Patrick took Emma to the abandoned park. Although no one went there anymore, it remained beautiful and mysterious. Emma fell in love with the park at first sight.
“It looks like the entrance to some mysterious planet,” she excitedly told Patrick. She enjoyed reading human science fiction novels and always had romantic fantasies about such landscapes.
Patrick, no longer angry, looked at Emma tenderly. “I guessed you would like it. This used to be Harry’s and my favorite place to play.”
He looked at the place, full of nostalgia. Emma looked at him. “Harry, is he your Beta?”
“Yes, you’ve met him. Harry, Nicola, and you – the four of us had dinner together.”
Emma nodded. “Yes, I remember him. Have you made up? I don’t think I’ve ever asked you when you made up.”
Patrick decided to conceal that painful confession and firmly refused to admit his ambiguous and unstable feelings for Emma.
“We had a fight,” he said. “Then both of us realized that, no matter how severe the physical pain, it was far less than the scars on our hearts. We still consider each other the most important friends.”
Emma, who had been squatting to pick up fallen leaves, stood up upon hearing this. She walked to Patrick and lightly placed her hand on his shoulder. “I’m glad you’ve made up. He’s still your strongest support.”
Patrick looked up at her and smiled. “Thank you for your comfort. And part of the reason we made up is also because of you. Normally, I wouldn’t actively greet him, but that day I remembered your words, and I felt that perhaps one person needs to be more proactive in a relationship.”
Emma returned his smile gently. “Yes, even if you are Alpha, how can one emphasize who should be more proactive based on status between friends? When you choose someone as a friend, you are equal.”
Patrick once again marveled at Emma’s charismatic personality. It seemed like she had lived in poverty for a long time. When her mother was ill, she was not just poor; she was burdened with debt, yet she still maintained a calm and optimistic heart.
“You surprise me so much,” Patrick said.
“Me? Why?” Emma asked in surprise.
“You always give me new surprises, and your perspective always gives me strength.”
“Or maybe just working more could do that?” Emma said.
“Or maybe I could go make some coffee?” Patrick chuckled at Emma’s words.
Emma found Patrick’s language always very dramatic. She had dropped out of school a long time ago and only understood some simple truths. She didn’t think much about the future, just needed to be responsible for her life.
But every time Emma’s whimsical words were caught by Patrick, and he gazed at her seriously, she felt like she had the whole world at that moment.
“Now that you’re here, you won’t be ignored anymore. We pledge that everyone living here, regardless of wealth or poverty, will be treated equally.” This was not just a promise but also his political ideal.
Suddenly, Emma thought of Shirley from earlier and Nicola, who had helped her cut the steak at dinner.
“By the way, the one from earlier, and the girl we had dinner with before, you haven’t introduced them to me yet.”
Nicola would be easy to introduce, being a childhood playmate and just a pure friend. Nicola’s relationship with Harry was much closer than with him. But Shirley, Patrick didn’t want her to have too much contact with the other party due to his personal preferences.
He inwardly rejected meeting and having contact with Shirley. Every time he saw Shirley, it meant a new betrayal, a betrayal of the destined partner who had not yet appeared. He hated this disloyal behavior. He had experienced the cost of being willful once, almost harming himself and almost involving other innocent people in the clan.
As an Alpha, he had to accept these arrangements, even if they made him feel betrayed in his soul.
“Nicola, she was a childhood playmate of mine and Harry’s. She was sent to New York to study very early because she couldn’t adapt to the werewolf world. She just returned recently, and she’s very friendly. The human world seems to have made her gentler. You can be friends with her if you want someone to talk to and feel that maybe I’m not suitable for listening to girls’ secrets. You can tell her.”
Emma playfully blinked, “How do I know she won’t be a spy?”
“A spy?” Patrick was puzzled. “What does that mean?”
“It means you deliberately arranged for her to eavesdrop on my secrets, and then she would pass them on to you.”
Of course, this was a joke, Emma knew that an Alpha like Patrick wouldn’t do such a thing. Besides, he was not interested in knowing these secrets.
Patrick looked somewhat frustrated. “Nicola isn’t even that close to me. Ratherthan me, you are probably more concerned that she might tell Harry my secrets, given that they are closer. However, she is not the kind of person who would betray a friend’s secrets; I am willing to give her one hundred percent of my trust.”
“Is that so?” Emma widened her eyes.
“Based on my understanding of her, yes.”
Emma pretended to sigh, “Your trust in her makes me a little jealous.”
Patrick didn’t know if her jealousy was real or fake, but he knew that when she said that, his heart trembled violently like a drum, as if it wanted to burst out of his chest and tell himself how happy he was to hear those words.
Emma was very straightforward; she did not deny that she liked Patrick, and that feeling still existed. “That was before I came. I mean, you have been living together for a long time, so your relationship must be very good. I also hope to have a partner like that, just like Florrie.”
“In that case, you can go play with Nicola. She will accept you with kindness,” Patrick suggested.
Emma’s stomach churned. This did not mean she needed Nicola. But she did not want to argue with Patrick or continue the topic of Nicola. She asked, “What about Shirley? What kind of person is she?”
Patrick suddenly fell silent.
After a long time, he said, “Strictly speaking, I don’t know her very well.”
Emma looked at him in confusion.
“She was forced upon me by my mother, and our relationship is not complicated. It’s just a vent.”