ELARIAN “You said you wanted to tell me something,” I said to Jonathan, who sat silently beside me. He remained quiet, not uttering a single word, and I could still feel Aeros' gaze on me.Realizing I was right, that Jonathan didn’t have anything to say, I got up and headed towards my room. Before I could make it inside, Aeros called my name and rushed to join me in front of the door.“Please, Elarian, you can’t keep shutting me out like this. I made a mistake, yes. I was stupid for thinking I could live without you and that you were just a pet to me. I’ve realized how wrong I was. Let’s just make this work, at least for the sake of our child,” he pleaded, stepping forward to touch my hand, but I stepped away from his reach.“Child?” I raised an eyebrow. “What child are you talking about? The one you didn’t even know existed until a few hours ago?”“The only reason I didn’t know about the baby is because you didn’t tell me, Elarian. I had no idea before you disappeared and—”“Disappe
AEROS “At least try and talk to her. It can not be that bad, Aeros. What you did was wrong, so you must make the first move and sort this out for your child and for the woman you almost went insane for.”Jonathan’s words kept ringing inside my head as I made my way towards Elarian’s room. I knew she probably wouldn’t respond because she was clearly very angry at me, but I didn’t have a choice.I desperately wanted to sort things out, to let her know that I sincerely wished to make our relationship better and stronger—for us and for our child—but she was shutting me out.Back at Xavier’s pack, after the healer rushed Xavier out, I was certain something transpired between them. I knew she didn’t just change her mind about coming with me. Something must have forced her to change her mind, but I wanted to believe she made that decision on her own.Even though she came with me willingly, Elarian continued to shut me out and made it so difficult to hold a proper conversation without arguin
Author’s POV.Blair stood outside the pack house in the darkness, a grin spreading across her face as she recognized the signal the maid had given. Elarian should have already drunk the water, and the pain should have kicked in by now. This was her cue to end everything.When Blair had left Aeros, casting a powerful spell to keep her true face hidden, she never expected him to take a liking to someone else so suddenly. She had kept her eyes on him all these years, watching him wallow in self-pity and pain, which was exactly what she wanted him to feel.After all, Aeros had imprisoned the man she truly loved. When she heard that he had brought another woman home, she was enraged. She did everything she could to stir guilt inside him, manipulating small things to push him into driving Elarian away.And he had done exactly that, after a few carefully planned nudges in the right direction."The bastard thought he could sweep me under the carpet that easily?" she scoffed into the darkness.
AEROS "You need to calm down," Jonathan said to me as I paced the length of my study, teetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown, unable to think straight. My heart raced uncontrollably, and with each passing second, the pressure became almost unbearable. Fear gripped me, and I couldn’t escape the crushing weight of it.I was terrified of losing her."She asked me to brace myself for the worst, Jonathan. Do you even understand what that means? It means she could die!" I shouted in panic, my voice filled with desperation. Jonathan sighed heavily and rose to his feet, coming to stand by my side."It breaks my heart to see you like this, Aeros. And yes, the thought of losing your pup just when you found out about them is gut-wrenching, but this is beyond us. You need to stay strong for whatever comes next. You’re the Alpha, and you need to—""I don’t need to hear this, Jonathan!" I snapped, cutting him off. "I don’t need you to tell me to stay strong. What I need is a solution. A way
AEROS “Are you really going to do this? Seek help from dark magic? That could make things so much worse, and I hope you know that,” Jonathan asked for the umpteenth time as we headed to the room where Elarian was. The man I had just freed from his prison walked behind us, two guards keeping him in line with a heavy chain around his neck.“I don’t have a choice, Jonathan. I am not about to let my Luna and child die when I can get him to do whatever I want.”“Letting him out of his cell was a bad decision, Aeros,” Jonathan continued to complain. It was obvious he wasn’t at ease with any of this. I wasn’t either, but I had no other option.“He could be playing you. This could be his plan—to escape and do something much worse than before.”“Calm down, Jonathan. Look behind you—the man is in chains. What could he possibly do in such heavy chains with guards around him?” I asked, trying to pacify him. Although it worked temporarily, he was still visibly agitated.I was the first to walk in
Author’s POV.“Beta Jonathan and a few guards were going with him. I had no idea where they were heading, but I just knew they would be leaving together. I overheard them in the room,” the young maid said to Blair as she paced the length of the maid’s room in the servants’ quarters.She had been unable to leave the mansion since the accident had happened because Aeros had tightened the security and refused to let anyone leave or enter the mansion.Trying to leave then would have meant risking being caught by the guards, especially since she was too weak to cast any spell to keep herself hidden. She had to rely on the maid to hide her in her quarters and bide her time.As expected, Aeros had hurried down to her lover, and just as she had planned, he had let him step out of where he had locked him up all those years. There was no better time to strike than that moment.So, she quietly got dressed as a maid and followed the young maid out of the room. No one noticed because everyone was
AEROS “We just found the healer in the garage. She was knocked out cold and almost naked,” one of the guards reported to me, and I stood up sharply from my position beside Elarian on her bed.Her condition still had not changed, she was still unconscious and as the seconds ticked by without any sign of Jonathan, I grew restless. I had sent one of the guards to keep watch and inform me as soon as they were in sight.But hearing that they had found the healer unconscious in the garage left me confused. Did that mean Jonathan had left without her? But why knock her out? He could have just said he didn’t want her to go with them.I trusted Jonathan, and I knew he would never do something like that without my permission. So, either there was a misunderstanding, or something was wrong.I rose to my feet and was about to turn to face the guard in the room when a sharp pain shot through my head. I hissed in pain, dropping a hand onto the bed to steady myself.“Aeros, Aeros, there is… Help!”
Author’s POV.As soon as the car hit the water, Kaiden lost his ability to keep the shield up, and Blair slammed her head hard against the window, causing her to pass out on the spot. The car sank faster than it should have, and before Kaiden realized what was happening, he was almost out of breath and completely submerged.Quickly, he forced a door open with his magic and swam out of the car, but he had barely gone far when he remembered that Blair was still lying unconscious in the sinking vehicle.He turned around and began swimming back toward her, but he heard movement and glanced up to see Jonathan dive into the water in search of them. He stopped swimming toward the car immediately and instead started looking around for a way to escape, to get as far away from Jonathan as possible.He knew what was going to happen if they found her, but he didn’t care. He had sacrificed more than enough for Blair. She had left him to rot in Aeros’s dungeons, and he could not afford to be locked
ELARIAN I'll never forget the sound of Aero's voice, low and menacing, as he growled, "Let. Her. Go." I was tied to a chair, helpless, as Xavier held me hostage right in front of him with his claws aimed directly at my throat. His heartbeat reeked of blood and death, causing my stomach to turn in disgust and fear. His claws trailed my bare skin, and my body trembled in fear.Aero rushed forward with such speed that I had never seen before or thought possible, his eyes blazing with fury. Xavier sneered, baring his razor-sharp canine teeth. Aero's gaze locked onto mine, and for a fleeting moment, I saw a glimmer of reassurance.He was here to save me."Save Liam!" I tried to yell out for him to hear, but my words were muffled, and I was certain he could not understand them. So I just sat there, fighting as hard as I could against the ropes I was tied down with, even though it was useless, as the tears poured down my face.I didn't want to lose my husband and son like this. I just wante
AEROS Jonathan advised that we did not go in immediately, and I actually agreed with him because I had told Elyse to call me the moment she noticed anyone or anything move in that region. So I had a feeling that Tyler would reach out to Xavier, and Xavier would in turn reach out to whoever was holding Liam and Elarian. There would definitely be a movement that would catch Elyse's attention—all we had to do was wait for it.We didn't exactly leave, but we stayed close enough and at the same time far enough to not be under their gaze. After waiting for a couple of hours and hearing nothing from Elyse, we decided to make a stop at Xavier's mansion. His territory was a bit farther away from Tyler's, but the drive would probably give us enough time to contemplate what had happened at Tyler's place. So we headed out as soon as we had agreed on what to do next.Jonathan kept insisting that he would like to speak with Xavier instead of me, but I told him it was best I handled Xavier because
AEROS "You should have told me that a long time ago then I wouldn't have been against this so much. But what if Tyler and Xavier had nothing to do with this in the first place? What if this was all some wild goose chase and they had nothing to do with the disappearance of your wife and son, and at the end of the day, this only led to war? What's going to happen then?" Jonathan asked with that same skepticism in his tone."At least I would know who is behind all this, and we could finally put an end to whatever madness is going on here.""I trust you, and if this is what you want to do, then you have my full support. But just understand that if you're going to go in there, then you're going to talk to them as respectfully as you possibly can because war is not an option right now. I know you're not going to listen to me, and at the end of the day, you do what you want to do. But please, for the sake of your son and Elarian, just think about what a war could cause and focus on finding
AEROS "They couldn't have gone far," I began. "After the explosion happened, it didn't take long at all for Jonathan and I to get back into the mansion, and they were already missing by that time. So I feel they have definitely not taken them far away from the pack house because the time frame it was carried out in is just too little to pull off something long distance from here. So I believe we should send out a search party and lead one to vigorously search the entire area," I added, and the elders of the council all mumbled their agreement."The Alpha is right. There is no way they could have moved the Luna and Liam so far away from the pack house within such a short period of time, so we need to keep our guard up and keep an eye on every single movement in the area. I am certain that we would find them if we just know where to look," Jonathan joined in the conversation."You're both forgetting one serious detail, and that is, Blair was also kidnapped," Elyse spoke up next."I dou
ELARIAN “What the hell is going on? Where is my son? Liam! Aeros! Jonathan! Elyse!”I called out every single name that I knew one by one, and there was not a single response. I was shrouded in darkness and could barely see a thing, nor could I hear any sound at all. I knew something had been wrapped around my eyes because I could feel its pressure against my vision, and my sense of smell picked up that there were people around, but for some reason, I could not hear a single sound.My heartbeat increased, and I was so scared because I had been just about to head up to take care of Liam when the explosion happened, and that was the last thing I remembered. I didn’t recall anything afterwards, and I was beginning to panic because Liam had been in the bedroom when it happened. Although I wasn’t exactly sure where the explosion had come from, I was just worried that something had happened to my baby.“Somebody please help! Is anyone out there?!” I cried out, but there was still no respon
AEROS The sound of Kaiden screaming out loud in pain and the smell of his blood filled the air as Jonathan's claws kept going deeper and deeper inside of him to a point where he could no longer take it. He was so close to passing out before Jonathan pulled away and took a step back.“Now, I think we should try this again,” I said, struggling so hard to keep my wolf at bay as I approached Kaiden. The urge to rip his face to shreds was so overpowering, and the thought that he had even dared to harm my son and Elarian was so infuriating that seeing him alive irked me. But then, I had to admit that I needed him alive if I wanted to find the both of them.“I am going to ask you one last time before your head is severed from your body—who is responsible for the explosion and the disappearance of Liam and Elarian? Tell me every single thing you know and do not hold back a single detail,” I added as I grabbed his chin and forced him to look at me.He winced in pain as he struggled to catch h
AEROS “Who do you think is responsible for this? I'm not asking you who you suspect. I am asking you to think about who could be behind this because I am certain whoever is doing this is already expecting us to jump to conclusions about who it could possibly be. But I feel we should look beyond that and understand what is actually going on here so we'll be able to save the Luna and your son as soon as we can,” Elyse pointed out.With everything that was going on, she seemed to be quite wise and smart, and even though I badly wanted to think like her, I could not possibly think straight knowing that my son and Elarian could be in trouble.“I think I know who we should talk to about this,” I stated confidently as I shot sharply to my feet.“You really think we should be talking to him without having any clue what is really going on and coming up with a plan? That is exactly what they want us to do. Go running to him to find the solution so he would be able to put whatever nonsense is i
AEROS The loud bang that came from upstairs the moment Kaiden said those words made my heart skip a beat. Jonathan immediately broke into a run, and I rushed after him, tossing Kaiden aside. I was certain he had slammed his back against the wall or something because I heard something crack.We rushed outside and made it back into the mansion, but it was already a disaster in there. The maids and guards were rushing around, trying to put out a fire or something, and I didn’t exactly know what it was, but I knew there was smoke everywhere. Everyone was coughing so badly that I couldn’t actually listen to anything, so I had to block out the noise and listen to my wolf’s instincts.The fire was coming from the dining area that we had just vacated, and the moment I realized that, the first thing I thought about was Elarian. She was still at the table when we left, so I was so scared that I ran into the fire, regardless of how the flames were burning high enough to the ceiling and looking
AEROS I had no idea what Kaiden wanted, but I knew one thing for sure and I was certain he was going to ask me for something I would definitely not be able to willingly give him. So, I decided to speak with him in his cell after the ritual with Blair was successful and she was able to return to her normal activities.Blair insisted he would like to speak to me himself, so after we had finished eating at the table, I headed down to the dungeons with Jonathan by my side to speak with him. Although it was obvious that Elarian was confused about what was going on, she clearly wanted to ask me about it but refrained from doing so because she had to attend to Liam, and I promised her that I would join her in the bedroom as soon as possible.“What do you think he is going to ask for?” Jonathan asked me as we stepped into the dungeons, and I shrugged.“I don't know, I can't say for sure. But for him to willingly return here to help Blair and give up his freedom to stay in this dungeon withou