Chapter 71: Awkward Attempts

Words : 1469 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Chapter 71: Awkward Attempts Caleb POV I threw the flowers at the wall so hard they burst into pieces. "This is stupid!" I yelled at the empty room. "How am I supposed to court someone I don’t remember loving?" The red roses spread across my floor like drops of blood. I’d picked them because Aiden said Lily used to love flowers. But looking at them now, they just looked like colorful weeds that would die in a few days. A knock on my door made me jump. "Caleb?" It was my father’s voice. "The pack council wants to see you." Great. Another talk about my "duty" to win Lily back. I opened the door to find not just my father, but Aiden, Brock, and three pack elders filling the hallway. Their faces wore the same worried look they’d had for weeks now. "We need to talk," Alpha Marcus said strongly. They dragged me into the main meeting room where a chair sat facing all of them like I was on trial. In a way, I guess I was. "Caleb," Elder Thomas started, "it’s been three weeks since Lily returned. You’ve made no progress in restoring your link." "I’ve tried," I said defensively. "I brought her flowers, took her for walks, even read to her like everyone said I used to do. Nothing works." "Because you’re not trying hard enough," Brock interrupted. "She’s our pack’s Triple Moon Bearer. Do you understand what that means?" "It means she’s powerful and important and everyone expects me to magically fall in love with her again," I snapped. "But I can’t force feelings that aren’t there!" Aiden leaned forward. "Maybe you’re approaching this wrong. Instead of trying to repeat the past, why not start fresh? Get to know her as she is now." "And what if I don’t like who she is now?" The question slipped out before I could stop it. The room went dead silent. You could have heard a pin drop. "Caleb," my father said slowly, "Lily is your fated mate. The Moon Goddess herself chose her for you." "Well maybe the Moon Goddess made a mistake!" I burst, standing up. "Maybe whatever took away our bond was actually doing us a favor!" Elder Sarah gasped. "You can’t mean that." But the truth was, I wasn’t sure what I meant anymore. Ever since Lily came back, something felt wrong. Not just the lost love - something deeper. Like we were both pretending to be people we weren’t anymore. "I’ll try again," I said finally, just to get them to stop looking at me. "But I can’t promise anything will change." An hour later, I found myself standing outside Lily’s cabin with a basket of books. Everyone kept saying we used to read together, so maybe that would work better than flowers. I knocked softly. "Lily? It’s Caleb." The door opened, and there she was. Still beautiful, still the girl everyone said was my everything. But when I looked at her, all I felt was pressure. The weight of everyone’s demands pressing down on my chest. "Hi," she said quietly. Her voice sounded tired. "I brought some books," I said, holding up the basket uncomfortably. "Aiden said we used to read together in the library." Something flashed across her face - pain, maybe? "That sounds nice," she said, but her tone suggested it sounded anything but nice. We walked to the library in awkward silence. Every step felt forced, like we were players in a play neither of us wanted to perform. In the library, I pulled out a book about pack histories. "This one has information about Triple Moon Bearers," I said. "I thought you might find it interesting." Lily took the book and opened it, but I could tell she wasn’t really reading. Her eyes were faraway, unfocused. "Caleb," she said suddenly, "can I ask you something?" "Sure." "When you look at me, what do you see?" The question caught me off guard. "I... what do you mean?" "Everyone keeps telling me about who we used to be together. How happy we were, how much we loved each other. But when you look at me now, what do you actually see?" I studied her face, trying to be honest. "I see someone who’s supposed to be important to me," I said slowly. "Someone everyone expects me to love. Someone who looks sad all the time, even when she’s trying to smile." Lily’s shoulders sagged. "That’s what I was afraid of." "What about when you look at me?" I asked. "I see a stranger wearing the face of someone I’m supposed to remember caring about," she revealed. "I see someone who’s trying really hard to feel something that isn’t there anymore." We sat in silence for a moment, both of us looking at the book neither of us was reading. "This is horrible," I said finally. "Yeah," Lily agreed. "It really is." "Everyone keeps saying it’ll come back. The love, the bond, the feelings. But what if it doesn’t? What if we’re stuck acting for the rest of our lives?" Lily looked up at me then, and for the first time since she’d returned, I saw something real in her eyes. Not the polite distance she’d been maintaining, but real emotion. "I’ve been wondering the same thing," she whispered. "What if we’re trying to rebuild something that was never meant to last?" The words hit me like a punch to the gut, mainly because they felt true. "Maybe we should stop trying," I said. "Maybe we should tell everyone the truth - that whatever we had is gone and isn’t coming back." "But the pack bond," Lily said. "Your place as future Alpha. The prophecies about Triple Moon Bearers wanting their mates..." "Maybe all of that is wrong too," I said. "Maybe you don’t need a mate to achieve your destiny. Maybe I don’t need you to be a good Alpha." Lily stared at me with wide eyes. "You really mean that?" "I think I do," I said, and saying it out loud felt like a weight lifting off my chest. "I think we’ve both been trying to force something that—" The library door slammed open so hard it hit the wall. Aiden stood there, his face pale with fear. "Caleb! Thank god I found you," he gasped. "We have a problem. A big one." "What’s wrong?" I jumped up, immediately alert. "It’s the shadow creatures," Aiden said, trying to catch his breath. "They’re back. But they’re not charging the pack this time." "Then what are they doing?" Lily asked, standing up beside me. Aiden’s expression got grim. "They’re herding something toward our area. Something huge. The scouts on the eastern border are reporting action in the forest - hundreds of rogues, all moving in our direction." My blood ran cold. "An army?" "That’s not the worst part," Aiden continued. "The rogues aren’t normal. The scouts say they have red eyes and they’re moving in perfect order, like they’re being controlled." Lily grabbed my arm. "Morrigan," she whispered. "She’s coming." "Who’s coming?" I asked, but even as I said it, a chill ran down my spine. "The witch who took my ability to love you," Lily said, her voice filled with fear. "She’s gathering an army of rogues and shadow things. And I think I know what she wants." "What?" Aiden demanded. Lily looked between us, her face white with fear. "She wants to finish what she started. She doesn’t just want to break mate bonds - she wants to destroy the idea of love entirely." Before either of us could reply, the library windows exploded inward in a shower of glass. Through the broken frames, we could see the sky darkened with unnatural clouds. In the distance, howls echoed through the forest - but they weren’t normal wolf growls. They sounded like screams. "They’re here," Lily breathed. That’s when we heard it - a voice carried on the wind, cold and mocking and definitely not human. "Little Triple Moon Bearer," the voice called, seeming to come from everywhere at once. "Time to finish what we started. Time to make sure love dies forever." The temperature in the library dropped so fast I could see my breath. Ice began forming on the broken windows. And in that ice, shapes began to appear. Faces. Wolves with red eyes and hungry smiles, all looking straight at us. "Run," I said, taking Lily’s hand without thinking. But when we turned toward the door, it was already too late. Standing in the doorway was a person in a dark cloak, surrounded by swirling shadows. Her eyes glowed with the same red light as the things in the ice. "Hello, children," Morrigan said, her voice like winter wind. "Ready to say goodbye to love forever?"

Chapter 71: Awkward Attempts

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