“Lilly? Love? Can you hear me? Please, wake up….”“Cyllina!”Those voices came back and forth as I began to gain consciousness. My eyes were still closed and were really heavy, I almost couldn’t open them up.“Nghh…” I groaned and frowned as the pain in my head throbbed.“Hey…” I felt a familiar touch caressing my cheek. The mate bond sparks towards his touch sending the warmth to every vein on my body. It immediately pulled me out of the darkness. I gasped for more air as I felt like there was no more for me to breathe.I opened my eyes but then closed them again as I didn't expect the light would be so bright hitting my retina.“Luca?” I called him, I wanted to hear his voice to make sure that I was safe here.“Yes? I am here my love.” He held my hand and kissed it. I finally squinted my eyes to look around.Why is it so bright? "Where are we?" I said it out loud.“Still here, in Elden Wood…” He answered me.Then, something struck me. How we got here, what we were doing, what we did
I smiled and nodded, “I also thank you for helping us until we get here.” I said sincerely, “Ni, I wish my mother was here and everything I went through in the past was just a dream…” Tears started well in my eyes, but I held them back from falling."My sweet, Cyllina..." Ni suddenly changed her form from the size of a butterfly, now standing in front of me, human-sized and taller a little bit from me.“Cyllina, your mother, Runa, must be proud of you.” She hugged me. In her embrace, I could feel her sadness. She also lost her best friend, her sister.“We can’t undo what’s already happened. Trust me, Elden Wood is now free from the witch’s curse and torment…” Ni looked at the stone table under the altar roof. The net was still there, but I didn’t see Mira’s figure inside it at all.“For hundreds of years, when the Dryads were killed for her greed, this forest lost its guardians. The Dryads were the soul of this forest. But that Dark Witch took everything, making Elden Wood grow in ven
Ni walked towards him and stared at us in turns.“Nos, you can say that he is the sacred gazelle of Elden Wood, our spiritual guardian. He helped us maintain our clear mind. He is the one you are looking for if you were in your lowest state.” She paused a moment and sighed.“.… When Mira attacked us hundreds of years ago, Nos who we believed couldn’t lift a finger to an annoying cricket, helped us fight that witch, and that battle hurt him badly. When the Dryads were gone, he blended into the woods and we never saw him again. I felt his presence, by the wind, by the moving trees, but I never saw him.”Now I understand why sometimes I feel like I am not in control of my body.It was Nos. He used me as an intermediary and guided us all the way here. Including that ritual… It was him…“Will we see him again?” I asked, looking at the majestic statue of Nos. His large, branching horns reminded me of my dream, where he and my mother had spoken to me.“Maybe?” She shrugged, “Nos is one of th
*LUCA's POV*It’s not that easy for me to stop an excited Lilly and forbid her from running,“Love, no, please don't run, slowly.” I sighed and carried her bag, which I had made from tree bark. When I made it, I felt like I was back in the Stone Age. The edges of the rope were still very rough, and I sometimes saw my mate's back turn red from wearing it.I promise to make her a better one. If we go back to Blue Moon, I'll order a special purse from the human city for her. They make the best ones.“Luca, come on!” Lilly waved her hand at me. She had already arrived near some fairly large rocks on the river's edge.I saw her about to go into the river, only a step away from plunging her feet into the clear, flowing water. And I immediately stopped her.“Woah.. Wait, wait..” I ran and pulled her back two steps further from the edge of the river.“Why? I want to take a bath…” She pouted. I stared at those pouted lips and bent over to touch them with mine. She is soft and sweet as ever.“M
Adam’s POVI saw the look she gave me. Those bright, beautiful, green eyes, apologetically met mine. I was bewitched by it.How come she had the most enchanted eyes? I met so many women from hundreds of years of my life, I never met one like her.She spoke and acted without hiding any bad intention, a pure and soft-hearted one. Was it because she was one of my kind?Well, now it makes sense because I only met one Dryad descendant other than me and it was her.I don’t understand why her mate hated me. That Lycan always looked at me like I was a criminal. He maybe thought that I wanted to steal his mate. Which I don’t… or at least that is what was in my head days after we met.It would be a lie if I said I didn’t get excited to meet my own kind. I thought I was the only one left, but even after years I finally arrived here at Elden Wood, I found no one here except for Ni, the fairy water. But then, out of nowhere, I met her, I found another Dryad, a beautiful one indeed.I thought she w
Lilly’s POVWe made it back when it was almost dark.Luca carried me again because he said it was slippery and I didn’t refuse this time.I almost couldn’t feel my leg.Luca was taking his time, and it also surprised me what happened to Largo.It was me who wanted him, I didn’t know why I felt so aroused these past few days when it was just the two of us. And Largo didn’t wait a second when I asked him to have his way with me.But something halted him from it. He usually will do anything as he pleases, but today, he did it really slowly as If he was afraid. And it was the first time he did that. He usually made me scream and beg for him to stop and I was tired, and he wouldn’t even listen.I thought maybe it was because we were on a rock in the middle of the river. They might think it would hurt me if they did it just like the way at home or on solid ground.But I was so aroused that I beg them, that waterfall reminds me of the one we have back at Blue Moon. Where they did the Luna ri
A loud thud behind us startled me. I flinch as the sound makes the ground shake a little. I turned around and saw a huge wild boar there, dead with his blood splatter everywhere.“Luca?” I called him. My voice barely out as the lump in my throat pains me. He was standing there and I guessed the wild boar under his feet was his game. He looked at me with a frown. And I quickly wiped my tears.“Love, what’s going on?” He approached me and crouched down. He tilted his head staring at me like he was curious and furious at the same time.And I was so busy hiding that I was so scared and hopeless right now.“Oh my, that is a huge prey…” I heard Ni mumbling.I was going to melt this cold tense when he finally noticed my wet eyes and red nose and talking about the wild boar he brought with Ni. But Luca beat me to it.“What did you say to her?”Luca’s voice was too deep and the low growl was a warning. I sat straight and gulped the lump in my throat.It was clear Luca was talking to Adam.At f
Theta, Elderlake…“Declan?”“Declan?”I heard it again, that soft voice that almost makes me a mad man for missing her. I couldn’t see anything or reach it. But I knew for sure that she was talking to me. I wanted to call her, but the words got stuck in my throat. I couldn’t even open my mouth.“Declan, where are you?” She whispered right to my ears. I turned my head and it’s still dark, I felt like my body’s floating in the air, adrift in the waves of emptiness.And I’m pretty sure it was a dream.“Baby? Where are you?” I finally able to speak but my voice came out so weak that it sounded like a whisper.“I am here, Declan… I miss you...”I felt a pang in my chest. How I wanted to pull her in my arms. It’s been so long that it hurt me every second that pass.“Baby, I miss you too. Please, tell me where are you…” I was so desperate in this moment. I barely could hear her, don’t even think about touching her, kiss her…The I light came from behind my back. It sudden brigthness almost