Aprils POV
The silence was louder than anything I’d ever known.
It had been nearly a month since Cassius left-since the kiss that had shattered the walls I’d spent months building around myself. I hated the way it lingered, the way the memory played over and over in my mind like some broken record.
His lips had been warm, firm, commanding, and for a moment, just a fleeting heartbeat, I let myself forget who I was. Or maybe I let myself forget who he was. It didn’t matter now, not when the silence he left behind seemed to fill every corner of my life.
I told myself I was okay. I’d spent months perfecting the art of indifference. After all, I was used to being rejected, wasn’t I? My mate’s rejection had taught me that wanting something-someone-was pointless.
And yet, Cassius…
He was different.
Not that I would admit it out loud. Especially not to myself.
He was my first kiss, and to him, it was regarded as a mistake. That hurt more than I cared to admit because I would have never labeled anything that happened between us a mistake.
So, how could he so easily mutter those hurtful, insensitive words?
—
I threw myself into work, letting the rhythm of the bar distract me from the gnawing ache in my chest. The routine was predictable and comforting in its monotony. I wiped down counters, stocked shelves, poured drinks, and pretended not to notice the empty seat at the end of the bar where he usually sat.
Some of the regulars had started asking about him; they had noticed his absence; how crazy was that?
“Where’s your favorite whiskey drinker?” one of them asked, chuckling as he slid his empty glass toward me.
“Probably moved on to another bar,” I replied lightly, forcing a smile.
The man laughed, and the conversation shifted, but my heart tightened in my chest.
He hadn’t moved on to another bar. I would have heard about it or at least been told by my regulars.
No, Cassius had left, and I didn’t know why.
He had gone full ghost.
For the second time, it was longer, and I was not sure he was coming back.
—
The nights were the hardest.
When the bar was closed and the silence settled in, I couldn’t escape my thoughts. I would sit in the dark, nursing a drink of my own, and wonder what I’d done wrong.
Had it been the kiss?
Or was it just me he did not want? He would not be the first Alpha not to like me. Ugh, why would I even think that?
“Because you are hurt,” Snow said.
“Oh, Come on, You have been quiet for so long.”
“Yeah, because I was trying to let you do your thing, but of course you need me. You are so damn lost without me,” She said.
“Ugh, please don’t. I am already beating myself up as it is,”
“It’s alright,” She says and goes silent.
I appreciate that, and I will continue with my thoughts.
Could I have crossed an invisible line he hadn’t wanted me to?
Or had it been something deeper, something I couldn’t see?
Fuck! I hated feeling like this.
Could it be I read the signs wrong?
“How? He kissed you, April,” Snow said. I guess she was back and sticking around. I liked that.
She was right, and that’s what made everything that happened after so confusing.
—
One night, as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I let myself relive the moment I’d been trying to bury.
His touch had sent a spark through me, an electric current that had awakened something I thought was long dead. For the first time in years, I’d felt alive.
And then he pulled away.
“You don’t know me or what lies beneath.”
His words echoed in my mind, heavy with a meaning I couldn’t quite grasp. Of course, I knew the truth. I knew what he was.
An Alpha.
A werewolf.
But he didn’t know what I was. He didn’t know that I carried the same secret, hidden beneath a veil of mystery even he couldn’t see through.
The Moon Goddess blessed me with a unique gift: the ability to mask my scent and hide my wolf from the world. It had protected me and kept me safe when I needed it most.
But now, it felt like a curse.
Because he didn’t know.
And he couldn’t see me. Not really.
—
I hated that his absence hurt.
I wasn’t supposed to feel this way after everything I’d been through. I wasn’t supposed to care.
My mate had rejected me, and I’d survived.
I’d built myself back up from the ashes, stronger, colder, unbreakable.
But Cassius…
He made me feel breakable again.
—
One evening, as I cleaned the bar, the anger finally boiled over.
I threw a rag down on the counter, breathing hard as frustration clawed its way to the surface.
“Dammit, Cassius,” I muttered under my breath. “Why couldn’t you just stay gone from the beginning?”
It wasn’t fair. He wasn’t fair.
He’d come into my life like a storm, turned everything upside down, and then left me to deal with the wreckage.
The door to the bar creaked open, and I whirled around, my heart leaping into my throat.
But it wasn’t him.
Just another customer, another nameless face in the sea of humans who wandered in and out of this place.
I plastered on a smile and went back to work, but my heart wasn’t in it.
—
When the night finally ended, and the bar emptied, I sat alone with a bottle of whiskey, staring at the chair where he used to sit.
I hated that I missed him.
I hated that he’d made me feel anything at all.
But most of all, I hated that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t forget him.
I tipped the bottle to my lips, the burn of the whiskey doing little to dull the ache in my chest.
I had gotten used to a little drinking from time to time.
“Pull yourself together, April,” I muttered to myself.
But the words felt hollow, meaningless.
Because deep down, I knew the truth.
Cassius hadn’t just walked away.
He’d taken a piece of me with him.
—
The following morning, I threw myself back into work, determined to keep moving forward.
But as the days turned into weeks, the ache didn’t fade.
And I couldn’t shake the feeling that, no matter how hard I tried to bury it, Cassius wasn’t done with me yet.
I wondered how I could think that when I had not seen him in about two months.