---- well. The reports always came back positive." "But you came to see for yourself," I said, remembering his earlier words. Sebastian nodded. "I couldn't stay away completely. Every year, I'd find excuses to visit Shadow Pack. Just to catch glimpses of you from afar." "Everyone talked about how devoted Kieran was. How he'd planted an entire rose garden just for you." His voice broke slightly. "T saw you once, in Nightshade Forest. You were standing beside him under the trees, smiling brighter than the sun. You looked so happy." "So I let go," Sebastian whispered. "With tears in my eyes, I decided to step back and let you have your happiness." My heart was breaking for this man who had loved me so selflessly for so long. ---- "This grand secret love left me with nothing but endless regret and a scar on my chest," Sebastian said, touching the place over his heart. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a worn photograph. I gasped when I recognized it. "My school enrollment photo," I breathed. The edges were completely colorless from handling. I could see how many times his fingers had traced over my face. "You kept it all these years?" Sebastian nodded, looking almost embarrassed. " It was all I had of you." Suddenly, the blurry face from my memories snapped into perfect focus. The young man who had saved me, the one I'd glimpsed being carried away on a stretcher. "It was really you," I whispered in amazement. "Yes," Sebastian said simply. "It was always me." Tears streaming down my face, I asked him ---- tremblingly, "Then why now? Why reveal yourself after all this time?" Sebastian's expression grew pained but determined. "After you became mated, I both wanted you to be happy and feared you being happy." The contradiction in his words made perfect sense to me. "Those first few years, your smiles came from the heart," Sebastian continued. ''Though it pained me to see you with another man, I was genuinely glad you were happy." "What changed?" I asked. "That auction," Sebastian said grimly. "I saw your face, and it no longer held genuine joy. You looked... empty. Like the light inside you was dying." I remembered that night, how hollow I'd felt watching Kieran bid on stones for his mistress.