ログインTen years into my fated bond with Alpha Rook Blackwood, I discovered he'd betrayed me again. Fighting through the pain in the old mark at the nape of my neck, I kicked open the basement door where Rook had hidden the other woman. Rook, the Alpha who had always held himself above everyone, was on his knees before a human woman named Elowen Hart, pressing her foot to his crotch as he panted with desire. I lost control and shifted into my wolf form, lunging at the girl. But Rook immediately threw himself in front of her, letting my sharp claws pierce through his abdomen. Seeing the blood gushing from the wound, I froze. Rook grabbed my paw and shoved it deeper into the wound. The agony drained all color from his face, but his eyes were cold and calm as he looked at me. "Do you need to go deeper?" I shook my head instinctively. Only then did he release me, collapsing to his knees in the pool of blood. "If not, get out. Don't scare her. I'm begging you, Lira." I shifted back to human form in silence. For the first time, the man before me felt like a stranger. As the pack's powerful Alpha, Rook had never begged anyone for anything. This was the first time he had ever lowered himself before another person, and it was for an outsider. "Lira, you can take out your anger on me however you want, but she's off limits. Stay away from this basement. Don't come after her again." The pain in the old mark kept sharpening, yet I suddenly laughed. From now on, I wouldn't just be staying away from the basement. I'd be staying far away from him too.
もっと見るOver the next three days, Silas no longer stayed constantly at my side.But he still arranged for attendants to be on call for me at all times, and healing tonics and meals to my taste arrived on schedule every day.Between official duties, he would come to the side chamber and sit with me quietly, never forcing conversation.He simply sat nearby, giving me all the space I needed to heal on my own.He never demanded anything in return. He never pressed me about when I would agree to a new royal bond. He never used twenty years of silent devotion to guilt me into a decision.Every kindness was measured, restrained, and respectful, never making me feel the slightest pressure.In my free time, I would sort through the last ten years on my own, comparing the way Rook and Silas had treated me.Rook's tenderness had always come with a condition: that I obey him and tolerate Elowen.The moment I raised the slightest objection, all warmth vanished, replaced by control, suspicion, and cruelty.
Rook listened in silence through all of it, watching Elowen twist every detail to save herself.When the guards struck her across the face, he didn't move to stop them.Before, the slightest hint of distress from Elowen would have sent him rushing to shield her, lashing out at anyone who upset her.But now, watching the ugly, selfish truth of who she really was, he finally saw clearly who had been genuine and who had been using his favoritism to drive everyone apart.He looked up at the dais. I sat quietly beside Silas, and from beginning to end, I hadn't spared Elowen a glance. Regret surged through him, bottomless and unrelenting.He braced himself on one knee and looked up at the dais. "Before the trial, I want to speak with Lira alone."Before Silas could respond, I answered. "There's no need for privacy. I have nothing to hide from Silas."Rook was silent for a moment, then inched forward on his knees to the base of the steps. He pulled out the wolf-fang necklace he had spent two
When I was young, I used to spar and roughhouse with Rook on the open grounds of the pack.Back then, there was another boy who always stood watching from a distance, gripping a rough wooden staff of his own, though he rarely came forward to talk.My memory of him was faint. All I recalled was that he vanished from pack lands by the time he was eight or nine and never came back.That boy was Silas, the man now sitting across from me.Born into the royal bloodline, he had been taken back to the capital as a child to undergo rigorous training for the throne and was forbidden from visiting ordinary packs.The first time he saw me, I was crouching off to the side, quietly watching Rook swing his wooden staff, my eyes bright and clear.That image had stayed with him, etched into his memory for decades.In the years that followed, he returned countless times under the guise of inspecting the pack, all just to catch a glimpse of me from afar, never daring to approach.He watched me grow up. H
Rook's legs gave out beneath him, and he sank to his knees in front of the pile of ash.He sniffed the air desperately, trying to catch my scent.But the wolfsbane fumes that saturated the ruins quickly left him weak and dizzy.Despite knowing full well how much damage the wolfsbane was doing to his body, Rook forced himself up and searched through every corner of the ruins, following the paths he remembered.He clung to the hope that I would come bounding out of some hiding place, whole and unharmed, and stand right in front of him.But by the time the poison had him doubled over in agony and he staggered back to the others, he hadn't caught a single trace of me.He was forced to face the worst possibility.That pile of ash was me. His Luna had truly burned to death in the prison he had built for her.The realization drove Rook to the edge of collapse. While the doctor purged the toxins from his body, he muttered deliriously, "Lira, I'm here to save you. Don't be scared..."Everything






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