50%


    Julian’s POV


    I returned home after the hospital, my head buzzing with thoughts. My housewife Amber was Healer Amanda? Why hadn’t she


    told me? What else had she been hiding?


    Now that I knew her real identity, it was so obvious that they were the same person. But what about the supermarket I’d seen her go into? What about Roman?


    An Alpha like him would surely want his Luna to settle down, not work twelve hour shifts on the hospital floor.


    Could she have a twin? She’d never said she had siblings, nor had she called anyone who could be over the years we spent married


    together.


    I didn’t return to the office to face Healer Amanda, or Amber, or whoever she was. The idea that my wife had been working right in


    front of my eyes, knowing that I was her husband but hiding her identity from me, sent a shock through my body. For once, I had


    no idea what to say to her.


    I walked out of the building and to my car. Healer Amanda was Amanda. Healer Amanda was my wife.


    Healer Amanda had just discovered a treatment that would change the medical world forever.


    I’d just settled down on my couch (far lessfortable than the one in the house Amber and I had shared) to begin organizing my


    thoughts when the doorbell rang. I’d told security that I wasn’t anticipating any visitors tonight, and irritation bristled at me as I


    stood up and went to open the door.


    While I had security, I liked my solitude. I had no house staff besides my drivers and the kitchen staff, and even their services I’d


    been using less and lesstely.


    I was shocked to see Olivia standing on the other side of the door.


    “I didn’t think we were scheduled to see each other tonight,” I said, running back through my memories to make sure I hadn’t forgotten a date, if you could even call it that.


    “We weren’t scheduled too,” Olivia said, pushing through the door and pulling me close to her by my cor. “Do I need an


    appointment to see the future father of my child?”


    I cleared my throat. I felt nothing towards Olivia.


    Lately, I’d be increasingly fed up with her antics, her misced determination to make our rtionship work. She’d broken my heart in college, and afterwards I’d dreamt of us getting back together.


    Thesest five years, ever since that terrible night I’d gotten her pregnant, I’d discovered that our rtionship had no substance. I felt no sparks between us, but I had to keep my promises.


    “I’ll see if the cook can whip up some dinner for us,” I said.


    12:38 PM Tue 26 Aug


    “Forget dinner,” Olivia responded, her voice a low purr. “Let’s skip to dessert.”


    50%


    “No, Olivia. I don’t want to sleep with you.” Frustration coursed through my bones at her repeated attempts to force a chemistry we didn’t have. Making her my Agent Luna had been a mistake.


    “You haven’t even kept up your side of the bargain,” I continued. “You don’t manage your house, how are you supposed to parent a child? And, even though you’re Agent Luna, you do nothing to handle pack affairs. You’re too caught up in your appearance to care about your duties.”


    Olivia stepped back. “How dare you speak to a luna this way!”


    I gripped my forehead in my palms. “You are not a Luna. You are an Agent Luna, and although you grew up in an Alpha family, Obsidian Pack must have different expectations of their leaders. I can speak to you the way I please, Olivia, especially if I’m saying what I mean.”


    “You will rue the day you spoke to me this way, Alpha Julian,” Olivia spat, furious at my usations. With that, she turned and swept out of the house.


    I sighed as I followed behind her. She nced back at me as she got into the backseat of her car, a hopeful tilt to her eyebrow, as though she thought I might chase after her. As though, after an argument like the one we’d just had, she’d still be willing toe in for “dessert.”


    Instead, I flipped the lock on the deadbolt, ensuring that she couldn’t get in with any house keys she may have foundying around.


    I returned to the living room and poured a ss of whiskey. For hours I sat there, sipping my drinks and thinkingte into the night. I picked up a nice buzz from the liquor.


    Then, I picked up the phone and dialed Amber.


    Amber’s POV


    The first thing I thought when the phone rang was that my grandmother had died.


    I’d been dreaming about her a lottely, ever since I’d gone on my rotations in the slums. It was like a piece of her was back with me, now that I had newfound purpose in my work.


    Then I woke up, remembering that I was grown, a professional Healer, no longer a scrappy medical student at Wolf University. My daughter, the only other person I needed, was here in the house with me.


    I picked up the phone, worried that one of my patients was having an emergency.


    “Amber,” a raspy voice that made my body flush said. “I miss you.”


    I couldn’t do this, not right now. I hung up the phone.


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    12:38 PM Tue 26 Aug