Chapter 2

The next morning, I opened my phone.

There were 99+ messages in the bonding ceremony group chat.

I looked at the only voice message where Celeste had tagged me and hesitated for a moment before tapping it open.

“Elowen, I changed the ceremony song for you. The one you picked was too depressing. A bonding ceremony should feel lighter.”

Right after that came Ronan’s text.

Yeah, the original one wasn’t right. I think Celeste’s lighter choice is better.

The original one was not right?

I had spent an entire month choosing that song.

It was the song my parents had played at their wedding. Every time I heard it, my eyes would sting. My parents had died too young, and I had wanted them to be present in another way.

Ronan knew that.

Celeste knew that, too.

And still, they thought it was too depressing.

In the group chat, Celeste was still saying, “Elowen never likes making decisions. We can just decide these things for her.”

Ronan replied with one word.

Okay.

I stared at that word and did not move.

Messages flowed past one after another like running water.

No one noticed that Elowen was in the group. No one noticed that Elowen had said nothing.

My participation in this bonding ceremony was zero.

I opened my chat with Ronan. Our conversation was still stuck on yesterday.

I had told him, I’m a little nervous.

He had sent back a head-patting sticker.

As for the fact that I had left early, he had not even messaged me privately to ask what happened.

He had only tagged me in the group chat last night.

What happened? Were you so nervous you left early?

No one answered.

That didn’t matter either.

Celeste posted a photo with the caption: Elowen, the styling shoot went so well today. The Luna gown is confirmed!

And just like that, everything was brushed aside.

Then they moved on to talking about laurel decorations, bonding invitations, and the ceremony backdrop.

Suddenly, I felt that my place was not even extra.

Extra meant I had at least existed once.

I felt as if I had never been there at all.

While I was packing my things, Celeste suddenly video-called me.

I answered.

On the screen, someone was doing her makeup.

“Elowen, you’re taking forever. The styling team still hasn’t been confirmed, so I booked one myself. I’m testing the look first.”

I looked at Celeste sitting in front of the mirror. I wanted to say something, but I did not know what to say.

Two weeks ago, I had told her that my friend would personally do my bonding makeup.

But it was as if she could not hear my thoughts at all.

She simply decided everything for me.

Had I never questioned her?

Had I never been unhappy?

Had I never stood up for myself?

I had.

But in the end, I was always given the same sentence.

“Elowen, you’ve always been more mature than she is. Don’t argue with her over this.”

Kieran had known me the longest, yet he always stood on her side.

Then Ronan appeared and pursued me fiercely.

That Alpha, known among wolves for being calm, powerful, and impossible to defy, would personally drive me home late at night and say I was adorably dazed.

I thought he liked that quiet part of me.

But after he met Celeste, his taste seemed to change.

Without me realizing it, his words changed, too. He began saying that girls should be lively and decisive.

One day, I could not hold it in anymore.

“Can you stop being so close to Celeste all the time? Can you pay attention to boundaries?”

I thought he would understand.

Instead, he took it lightly, smiling as he rubbed my hair.

“Boundaries? After you and I complete our bond, Celeste will also be under Blackridge Pack’s protection. Do you want me to treat her like a rogue at our borders?”

I fell silent.

Of course I did not want them to be enemies.

“You’re more mature than she is. You should be more understanding.”

That sentence had weighed on me for so many years that, for the first time, I felt like I could barely breathe.

They had forgotten that I was only two years older than she was.

I wanted a gift, too.

I wanted someone to ask me, Do you like this?

But no one ever cared.