Chapter 3

Indeed, at that moment I contrasted sharply with them.

Serena wore a haute couture gown, exquisite makeup, and a gentle smile. Elias was in a sharp suit, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, hair perfectly groomed, every gesture radiating elite sophistication.

And I had just finished an all-nighter treating injured werewolves after a Rogue attack. My face was exhausted, wearing a wrinkled cotton shirt and pants, travel-worn.

"Thank you, but no need." I politely declined and went straight to the buffet area.

Treating patients earlier had consumed too much energy. I was now hungry enough to eat an entire cow.

Just as I was focused on eating, Elias suddenly walked over and placed a check beside my hand.

Two hundred thousand.

"This money—for old times' sake, to help you out. You don't need to pay it back. Go buy some nice clothes, find a decent job, treat yourself well."

"Aisling, let the past be the past. Don't keep dwelling on memories."

"If back then... forget it, there's no point talking about it now."

"What matters is, don't give up on yourself just because I left, okay? You being like this makes things very difficult for me."

I set down my knife and fork and looked up at him in confusion.

I suddenly found it laughable. What sin had I committed in my previous life to make him so decisive yet "merciful" in abandoning me after rebirth?

In my previous life, we went from young and passionate to experiencing Shadowclaw pack's rise and fall together.

Shadowclaw pack was still a weak pack at the time.

Elias was still the Alpha heir, constantly working to become Alpha, while I wanted to become a doctor and was always studying medicine.

At that time, a highly skilled old doctor from another pack appreciated me and wanted to take me as a student. But because I loved him, I gave up the opportunity to advance my medical career and took on the pack's logistics and medical affairs early on, using my meager strength to support our territory and his reputation within the pack.

Time and again when he was injured in Rogue attacks and became dispirited, I shouldered all the treatment and recovery, coaxing and encouraging him with gentle words.

I thought he understood my love.

But when he was seriously injured once and urgently needed a rare herb for healing, and I showed difficulty because I couldn't gather enough resources for equivalent exchange, he smashed all the medical equipment on the spot.

He yelled at me with red eyes: "Aisling! It's all your fault! If I hadn't broken up with Serena, her family's resources would definitely have brought me great help. I would have already become Alpha! How could I not even obtain one herb!"

"Being with you was my biggest regret!"

Later, he became dispirited for a long time. His father almost gave up on him and chose another son as the Alpha heir.

And I was stabbed to pieces by his words of "regret," unable to sleep night after night.

But I didn't give up. I wanted to salvage things. I hugged him and begged in a low voice: "Elias, let's have a child, okay?"

But he pushed me away hard, his eyes full of disgust: "I hate you! Having a child with you would make me sick! I will never have a child with you in this lifetime!"

Those words were like ice picks piercing through me.

The day those Rogues attacked the pack, when their poisoned blade pierced my chest, I actually felt a sense of relief.

Now that we've both been reborn and tacitly chose to sever our mate bond and become strangers—that's fine.

I pushed the check back, my tone flat: "No need. I don't need charity from strangers, thank you."