Chapter 3 I'm Not Going To Regret Anything

Catherine's POV:

Every thought vanished from my head, and I instinctively shut my eyes as tightly as I could.

Was Kellen really about to kiss me?

My pulse raced while his warm breath brushed the edge of my lips. The overwhelming presence of a top-ranking Alpha left my entire body weak.

Yet the forceful kiss I was expecting still did not happen.

A playful chuckle sounded just inches away from my face.

I opened my eyes in surprise and found that Kellen had already straightened up and moved away from me.

With one arm draped over the steering wheel, he watched me through dark blue eyes filled with playful amusement.

"What are you so nervous about?" Kellen lightly tapped the steering wheel with his slender finger, speaking as casually as ever. "I was only joking. I never thought our pack's new Luna would be this easy to tease."

After a brief pause, his voice softened with an indulgence he seemed entirely unaware of. "There's no reason to be afraid. I'll give you all the time you need to adjust."

Only at that moment did I realize he had been teasing me from the very beginning!

My heart finally settled back into my chest after feeling as though it had climbed into my throat, and I released a long, unsteady breath.

Even so, beneath my relief was an unexpected feeling of disappointment that I couldn't explain.

I had never known what it meant to have a family. Ever since I was a little girl, I had dreamed of having a mate who was truly mine, someone I could be completely comfortable with and never have to hold anything back from.

Instead, the fiancé I had loved for the past three years left me standing alone at the altar.

As for the man sitting beside me, love probably had nothing to do with his decision to bond with me. He had likely done it to get back at Derrick and embarrass him.

Both of us would have to give this some time.

I was looking down, trying to collect myself, when the phone in my hand suddenly vibrated.

A notification appeared on the lit screen from an account I had chosen to receive alerts from. Caroline had posted something.

The moment I took a look, that slight disappointment disappeared and a cold feeling began spreading through me instead.

Caroline's latest post contained a collage made up of nine pictures.

The photos showed her looking pale and frail in a private hospital room, with Derrick seated beside her, apparently worried as he carefully fed her soup by the spoonful. One picture focused closely on him holding her hand against his cheek.

She had accompanied the pictures with a caption clearly designed to draw sympathy. "However badly my body aches, being able to open my eyes and see you right there makes every bit of suffering worthwhile. Meeting Derrick was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me."

The comments beneath her post were already in an uproar.

"Wow, what an incredibly caring Alpha! Caroline and Alpha Derrick really are such a perfect match for each other!"

"They absolutely are! Those two should've gotten together long ago. Who does Catherine think she is? She's a pathetic loser without a wolf and nothing but a joke."

"I'll put 100 bucks on Catherine making a huge fuss over all of this, then crawling back to apologize to Alpha Derrick in the end anyway."

"I'll take that bet! My guess is she can't even hold out for three days!"

"Three days? You're giving her far too much credit. I give her less than a single day before she starts crying and begging Alpha Derrick to take her back!"

Among the flood of insulting comments, Caroline made a point of replying to a comment. "Everyone, please don't say things like that. Catherine is Derrick's fiancée, and she's supposed to become the Bloodmoon Pack's Luna. Derrick is only worried about me because I'm unwell. Please don't take it out on Catherine. I'm the one to blame..."

That carefully calculated display of noble selflessness only made the public even angrier with me.

People kept ridiculing me for being so pathetic and declaring that Derrick had always loved Caroline and no one else in his heart.

The sight of Derrick's affectionate profile in the pictures left me feeling sick to my stomach.

In the past, seeing a post like that would have reduced me to tears over how unfair it was. I would have frantically called Derrick and demanded an explanation, only to face his cold criticism and disdain.

Then, terrified of losing him, I would have buried my hurt and lowered myself until I finally gave in.

This time, though, watching that same familiar performance unfold before me struck me as nothing but completely absurd.

Thankfully, I had finally come to my senses.

I went through the post without emotion. I neither cried nor grew angry; I simply pressed liked it and commented calmly, "I wish you both a happy life together. You should just get together already." Only a few seconds passed before my phone began ringing, and the ringtone I had assigned to Derrick sounded as ominous as a funeral bell.

For a moment, I froze at the name flashing across my screen. Then I glanced toward Kellen, who was sitting behind the wheel.

Kellen had clearly noticed. He tilted his head, a sharp dark glint flashing in his blue eyes, and lifted an eyebrow. "What? Aren't you going to pick up?"

"Derrick's calling." I looked him directly in the eyes and showed him my phone. "Since you're my mate now, I figured I ought to let you know first."

My words seemed to please Kellen quite a bit.

The threatening look faded from his eyes. He relaxed against his seat, crossed his long legs, and raised his chin with a casually arrogant air. "Go ahead and answer. Put him on speaker."

With a nod, I answered Derrick's call and switched it to speakerphone.

As soon as the connection went through, Derrick's angry shouting filled the car. "Catherine! What the hell were you thinking when you went and left a comment like that? Don't you even realize your spiteful little reply has now made Caroline a target for everyone else? What are they supposed to think of her now? They're going to believe she's a shameless woman who has come between us! When you didn't cause a scene at the hall earlier today, I assumed you'd finally learned how to behave yourself. I should've realized you were still busy scheming behind my back! I'm incredibly disappointed in you! I'm ordering you to remove that comment immediately and make a public post apologizing to Caroline! If you refuse, you can forget about our bonding ceremony!"

He spoke with an air of patronizing generosity, although the threat beneath his words was unmistakable.

Once, hearing him threaten to cancel the bonding ceremony would have sent me into a panic. I would have begged his forgiveness again and again, terrified that he might actually abandon me for good.

But now I remained completely composed, listening until his angry rant ended before giving him one very simple answer. "Fine. Cancel it."

The other end of the call immediately went completely quiet.

A full five seconds went by before Derrick could speak again, sounding unable to believe what he had heard. "What? Do you have any idea what you just said?"

I settled against the passenger seat and replied without emotion, "Of course I do. I said cancel it. We don't need to have a bonding ceremony."

"Catherine! Quit pretending you don't care!" Derrick was furious at having his authority questioned. "You think I'm not serious?! Listen carefully to me. You haven't even got a wolf, and you're completely worthless! No one else in the whole entire werewolf world would ever accept you as a mate apart from me. Throw as many fits as you want, but don't come begging on your knees when you regret this later!"

"I'm not going to regret anything." I gave a small laugh, putting an end to his never-ending tirade. "There's one more thing I need to set straight with you, Derrick. I already have a mate. I found him just a moment ago."

"That's a load of crap! You can't fool me with such an obvious lie!" Derrick scoffed at me through the phone, sounding utterly confident and openly scornful. "Who'd ever choose a wolfless loser?"

Suddenly, the conversation felt tiresome to me.

There was simply no point in saying another word to someone as self-absorbed as he was.

"Whether you believe me is your decision. It doesn't change the fact that we're finished." My tone hardened as I noticed Kellen out of the corner of my eye. "And if I stay on this call any longer, my new mate won't be happy."

I ended the call before Derrick had a chance to respond again.

I blocked Derrick's phone number and immediately removed it from my contacts.

I completed both actions without hesitation.

Once I had finished, I put my phone away in my bag and breathed out deeply. It was as if the enormous weight pressing down on my chest for three years had at last broken apart.

"You made that decision without hesitating." Kellen had observed everything without speaking, an unreadable expression passing through his eyes. "Are you certain you won't end up regretting it?"

I faced him and held his eyes steadily. "Derrick belongs to my past. From today onward, I'm going to live my own life."

For a while, Kellen simply looked back at me without saying a word.

Then he faced the road again, placing his large hands back on the steering wheel.

Still, I couldn't be quite sure whether the faint, dim lighting inside the car had fooled my eyes.

At the very moment the SUV began moving, I thought I had seen the Shadow Pack's Alpha, a man widely known for being cold, merciless, and bloodthirsty, let his usually tightly pursed, thin lips curve into a smile that was remarkably warm and filled with pure pleasure.