dreams whisper through silence by mae 236

Chapter 236 

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Embarrassingly, I did want to go after Ellie and hunt her and Lucas down right now. But the festival still had several hours left, and I needed to be here. Ellie was already gone. The pack’s Alpha couldn’t disappear, 

too. 

“I’m staying,” I said. “But thanks for the offer.” 

Vivian nodded. “Well, if you need my help, you know where to find me. Unlike some people, I’m not going anywhere.” 

I watched her go, not really sure what to say to that. 

I spent the next twenty minutes searching for Ellie, hoping that Vivian was wrong. I checked the perimeter of the festival grounds. I checked the parking area once and didn’t see Lucas’s car anywhere, which did nothing to soothe my frayed nerves. 

My jaw clenched. I turned and headed back to the festival, resolving to talk to her about this later. 

Surely Ellie wouldn’t be so selfish as to not come back at all before the festival was over, I thought. 

Well, I was wrong. The afternoon bled into evening, and evening turned into night, and she still hadn’t come back or returned any of my calls. 

By the time the ballot counting got underway, I was furious. I threw myself into the last stretch of the festival as best I could, but as the night wore on, that fury only doubled in size. 

Ellie had been so adamant about picking up the slack with this festival. After weeks of doing virtually nothing for the pack, even going out of her way to be absent, I’d thought she was finally coming out of her slump. 

Well, I had been wrong. Maybe it had all been intentional-throw an excellent festival, make everything look fine, then suddenly pull the rug out from under me just to piss me off. 

I hated that it was working. 

The ballot results came in just around nine. I opened the folded piece of paper brought to me by one of the staff and almost laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all. 

୮ 

A tie. 

A perfect, exact, dead even tie. 

Of all the ways this day could have ended. 

I announced it over the microphone, resulting in a surprised and then delighted reaction from the crowd. No one had considered a tie being an option, but the staff informed me that we had enough fireworks to hold a double show. 

I scanned the crowd while I made the announcement. Force of habit, probably, or just hope. I looked for a dark braid and a familiar set of squared shoulders. 

She wasn’t there. 

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The fireworks started, one going off from each end of the field in a back and forth succession until everything converged into a cacophony of sound and colors. I climbed to the top of the hay bales and sat there, watching everything 

Mostly, though, I was watching the crowd. Searching for a face that wasn’t there. 

She should have been here, Sitting beside me. Watching the fireworks explode into the night sky with her head on my shoulder. 

But she wasn’t. It was a different figure that climbed up beside me. 

“Mind if I join you?” Vivian asked, gesturing to the spot next to me. 

I hesitated, then shook my head and scooched over. Vivian sat close enough that our shoulders brushed. She touched my arm. “I’m sorry she ditched you.” 

I shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s not me who she ditched.” I gestured to the pack below. “It’s them.” 

Vivian sighed. “Some Luna she is,” she muttered. 

I glanced at her, opening my mouth to tell her to watch what she said, but the words wouldn’t come. 

Because right now, I was too mad at Ellie to defend her on this. She was supposed to be here, but she was off somewhere with another man, and it hurt more than I wanted it to. 

Eventually, the show came to an end, and Ellie never came home. 

r 

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