Chapter 5

Alison POV

I looked at Olivia standing before me with reddened eyes and couldn't help but laugh softly.

"Olivia, at this point, there's no need to provoke me." I looked down at her. "If you want him, bare your claws and fight for him. No need to come here specifically to show off how special you are to him."

Ignoring Olivia's unpleasant expression, I turned and walked away without looking back.

When I returned to the party, Ethan was frowning, looking for me. "Where did you go? You were gone so long."

"I ran into Olivia in the hallway. We chatted for a bit." I calmly sat down on the sofa and took a sip from my wine glass.

Ethan's aura wavered slightly, his brow furrowing deeper: "What did you talk about?"

"Nothing much." I rotated the glass in my hand and looked up at him with a smile. "She just told me you have a hidden photo album on your phone, and the password is her birthday."

The moment the words fell, an unnatural look flashed through Ethan's eyes. "Alison, let me explain..."

"No need to explain." I cut him off, my tone completely flat. "That's your privacy. I respect it."

Ethan stared at me hard, his chest heaving violently. If this were before, my she-wolf would have already flown into a rage.

"Alison, something is really wrong with you." Ethan grabbed his jacket from the chair back and strode over to grip my wrist. "Come on, we're going home to talk properly!"

"Tonight's party isn't over yet..."

"Let's go!" He pulled me up without room for argument, mind-linking a few words to the Beta before leading me out of the private room.

Just as we got in the car, someone knocked on the window.

Ethan lowered the window. Olivia stood in the night wind, looking pitiful. She bit her pale lip, her voice weak: "Ethan, everyone's left and I didn't bring a driver. Could you give me a ride home? It's on the way."

Before Ethan could speak, I had already silently opened the back door.

Olivia froze. She had obviously prepared a belly full of sympathy-seeking words, but now they were all stuck in her throat.

Throughout the drive, Olivia kept talking softly, reminiscing about her and Ethan's past moments in the pack. Ethan responded once or twice, but his grip on the steering wheel tightened, and he remained mostly silent.

"Sometimes I really regret it. If only I hadn't compromised and left the pack..." Olivia murmured sadly.

"It's all in the past." Ethan cut her off in a low voice.

The car fell into brief silence.

Suddenly, a car shot out from a side road.

"Watch out!" Accompanied by the piercing screech of brakes, Ethan yanked the steering wheel. The car completely lost control and crashed hard toward the roadside barrier.

In the massive inertia, I clearly saw Ethan instinctively reach out to protect Olivia beside him.

"Crash—!" And I was violently thrown forward, my forehead slamming hard into the metal frame of the front seat.

Warm liquid flowed down from my temple.

"Alison!" Ethan turned to see my blood-covered face and instantly paled. "Are you okay?!"

I casually wiped away the blood obscuring my eyes with the back of my hand. The wound was slowly heating as my werewolf healing kicked in, but the temperature in my heart had dropped to freezing. "I'm fine... Take Olivia first."

"You're bleeding and you still..." Ethan wanted to push open the door to check on me.

"I said I'm fine. I'll take a cab to the hospital myself." I looked at him coldly. "Olivia got scared. Take her home to rest quickly. Don't forget, she can't do without you right now."

With that, I didn't give him any chance to argue. I pushed open the car door, hailed a passing taxi, and left the scene without looking back.

...

By the time I finished treating my wound at the hospital and returned to the Packhouse, it was already late at night. I leaned back on the bedroom sofa with my eyes closed, mentally calculating the itinerary for going to Zephyr Moon Pack.

"Bang!" The bedroom door was pushed open violently. Ethan strode in with a chill in the air and crouched before me.

"Why did you leave alone? Do you know how worried I was?" His eyes were bloodshot.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at this face I had loved for four years. "Weren't you supposed to take care of Olivia? She's emotionally unstable. She needs you more right now.""Alison!" Ethan finally lost his patience. He gripped my hand tightly. "What's going on with you lately? Is it because Olivia came back and the wolf inside you is jealous? I told you, she and I..."

"I know." I calmly withdrew my hand, cutting off his defense. "I believe you two are finished. You instinctively protected her because you feel responsible for the former Beta's orphaned daughter. I understand all of it."

"Then why are you..."

"Ethan," I looked at him and suddenly smiled, "do you remember how in the past, whenever you got close to Olivia, my wolf would go wild uncontrollably? I got angry when you spent time with her, and you always said I was too sensitive, too immature, that I wasn't like a proper Luna."

Ethan froze in place, his pupils contracting sharply.

"Now I've learned to be mature. I've controlled my wolf. I'm not angry anymore." I shrugged indifferently, watching his face gradually lose color. "Isn't this what you always wanted?"