74 Heartbreaking

Selma Payne’s POV:

As we looked at each other, my mother cleared her throat awkwardly. “Ahem, we’re still here.”

Aldrich and I let go of our hands as if we had been electrocuted; our faces were pink like peaches.

He looked at me, and I looked at him. We looked at each other’s blushes and chuckled.

My father rubbed his brows helplessly and said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, “Alright, alright, young man.”

“You’re not angry with us anymore?” I asked carefully.

“How can I be angry? Even the moon has acknowledged your relationship.” My father said, “Young people are always impulsive, but young people’s feelings are also always passionate. In the face of such a beautiful relationship, what reason do I have to object?”

My mother still found it hard to accept for a while, but she was not so picky about Aldrich.

“Good boy, I didn’t expect you to have such courage and determination,” she said.

“Because Selma is by my side. She is my inexhaustible source of power.”

My mother couldn’t take it anymore and rolled her eyes. This wasn’t how a queen would act. She then said unhappily, “Alright, Victor and I won’t interfere in your business. Now, don’t show off your love before us. We’re old, and our teeth will ache!”

I cheered and threw myself into my parents’ arms. I laughed and said, “You’re not old! Father isn’t old either. You’re the most beautiful and handsome people in the world!”

I laughed, and from the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Aldrich’s smiling eyes, so gentle, so charming.

After we left, we walked hand in hand in the garden.

At first, the atmosphere was wonderful, but when the problems we both tacitly hid surfaced, everything was not so wonderful.

“So, I heard you addressing both King and Queen as ‘father’ and ‘mother’?” Aldrich seemed to ask casually.

What was meant to come would come!

I wailed in my heart, which received an undisguisable mockery from Maxine.

“Yes, I did,” I said. “Actually, I’m not the Queen’s relative. I’m her biological daughter.”

“So, you’re the ‘Princess Madeline’ who went missing more than ten years ago?”

“That’s right.”

I thought Aldrich would fly into a rage because of what I said, but I did not expect him to say, “What about the ten years you were missing? Did you do well? Did you get bullied?”

His concerned expression was so sincere I couldn’t help but kiss him.

Aldrich was surprised for a moment, but he quickly wrapped his arms around my waist and deepened the kiss.

I touched his forehead and felt as misunderstood as a child, which I had not felt for a long time. Finally, I choked and said, “I lived very well. I met my adoptive parents and brother, who truly loved me. They gave me a happy family and a happy childhood.

“But I did not do well either. Do you know? The Lycan bloodline made me smell like a real human since I was young. No one wanted to play with me, and my so-called ‘friends’ always teased me.

“In the past, I met my mate.”

Aldrich’s hand on my waist tightened.

“He was one of the few people who would take care of me. When I was young, I always thought it was love, that he liked me, but it was not until he coldly rejected me and spoke ill of me that I realized it was all just my imagination. He took care of me only because he had a responsibility on his shoulders, so he had no choice but to endure his disgust for me.

“The moment he rejected me, I was so ashamed that I wanted to die. Why didn’t he push me away earlier? Why did I have to wait until Moon Goddess’ will show itself to let me know I was just a clown who acted in a one-person show? Why did I love a bastard for so long and treat him as my family, as my salvation?

“Back then, I was so desperate that I lost the desire to live. Hence, I got rash and recklessly jumped off a cliff.”

“What!” Aldrich shouted in disbelief. “This shouldn’t have happened! Who was he? Tell me, which pack is he in? I should beat that b*stard up and make him pay for playing with your feelings. I should kick his *ss and drive him out of the werewolf pack!”

I was afraid he would do what he claimed, so I vaguely said, “Don’t be angry, darling. It’s all in the past. I think the Moon Goddess took pity on me too. She asked the river to send me back to my parents and you.

“That b*stard was just a passer-by in my life; just a little pain of puberty.

“Right now, only you are important, my shepherd, my follower, my closest lover, my precious Aldrich.

“I’m your love, and I love you.”