Prologue

SEVENTH MONTH OF YEAR 992.

DAHLIA:

“I dragged myself through hell just to make you suffer, and I’ll make sure you really suffer!”

These were your bitter words to me, my dearest Tristan, the words that had finally woke me up and shook me awake for what you really were.

You said you’ve only come to me for revenge – to see me spill the blood that have been spilled similarly by your pack, by your own people, but did you not see that I was also one of your people? I am your wife now, your other half… Do you really think so poorly of me that you’d rather see me die and wither away like this rather than save me?

When I accepted your hand back then, I admit that I was scared… I have never known what love was like. I had never known what freedom was like too, and you had given me those choices when you extended your hands towards me.

“Dahlly,” you said, calling me softly by my childhood name, “Dahlly, come and run away with me. Come with me… You have nothing to fear. I shall give you the freedom you deserve and the love you longed for so much in this life…”

But where is that promise now, my dearest husband? Where did that promise go?

I sat here, awaiting the vampires to drink my blood. To them, my existence was nothing more than a breath – a passing meal for the night. I was just a sustenance delivered to them that will help quench their thirst for blood, and yet, why do I feel that I have more value to them than I can ever be to you?

Was it because you have never loved me from the start?

You have never loved me, I know. Who, in their right minds, could ever love their enemy so willingly? Yet here I am, painfully and deeply in love with you.

You are my enemy. You have approached me as an enemy, and yet I thought I could turn you somewhat to my side. I thought that if I tried my hardest and do penance for my pack and my father’s sins, that if I give you every ounce of sincerity in my heart, you will really start to love me or at least like me… I thought you’d recognize the real shape of my heart beneath all the violence and the dark pasts that surrounded our lives…

But I was a fool for believing I could change you… I had always been a fool when I placed all of my trust in you by the bridge or when I took your hand and conceded to the kiss that marked our intertwined destinies… I had been a fool to love you at all, Tristan Dmitri Abell!

Now, I shall pay that price with my own life… As the vampires’ fangs sank into my flesh, all I could think of was you and how you had delivered me to them… All I could think of was you and how elated your heart must feel that I will be finally gone in your life now.

The agony burned in me as the canines of the blasted one collided into my veins.

Ahhh! It’s too much! The pain is too much!

It was an unbearable kind of pain, but right then, all I could even whisper was your name, the very name of my savior, the name of my tormentor, and the name of my unborn child’s father who would sadly never get to see his lovely face....

“Tristan!”

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TRISTAN:

I hurried to the place where they kept you and cursed the Moon Goddess and myself for bringing you there!

Why of all times, why of all places did you have to be there? Did you not know that this was the place I have sworn never to return to? This was the very place I have sent my father and the rest of my pack to their final rests… Why, of all places, did you have to be here?

You were my enemy, and you should remain my enemy until the end - that was my simple plan.

I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with the girl who had robbed me of an opportunity to live a peaceful existence, and yet, what am I doing here, hurrying to you like a mere pet dog? Why is my heart about to burst at the thought of you losing your life at the very place I had lost my entire family?

I stopped for a while and listened at the footfall of your heart against my chest. The moment I wedded you and marked you as mine, we had become connected, and at that very moment, my suffering had begun. I swore to get my revenge on you and your people, but why does it feel that you are getting revenge upon me by thinking such putrid thoughts? Why are you doing this to my heart, my Dahlly?

I hated you, Dahlia! I hated you precisely because you had to be the one and only child of my sworn enemy. Why does it have to be you? Why does it have to be you that I must get my revenge upon?

I ran like crazy towards your scent. Almost instantly, I encountered a vampire, and I wasted no time by attacking his head, severing it from the rest of its body. I needed to find you as fast as I could. I needed to find you and save you, or else I would never be able to save my own soul!

Why, Dahlia? Why did you have to be the kind and gentle person that you are? Why did you have to be the one to fall into my arms on that day at the woods? If it was another wolf, it would have been easier to be cruel. I could have easily hurt them over and over without remorse, and yet the rare beauty of you had never failed to catch my heart and plant guilt in it whenever I had to use you as a pawn to my schemes. And why on earth did you have to agree to be used by me? Why did you agree to help me at all?

Now that I have brought this hell upon you, I wondered, would you still love me? Would you still kiss me as fervently as you did on our first night together? Will you still think of me as your husband and you as my wife? Would you still have conceded into taking my hand after promising you the love and freedom you deserved at that time?

If I had known we would come to this, I should never have stolen you from Kaist. I should have just turned a blind eye and watch you walk down the aisle in his arms, smiling like you really mean it. At least you would have led a peaceful existence... You wouldn’t have to suffer from fright or be caught in all my foolish schemes! You wouldn’t find yourself in a predicament like this…

When I delivered you to these bloodless monsters, I was half-crazy! I should have known that they wouldn’t keep their promise of never harming you!  Of course they would do all sorts of evil to you, my poor Dahlia, my dearest beloved Dahlia!

‘I’m coming! I’m coming, Dahlly,’ I screamed through our shared thoughts. I hoped to the Goddess that you heard me. I hoped that you didn’t think it in your heart that I would abandon you for even a second! I swear I will kill them if they had even laid a finger even against the fibers of your hair tonight!

I knocked down another bloodless creep as I closed in now on this land that had become the vampire’s territory. They had been coming towards me like bees on honey, but it doesn’t matter. They all fall headless when I release them. They could keep on coming for all I care, if that meant that you were still safe and alive somewhere!

Suddenly, in the midst of swarming chaos, I heard you scream.

“Tristan!”

Bloody Goddess, you called my name - my name - which you had lately abhorred. My heart stilled and the blood in my veins started to chill.

“Dahlia!” I growled back. Even in my wolf form, I know you would hear me and recognize my voice. “Dahlia,” I screamed again, but to my surprise, you were no more.

Something in my heart snapped… Something had painfully snapped inside of me… Was that a muscle, a ligament, a blood vessel?

“No,” I howled in horror as I realized what it was… It was your life line… Our connection as fated mates have been severed and that could only mean one, damn thing!

Finally, after battling several throngs of lifeless, soulless creatures, I have finally reached the shack where they have imprisoned you.

I cried as I looked at your limp and lifeless body. The blood on your neck that had generously poured out had already dried a bit. I was too late! Too late!

I extended my paws to reach your outstretched hand. It was the hand that had once caressed me, the hand that had stirred my heart and body into heat. Now, that hand had already grown cold and pallid…

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry…Please don’t leave me… I love you. Please don’t leave me…”

These were the words I so longed to tell you, but I couldn’t, or rather, I didn’t, for you were my enemy, the enemy I have sworn to crush…

Now, my greatest enemy was none other than myself, and the greatest vengeance I could give him was to die alongside with you.

I reached towards your hand and clasped it. “My Dahlly, wait for me… In the afterlife, wait for me…”

I only had one prayer as I closed my eyes… Moon Goddess, if you were there, please save her… Save Dahlia…

Everything else in my life faded away as I shut my eyes. What remained in my head were only my memories of your beautiful and smiling face…