Heart Given, Heart Broken

I've followed an Instagram account. While unremarkable, it showcases some pretty sweet and romantic content.

The account details the daily life of the owner and her Alpha.

When it's raining cats and dogs outside, they share a hot beverage in a cafe. After they leave the place, he tilts the umbrella slightly toward her.

Also, when they look up at the moon while sitting side by side, the sight of their fingers grazing each other strums my heartstrings.

The Alpha in the photos has never revealed his face, yet he gives off a familiar feeling to me.

On the night before my and Xavier Lupine's mating ceremony takes place, the account has a new update.

"This marks the end of our eight-year entanglement. From now onward, he's her fated Alpha. I'm just her best friend.

"This account will go silent from here on. I wish my 'best friend' and the Alpha, who's rightfully mine, eternal happiness."

The latest photo shows Xavier and me. But the thing is, I've never shown anyone that photo before.

That was a photo taken last week in front of the Moonshine clan's altar.

At that time, my best friend, Queenie Blackrose, had been helping me adjust the train of my dress, saying, "Vanessa, the Moon Goddess will surely bless your union with Xavier. He is the Alpha of the Shadow pack after all."

Meanwhile, my fated mate, Xavier Lupine, was standing right below the altar. He overheard our conversation and turned to look at us, his lips curling upward into a light smile that was as gentle as always.

However, for some reason, I felt as though the gentleness was not directed toward me.

"You're just too nervous," I said, holding Queenie's hands. "If it weren't for the rehearsals for the mating ceremony today, I probably wouldn't even have had my vows memorized yet."

Yet, my wolf, Misty, agreed with Queenie instead, saying that I was far too laid-back.

"That simply won't do!" Queenie said with a laugh. "This is a joint marriage between the Moonshine pack and the Shadow pack. It's going to be the mating ceremony of the century. How could you be so casual about it, Vanessa Clawson?"

She turned around, looking at Xavier, and asked, "Don't you agree, Alpha?"

Xavier looked at me with a gentle smile. "Anything works, my mate."

Just before the rehearsals started, however, Queenie suddenly took out her phone and snapped a photo of us.

I looked around at her. She waved the phone in the air and said, "Gotta immortalize the most touching moment for our future Luna."

…

Everyone in the pack raised their glasses at me during the bachelorette party the night before the mating ceremony. I drank until I felt warm and hot all over, and my consciousness gradually turned blurry.

Queenie kept staying by my side. When Xavier hurried toward us, she was in the midst of helping me onto a couch to sit.

"It's her bachelorette party tonight. You, as the groom-to-be, should not be here," Queenie said, shielding me behind her as she stabbed Xavier's chest with her finger.

Xavier looked at her, seemingly weighing something in his mind.

"Xavier," I called out to him, slurring his name as I instinctively reached out toward him.

He immediately came up to me and picked me up bridal-style, gently yet firmly.

"How could you have had so much to drink?" he asked in a low voice tinged with deep concern.

Queenie just chuckled by the side and said, "She's been waiting for this day for eight years. Of course, she has to have all the fun she can tonight!

"Remember what we promised each other in the past? Whoever found their mate first would have to be there to witness and officiate their mating ceremony."

I had indeed said something like that in the past. Back then, Queenie and I were still young and happily chasing and playing with each other in the mountains where our pack lived.

Then, when I was 18 years old, my wolf resonated with Xavier's wolf, and the Moon Goddess sent down a prophecy, confirming that we were each other's fated mates.

When I told Queenie about it, she hugged me and cried for a long time, saying that she was so happy that I finally had someone to look after me and protect me for the rest of my life.

Now that I thought of it, however, I didn't know who exactly she was crying for.

Xavier picked me up and nodded in Queenie's direction. "Thanks for taking care of her."

"We're best friends, after all," she answered in a voice as light as the breeze. "We won't have another chance like this anymore next time anyway."

I was still half-conscious and couldn't quite understand the meaning between the lines.

The next day, I woke up early in the morning on my bed to the sound of an Instagram notification on my phone, telling me someone had posted online.

I tapped into it without thinking. However, my eyes immediately widened the moment I saw what it was about.