On My Drowing Day, He Announced His Bonding to Her Chapter 06
John didn’t answer. He just stared at her.
A long time passed before he carried me to the car and drove me back to Scarlett’s place.
The second we walked in, he started tearing through
Lily’s old things.
Her bed, her food bowls, her leash, hunting for any kind of clue.
Scarlett rushed to stop him.
“John, she just went through something traumatic. Let her rest, don’t put her through this.”
“We still haven’t found Violet’s body. Are you telling
me you’ve already given up on her?”
The second he heard my name, his hands went still.
I wanted to lead him down to Black Hollow River. I wanted him to know how Lily really died.
I ran to the door and clawed at it, frantic.
He crouched down and ran a hand over my head.
“If you’re really her… are you trying to tell me something?”
“Do you know what happened?”
I stared up at him and all I felt was how absurd this whole thing was.
When I was alive, nothing I said ever got through to him.
Now I was dead and stuck inside a dog, and suddenly he wanted to hear me out.
That’s when the front door opened.
Nathan walked in with a thick, aging file under his arm.
Next in line for Alpha, and the one who kept the Pack’s
historical records.
He looked at John.
“You can stop looking.”
“Over the last twenty years, some of the she–wolves
the Groom picked never actually died that night. They just disappeared afterward.”
“Too much in these old files doesn’t add up. This looks
less like fate and more like somebody picking exactly
who disappears.”
John’s answer came instantly.
“I don’t buy that for a second. It’s an old superstition.
The Moon Goddess gives us free will and the mate
bond, not some evil thing hunting us down.”
Nathan gave a cold laugh.
“You’re right. I was never looking into the Groom. I was looking into us.”
“I already pulled the territory’s security footage from
before Violet went in the water. You might want to see it.”
John didn’t say another word. He was already walking out the door.
He went straight to the security office to pull footage from the nearby roads.
Then to the little store by the river to question the owner.
Scarlett tagged along the entire time.
Soft and shaken on the outside, sticking close to him,
but her eyes kept cutting over to me whenever he wasn’t looking.
The second he stepped inside for water, she crouched down in front of me.
“You’re already dead. Why’d you have to come back?”
“Wouldn’t dying again be easier?”
I bared my teeth and barked at her, over and over.
That’s when he walked back out.
Scarlett switched instantly, voice thick with fake tears.
“Lily, I’m so glad you’re okay. I was just scared earlier, don’t hold it against me.”
The old John would’ve comforted her on the spot.
This time he just stood there, silent, watching her.
That night, sitting in his study, his phone buzzed.
A grainy clip came through from a friend at the security office.
In the footage, Scarlett had Lily by the neck, walking her step by step toward the river.
Then she shoved her down, pressing her head under the surface.
Lily fought for her life, water splashing everywhere around them.
In the struggle, her claws tore open a gash on Scarlett’s wrist.
Scarlett flinched from the pain and pressed down even harder.
That was the exact second the bell I’d made snapped off and disappeared into the water.