DAHLIA:
“No, I don’t hate you,” Tristan said slowly although his face was still very fierce. “I don’t hate you at all…”
Yeah, right… The look in his face had already betrayed him. The way he did not want our child to live like this was already proof enough.
Perhaps Samalah’s words were true… He really did care only about my body – a body he could not get pleasure with while the child is growing…
If this was the game he wanted to play, then, let’s play it – a game of hate… Let’s find out who between us should hate the other the most!
“Let’s part ways here, Tristan. You go your own way, and I’d go mine,” I growled.
“Dahlia, you don’t understand. This is all for your sake! I know you fear it – being cut up, but if it’s the only way to save you, we shouldn’t hesitate.”
I stood the
TRISTAN: An intense amount of pain took over me as I looked at Dahlia’s retreating form in the dead of the night. I had no strength to come to her again. After what I just heard, I knew it was over between us… absolutely over… Now I understood why she said I must have hated her… She was the life that was exchanged for my mother and had caused my poor Livia her freedom from Count Jeteris’ clutches. I howled in anguish. How can the Moon Goddess ever bring such a fate into us? “Come out,” I called on the bushes. “I can smell your scent even from a mile away.” Samalah emerged from the bushes in her human form, her eyes glistening with tears. “I told you, didn’t I? Dahlia Hurst was our enemy, but you didn’t listen…” “Did you know it? Did you know the truth even before she said it,” I spat. Samalah nodded. “I had a strong hunch since she had powers. She didn’t come from a magical family, and she was rumored to have be
KAIST: The arrow came very fast. I had no time to avoid it. “Kaist!” I was thrown violently into one side so swiftly that I still couldn’t believe it all happened! My father – he pushed me fiercely into one side and shoved me away into safety! “No,” Ignis grumbled. I looked just in time to see my father’s wolf got hit by an arrow where his heart was located. “No,” I cried yet again. My body was hurt in the fall. I limped into my side half crawling just to get to his body, which stumbled into the ground like a piece of rag. “Father… Father, hang on!” His body had gone back into his human form. This was a bad sign! “Kaist, son,” he mumbled. “Save your breath. Let’s get out of here first!” Ignis turned himself into a half wolf. We clutched my father’s figure and climbed the stony wall that separated us from our freedom. It was a steep climb. I could hear the arrows swoosh past me as I
KAIST: It took us until the wee hours of the morning for Dahlia and I to complete our stories. I was able to tell Dahlia who I was and what had happened so far in a brief and concise manner, as well as what I have last known of her whereabouts. “So what you’re saying is that we were betrothed once, but I ran away and married Count Abell, right?” There was an incredulous look in her eyes. I nodded. “So, why didn’t you spat on me then? Don’t you hate me for it?...” I looked back at Dahlia for a long time. “I don’t hate you. You just followed your heart back then. We’ve made up after the failed wedding… At least now it seemed you have become more aware of your husband’s schemes.” She eyed me sideways. Did she buy my excuse? Despite the raging emotions I still carry in my heart for Dahlia, I couldn’t tell her the truth. I couldn’t hate her. Even if she tears my heart into shreds, I wouldn’t be able to hate my fated
DAHLIA: My memories weren’t fully back yet, but I get it. I get that I was close to this boy before me… Even the way we talked to each other despite not knowing anything about him due to my amnesia felt very comforting. In fact, it was so comforting that I lowered my guard until it was too late. He had already started to kiss me… It wasn’t even a friendly kiss. It was similar to the kisses Naskan, I mean Tristan, and I had shared before. “Wait, w-what are you doing, Kaist,” I asked exasperatedly as I drew away after that kiss. “If he doesn’t want your child, I do. I would love him, Dahlia… I would love him as much as I had loved you all these years,” he confessed. “Kaist… Just what exactly are you proposing?” “Leave your husband, Dahlly… You, me, and our baby – let’s build a life together.” Moon Goddess, just what kinds of tricks were you up to this time? It wasn’t even a day after I had left my husband, but now
DAHLIA:“How about we kill the old man with you, Prince Kaist? After all if we kill both of you, wouldn’t that just speed up what we were aiming for?”My heart was beating wildly in my chest. We were caught in a trap, and the saddest thing about it is if it wasn’t for me, Kaist and the king wouldn’t be in this position…“Samalah, what do you mean? Do ou want to make yourself an enemy of Talandor,” I breathed out.She laughed exasperatedly. “I was never a part of Talandor. They drove me out, so there’s no point in being sentimental. This is just sweet payback for what they did to me and my mother…”“So what is it going to be,” Samalah said malevolently at me, “Are you coming with us, or are we going to force you?”“Neither.” Just as I spoke my last words, I aimed for the roof at one side of the cave and set it on fire.Smoke qu
DAHLIA: It has been three days since all of those tragedies had happened… Three days, and yet everything still felt very hazy. How did it all turn into this? I clasped my hand around my neck. Yes, the silver collar was still there… It means I did not dream of that day. They really did happen, right? Three days ago I lost both my husband and my baby. I put my hands against my belly. No, no, that’s not right… I didn’t lose my baby… He is still here… Or is he?... Just then, someone tugged at the chain connected to the collar around my neck. “She-wolf, we need to move quickly.” I looked at the man before me. Have I seen him before? I don’t recognize his face… It didn’t matter though. No matter who they were, they only ever wanted to hear one thing from me. “Yes, master…” That’s what they wanted – my complete and total surrender. As the sun started to loom fiercely against the morning sky, I s
DAHLIA:“We will stop here tonight,” Lord Irvan said when we reached a clearing in the woods.I slumped into the soft ground, not caring whether it was muddy. I was exhausted to the brim, having had to walk all day.I remembered the times Tristan had carried me on his back. I hadn’t truly appreciated that gesture from him before, but it was really an act of love and kindness that I missed now that he was gone.I wish he was still here. Even if he hated me and our baby, the sound of his voice still made me feel safe and comfortable.Now there was only the barren feeling in my chest, the memories we shared together, and the image of his fading mate mark that was left for me to remember him by.It hasn’t been more than ten minutes when I collapsed on the ground when someone tugged at the silver chain around my neck once more.“Get up. We’re taking a bath.”I met Samalah’s cold stares
DAHLIA: “Sister, if you had truly loved Tristan, please help me... Help me and the baby escape.” If desperation was power, then I would have been the most powerful wolf at that moment to have clung to my enemy and beg her for help! I knew Samalah had staged this revenge. There might be no way she would help me. It was a slim chance that she would, and I am clinging on that slim chance based on her emotions. I loved Tristan too. I loved him will everything I got, and I could feel that Samalah held the same intensity of feelings I had for my mate. She gave me a sharp and anguished look. Samalah turned her back from me again, but I held her hand. “Please… That spirit stone they speak of, it chose me. I wasn’t forced to take it in the auction house. If they hand me back to their leader, they would kill me and the baby.” “How dare you ask me for this? Do you know how sick I feel when I think that you had a love child with Tristan?”