My soul wandered, drifting helplessly. And then, like a cruel twist of fate, I found myself at a house I knew too well-Claudette's.
Claudette. The girl who had always lingered in Klaus's shadow, waiting for her moment. She was there, curled up in Klaus's arms, her head resting against his chest. They looked so peaceful, so content.
My heart would have broken if I still had one. My wolf, once so connected to Klaus, would have howled in agony at the sight. But now there was only emptiness.
Klaus stroked Claudette's hair, his fingers gentle, his gaze soft. He lowered his head to press a kiss to her forehead.
I wanted to scream. To shout. To tear them apart. But I was just a ghost now-powerless and forgotten.
His phone buzzed on the nightstand. My name lit up the screen-my final call. He glanced at it, frowning. Then, without a second thought, he swiped it away. Dismissed.
My laugh was bitter and hollow, echoing in the silence. He had ignored my call. The last desperate plea for help from the woman he had promised to cherish. Instead, he stayed here, comforting her..
"Klaus," I thought, my voice breaking in the void, "If you knew this was the last call I'd ever make to you, would you have answered? Would you have regretted missing it?"
I doubted it.
For five years, Klaus and I had danced around each other, tangled in a relationship that felt both fated and doomed. When we finally got engaged, I thought it meant something. That we had found our way back to each other after all the challenges.
But I was wrong.
Everything changed after the war between the Snowfall Pack and the rival pack. That was when I first noticed it. He wasn't the same after the fighting ended, after we discovered the witch's curse. The witch had been on the enemy's side, and during the battle, she had caged Klaus's wolf. He could no longer feel the mate bond.
And without that bond, it was as if he'd never loved me at all.
Claudette returned soon after. She had left our pack to chase after another Alpha, but that had fallen through. And now, she was back. Back in Klaus's life.
The day I died, we were driving home from the Alpha gathering, where Klaus represented Snowfall Pack because his father was too busy. He was tense, distant-more so than usual. Then his phone rang.
Claudette.