I was sitting on my bed, gaping at the unfolded pieces of paper from the box I found inside Elora's diary. I had been trying to read the coded notes, hoping for some kind of magical revelation, but none came. Then I started thinking that someone who gave me this diary clearly wanted to torture me. I found three different types of handwriting, yet none of them was Elora's. That made me almost certain that what I found were secret messages that Elora was receiving from some people she collaborated with. The more I examined those notes, the more similarities I found. They must have been all encrypted using the same method, but I was miles away from finding a clue how to decode them. Suddenly, someone knocked on my door.
"Just a minute!" I called out, threw all the secret messages under my bedsheets, and then ran to open the door.
"I came to check on you and ask how are you feeling," Kanan announced as he walked inside my chamber.
I was relieved that it was him.
Martha seemed ecstatic while picking the right kind of outfit for me to wear. Unlike me, she wasn't bothered by the fact that no one knew who asked me to sit by the negotiation table. I was still bewildered by the news while Martha's colleague brought me breakfast, put it on the table while grinning and showing me the thumbs-up, and then left my room as quickly as she appeared in it. I felt as if she and Martha were cheeringfor me, as if I was about to save the world or something.I replied with a forced, smiley-grimace while trying to drag myself to the bathroom. Hurried by Martha, I took the shortest shower ever, which mainly consisted of draining cold water onto my body, hoping it would allow my brain to function as it should. After wrapping myself with a towel, I washed my face and applied every skincare product I had, praying that it would make me look less zombie-like."The food is getting cold." Martha clicked her tongue, observing my slow movements.
Sariel and Draven looked at each other intently, as if trying to measure each other's strength, while Draven's wolves were proving to be more than satisfied with Elora and the counselor leaving the room. The chuckling and muttering lasted for a while after they left. I guessed that the wolves from the Moon Hill Pack must have known something about Elora before coming here. Of course, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that she had managed to offend every wolf from the pack only during the ball, but I felt that their disdain for her had a deeper meaning. "The traitorous stink is out of the room. The air is finally clear," Beta Ari snorted, then leaned out from Alpha Draven's back and winked at me. With his dark skin, deep-set brown eyes, thick black eyebrows, and massive jawline, he looked even more intimidating than Alpha Draven. I flinched, surprised by his informal behavior, and shot him a nervous smile, which instantly made him grin like a little child. I tilte
"No…" I mumbled in panic, looking at Sariel and Draven.For a while, I could hear nothing but the sound of my overwhelmingly pounding heart. I kept staring at them, petrified. I think they argued… violently. Leo and Ari had to step in to separate them before their outburst escalated to an actual fight. I couldn't breathe. I had to get out of there. I had to get out of there now!I ran towards the door, struggling to push air into my lungs. Then I rushed towards the corridor, ignoring Patrick, who probably ran after me. I couldn't tell if he did or not. I kept running. I ran outside, and before I knew it, I found myself in the hedge maze, taking turn after turn as if I wished to get lost in there. I stopped when I found myself at a dead-end. I leaned my back against the green hedge walland slipped down to sit on the ground. I panted heavily. My whole body trembled. Did Draven just say that I was his mate? I loved to hear about the wolves finding thei
Sariel showered me with sweet kisses. He wasn't trying to arouse me; instead, I think he wanted to make me feel loved, and that was how I felt that night. We were lying naked in each other's embraces yet did nothing but gently caress each other. We kept smiling, as if we had found ourselves inside a magical bubble that kept us away from reality. My heart was at ease during those couple of hours, allowing me to sleep soundly. The sound of Sariel getting up from my bed woke me up. I slowly opened my eyes, trying to focus, and saw Sariel getting dressed. I looked through the window. It wasn't even dawning. "You are leaving already…?" I asked, and immediately all yesterday's pain came back. Sariel glanced at me while buttoning his shirt. "I cannot leave Elora alone for too long…" He suspended his voice as soon as the words sounded out. "Wow…" I laughed bitterly, "Now I really feel like the mistress…" My ribcage tightened, squeezing my lungs. I cou
I read the decrypted message once again, trying to extract the meaning of it. I remembered that Nura was Kanan's mother's name, and I remember Kanan telling me that Elora wanted to poison her while she was pregnant… However, the message proved something different. Elora must have wanted her dead before she could get pregnant, but for some reason, she had failed. One message was highly insufficient as evidence, but what if other notes created wider content?I took another note and looked at it closely. Considering the handwriting, it seemed to be written by the same person. This fact made me a little hopeful that using the same keyword to decode this message would work. I sighed in relief when it did. I truly prayed that this one would bring me something significant."Our spy became the King's concubine's maid. The spy's name is Aine. The King's concubine believed that Aine is a human. She will deliver the poison with the concubine's food."When I read tha
I wished I had never heard Sariel's words. I wished I had never come there and heard the sounds of him and Elora making out. It was nauseating. It was painful. It squeezed a long stream of tears from my eyes. I was hurt and angry, but the worst part of it was that I couldn't even barge in there to make a scene, because legally… Sariel belonged to Elora, not me.I kept my mouth covered, fearing that my cry would betray my presence. My heart hammered erratically, as if it was trembling, just as my whole body was, yet some masochistic whisper told me to keep standing there, by Sariel's chamber. Perhaps some part of me was waiting for Sariel to say something else…but truthfully, I didn't know what I was expecting him to say, and of course, he said nothing else. Instead of words, I could only hear Elora's soft giggles and moans.I felt my heart crack.My feet turned back by themselves, and, in some self-defense mechanism, I returned to my chamber. Just
I opened the balcony and let the flow of cold wind brush my face. The sun was rising lazily in the perfectly clear sky. It seemed to be the beginning of a beautiful day, but I was far from enjoying it. I felt as if my heart weighed a ton and my chest could barely carry it.I could now see it as clearly as never before: I had been amazingly naïve. Sariel and Elora were husband and wife, and the king and queen, whereas I could barely earn the title of "respectable" mistress. If a royal prince from the human world asked me to become his wife, it would be obvious to assume that I was way below his status and I would never become the queen, so what made me trust that it would be different with Sariel? I believed in the cheesy slogan "Love conquers all", but even though my life was far from ordinary, it had always been the furthest away from romantic fantasy.I wanted to believe Sariel. I wanted to trust that he would make me his Queen soon, but how long would I be able
I wasn't certain how, but I forced myself to walk away from them. My feet turned around slowly while struggling to maintain balance. My heart dropped a thick curtain on my emotions. I stopped feeling anything at all. As I walked away, I met Mr. Parson's eyes. He grabbed my wrist worryingly."Are you all right, Lady Lilith?" The distorted sound of his voice hardly reached my ears.Slightly curling up the corners of my lips was the only sort-of-tactful response I could give him. I walked past him and bumped into Beta Ari. His questionable gaze on me made me wonder what kind of expression I must have had. Unfortunately, the trick with the pretended smile didn't work on him.I heard him say, "Wait here. I will find Alpha Draven."Of course, I didn't wait. I could hardly control anything about myself. Seeing Draven could have only triggered the surfacing of the worst, weakest version of me. I kept walking forward. I knew that no one could fix my state. My stat