Chapter 10
Five Years Waiting, I Was Just a Lie Chapter 10
When the day finally arrived, the weather was perfect.
The mating ceremony was small. Only close friends and family.
The day was bright, the sky clear.
I walked down the aisle in white, arm in arm with Elias. The pack hall was draped in fresh flowers.
Elias looked at me like I was the only person in the room.
“Maeve.”
“I’ve got you. From here on out.”
My eyes were wet again. This time, I was smiling.
We were halfway through the ceremony when a murmur moved through the guests near the entrance.
I looked up. Harlan.
He stood in the doorway in a sharp black suit. I couldn’t name the look on his face.
The room went tense. Whispers spread through the guests.
Elias squeezed my hand.
Harlan’s Alpha aura flared for a second, instinct, not intention.
Elias stepped forward, his healer scent steady and warm, and put himself between us. He caught my eye and smiled.
His look said everything it needed to.
Then he walked over to Harlan. His voice was polite and steady.
“Mr. Blackwood. Thank you for being here.”
Harlan’s gaze moved from Elias to me.
His mouth opened. Nothing came out.
He knew. I’d chosen someone else. There was nothing left for him here.
He looked at me one last time. Everything he had never said was written across his face.
Then he turned and walked out.
I watched him go. I didn’t feel sorry for him.
All I felt was the smallest wave of relief.
Something in me finally let go. The past released its grip.
After the ceremony, Elias held me close.
“Maeve.”
“The past is the past.”
“It only gets better from here.”
I leaned into him and nodded.
“It does. It will.”
The days settled into something good. Life with Elias was everything I’d hoped for.
We built a routine: mornings together, evenings together, weekends that actually felt like weekends.
Elias took care of me in ways I’d stopped believing were possible.
He never used his authority to make me feel small. He never caused me pain and called it love.
He respected my choices. He listened, really listened, to every word I said.
Every now and then, news about Harlan trickled in through friends.
He’d left Eastmere and gone back to Southvale. He’d taken a job as an ordinary border patrol warrior.
The people who once saluted him now walked past without a second glance.
He never got involved with anyone again. Some said he was still waiting for me.
Others said he’d never love anyone else.
None of it had anything to do with me anymore.
There was a time I thought I’d never trust love again. Elias changed that.
Not every love story is built on lies. Some people love you the way Elias does: honestly, fully, without conditions.
Harlan’s regret was his own making. He chose power. He chose the family name. He chose the alliance.
And he let go of the one thing that was real.
In the end, all he had left was loneliness.
I went through betrayal. I went through humiliation. And I came out the other side.
I found where I was supposed to be.
I didn’t need the Alpha crest. I didn’t need ghosts from my past.
All I ever needed was a true mate and a real life. And I found both.
