ELARIAN “There’s something I need to tell you,” I said to Gabby as we made our way up the flight of stairs that led into Alpha Xavier’s mansion.She was obviously paranoid about her daughter’s whereabouts and eager to get to the Alpha, practically flying up the stairs, far ahead of me at this point.“What is it?” She didn’t turn around, nor did she stop.“It’s about the baby’s father and the man whose name you hear me call out at night.” We were now at the top of the stairs, and I was heaving heavily, coming to a halt in front of one of the large pillars to catch my breath.It was still a mystery to me why they had built so many stairs, and everyone was subjected to the ordeal of climbing them every single time they visited the Alpha. But Vienna said it was good for me, so she made me do this once every week.My back hurt, and my legs ached, but not as badly as the first time she brought me here. I was now a little more used to it, along with the pain that followed.“Do we really hav
AEROS "Vienna, my pack does not take kindly to thieves. We do not appreciate you coming into our private garden and taking what is not yours," I began softly, not wanting to scare her into retreating into her shell.“I did not steal those herbs,” she snapped back.I was taken aback by how confident and bold she sounded. I had expected her to be a timid and easily scared woman, but she seemed far from that.“Those were general herbs, and if you had any knowledge of them, you’d know they are not supposed to be hoarded in a private garden. They should be shared with the rest of the world,” she added.“Shut your mouth,” a guard growled, shoving her forward roughly. She turned and shot him a glare. Irritated by her defiance, the guard raised his hand to strike her, but Jonathan grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.My lips curved into a thin smile. I was sincerely amused by how she spoke back without fear of the consequences. She sounded nothing like the timid woman I had initially expect
ELARIAN “Why do I feel like Alpha Xavier is mad at me?” I asked Gabby as I paced the length of the waiting room. We were still in the pack house, waiting for Alpha Xavier, who had left the mansion a while ago to bring Vienna back.Gabby didn’t want to dwell on it too much due to her health, so she kept herself occupied with knitting by the window overlooking the large gates, hoping to be the first to see when the Alpha returned.“He’s just upset, that’s all,” she replied without looking up from her task. “You’re carrying the child of an Alpha. That changes everything, Elarian. This could lead to war, especially when that Alpha is someone of high status. You, of all people, should know the consequences of what you’ve done.”“I know… I know… but Aeros has no idea about the pregnancy. He doesn’t even know I’m here, so I don’t see why we should panic. You said so yourself,” I said as I stopped pacing and walked over to her, desperate for reassurance.“That makes it even worse, Elarian. A
AEROS“A car just pulled out of his house a few minutes ago,” Jonathan announced as he walked into my study, still holding a phone to his ear.He was clearly talking to our man stationed at Xavier’s house. I had kept a close eye on Xavier ever since the incident with Blair, using this spy because I became suspicious of him when I lost her. Over time, I had tried to let go, realizing I was just paranoid when I lost her. Xavier had no real reason to want the woman he loved dead.“Who left the house?” I asked, looking up from the report I had been reviewing.I had asked one of the guards to gather any information they could find on Vienna, the young woman currently in my dungeon, hoping to find some sort of connection. But there was nothing. She lived with her mother, who was a healer in Xavier’s pack. Nothing about her stood out, and the more I looked at her details, the more it dawned on me that Xavier could be right.Maybe I was grasping at straws. Maybe Elarian wasn’t there. But the
AEROS The moment my eyes locked onto hers, my entire world stood still. Seeing her again after all these months hit me like a punch to the gut, leaving me breathless and reeling. My mind raced with questions, a jumbled mess of emotions swirling inside me.As I took in the sight of her, my heart swelled with a mix of joy and disbelief. But then my gaze dropped to her belly, and my world came crashing down. The sight of her swollen stomach felt like a ton of bricks, leaving me sucker-punched.Disbelief and shock gave way to a tidal wave of emotions: anger, hurt, betrayal, and an overwhelming sense of loss. I felt like something precious, something that was mine, had been stolen from me. My mind reeled with questions and doubts.But beneath it all, there lingered a deep sadness and longing. It felt as though I had lost her all over again, like I was reliving the pain of our separation. Her pregnant belly was a harsh reminder of what could have been, of what we had lost.“Please, Aeros,
ELARIAN It was clear that Xavier didn’t want me anywhere near Aeros. It felt like he was somehow trying to use me against him. When I noticed two other identical cars behind us, I knew something was going on.The erratic driving, as if the driver was trying to lose someone, worried me, but we eventually arrived at our destination. I was immediately surrounded by more guards than I had ever seen.I tried to keep myself occupied by exploring the apartment, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Gabby’s face as I left. The look in her eyes haunted me.Had I really made the right choice by hiding from Aeros?I just wanted what was best for my baby.Suddenly, the mark on my neck began to tingle. It was as if I could sense Aeros, but I knew he couldn’t possibly be anywhere near here. Deciding I needed to return to the mansion, I demanded the guards take me back. They refused at first, but after I threatened them with the possibility of losing the baby, they reluctantly agreed.When we arrived
ELARIAN The entire room fell silent as Aeros stared at me, his expression one of stunned disbelief. Jonathan looked just as shocked, and that’s when I noticed Xavier standing by the door. There was a look on his face that I couldn’t quite read.“What did you just say?” Aeros asked, taking a step closer, but I instinctively took a step back.“Don’t… don’t take another step, Aeros,” I stammered. Tears pooled at the bottom of my eyes, and I swallowed hard, fighting to keep them from spilling.“Why… why didn’t you say something, Elarian? You should have told me. You should have come back home to me. You should never have run from those rogues who were supposed to bring you to me. And you never should have left in the first place.” His tone was firm, and the way his eyes locked onto mine made me want to believe everything he said.But I couldn’t forget. I couldn’t forget how he kicked me out after the mind-blowing sex, how he made me crave him only to treat me like nothing but a pet. He w
ELARIAN Aeros excused himself to have a word with the elder, leaving Jonathan and me standing outside. After a few moments, I made my way toward Xavier’s room. Inside, Gabby was already tending to him, while Vienna nursed small bruises on her arms.As soon as I stepped in, they all paused and looked up at me.“I’m so sorry that things took such a drastic turn. I hope he’s not too hurt?” I asked, trying to sound as sympathetic as possible. Guilt weighed heavily on me—I felt responsible for everything that had happened.After all, Aeros was here because of me.Vienna and Gabby remained silent, and Xavier lay unconscious on the bed. I waited, hoping they might say something to reassure me they didn’t blame me for all this. But when no one spoke, I turned to excuse myself.Just as I reached the door, Vienna called after me.“It’s not your fault, Elarian. He’s the monster, not you,” she said.It felt good to know she didn’t blame me for everything, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that th
ELARIAN Blair.That was definitely Blair, though her hair was no longer golden as it had been when I met her in the human world. The wolf who had taken me from the hospital that day had told me she had sold me out to the humans, and I knew it was because of the mark she had seen on my neck.But Blair had been human when I met her in the human world, so why was she here? And how had her hair become a deep shade of black?“Blair? How are you here?” I asked, and Aeros stepped forward.“I told you she suddenly turned up after we lost a prisoner with Jonathan. I have no idea how it happened either, but it just happened,” he explained as my eyes darted from him to Blair.I wasn’t sure he had any clue what he was talking about.“Is this your Blair?” I asked, raising a brow, my face stunned. I could have sworn she was the woman I had met when I first arrived in the human world, so how could she be his Blair?“I thought she was dead too, but when she showed up… the whole thing just became a t
ELARIAN “A lot has happened in your absence, Luna Elarian.” The healer’s words echoed in the back of my mind, and the sadness in her eyes as she said them lingered in my thoughts.“You have to stay in bed. Both you and the baby need as much rest as possible. Plus, Alpha Aeros clearly instructed that we keep you here until he returns,” Elyse’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts and made me aware of my surroundings.“But you just said Jonathan has been… I need to go to him,” I said as I tried to push myself up from the bed. A sharp pain shot through my head, making me scream out loud and collapse back.“Your body is still too weak. It will take time to regain your strength,” Elyse pointed out, stepping forward. “I know you want to be with your husband right now, but for the sake of your baby, Luna Elarian, you need to stay right here,” she added firmly.I sighed heavily and eased back into the bed in defeat. Elyse and the healer excused themselves to check on Aeros after a maid rushed
ELARIAN“Thank the goddess, Elarian. You have no idea how worried I was. You have no idea how scared I was. I thought I had lost you, and when the healer said you were…” His words trailed off as if there was something on the tip of his tongue he couldn’t bring himself to say.“Alpha Aeros, we agreed to let her get enough rest. And please, get something for her to eat. It must have been one hell of an ordeal,” the woman I hadn’t noticed was in the room said. I turned to see a much younger woman standing beside the healer, hovering over me.“Of course,” Aeros mumbled grudgingly as he reluctantly pulled himself away from me and headed outside. For some reason, I was extremely weak, too weak to even speak or move, and the young woman beside me noticed that. She leaned forward and urged me to relax into the bed.“You must be really weak. Please just stay back and wait for him. Within a few hours, you should feel much better,” she said calmly. I stared at her for a few seconds before glanci
ELARIAN “Give me back my baby!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as I crumbled to the floor, tears streaming down my cheeks and leaving me almost out of breath. Blood stains covered my dress, my hair was a tangled mess, my knees were bleeding from all the kneeling, and my feet were sore all over.This was torture. I had been like this for hours, and the pain shot through my body like I had been pricked by a million knives.I had no idea where I was or what was happening, but I was certain it wasn’t reality because one minute, I had a baby, and the next, I was walking around pregnant and bleeding. I was forced to endure a miscarriage, then labor, and finally, the ordeal of watching my child get ripped apart by a blind wolf.Something didn’t feel right. Aeros’ scent hung thicker than ever around me, but he was nowhere near close to me. I tried to wake myself up, hoping that it was all just a nightmare, but no matter how hard I tried, nothing worked.“Please…” I sobbed, “just give me bac
AUTHOR'S POVKaiden swam for what felt like hours on end before he washed up on the banks of a river in an unfamiliar territory. He assumed it was because he had been locked away for so long that he couldn’t recognize anything or anywhere. However, he also knew that Jonathan and Aeros would start sending out search parties if they didn’t find his body, so he needed to find a safe place to hide for a while.Blair. He had seen Blair, and her name kept echoing in his head as he walked away, but he paid no attention to it. He got as far away as he could, and it wasn’t until he saw someone that he finally collapsed from the cold, darkness engulfing him.Meanwhile, Blair was unsure of what to do. Aeros had managed to catch the maid she had used, and even though she was scary enough to keep the maid’s mouth sealed, she knew it was only a matter of time before Aeros found a way to make her confess.She couldn’t risk that, nor could she risk him waking Elarian up.“The new healer just arrived,
AEROS “I…I am sorry, I didn’t mean to…I uhm…” I stammered, unsure of what to say or how to react to the sudden image of Blair crying profusely in front of me.“Everything, every single thing I did was for you, Aeros. But if you choose to be blind to all that because of a woman you barely even know, then…then maybe, just maybe Jonathan was worth it. Maybe he was worth being the man that made me cheat on you. Maybe he was worth the—”“Blair!”“What?! Am I disturbing her? Is that what you’re going to say to me next? What if she doesn’t come back, Aeros? Have you ever thought of that? What if she doesn’t wake up and you’re trapped out here with nowhere else to turn? She is going to leave you eventually, and then you will realize that it has always just been me,” she said, her eyes holding mine.“Blair, you and I, we’re done. Elarian means a whole lot to—”“No, Aeros,” she replied sharply, cutting me off. “You don’t get to decide who matters and who doesn’t. I am the woman you will foreve
AEROS My throat ached with each word that made it past my lips. I didn’t want to believe that he would do something like that, yet at the same time, if he really did it to her, then I couldn’t just let him walk free.He almost killed my child and Elarian.“I don’t know why he did that,” I continued and paused to catch my breath because it was getting even more difficult for me to speak. The words were just too heavy for me to say to her, but I had no choice.“The maid insisted he was the one till the last minute, and no matter how unbelievable it sounds, it looks like it just might be true. Maybe Xavier was right, Elarian. Maybe you were safer with him and not with me. Blair died with me, and if anything were to happen to you, then I would…I would…” The words trailed off as a sharp pain shot through me, leaving me gasping for air.“Aeros.” Blair’s voice called out behind me, and I turned around sharply to find her standing by the door. I had no idea when she had walked in.I still fo
ELARIAN The sound of a baby crying was the first thing that filled my ears as I jumped up from where I lay. The air was thick with a scent that made my nose twitch, and when my eyes finally adjusted to the pitch-black darkness around me, I noticed the baby at the foot of the bed I was lying on.I touched my stomach, and the baby bump that had been there was suddenly gone. My brows furrowed; I had no idea I had given birth, nor did I recall the ordeal of childbirth.How was the baby here then?The baby suddenly stopped crying, and when I tried to move closer, I noticed my legs wouldn’t budge from where they were placed on the bed. I tried to lift them over and over again, but it was as if they were glued to it.Suddenly, the door opened, and a shadow slipped in. I looked on in horror as the shadow slowly morphed into what I assumed was a young woman, and she approached the baby slowly.I willed myself to speak, but my lips wouldn’t move either. This had to be a nightmare because I bar
Author’s POVJonathan wasn’t sure if he understood what Blair was saying. How could it be possible that she had been pregnant during that incident between them?He had expected her to say a lot of things, but never in his lifetime would he have imagined this. And he certainly didn’t expect Aeros to walk in on their conversation.Jonathan had only wanted to clear the air with Blair because he was afraid she might say something to Aeros first. So, he had pretended he was going to check on her and headed to her room. The guard stationed outside stepped aside the moment he saw him. When Blair insisted they go somewhere more private to talk, claiming she was worried someone might overhear them. Jonathan led her to the only place he was sure no one would visit.Little did he know that Aeros was just around the corner.“W-What did you just say?” Aeros stammered, taking a step forward. His eyes locked onto Jonathan’s but flicked occasionally to Blair, who stood beside him, her wide eyes betra