章 9: Happy ending is not for everyone

Author's note: This is from Seraphina's point of view

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Kids' ideas about reviving the town warmed my heart.

They are werewolves who grew up while listening about the glory of the Bluemoon pack, and I can only imagine the excitement they are feeling at the possibility of them re-creating the town that used to buzz with their kind. Who knows… maybe when the town is up and running, other werewolves decide to move in? Well, maybe that would be too much, but I was confident that they would at least come to visit.

"Serina…", Sergio called. "Can we have a word in private?"

I knew that this will trigger Duke. I love my possessive Alpha, but sometimes he is just too much.

Duke's clinginess increased several folds since the incident from three months ago that put him in a coma for a week.

After a quick assurance that we will be in sight, I left the table with Sergio.

"Shouldn't we go further away?", Sergio asked me while glancing back at the table from where Duke glared our way.

"This is fine…", I said and winked, and a moment later, golden runes danced over the skin of my wrist as I created the soundproof barrier that blanketed us in our own privileged silence. "Tell me now. No one can hear us."

"Rune mastery…", Sergio said under his breath. "No matter how many times I see it, it's always spectacular."

"You have three minutes. Make that two.", I reminded him that Duke is not a patient type and Duke probably already noticed that he can't hear us.

"You said that in exchange for overseeing the oath, you will do a thing for me." Sergio paused and gave me a meaningful look.

"Yes?"

"I want…" He exhaled sharply and I became nervous. Why does it look like he wants my limb?

"Calista.", Sergio said after a brief pause.

I was dumbstruck. "What?"

"Calista. In exchange for overseeing the oath, I want…"

"I heard you.", I interrupted him. "What do you mean by, you want Calista?"

"I want her to be there.", he clarified.

I looked at him helplessly. It would be better if he asked for a limb.

Normally, it wouldn't be a problem to call my Aunt, but she doesn't know what happened three months ago, and I'm expertly avoiding her since then because Calista can trigger a calamity.

If Calista comes, it's only a matter of time until she figures out that something is off, because she has an in-built radar for bullshit.

I'm aware that Calista should know about it, and that she will find out about it sooner or later, but after all this time, I have no idea from where to start explaining what happened, so I didn't.

"Why?", I asked Sergio, hoping that I can convince him to ask for something else. Maybe my kidney.

"You said that you will do something for me. I want her to be there."

"You want to see her?", I started fishing. "I can arrange for you to see her somewhere else." Without me around.

"No.", Sergio refused. "You need to invite her and don't mention that I will be there."

This was getting more and more confusing. "Why?"

Sergio sized me up and said grumpily, "I didn't realize that will be a problem for you."

"I didn't realize that you want to ambush my Aunt."

Sergio rolled his eyes. "It's not an ambush it just…"

I waited and waited, but he didn't finish that sentence. "Look, Sergio, she is my Aunt and I don't want to risk putting her at a disadvantage. You said it, it's not a problem for me to ask her to come there, but if that's going to be a problem for her, it becomes mine also."

Sergio's mood visibly dropped.

"She is my mate.", he said in a low voice.

I was confident that my ears malfunctioned. "What?"

"You heard me. Calista is my mate."

I stared at him like my mind just received a critical hit.

"Since when?"

"From the moment I laid my eyes on her. La Nuit Noire, Paris."

My brain was on delay, it took me a moment to remember that evening. Duke and I came to the nightclub with Calista and we found Sergio in the booth with two women sticking to him.

That evening Sergio acted strangely. He ignored two women who were with him and left, and we went after him, and he returned with Calista.

"Does she know?"

Sergio shook his head. "We didn't reach that far."

I was stupefied again. "How far did you reach?"

"That's not important.", Sergio said. "I know she is my mate, and Calista doesn't. You are the only person I told about this so… can you get her to come?"

I was still processing all this. I didn't know much about Sergio, but his haughty attitude definitely went down by several notches in the last few months. And he lost weight. Was it because of Calista?

My willful Aunt left Lemuria so that she can experience life beyond the reach of shackles that are put on her because she is a member of the vampire royalty. And that includes a lot of partying and… poor Sergio. Knowing how possessive werewolves are toward their mates, his life is probably a nightmare.

"Let's assume I invite her, and she comes. What will you do?", I asked.

"I'm not sure, but I don't see her as a woman who will be by my side willingly and I can't force her."

His eyes were full of anguish and my heart cracked. "You plan to reject her as your mate? Won't that harm you?"

Rejecting a mate bond is like removing a piece of one's soul. I heard stories about werewolves losing their mind and some actually died due to heartbreak.

"Look at me, Seraphina.", his voice was full of dejection. "I am a shadow of who I used to be. My options are to reject her or to continue like this. I am already miserable and if rejecting that mate bond will kill me, I will take it."

"What if…?"

Sergio shook his head before I could say more. "I know who Calista is, Serina. I am not delusional. There is no happy ending for me, I accepted that much. I will reject her and after the oath ceremony, I will seclude myself in my villa. I know about the spiritual side of werewolves better than anyone. The pain of losing a mate never subsides, but in time, I will learn to live with it."

I felt my eyes prickling from the tears that threatened to fall. I couldn't imagine the heartache Sergio was enduring, knowing that he found his other half and that she doesn't want him.

Actually, it's not that she doesn't want him, but she didn't recognize him as someone who would move the mountains and drain the seas only to make her happy.

I had an urge to fix things.

An idea hit me: as a vampire, Calista doesn't feel the mate bond, but there should be an attraction. At least something. If Sergio has time and opportunity, he can show Calista how much he is willing to do for her.

But she is a vampire princess (literally), and he is a werewolf. Will her family approve?

Assuming that Sergio succeeds in winning Calista over, what will happen when her family summons her back to Lemuria?

I really wished that my father was here. What would he say? That I'm an incurable romantic? That I'm meddling too much? That there is no way he would allow a dog to be with his sister?

Ah, actually, my father is not the one with prejudice toward werewolves. The one who addresses them as dogs is Calista herself. Poor Sergio.

I was aware that Calista is Sergio's mate for less than a minute, yet the complexity of the situation was increasing exponentially by the second. I shouldn't do anything rashly.

"I will see what I can do.", I told him.

He showed me a grateful smile. "Thank you. And Serina, can this stay between us?"

"Of course.", I lied with a straight face. I had every intention of discussing this with Duke, but Sergio didn't need to know that little detail.

I glanced toward our table, and I saw Duke looking our way with a frown. The way his hand gripped the edge of my chair, told me that we have only seconds before he blows a fuse and comes to see what Sergio and I are talking about.

"Is there anything else?", I asked Sergio.

"That was it. Thank you."

My wrist lit up with runes, and the sound barrier around us dispersed, allowing music and murmurs from the restaurant to reach us.

When we returned to the booth, I ignored Duke's displeased grumbling and snuggled next to him.

The thought of Duke not returning my feelings cracked my heart and steeled my determination to see what I can do to help Sergio.

No one deserves to be dissed by their soulmate but… The reality is that not everyone gets their happy ending.

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