003

ALISTAIR

I heard the door close with a loud bang as Elara exited the training room. It’s been five years, five years, and Elara Vance still hadn’t learned how to miss. She still aimed for the kill.

I had prepared myself for her hatred. What I had not prepared myself for was how much it would feel like coming home. 

I winced slightly at the pain inflicted by her sword on my chest. Blood dripped out of it.

“What are you still doing, Kai? Aren’t you going to heal me up?”

“It takes time,” Kai grumbled in a reply.

“This useless wolf…” I cursed.

“Heal yourself if you can, then,” he shot back.

“Alistair!” The door flew open, and Alex rushed in, his eyes searching through the hall. It finally stopped on me and he gasped. 

“What on earth—she stabbed you?!” Shock covered his face.

“You know, Elara,” I muttered, “Why do you sound so shocked?”

“I know Elara, but when it comes to you, I can't repeat that. Did you just stand there and watch her stab you?”

“She wouldn’t kill me,” 

“What if she had?” Alex asked. I sighed.

“In the last five years, her hatred for you has not reduced. Instead, it had deepened. Elara is always coolheaded, but where your name is mentioned, her character flips,” he said.

A smile tilted my lips. “I’m glad my name can change her character.” I pocketed my hands, walking out of the training room. Alex followed behind me.

“You saw the way her eyes blazed when she held that pen at you earlier. I’m scared, Alistair. I’m scared Elara would hurt you,” Alex muttered.

I halted, turning to look at him. “The one she’s going to hurt is me. Why are you scared? Man up, Alex.”

“You just came back,” he said. I gulped.

“It’s been five years, Alistair. Five good years and I haven't seen you. I don’t want to see you get hurt, please. Stay away from Elara if it’s possible. Or make things right with her. End this dangerous game.” 

I stared at Alex for a second before tapping his shoulder lightly. “I live for the game, boy.”

I didn’t wait for his response before I walked out of the training room.

Alex was right. We could end up hurting ourselves at this stage. But…neither of us could stop. We’ve gone too far to end it this way. It might only stop when one of us disappears.

~~~

“I heard Elara tried to stab you at school today,” Father said at dinner. My eyes locked with Alex’s.

“Did you tell him that?”

He had barely begun to shake his head when Father spoke again.

“I have eyes everywhere, Alistair, and the Academy is one of the basic minimums.”

“She didn’t stab me–”

“Oh no, she did. Your school uniform is proof,” my mom interrupted.

“Mother.” 

Luna Maya smirked at me, “Elara is such a wonderful girl. I love her so much.”

“She tried to kill me,” I gritted my teeth.

“No, darling,” my mother dropped another piece of meat on my plate. “She was just welcoming you.”

I rolled my eyes. Welcoming me with a sword wound after not seeing me for five years was a little bit extravagant.

“When you guys get married—”

I cut my father off. “About that—”

“Elara refused,” Alex cut me off. 

My father and I stared at Alex at the same time.

“She acknowledged it?” I raised my eyebrows. The Elara I knew would simply ignore it and act like it was all a dream. If she didn’t want it, she wouldn’t even give it a chance to breed in her memory.

“Yeah, she mentioned it when I was about to tell her that you came to school.”

“How nice of her. This is what I was saying about Elara…” my father trailed off.

No matter what Elara did, she would always remain a goddess in my parents' eyes. They found twisted ways to turn every one of her venoms into honey. How was this nice?

“I’m pretty sure she just didn’t want to be rude,” I said, forcing the piece of meat into my mouth. I was full.

“Actually, she was rude about it. She said she was just rejecting it politely because it was me.”

“What?” 

‘Don’t tell me she thought you were the one getting married to her?” my mother asked.

Alex’s lips curved. ‘Exactly.”

I threw the fork on my plate. “See? I told you she wasn’t nice.”

My father sighed. ‘To my study, Alistair.”

The study was totally dark when we stepped into it, not until my father turned the lights on, brightening the place. It looked the same as it did five years ago, books piled up high. The study was sparkling clean and smelled of leather. As a kid, whenever my father brought me in here, it felt like we were about to be punished. The study was his room for serious discussions.

“What do you think about the marriage with Elara?” 

I peeled my eyes away from the books and stared back at my father. His eyes were pinned on me.

“She already rejected it,” I said.

“She thought it was your brother.”

“It’ll be worse when she finds out it’s me. Elara would kill me first.’ 

My father’s eyes narrowed. "You are letting her do whatever she wants,” his fingers tapped the table.

“I’m not forcing her into getting married to me,” I replied flatly. “Enemies don’t get married to each other.”

“The reality of the pack doesn’t depend on your relationship with each other, Alistair. Getting married to Elara is the best for the pack.”

“It’s not. There are people better than Elara.”

“How so? Her father was the beta of this pack.”

“An alpha’s daughter would be better. I can get married to another alpha daughter and strengthen our pack.”

“There you have it, Alistair,” my father smirked. “Elara’s mother is the daughter of an Alpha. Her brother is currently the Alpha of the Moonbane pack. So Elara is from that descendant. There is no one better than her.”

I gritted my teeth. “Marrying Elara would hurt her.”

My father relaxed backwards on his seat.

“She hates me. Why should I put her through that torture called marriage?”

His eyes searched mine for a moment, then he stood up, walking towards me. 

“Then make her fall in love with you, Alistair. Marrying someone you love wouldn’t be torture, would it?”

“How do I make someone who hates me fall in love with me?”

He chuckled. “It’s quite simple, you know. Fall in love with her, and you’d see how easy it is to make her happy.’

“Father—”

“I’m thinking of retiring, Alistair. And the only thing between you and the Alpha throne is Elara.”

What? 

“Get her to marry you, and this throne belongs to you,” my father ended.