Caspian’s hands were still gripping Elora’s hands tightly, holding them by her side. It was as if Caspian was afraid that Elora could attack him at any moment.
“El—what happened? Are you dreaming?” Caspian swallowed hard, his voice cracked.
Elora looked around. She was in her room. After spending time reading The Moon Protector’s journal, then walking around the castle and calling Javier, Elora fell asleep. Elora turned slowly towards the window. The moon hangs high in the sky.
Elora felt her heart beating fast. The fragments of her dreams were like a flash of light behind her eyes. “I… had a dream?” Elora blinked and looked at Caspian again. “What happened to you?” she asked, confused.
Caspian looked down, looking at the wounds on his chest, but he said nothing.
“Is it… because of me?” said Elora, quietly.
Caspian loosened his hand and freed Elora. He move
They were the pack that Caspian had trouble with. Well, there doesn’t seem to be a pack that he doesn’t have a problem with. Caspian didn’t remember the name of the Alpha who was in front of him now, but he remembered that the leader of this pack didn’t come to the annual meeting of the werewolves some time ago.“What do you mean?” asked Caspian. He clenched his hands at his sides. He was sure tonight the fight would be unavoidable.His interlocutor let out a bitter laugh. “Don’t play the fool with me. Don’t you remember who crushed my Beta’s face?”“Don’t you remember what your Beta told me?” Caspian tried to restrain himself. He did that not because he meant to be patient, but he was thinking about Elora’s safety, who was now standing tightly behind his back.The Alpha glared and gritted his teeth. “What Owen said is the truth! You, who are too busy running y
Elora knew something was wrong when she opened her eyes. The ceiling of the room she was looking at now felt strange. Then when Elora looked around, there were only white curtains blocking her view. Elora woke up, then a jolt of pain in her neck made her stop.Elora raised a hand, about to touch her sore neck, and gasped when she saw the bruises all over her arm. She vaguely remembered last night’s fight. She and Caspian met a group that seemed to have a grudge against Caspian. Elora was able to beat those people up, but after that, she lost consciousness.The curtains in front of her parted and Kate walked in. She jumped when she saw Elora. The tray in her hand nearly fell.“El! You’re awake!” Kate immediately put the tray of food on the nightstand and rushed to hug Elora. “I was so scared when I saw you and Caspian! I thought you guys were dead!”Kate’s eyes welled up with tears as she pulled away. “Are yo
Cooper was in Caspian’s life for as long as Caspian could remember. They grew up together, sharing the same toys and parents. Caspian once asked his mother why Cooper didn’t live with his own parents.“Cooper’s parents are gone, so he lives with us,” his mother replied.That fact doesn’t make Caspian feel sorry for Cooper. He hates Cooper because he thinks Cooper divides Caspian’s parents’ attention, and Caspian always feels seconded. The jealousy continued to grow as they got older, and one day Caspian purposely confronted Cooper. He was trying to annoy Cooper.Cooper is working on an assignment given by Caspian’s father. Additional writing assignments, because, unlike Caspian, who was a fast learner, Cooper had difficulty understanding writing.“I know why your parents died,” said Caspian. He leaned against the library door, looking down at Cooper, who was writing as he hunched over the f
The sun was already high when Caspian led Elora down the path to the north. The stitches in Caspian’s hands have been removed. The werewolves’ healing ability still astonishes Elora, especially when Caspian says that if it weren’t for Elora who injured him, Caspian could have healed faster than now.They walked side by side in silence until they came to a clearing on the edge of a ravine, surrounded by a rusty iron fence. The stones protruding in the middle of the weeds are a sign that the place is a cemetery. In the distance, hills towered in green and brown. Part of the burial ground had been overgrown with weeds, and the cobbled path was lined with cracks.Caspian opened the gate and let Elora in first. There are so many graves there. Caspian led Elora to the side of a row of tombs lined neatly with gray tombstones. They continued walking until the row of tombs at the end, headed for a grave plot that looked the newest compared to the others. On it
Elora and Caspian entered the assembly hall. Dozens of people waiting for them, sitting on high-backed wooden chairs and talking to each other with serious faces.There was a moment of silence when Elora and Caspian appeared. Elora felt goosebumps all over her body as everyone here stared at her in silence. Flashes of Elora’s dream repeated unbidden in her memory. The werewolves that attacked her, tore her apart….Elora’s chaotic heartbeat subsided as Caspian took her hand and led her to sit at the very end of the chair. Caspian took his seat next to her, facing everyone present.“Didn’t we just finish the meeting a few days ago? All closed fine.” Caspian started the conversation calmly, but it seemed that everyone there was getting impatient.“Hand her over,” someone said. His eyes widened at Elora, harboring a rage that Elora didn’t know what caused it.“Why should I hand her over?&rdqu
Zed takes Elora to her room and accompanies her while Caspian meets with the Alphas.“I didn’t expect the problem to be this big,” Zed said.“What actually happened? Did you save Caspian and me? Kate said when we were found, we were in terrible condition—” Elora’s breath hitched. She pressed her forehead with both hands. “What the hell happened to me,” she mumbled as she buried her face in her palms. In that instant, being herself was tiring.“You guys—laying down covered in blood…and, there’s a lot of blood in there,” Zed caught his breath, “the other members and I were looking for you after we received a report from one member. He saw a fight while patrolling the border. He said he saw—” Zed paused. Elora looked up and their eyes met.Elora knew why Zed had stopped, and what Zed’s gaze meant to her.The member said he saw a monster.
“What is it?” Caspian jumped on his bed as Elora slipped under the covers in a hurry. Caspian sat up and turned on the lamp on the bedside table.“El? What happened to you?” asked Caspian as he pulled the blanket away.Elora curled up like a frightened little girl, and before long, her face turned red. Partly because she embarrassed to show her timid side and because she saw Caspian wearing nothing under the covers.Caspian ignored Elora’s glaring eyes looking at his lower body. He inched closer and grabbed Elora’s chin so that her gaze drifted to Caspian’s face.“What is it? Why did you suddenly come in like you’ve seen a demon? Are you having nightmares again?”“Aa—I,” Elora stammered, “it looks like someone came into my room.”Without asking any further questions, Caspian immediately got up from the bed, put on the cloth pants draped at the end of hi
“I love you.”Elora stared at the screen in front of her. Earphones were in her ears, and a bowl of salad was in Elora’s lap. She had just stopped shoveling salad into her mouth when the words sounded and her conversation with Javier replayed in her head. Elora glanced across at Caspian, who was busy chatting with the flight attendant. Elora didn’t really hear their conversation. She only caught words like ‘coffee’, ‘smoking’, and ‘my lover’. It seemed they were talking about Elora.Elora went back to watching the romantic movie that was showing on the big screen in front of her. Not long after, someone removed the earphone from one of Elora’s ears, then Caspian’s face appeared in front of her, blocking Elora’s view from the screen. Caspian smiled. The kind of smile that could make Elora hold her breath and her heart skip a beat.“You look so serious,” said Caspian, and he