He Signed My Freedom Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 03
On her first day in the pack manor, Vivian had the staff redecorate the main hall.
“This sofa set is so dreary.” Her fingertips brushed the backrest as she smiled at Lucian. “Can we switch it out for something lighter?”
Lucian immediately told the butler, “Do as she says.”
I stood at the turn of the staircase and watched the staff carry out the sofa I had chosen myself just six months ago.
Noah and Iris trailed after Vivian, excitedly pointing at the throw pillows.
“Replace those, too. Everything Mom picked is ugly.”
I had sewn those pillows by hand while pregnant with Iris. Both children had sensitive skin as infants, and I had tested dozens of materials before finding a stuffing that wouldn’t give them a rash.
Now they were tossed into a storage cart without a second glance.
Over the next few days, the house looked more and more like the Luna residence Vivian had always imagined.
At the dining table, she sat in my seat. It was the place at the Alpha’s right hand, a position that allowed her to hear territorial matters and ensured all staff would treat her orders as if they came from the Luna.
Lucian knew she had no registration rights, yet he let it happen.
Noah and Iris laughed and chattered around her. During movie nights, the four of them crowded together on the new sofa. When I passed through the hall, none of them so much as looked at me.
What was more ironic was how their rigid standards suddenly vanished.
Lucian’s pocket watch could never be left facedown. Noah’s training clothes could never be washed with the regular laundry. Iris’s food could never contain unfamiliar berries.
But when Vivian tossed the watch carelessly onto a table, Lucian only smiled and put it away. When she stuffed two training uniforms into the same washer, the children were just as happy. When she dumped takeout onto a plate and called it homemade, no one called her out.
“Don’t bother with menial things like this.” Lucian stopped her hand as she reached for the tea set. “You still have to lead the Moon Festival dance.”
Vivian came from the Dawncrest bloodline. Though she had been gone for years, the elders still recognized her as an alliance candidate. That dance wasn’t just a performance—it was a symbol of a renewed alliance between Highridge and Dawncrest.
That was why she could sit in the Luna’s seat, override my authority in front of the staff, and face no objections.
It wasn’t that they didn’t know the rules.
It was that Lucian had chosen to make the rules bend for her.
Even in private, the staff had started to whisper.
“The Alpha never treated Luna Evelyn like this.”
“The pups love Vivian, too. In seven days, the pack manor might really have a new mistress.”
The moment they saw me pass, they fell silent. Not out of respect, but because they weren’t sure if the next Luna would hold it against them.
In the past, I always found excuses for their silence. I told myself the staff were just obeying the Alpha, the children were just young, and Lucian was just struggling to separate old feelings from new duties. But if an order only exists because I alone maintain it, then it never truly protected me at all.
I asked nothing. I simply kept packing my papers, old clothes, and the things my family had left me.
Until that afternoon, when my phone began vibrating nonstop.
“Luna, Noah and Iris drank juice with wolfsbane in it at the pack academy. They’ve been rushed to the medical wing!”
By the time I reached the treatment center, both children had just been brought out of emergency care.
Lucian stood in the hallway, his coat draped over one arm. The pressure of his Alpha aura was so heavy that none of the younger Healers around him dared to raise their heads.
“Evelyn.” He turned to me, his voice sharp. “What, exactly, are you doing?”
I froze. “What do you mean?”
“They’re highly sensitive to wolfsbane. You knew that.” He took a step closer, his voice dropping to a low growl. “Why did you have the kitchen prepare that kind of juice?”
“It wasn’t me.”
After the children’s first exposure, I had personally compiled a forbidden ingredient list and given copies to the pack academy, the kitchens, and every caregiver. To prevent accidental ingestion, I had even required that ingredient logs be kept for all their food and drinks.
Lucian let out a cold, humorless laugh.
“If it wasn’t you, then who? Did they decide to poison their own wolves?”
The ward door opened, and a Healer announced that the children were awake.
When we walked in, Noah and Iris were pale, their wolf auras weak and fluttering.
“Who gave it to you?” Lucian asked.
The two children exchanged a look, then pointed at me in unison.
“Mom did.”
My entire body went rigid.