Chapter 144 If Fate Wants Us

Chapter 144 If Fate Wants Us
Selene’s POV

Lucian was flirting with me again, and judging by the confidence in his eyes, he had absolutely no intention of stopping.

His words still lingered in my ears.

“I intend to win you over.”

My heartbeat betrayed me almost immediately, speeding up despite every effort I made to remain calm. Lucian stood far too close, his dark eyes fixed on me with that intense look that always made it difficult to think clearly. The roses in his hand, the unexpected outing, and the way he had spent the entire afternoon trying to charm me made one thing obvious. He was taking those two months seriously.

I drew in a slow breath and forced the strange warmth in my chest under control.

If he wanted to play this game, perhaps I should give fate a chance to decide whether it was worth playing at all.

“Lucian,” I said, looking directly into his eyes, “let’s play a game.”

The amusement on his face faded into curiosity. He raised one eyebrow as he studied me.

“What kind of game?”

I glanced around us. Fostrau was famous as the city of romance, and couples seemed to be everywhere along Sylphine River and the streets surrounding Everreach Tower. If there was ever a place to test something as ridiculous as destiny, this was probably it.

“In this city of romance,” I said slowly, “let’s see whether fate is actually on our side.”

Lucian’s eyes sharpened with interest.

“And how exactly are we supposed to test fate?”

“It’s simple.” I folded my arms. “We separate here and walk in opposite directions. Neither of us follows the other, calls, or sends a message. We simply continue with our day.”

He waited patiently.

“If we somehow cross paths again before the day ends,” I continued, “then maybe it means we were meant to meet again.”

Lucian studied me for several seconds.

I expected him to laugh at the idea. He was usually far too practical to believe that randomly walking through a large city could prove anything about destiny.

Instead, the corner of his mouth lifted.

“All right.”

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

“You agreed too quickly.”

“What did you expect me to do?”

“Argue.”

“Why would I argue when I already know how this will end?”

I almost rolled my eyes.

His confidence was truly unbelievable.

“Then you go first.”

Lucian looked amused. “You don’t trust me?”

“Not enough to let you secretly follow me.”

He gave a quiet laugh.

I pointed down the path ahead of us.

“Go that way. I’ll take the opposite direction.”

His eyes remained on mine as he took a few slow steps backward.

“You really think sending me away is going to help you escape?”

“This isn’t about escaping.”

“Of course not.”

His expression said he believed the exact opposite.

I pressed my lips together.

“Lucian, go.”

He finally turned around.

After walking several steps, he looked back at me.

“I’ll prove fate is on my side.”

“Keep dreaming.”

A faint smile remained on his face before he continued walking.

I stood where I was for a while, watching his tall figure move farther away until the crowd gradually swallowed him.

Only when I could no longer see him did the smile on my face slowly disappear.

The sudden emptiness surprised me.

A few minutes ago, Lucian had been beside me, constantly teasing and irritating me. Now that he was gone, everything around me seemed strangely quieter.

I turned in the opposite direction and began walking.

The question I had been avoiding for weeks returned almost immediately.

What exactly did I feel for Lucian?

Attraction?

That much was becoming difficult to deny.

I was not blind. Lucian was handsome, powerful, intelligent, and far more considerate than I had originally believed. He could irritate me until I wanted to argue with him for hours, yet he had also stood between me and danger more times than I could count.

Did I like him?

Maybe.

No.

I probably did.

The admission made my steps slow.

But liking someone was different from loving them.

Was I in love with Lucian?

That question was much harder.

I had never felt anything quite like this before. No other man had made me think so much about one glance, one touch, or one careless sentence. When Lucian was injured in the explosion, the thought that he might never wake up had terrified me in a way I still could not explain.

When he held another woman, jealousy burned inside me.

When he protected me, my heart softened.

When he talked about our future, some reckless part of me wanted to believe him.

Yet one shadow continued to stand between us.

Teressa.

The woman he had once loved.

The woman whose memory had remained in his life long before I arrived.

I had never met her, but somehow she had become the greatest obstacle between Lucian and me.

What frightened me most was not that Lucian had loved someone before.

Everyone had a past.

What frightened me was how much I apparently resembled her.

What if that was why he had become interested in me?

What if every time he looked at my face, some part of him was remembering Teressa?

What if the affection he showed me had never truly belonged to Selene Nightbane at all?

My chest tightened.

I did not want to become anyone’s replacement.

I would rather leave after three months than spend years wondering whether my husband loved me or the memory of another woman.

I slowly looked toward the sky.

Moon Goddess, what am I supposed to do?

Should I actually let him into my heart?

No answer came.

Of course it didn’t.

I sighed and continued walking through Phoshire, allowing the beauty of Fostrau to distract me. The streets were alive with people, bright shop windows, cafés, flower stalls, and couples wandering without any hurry. Every corner seemed designed to make someone fall in love.

Hours passed.

The afternoon slowly slipped toward evening.

I visited several streets, stopped at a few shops, and even sat alone for a while, but there was no sign of Lucian anywhere.

Not once.

The sun began sinking toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of gold and orange.

Still nothing.

I checked the time.

Perhaps our little game had already given me the answer.

A faint bitterness touched my smile.

“So much for fate.”

I had been foolish to think otherwise.

Phoshire was enormous. Millions of people lived and moved through Fostrau every day. The chance of two people walking in opposite directions and somehow meeting again without planning it was almost nonexistent.

That had been the whole purpose of the game.

Maybe a small part of me had still hoped for the impossible.

I shook the thought away.

It was getting late, and I should return to the hotel.

I moved toward the roadside, intending to find a taxi, when something across the street caught my attention.

An amusement park.

My feet stopped.

I stared at the large entrance.

Something strange tightened inside my chest.

Why did this place look familiar?

I had no reason to recognize it.

At least, none that I could remember.

Yet the longer I stared, the stronger that strange feeling became.

I crossed the street slowly.

My eyes moved across the bright gates, the distant rides, and the colorful signs decorating the entrance. Children hurried past with their parents, laughing excitedly as they entered.

Then something flashed through my mind.

A child’s laughter.

A hand holding mine.

Bright lights.

A man’s voice.

A woman bending toward me.

The images disappeared almost as quickly as they had appeared.

I froze.

“What was that?”

I pressed my fingers against my temples.

Another blurry scene flickered through my mind, so faint that I could barely make sense of it.

It felt like a memory.

My memory.

But how could that be?

Since childhood, I had lived with Alaric. Everything I remembered clearly began with my grandfather. The years before that existed only as scattered pieces that never seemed to fit together.

I knew why.

When I was thirteen, I had nearly died from a terrible illness.

My recovery had taken a long time, and when I finally regained my strength, something inside my mind had changed. Large parts of my childhood had disappeared completely.

Alaric told me that memory loss was one of the effects of what I had suffered.

He also told me my parents had died when I was very young.

I believed him.

Why wouldn’t I?

Alaric had raised me, protected me, and given me everything.

Yet whenever I tried to remember my mother or father, I could never see either of their faces.

There were only shapes.

Voices without words.

Warmth without an image attached to it.

Whenever I tried too hard, the same terrible headaches came.

Even after becoming Alpha of Bloodfang Pack, nothing changed.

Eventually, I stopped searching.

What was the point of forcing myself to remember something that only caused pain?

But now, standing outside this amusement park in Fostrau, I suddenly saw something I had not seen in years.

My parents.

Not clearly.

But I could almost feel them.

My breathing slowed.

Had they brought me here?

I took another step toward the entrance.

A blurry memory surfaced again.

Small hands.

A brightly colored ride.

Someone laughing beside me.

A woman calling me lovingly.

Then pain stabbed through my head.

I winced and pressed my palm against my temple.

“Why can’t I remember?”

The harder I chased the memory, the faster it slipped away.

I tried to picture my mother’s face.

Nothing.

My father.

Nothing.

Only shadows.

The frustration became almost unbearable.

If those people were truly my parents, why had my mind erased them so completely?

Why had this place suddenly awakened memories I thought were gone forever?

I stood near the amusement park gate, staring inside as though the answer might appear if I waited long enough.

It didn’t.

Time continued passing.

The last light faded from the sky, and darkness gradually settled over Phoshire. Neon signs came alive along the streets, covering the city in soft blue, pink, and golden light.

Then a cold drop touched my cheek.

I looked upward.

Rain.

At first, it was barely more than a gentle drizzle, but the air had already become cooler. A chilly wind swept across the street, making me pull my coat tighter around myself.

I should leave.

I took one step away from the amusement park.

Then the rain suddenly stopped falling on me.

I frowned.

It was still raining around me.

A shadow had appeared overhead.

A black umbrella.

Someone was standing behind me.

My heart jumped.

I turned quickly.

And froze.

Lucian.

For several seconds, neither of us spoke.

He stood beneath the umbrella, wearing the same tailored ash-gray suit from earlier. The soft streetlights caught the sharp lines of his face while his tall frame seemed almost unreal against the glowing city behind him.

His eyes held mine.

Deep.

Dark.

Unreadable.

But there was something warm beneath them.

Something that made my heart beat faster before I could stop it.

“Lucian?”

My surprise escaped openly.

“What are you doing here?”

His lips curved into a faint smirk.

Instead of answering immediately, he moved the umbrella slightly so that it covered me completely, leaving one of his own shoulders closer to the rain.

That small gesture affected me more than it should have.

He studied my face for a moment.

Then his smooth voice broke through the quiet evening.

“You wanted to know whether fate was real.”

I stared at him.

Lucian’s smirk deepened.

“We walked away from each other without knowing where the other person was going.”

He glanced toward the crowded street around us before bringing his gaze back to mine.

“And yet here we are.”

Something shifted inside my chest.

“In a city filled with millions of people,” he continued, “we still found each other.”

His voice softened.

“Doesn’t that prove we were meant to meet?”

My breath caught.

For one dangerous second, I forgot every reason I had been giving myself to keep my distance from him.

We really had separated.

Neither of us had called.

Neither had sent a message.

And after hours of wandering through different parts of the city, somehow we had ended up standing beneath the same umbrella in front of the same amusement park.

Was that merely coincidence?

Or was Lucian right?

Was it fate?

I looked into his eyes, and the question I had been fighting all afternoon returned with even greater force.

Maybe fate really was pushing us toward each other.

Maybe I was supposed to stop running.

But another thought quickly followed.

A far more troubling one.

If Lucian and I were truly destined to be together, why had the one sign I trusted most never appeared?

Why had the Moon Goddess remained silent?

My fingers slowly tightened around the edge of my coat as I studied the man standing before me.

If this was truly destiny, why hadn’t the Moon Goddess’ Red Thread bound us together?