Five Years Waiting, I Was Just a Lie Chapter 08

After my dad was discharged, I took my parents back to Eastmere.

It was the small city where I’d once believed, if I just worked hard enough and waited long enough, Harlan would come back and we’d build our future.

I thought leaving all that pain behind would be enough. I thought we could start over.

I found a regular desk job. The pay wasn’t great, but it was steady.

My parents slowly came back to themselves. The house started to feel lighter.

I thought the quiet would last.

Then Harlan showed up.

He’d actually done it. He left Southvale Command. I heard later that he personally relinquished his command to the Council.

The Blackwood elders stripped him of his pack crest and cut off every access right he had.

He gave up his Alpha Commander title. He gave up the Blackwood name.

And he came to Eastmere.

When I saw him standing outside my office, my whole body locked up.

He was in plain clothes, hair cropped short. He looked hollowed out.

The sharp, commanding Alpha aura he used to carry was gone. All that was left was a loneliness he couldn’t hide.

“Maeve.”

“I came to find you.”

Hope was written across his face.

“Harlan. What are you doing here?”

I frowned. My voice was ice.

“I’ve made myself clear. There’s nothing left between us.”

“Throwing everything away for me isn’t worth it.”

“It is.”

He didn’t hesitate.

“If it means starting over with you, all of it is worth it.”

“Maeve, I know what I did was unforgivable.”

“I should never have lied to you. I should never have let you down.”

“Give me one more chance. Let me make it right.”

“Make it right?”

I almost laughed.

“How, Harlan? Can you give me back the five years you stole?”

“Can you undo every post, every comment, every stranger who dragged my name through the dirt?”

“Can you take back the day I knelt on that floor picking up cash while people took pictures?”

I held his gaze.

“You can’t do any of that.”

“So don’t waste your time. And don’t waste mine.”

I turned and walked into the building.

He didn’t follow. He just stood there, watching me go.

After that, Harlan started what he called waiting.

Every day, he was outside my office. Sometimes with breakfast, sometimes with flowers.

Sometimes he just stood across the street, watching me leave at the end of the day.

I never took any of it.

He’d trail behind me on my walk home. He wouldn’t leave until I was upstairs and the light in my window came on.

My coworkers caught on fast. The talk never stopped.

Some called him devoted. Others called him pathetic.

A few told me I should be flattered, a former Alpha Commander groveling like that.

I was the only one who saw through it. His devotion now was nothing more than guilt dressed up as love.

One evening, the rain started pouring on my walk home. I didn’t have an umbrella.

I was stuck at the bus stop, rain pounding down, when a black umbrella appeared over my head.

I looked over. Harlan.

He was soaked through. Hair plastered to his forehead, rainwater running down his jaw.

He smiled anyway.

“Maeve. Let me walk you home.”

“I’m fine. I’ll wait for the bus.”

“The rain’s too heavy. The bus won’t come for a while.”

He wasn’t backing down.

“Let me walk you. It’s not far.”

I didn’t argue.

He held the umbrella over me and we walked. Neither of us spoke.

Just the rain drumming on the nylon above us.

His scent was faint in the downpour, thinned by the rain. My wolf stayed curled and quiet inside me, unbothered.

His presence didn’t carry that commanding weight from Southvale anymore. But a trace of familiarity wasn’t going to soften me. Not now.

When we reached my building, I turned to him.

“Thank you. I’ll return it tomorrow.”

“Keep it.”

He pressed the umbrella into my hand.

“It’s yours.”

Then he turned and took off into the rain. In seconds, he was gone.

I watched him vanish into the downpour.

Something shifted in my chest, just for a second.

I knew he meant it this time. But I still couldn’t forgive him.

The next day, I brought the umbrella back. He wouldn’t take it.

“Maeve. Just think of it as a gift.”

“Harlan.”

I looked at him, serious.

“Stop this. You showing up every day doesn’t help. It just makes everything harder.”

“You need to move on. Find someone who’s right for you.”

“I already did.”

His eyes were steady, almost stubborn in their certainty.