to change the fate that had ended in both our deaths.
But my father only had eyes for Seraphina and Vivienne.
He trusted that poisonous pair completely, while couldn’t bring himself to trust me even a little.
I looked at his furious face and smiled bitterly.
“Forget that I came home last night.
Dad…
from now on, just forget you ever had a daughter.”
”You—”
He pointed at me, his face filled with anger.
“Mira, if you weren’t my own daughter, I would have given up on you long ago! If you had even half of Vivienne’s sense, I wouldn’t have to worry about you every single day!”
Cale looked down at me, pale in his arms, with nowhere to vent the hurt and frustration I had nowhere to release.
“Mr. Marcus, worry about yourself. From now on, Mira’s affairs are my concern.”
With that, he strode away, carrying me in his arms.
Behind us, my father’s furious roar echoed through the hall.
“Where did you come from, daring to lay your hands on my daughter? look into him! I want to know everything about him!”
Cale didn’t set me down until we reached the luxury suite on the top floor of the hospital.
Only then did I notice the dark stain spreading across the right side of his gray shirt.
My chest tightened.
I touched it lightly, and my fingertips came away sticky with warm blood.
His wound had torn open from carrying me for so long.
“I’ll go get a doctor.”
“The private doctor is out. He won’t be back for another hour.”
I stared at the bloodstain growing larger on his shirt.
“If you trust me, I can patch you up for now.”
He didn’t answer.
He simply sat down on the sofa and tilted his chin toward the cabinet.
“First-aid kit’s in there.”
I retrieved the kit as instructed and crouched in front of him.
When I reached for his buttons, I ducked my head, too shy to meet his eyes.
As the shirt fell open, his tanned, solid chest was exposed to the air.
My gaze went straight to the blood-soaked gauze.
The wound had indeed reopened.
I cleaned the blood from the surrounding skin, blowing gently on the wound as I worked.
The cool breath seemed to ease the sharp pain, and the tight crease between his brows gradually smoothed.
Sunlight poured through the window, falling across my face.
He watched my focused profile for a long time, his throat bobbing once, his gaze darkening.
It wasn’t until I’d expertly wrapped the last layer of gauze that he spoke.
“I hear you had a boyfriend. A surgeon?”
I gave a self-deprecating smile.
“Mr. Cale, you’ve certainly done your homework on me.”
It was true.
I’d learned wound care because of Elias.
In my last life, when my father found out about Elias, he’d flown into a rage and sent men to teach him a lesson.
Elias had been beaten black and blue, but he’d refused my father’s money and refused to break up with me.
I’d been consumed with guilt, but more than that, I’d been touched.
I believed Elias cared for me.
So later, no matter how greedily his family demanded and took, I endured it.
To take care of him properly, I’d spent days learning wound care.
Dressing wounds was a basic surgical skill, and Elias had even coached me through it.
Back then, we flirted while I practiced on him.
He used to joke that it was “a little painful, but worth it.”
But from some point on, the sweetness between Elias and me disappeared.
And in the end, he hadn’t hesitated to poison me with silver.
The memories pulled me under.
Caelan’s POV
I sat on the edge of the sofa, watching the grief well up in those amber eyes.
It was a bottomless sorrow, the kind that swallowed a person whole.
I saw every flicker of her reaction.
I buttoned my shirt one by one and rolled my shoulders.
She’d done a good job with the wound—the sharp sting had already faded.
Her technique was practiced, every movement carrying the ghost of repetition and clearly learned from caring for someone else.
In twenty-six years of life, I’d finally found a woman who interested me.
But what I felt went far beyond mere interest.
That night in the car, the moment our lips touched, the wolf inside me had jolted awake from its slumber.
She was my Fated Mate.
But I also knew better than anyone that I couldn’t claim her, not yet.
I carried the Silvercrest Pack’s troubled past and the suspicion and rumors left behind by two Mates who had died under mysterious circumstances.
To suppress my Alpha presence, I’d been taking a masking draught, hiding behind an alias.
She couldn’t smell my true scent, so she hadn’t recognized me.
The wolf inside her might have sensed something, but my disguise was deep enough that she couldn’t even convince herself.
Everything about her carried someone else’s shadow, that surgeon’s shadow, etched into every practiced movement.
What she didn’t know was that the surgeon could never truly have her.
She was mine.
But now wasn’t the time to reveal the truth.
I wasn’t ready, and neither was she.
Until then, “Cale” would remain “Cale”, the stranger who owed her a debt for saving his life.
An inexplicable irritation rose in my throat.
The more focused and attentive she was, the clearer that other man’s shadow became.
I looked away and buttoned the last button expressionlessly.
“Alright, Ms. Mooncrest. You saved my life last time. Now we’re even. You can go.”