Pursuing My Rejected Alpha

66 Our Memories Together

The dean stared at the rich man that stood in front of him and made such a bold statement. There were around thirty-something artworks inside the studio. Did he just say that he wanted to buy all of them?

He could, of course. A rich tycoon like Ronan Silverback could afford this little expense without breaking into a sweat.

The dean did not think that it was a good idea to sell everything to Ronan Silverback.

If Lucien’s artworks were sold to various buyers, then there was a chance for him to rise in fame.

“Mr. Clearwater has expressly asked for the artworks to be auctioned,” the dean explained. “I would like to respect his wish.”

“Fine,” Ronan said. “My assistant will contact you regarding the auction time and date. I will bid on every piece without fail.”

“...”

Ronan got into his car a while later. The car did not move as the driver was waiting for the CEO’s instructions.

“Mr. Silverback? Where are we going to next?”

.....

Yes. Very good question.

Ronan rubbed at his tired eyes.

Where to go next?

Lucien, where the fuck are you?

“The Place Where Our Time Stopped”...

Ronan opened his eyes and stared at an imaginary object in front of him.

“Go to the Art Exhibition Center,” he ordered.

The Art Exhibition Center kept a record of all submissions from year to year. The artists that created the artworks, the buyers, and also the price at which the artworks were sold.

The building was thankfully bought off and managed by the Woodland Enterprise lately. The building manager was a member of the Ironclad Claws Pack.

When Ronan said that he wanted to take a look at the submission record, he was led to a private waiting room. Coffee and baked goods were served while folders containing the submission data from the past three years were hauled into the private waiting room.

Naturally, Ronan did not have to skim through the pages himself. He merely had to wait for a little while ten people went through the folders in search of the three paintings that were submitted by Lucien Clearwater in the past three years for the Annual Art Exhibition’s purpose.

“We found them,” the manager announced eagerly once they had all three paintings together.

Ronan put down his cup of coffee and extended his hand for the three plastic files, each representing Lucien’s submission of the respective year. A picture of the painting was stuck on the front page along with Lucien’s name.

The first painting showed a pair of a brown-red wolf and a black wolf that were cuddling in the middle of the woods.

Ah.

Ronan’s heart melted at the sight.

It had been so long ago, but the memories of that day were as vivid as ever. It was the day of their first date. Sneaking around the woods in order to hide their relationship from curious eyes. In retrospect, although Ronan kept proclaiming that their relationship was blessed by the Moon Goddess herself, he knew right at the start that it was going to be a bumpy ride. He was willing to hold Lucien’s hand and bleed together while climbing one hurdle after another.

In the end, Lucien was the first to let go.

The second painting showed the same pair of wolves by a lake. There were blurred shadows in the backdrop, most likely the other alpha werewolves who took part in the camp.

The black wolf was nuzzling the brown-red wolf intimately.

Ronan smiled.

The days in the Alpha Camp were filled with lessons and exercises. From Monday to Friday, the young teenagers worked hard to fill their brains and build their muscles. Saturdays were reserved for games, and Sundays were reserved for free time.

That day, the children were split into teams of ten players. They were taken to the lake where a bunch of colorful balloons were gently bobbing up and down in the water.

There were five colors altogether to represent the number of children that attended the Alpha Camp that year : red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Ronan was in the Yellow Team and Lucien was in the Blue Team.

The team who got all their balloons from the water and put them into respective underwater baskets would win the game.

Once the instruction was clear, the alpha werewolves were lined up at the edge of the lake in their bathing suits.

A bang into the sky signaled the start of the game. All the teenagers jumped in at once.

Naturally, their competitive nature prevented them from just obediently collecting their own balloons. When they reached balloons of different colors, they mischievously threw them as far as possible from the baskets.

Ronan was a natural-born swimmer. He was faster than anyone else. He kicked and punched balloons away from his peers, making them curse and swing their punches at him while he swam away like a sly eel.

Except of course when he was dealing with Lucien. Ronan was so sweet to Lucien that he not only gathered the yellow but also the blue balloons.

It was thus no surprise then the Yellow Team came first and the Blue Team came second.

Ronan and Lucien exchanged their winning medals for fun. The Alpha still kept the medal that he got from Lucien.

Lucien... It turns out that the memory is as precious to you as it is to me.

The third painting depicted the same pair of wolves lazying around in front of a wooden hut.

It was their second Sunday during the Alpha Camp. They found a deserted wooden hut in the forest by chance, so they tidied it up and turned it into their secret rendezvous place.

After that, they met up almost every night there to whisper sweet things to each other while curling up against each other under a blanket. They only went back to the campsite in the wee hours before anyone noticed that they were gone the whole night.

Ronan looked at the paintings one by one many times.

The three paintings told the beautiful love story between him and Lucien back when they were just two alpha werewolf boys in love at Alpha Camp.