A Werewolf's Unexpected Mate-Chapter 118: Facets and Fakes

[Ace’s POV]

I finished the last of the grilled squid, the smoky taste still lingering on my tongue as I tossed the wooden skewer into a nearby trash bin with a soft clatter. My eyes, however, never stopped moving, scanning the shifting crowd. I might see that masked man again, I thought, the memory of the heavy, clinking sack sharp in my mind. He and his companion could be the ones the green-haired witch had told us about—the ones commissioning the black magic restraints. And with a crowd this large, it was also prime hunting ground for werewolf hunters to move unnoticed.

"Hello, beautiful ladies!" a female merchant’s voice rang out, bright and artificially sweet, cutting through the general din. The call instantly snagged Ovelia and Ann’s attention, pulling their gazes toward a stall glittering under its own lanterns.

We drifted closer as a group. The stall was covered in dozens of small, delicate keychains, each shaped like a different musical note or instrument, catching the light in a hundred tiny, colorful points.

"Those are keychains?" Ovelia asked, her voice filled with a genuine, unguarded wonder that made my chest feel tight.

"Yes, my dear! Check out my beautiful keychains, each one crafted from real diamonds and precious gems," the merchant declared, sweeping a hand over her wares with a theatrical flourish.

I didn’t need to look at Ray to know his expression; I could hear the subtle, dismissive sniff he gave. The merchant’s scent had the faint, sour tang of deception.

"Ovelia, do you want one of those?" Gale asked, his tone unusually neutral.

Before Ovelia could form a response, the merchant zeroed in on the new dynamic. "Oh, sir!" she said, her eyes locking onto Gale with practiced sympathy. "You should buy one of my keychains! It would be the perfect present for your lovely wife." She gestured grandly toward Ovelia.

Gale slowly turned his head to look at me, a wicked, gleeful smile spreading across his face. I saw Ann and Ray immediately turn their backs to us, but the rigid set of their shoulders and the faint, shaking vibrations I could feel through the wooden planks of the stall told me they were holding back laughter with immense effort.

"No, he’s my—" Ovelia started to correct, her cheeks flushing a bright, charming pink.

But Gale cut her off, slinging a comradely arm around my shoulders with a grip that was just a little too tight. "Sorry to disappoint you, my good lady," Gale said, his voice dripping with false regret. "But this mu—" He caught himself, clearing his throat. "This man is her husband." He gave my shoulder a firm, patronizing pat.

"Hey," I whispered through gritted teeth, my smile fixed and dangerous. "You almost called me a mutt right there, didn’t you?"

"What are you talking about?" he whispered back, his gray eyes wide with feigned innocence, a smirk playing on his lips. I just glared at him, the promise of future retribution clear in my eyes.

I turned my attention back to the merchant. "The merchant didn’t look disappointed at all," I said with a cool, superior smirk of my own, noting her calculating eyes already reassessing the situation. I saw Gale’s smirk vanish. He uncoupled his arm from my shoulders, crossed his own arms tightly, and looked away with a huff. The small victory was deeply satisfying.

"Oh, my mistake," the merchant said, not missing a beat. She picked up a keychain shaped like a treble clef and held it out to us, the clear stones catching the light. "But look at this one! It’s made from pure, flawless diamonds." She said it with such brazen confidence it was almost admirable.

I let out a short, weary sigh. She was going to stick to her story.

[Ovelia’s POV]

The keychain the merchant held was stunning, a delicate silver-colored treble clef studded with what looked like a hundred tiny, clear, glittering stones. It was the first time I’d ever seen what was supposed to be a real diamond, and it stole my breath. But something felt... off. The sparkle seemed hard and glassy, lacking the deep, fiery life I’d always imagined diamonds would possess.

"May I hold it?" Ann asked the merchant, her voice deceptively polite.

"Of course, dearie!" the merchant said, her smile unwavering as she handed the treble clef keychain to Ann.

Ann took it, her movements precise. She held it up, tilting it so the lantern light reflected off its facets. "Are you absolutely certain this is real diamond?" she asked, her tone still pleasant, but with a razor’s edge of steel beneath it.

"Of course it is!" the merchant insisted, puffing out her chest. "It’s a steal at only 3,480 spina. But for such discerning customers, I can offer a discount."

The number echoed in my ears. We never used spina to pay for things in our village because we relied on trade, but it was such a large sum that it became abstract—more than my non-biological family in Timberline would see in a year, or maybe even two.

"That’s so expensive!" I blurted out without thinking. I instinctively grabbed a handful of Ace’s tunic sleeve and looked up into his eyes, my own wide with alarm.

"You don’t want it?" he asked, his silver gaze softening as he looked down at me.

I glanced back at the keychain in Ann’s hand. "It’s beautiful," I admitted, the little treble clef sparkling innocently. "But I don’t need it. Just knowing that something so pretty exists is enough for me." I gave him a small, genuine smile, hoping he understood it wasn’t about the money, but about the sheer impracticality of such a luxury.

He gently patted my head, a simple gesture that never failed to calm me. He then looked at the others, a silent communication passing between them. They all gave a single, almost imperceptible nod. Ann placed the keychain back on the merchant’s counter with a definitive click.

"Let’s go," Ace said, his voice final.

"Wait!" the merchant cried out, her desperation now palpable. "How about 3,000 spina? A final offer!"

Ray took a single step forward, his large frame suddenly imposing despite the silly monocle. He didn’t raise his voice, but the low, serious rumble of it commanded silence. "I don’t wish to cause a scene and spoil your business," he said, his orange eyes fixed on her. "But you need to stop lying. Now."

It was hard to believe because the merchant’s face and the way she spoke were the picture of confidence. But if Ray said she was lying, she was definitely lying.

"What are you saying? I’m telling the truth!" the merchant insisted, though a faint sheen of sweat had appeared on her brow.

Ace picked up the diamond treble clef keychain. He held it up to a nearby lantern, tilting it slowly. "The way the light reflects on it," he stated, his voice calm and analytical, "I can see clearly that it’s made of glass, or more likely, cheap plastic. It lacks the specific refractive index of a diamond."

"Right," Ann chimed in, her voice cold and sharp as one of her daggers. "The way the light reflects is the dead giveaway—it has that dull, glassy glare instead of a diamond’s sharp, lively sparkle because it can’t bend light properly. A real diamond acts like a prism, exploding with bright white brilliance and sharp flashes of rainbow colors we call ’fire.’ But this?" She gestured dismissively at the keychain. "It just looks shiny and lifeless. It’s proof positive it’s just cut glass or molded plastic."

"You guys are so knowledgeable about diamonds," I said, truly amazed by their expertise.

Ann offered me a small, proud smile. "Of course, my lady. In my previous line of work, we often had to... identify and deal with fraudulent sellers of diamonds and other gems." She then turned her gaze back to the merchant, and her eyes held a flat, chilling promise that had nothing to do with commerce. The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

"Alright, alright! You caught me!" the merchant exclaimed, throwing her hands up in surrender, her confidence evaporating into a nervous tremor. "I lied. All of my keychains are made of glass and plastic." She dropped her hands, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

Ace placed the keychain back on her counter with a quiet, deliberate finality. I turned to look at Gale, expecting a sarcastic comment, but found him frozen. He was staring, unblinking, at a single, unassuming keychain, shaped like a flat, grey hexagon, the kind meant to look like a rough stone. His expression was distant, his body utterly still.

"Gale?" I asked, my voice soft with concern. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

He didn’t look at me. He didn’t even seem to hear me. It was as if he had been completely swallowed by whatever he was seeing.

What happened to him? A cold knot of worry tightened in my stomach.