Chapter 3

Lillian's POV

"Really?!" My face turned pale, and I couldn't believe it. "But I heard that Ismail's wolf had disappeared?"

"I'm positive about it. You know how rumors can be unreliable. Ismail's wolf is real, but its scent is oddly weak and unstable for some reason."

"Maybe it's because Ismail is sick." My gaze involuntarily turned to him.

He looked rather ill, in fact. It would be strange that the wolf in his body was stable.

But I didn't have any extra energy to care about anything else at this moment. I tried to calm my breathing slowly. 

After a while, the air was filled with a subtle scent of metallic tang.

Instantly, I turned to look at Ismail, who was still lying on the floor. 

From my position, I could only see his broad back. 

He was still shaking, but had stopped mumbling after releasing me. I assumed he had bitten his own lip too hard, causing it to bleed and the scent of iron to fill the air.

If he continued like this, he might be in danger.

Realizing this, I used all my strength and tried to sit up in bed.

I decided to keep my anger and hatred toward him aside first. I then grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around myself, stumbling out of bed. 

I wanted to turn on the light, but the switch didn't respond no matter how many times I pressed it. 

From the look of it, it seemed like he was having a relapse. As I scanned the room, I couldn't find any suitable items to put in his mouth. I thought I should prevent him from killing himself by biting his tongue off. 

In desperation, I went straight over to him, shoving my hand into his mouth. I didn't have a choice.

I had never been so brave in my life. 

"Ah!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. 

It hurt... really bad... 

I couldn't believe he would bite me so hard!

In the midst of the pain, I even wondered if he would have fractured my bone with the force of his bite.

The darkness of the night couldn't veil the eyes of those who remained awake, their attention fixed on the room's every move. 

My agonizing screams pierced through the silence of the entire mansion. Panicked footsteps echoed towards the door, followed by the creaking sound of its hinges as it swung open, revealing a group of people looming before me.

The pain in my hand had started to make me feel faint. I stared blankly at the people in front of me. 

I didn't know anyone in the house. In a daze, someone pulled my hand out of Ismail's mouth. 

The strange experience I had for the past few hours left me feeling dizzy. Perhaps being pushed, I fell to the floor. 

I huddled in the corner, watching the doctor, the owner, the servants... all of them constantly changing and flickering in front of me. 

They were all circling around Ismail. 

The unfamiliar environment kept my nerves on edge, and I spent the whole time cowering in the corner. 

And soon, Ismail was taken out, and together, everyone left with him. 

The bedroom was finally quiet. 

This kind of quietness relaxed my tense nerves. 

I struggled to lift my numb left hand; I had a hunch that my hand was now a bloody mess. 

I was really in pain, and I wanted the doctor to tend to my wound, too.

But I knew that the doctors here wouldn't care about me, even if my injury was inflicted by Ismail.

No one would ever be concerned about me.

In fact, any of my needs were absurd.

I really wanted to go back.

My forehead was now against my knees; I really, really wanted to go back.

Despite the searing pain in my hand, I realized as time passed, the pain began to fade away. And, I was soon overcome by drowsiness.

I rested my forehead on my knees, yearning to escape this strange place. I sat there for a long time, my mind foggy with exhaustion, until I finally drifted off to sleep.

I didn't know how much time had passed when I was abruptly woken by a rough banging on the door.

Startled, I opened my eyes only to find that the sun had already risen. 

When I was about to get up and open the door, it was pushed open. 

An elderly maid led two servants in and pointed at me in the corner.

She then said in a emotionless tone, "Take her away." 

Before I could grasp the situation, the two servants pulled me out from the corner and hauled me towards the door.

"Hey! What are you doing? Let me go!"

I shouted, struggling against their grasp.

The two of them ignored my scream and continued to drag me downstairs to the living room.

There were at least five people there, and that included Ismail's mother, Meylani, who was seated in the middle. She was the current Queen Alpha.

In front of her stood a woman adorned in a billowing gown of purest white. I believed the rest of them were the elders of the Amus family. 

The two servants hauled me forward and flung me to the floor before the Queen. My teeth gnashed together in agony as I landed with a thud. 

With a steely gaze, the Queen fixed her eyes upon me and then turned to the woman in front of her. "My dear witch, look at her and tell me, is this not Chloe, the precious daughter from the Rosenberg family?"

With a subtle nod from the lead servant, Helen, the other two servants moved in closer and roughly lifted my chin upwards. 

The witch studied me intently for a moment before turning to the Queen and spoke in a measured tone, "Your Majesty, without a doubt, this is she. The energy emanating from her body is a match for that of the Blue Army. Furthermore, Miss Chloe has been seen at public events in the past, and this girl bears a striking resemblance to the photos taken on those occasions."

The witch concluded her assessment and motioned for her assistant to pass over Chloe's photo. 

As the Queen glanced at the photo with a furrowed brow, she lashed out in frustration. "Yes, yes, she looks the same as this girl in the photo. But you said they were destined to be together! You said she was the key to saving my son's life! So why did Ismail fall ill on the very first night?"

"Your Majesty, this..." The witch couldn't come up with an answer. 

As I observed the witch's perplexed countenance from the floor, a wry smile involuntarily spread across my lips. How foolish these people were, unable to discern that I was not Chloe!

"Talk to me, witch!" 

The Queen was gripped by a mix of anxiety and anger. "You've been insisting that my son should develop feelings and fall in love with her before he can rightfully claim to have found his mate, but..." 

The Queen paced towards me, coming to a halt right in front of me. Gazing down at me, she continued in a cutting tone, "How can my son possibly harbor any feelings for a creature such as her? How can he ever love her? If you have an answer, then by all means, do show me."

With a powerful shove, the Queen pushed me toward the witch, and I hit her chest hard, causing me to feel dizzy with pain. 

At this moment, I couldn't care less about the pain. Everything felt like a dream, and I even wondered if everything that happened the previous night was a trick played by the Amus family to torment me.

Perhaps, Ismail was a healthy person, and he was never sick; he didn't even bite me on my hand the night before. 

As I thought about the wound on my hand from the previous night, it started to ache again. 

I knew how terrible I looked at the moment, with my messy hair and disheveled clothes; I must look like a madwoman. It was no wonder the Queen would make such a remark about me.

"So, what should we do about her, Your Majesty?" asked Helen.

"What do you think?"

"Let's just get rid of this trouble," replied Helen, gesturing to the other two servants.

"Take off the ring on her hand."