TRISTAN:
I watched in spite as the duke’s hateful face twisted itself in recognition and went pale almost in a heartbeat. “You!...”
Yes me… I am the kid of the king you killed, and the son of that woman you kidnapped twenty long and f*cking years ago! I was that kid who brought you inside our castle out of pity, and the one whom you deceived so that you could kill the rest of my pack… Surprise! I’m alive, and I will make you and your precious baby’s life as fiery as hell!
Those words were what I wanted to say so badly in front of this thrash!… Sadly it wasn’t the right time yet…
“Who the hell are you?!”
“If you don’t know, I won’t tell you,” I proclaimed, as I came back to the couch I was originally sitting at. I sipped the rest of the scotch before I spoke again. “For now, I suggest you focus on producing that dowry… Perhaps Dahlia will
DAHLIA:The chilly look in my husband’s eyes was so frightening that I involuntarily took a step back away from the door. But all of that was just in a split second. Perhaps realizing who I was, his face lit up into a smile.“Dahlia, why are you here,” he said in a warm tone as he clicked the door of his study room shut, letting my final chance to see his guest escape into the air.I didn’t know what to make out of his demeanor. He was like a ghost one moment and then he had become warm and inviting the next… Was his mood really this fickle?“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was disturbing something important,” I said. Was this kind and grinning Tristan before me the same Tristan I had seen a few seconds ago? It was a disturbing thought that I just couldn’t erase in my head…“No, it wasn’t a bother. My business partner and I are about to end our meeting. Shall w
DAHLIA:“My lady, are you alright,” Lina said. A look of concern was washed over her face.I wanted to say ‘yes,’ but I was well aware that my appearance looked pale, and knowing that the full tray in my hand looked funny, I didn’t say anything. I just sat on the couch, brooding deeply.Who was Tristan talking to? What does he mean of ‘that girl,’ and what kind of promise is he going to keep?There was another thing I wanted to know more about. I called to my attendant, “Lina, did you mention to the lord what had happened between papa and I on the morning of our wedding day?”Lina opened her mouth to say something, but she abruptly closed it again, and her eyes fell into the floor. “Yes, my lady… I know you must have wanted to keep it a secret, but I just couldn’t hide it from Count Abell anymore… He insisted that I tell him everything that happens to you in the mansion
DAHLIA:“Tristan, y-you are mistaken… I didn’t… I really didn’t mean to hear anything…”“Don’t call me that,” he said as he crawled on top of me. “Call me master…”I backed away from him as fast as I could, but he was quicker. He held my wrists above my head, and began kissing me against the neck harder.I didn’t know what the devil came over him at that moment, but I was scared. I was helplessly pinned underneath him, and I had no way of escaping.He kept on kissing me and biting my flesh. It felt like I was making love with a beast rather than a man!I thrashed about the bed, making it creak hard on the wooden floor, but no matter how much I tried to struggle, it was useless.After some time, Tristan aligned my arms directly at the top of my head, making me yell in pain. He quickly wounded his belt around my wrists.It was far too su
DAHLIA: I didn’t know what came over me. I was enraged but also extremely exhausted. My body was hurt a lot, and my head was spinning. I wanted to throw up some more… Suddenly, I felt myself floating into air again, but in a different way. I never felt lighter in my whole life. ‘Sleep, Dahlia… I’ll take over…’ Eva’s voice was so comforting that I readily succumbed to it. I let myself float aimlessly into a void. I began to wonder… Why did Tristan do it? Why did my husband, a person who was supposed to love me, do it? Was this side of him always there? Was that the real face of the person I chose to marry? Maybe I made a mistake… Maybe I shouldn’t have married him too soon… In an instant, I became conscious of something else… I became aware of the smell of the earth and the feeling that I was going away somewhere else. ‘Eve… What are we doing?’ ‘We’re getting away, Dahlia… We have to get away…’ I succumbe
TRISTAN:Albus and I were very desperate. He started to summon Dahlia’s wolf through our mind-link.‘Eve, where are you?!’There was no answer, of course. What did I expect? Why should she return to me after what just happened? If I were her, I wouldn’t come back to a monster!I ran wildly into the path before me, feeling her heart against my chest. I did not tell Samalah about this, but right after I casted that mark tampering spell, I started to feel something weird inside my chest.It was as if something else was beating inside my rib cage alongside my own heart. It took me a few more days to realize that it was Dahlia’s heart.I didn’t know if it was an aftereffect of the mark tampering spell. As far as I know, the spell should only work physically by creating an illusion of a fated mate’s mark on one’s body. Feeling a mate’s heartbeat was supposed to happen only between real mates. W
KAIST: I was in the midst of a hunt when a strong smell of blood mingling with honeyed milk and cherries filled my head. I was about to drink at the spring in the middle of the woods, but I staggered. Am I hallucinating? Why can I smell Dahlia’s scent here at the heart of the woods? It has been a little more than two months since Dahlia failed to show at our wedding. I resented her for it. Since then, there was no night when my heart did not throb and ache for her. I knew that she was with that scoundrel Tristan somewhere, but what can I do? She had expressed her love for him countless times in my presence before. She had begged me to stop the wedding to be with that wolf, but I was the one who didn’t listen… I was the one to be utterly blamed. News would sometimes reach me in the capital on how Dahlia and her new husband were doing. I didn’t need to hear it. I can sense her state of mind despite the distance that loomed between us. For the fi
TRISTAN:“Dahlia, don’t leave me… Don’t leave me please!”My wolves and I reached inwardly to the core of our power – our spirit stone. I felt the pain in Albus’ forehead intensify as my spirit stone took form physically, making the diamond-shaped rune in my wolf’s head apparent. This was an indication that I was using my powers to the extreme.I was once told by my dad that the power of the sprit stone was dangerous, so I must always exercise caution. However, that does not apply at this moment. My mate was losing her life! I won’t permit it! I can’t let anyone else die because of me!‘Tristan…’ I heard Dahlia’s voice speak inside my head.‘Dahlia,’ I said back. I was trying to contain the relief I had felt when she uttered my name. ‘Dahlia, forgive me! Don’t die on me…’‘Why,’ she whispered back through our
DAHLIA:“It’s too bitter,” I said as I sipped the greenish liquid in my cup. I hated drinking anything that’s bitter, but Tristan stroke my head to coax me into finishing it like a child.“Just a little bit more… Just two more sips, and it’ll all be gone.”I made a nasty face as I braced myself to take in another sip. It didn’t taste any better on my second try, but I gulped down and held it into my mouth until not a drop was left.“Yuck! Remind me never to get this medicine again…”Tristan’s face looked agonized. He unwrapped what looked like a small treat in his hand and held it before me.“What’s that?”“It’ll take some of the bitterness away,” he said timidly.He held it into my mouth, and I had no choice but to take it in. It was a piece of chocolate, and it tasted very nice after that awful medicine.
Hello! Thank you so much for coming to this journey with me in Revenge of The Shadow Heir! I started this story with a completely different story arc in mind, and I can't believe I've already reached the end of Dahlia and Tristan's love story. I dedicate this novel to the person who inspired me to take on writing again (and write romance stories, which wasn't really the genre I honestly saw myself writing).Here's to more meaningful memories together, sweetie! :). And to all those who have ever dreamed of being a writer or of being anything else - chase that dream! You were made to lust after it for a purpose. Glory to God always! I might take some hiatus after this story, but I assure you this won't be the last I will write. Thanks a lot again, dearests, and happy reading! - Ellie Love -
DAHLIA:“Dahlia, I have confessed everything to you before. I don’t know how much you remember of it after your accident though, so I am sorry for hurting you again,” Tristan began.“It was true. I casted a spell that was why the mate mark appeared in your body after our first night together. I was sure you were not my mate, and I was not yours. I casted a different spell on myself a few years ago to suppress finding my own mate, so I was confident when I approached you.”“However, the more I stayed beside you, the surer I had become that you were my destined mate… There wasn’t any day that I didn’t regret doing that…”Tears flowed from both our eyes. I knew it from my memory. We did have this conversation before, but it was still heartbreaking to hear Tristan’s side of the story.“When you had switched appearances with Samalah, I was foolish enough not to recognize you
DAHLIA: I was in a dark and suffocating place that I can’t even see my own hands and feet. I tried standing still, but nothing was happening, so I decided to move around. I started calling to my wolf. ‘Eva!’ Again, I shouted, ‘Eva!’ There was no answer. I was running wildly, or at least I thought I was. No one can say that this was all happening in my head. Goddess, I couldn’t even see if my body was still intact! I tried to touch my cheek just so I could verify I am still alive, still seeing, still feeling. The last thing I could honestly remember was King Helion Cosco drinking the blood off my neck. I felt around my neck. There weren’t any wounds of any form of punctures. Am I still existing in the real world, or is this all just a dying person’s dream? Just then, I heard an anguished voice. “Dahlia!” It was the voice I had longed to hear for a long time. “Tristan!” I started ru
TRISTAN: Irvan, that scoundrel that caused Samalah to get into an accident and had caused Dahlia’s agony, was a conjurer! Perhaps that was why they had left the dead bodies here instead of burying or burning them. It wasn’t just for show after all. The animated bodies started to close in on us. I thought it would be easy to defeat them since they were dead. However, they have the faces of people whome we had once seen or knew… It was a bit fortunate that most of them were just people whom I have casually met at Talandor, but I could only imagine that this battle must be too hard for Kaist. As we tried to knock out the dead bodies, the dragon bones swoop down on us, trying to pick on the flesh on our back. Even without a rider, the dragon bones were agile. This was really a dangerous thing. I just finished hurling a corpse somewhere far away, when suddenly, I looked up to see a dragon bone aiming to pluck my eyes away. I
TRISTAN: I galloped towards the edge of the plain leading to the Great Temple where I could smell my Dahlia’s scent. In the past, I had loved this walk from the forest towards the temple where my father would regularly burn an offering to the Moon Goddess Selene. Now, this same path was packed with vampires, attacking me from left and right. It was a hard fight. I felt like I was a bug trying to battle out hordes of ants to get to the other side. The more I stayed here, the more endangered Dahlia could become. Suddenly, I heard a voice roar. “Get down!” My instincts kicked in, and I followed it. As soon as I ducked down, bolts of fire started to rain down on my path, burning the Blasted Ones that crowded my way. I looked back sharply to discover a non-familiar wolf. It was golden brown with a stone in its head that shone like the midday sun. So this was how Kaist’s Shadow Rune wolf looked like. He must have already acce
DAHLIA: I rested my hope that if Count Jeteris himself or the people from Talandor could see me, they’d try to help me out. After all, I was someone they knew, someone who interacted with them, and someone they had sworn to protect as knights of Talandor. Surely, they wouldn’t let anyone from the Vampire Clan kill a she-wolf they had once known... But all those hopes were crushed when I saw what awaited us at the temple. The outer courts of the temple were nothing but mere rubbles of stones and sands now, but one could still gain the impression that it was a grand structure once. I had seen the tumbled-down appearance of the temple in a distance as King Helion dragged me to it, but as we entered its vicinity, I was shocked beyond belief. All around, corpses of werewolves lay lifelessly on the ground. “W-What did you do,” I asked in horror. “The foolish count wanted my help, but he didn’t agree with taking you as my queen, so…”
TRISTAN: “Brother, look out!” I swerved to the right by mistake, which ended up being good as I had dodged a blow against my skull. Livia and I had been fighting against the Blasted Ones for hours now, but they do not seem to be depleting. How in the world can the Apricus King call in this many of his men? Worse of all, Livia’s state was getting worse and worse as time went by… I hate to admit it, but I don’t think I could last fighting against them for a long time too. I struggled to get on my feet, thinking of how wretched I was to have sent the one person I loved the most towards her death. Memories of when I first saw Dahlia flashed by my head as I attacked one vampire after another. Lady Dahlia Hurst – the gentle rose of the kingdom – the person people looked up to and envied… My first thought was that such a person would be nothing more than a spoiled brat. She had been under the spotlight since she was yo
KAIST:It was a call to help Count Abell. Wolves from the White Fang Pack immediately tore their shirts and started transforming into their wolf form.“Prince Kaist, do you mean to say Tristan and Samalah… I mean Dahlia are in danger,” Thesla hurriedly asked.I nodded. “Yes. We will be going now. Get the women, children, elderly, and the sick inside the town hall. Bar the doors, and don’t let anyone inside the village. I will return here for the lady when everything is over,” I told the villagers.There was a murmur around the villagers.“Prince Kaist, I couldn’t speak for everyone, but I will come with you. Dahlia has become a friend and a family to Efiro and I. I don’t want to just sit and do nothing when I know she’s in danger!”“Very well.” I turned to the crowd. “Everyone who wishes to join us may come. As for the rest of you, please secure the village.
TRISTAN: “No, take her back! Give Dahlia back to us,” I shouted. The vampires around us poised themselves for an attack and smiled. They could sense the blood palpitating in my veins as I tensed up. They were getting excited on the prospect of violence as their true nature dictates. “Finders keepers” was all I heard from the damned king of the vampires. Maybe this was all a lie. Maybe the king of the Blasted Ones was toying with my sanity… How did I end up in this? Why did I give Dahlia to them? It felt like I was in a sort of reverie. Everything felt hazy. It was as if things were coming at me in slow motion. I could only watch as Dahlia’s golden brown hair billowed in the wind. King Helion towered over her. He clutched her by the wrist, and when she refused to tear her eyes away from me, he grappled at her shoulders and took her away more forcefully, twisting her face away from mine. I could only watch as trails of te