THE LUNA’S MENTOR

Elaris’s POV

I drew in a breath as blood dripped onto the white sheets, the anguish from the shattered link slicing into me like a blade.

“Elaris!” Selah shouted, her voice shaking.

I tried to respond, but the fresh pang of pain robbed me of my voice, leaving my hands scrabbling at the bed sheets, as my wolf wailed softly within me.

“She can’t feel me anymore!” I breathed.

Selah turned pale.

“Don’t fight it. Take deep breaths.”

But how could I take deep breaths, when it seemed like the portion of me that managed to survive years of torment was slowly fading?

In an instant, Averic appeared by my side, picking me up in his broad arms and bellowing out for the palace healers at the top of his lungs.

“Get the healers here right now!”

He held me tightly as I writhed uncontrollably within his embrace.

“I am here.” He said fiercely. “Elaris, look at me.”

I opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw through the cloud of agony was his face.

“I am scared.” I whispered.

A shadow passed over his face.

“You have nothing to fear.”

“I think… something is wrong with my wolf.”

“I know.”

His voice became gentle as he placed his forehead to mine.

“Then we’ll fix it.”

Sela burst into the room with the ointment, putting it on my neck while telling Averic that I needed purpose in my life and emotional stability in order to survive my wolf ordeal.

“She has experienced too much in such little time,” Sela murmured. “The essence extraction drained her physically. The loss of her pregnancy hurt her emotionally. And now the bond has been severed.”

Averic’s jaw clenched.

“What does she need?”

“Rest, food, healing… and that may not be enough.”

Sela gave me a glance.

“She needs a reason to live.”

I furrowed my brows weakly.

“A purpose?”

“A reason to wake up every morning believing that she still has a place in this world.”

Averic gazed at me for a few seconds.

“Then we will give her one.”

As the morning sun illuminated the room, I looked around and found Averic sitting up on a chair next to my bed, with messy dark hair, having remained by my side all night.

I just stared at him for a few moments.

The dominating Alpha, who led the entire pack, looked strange in sleep, his head resting against the back of the chair slightly tilted to the side, with one of his hands resting near my bed as if he was afraid of getting too far away from me.

I recalled his voice from the previous night.

I’m here.

No one had ever said those words to me for such a long time.

Especially not when I needed it the most.

He woke up from his slumber at once, his eyes relaxing with obvious relief, seeing that I was now conscious and breathing normally.

“You’re awake.”

His voice sounded rough because of the fatigue.

“I am.”

He grabbed the glass of water next to him right away.

“Drink.”

I took the glass with trembling hands.

“You remained?”

He frowned.

“Of course, I have.”

“But you’re an Alpha. You have responsibilities.”

“They can wait.”

I just stared at him.

“Why?”

Averic hesitated.

“Because you needed someone by your side.”

This humble statement unnerved me more than anything profound.

I looked down at the glass.

“Thank you.”

“You shouldn’t thank me for doing what ought to have been done for you a long time ago.”

In order to provide me with an aim without physically exhausting me, Averic proposed to let me help his mother, Maevra Thorne, with her everyday life and medicines.

“You want me to take care of your mother?”

“You know enough about how to administer medicines and herbs.”

“I was taking care of Caedmon.”

For a split second, a look of hardening crossed Averic’s face.

“You were taking care of someone who would never stop taking from you until he made you think that you were good for nothing.”

I flinched.

Averic quickly relaxed.

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“I know.”

He leaned closer.

“My mother needs someone she can trust. And you need something which is yours.”

I stared at him doubtfully.

“What if I do not succeed?”

“Then we will figure out what was wrong and we will try again.”

“What if your mother does not like me?”

A small smile played around his lips.

“Not really, it will be yours.”

I blinked.

Then he added, “It is almost impossible for her to dislike someone. This is one of her more dangerous traits.”

For the very first time that morning, I actually managed to laugh a little.

That afternoon, I entered Maevra’s garden chamber where I expected to meet the former Luna of the Thorne pack.

The chamber was covered with blooming vines, medicinal plants, and the bright sunlight streaming through high windows. It was nothing like the cold chambers that I knew from Caedmon’s palace.

I stopped at the door of the chamber.

A weak lady lying near the window turned her head towards me.

“You must be Elaris.”

I nodded respectfully.

“My Lady.”

Maevra frowned at once.

“Oh, no.”

I froze in place.

She extended her hand.

“Come closer.”

I moved slowly toward her.

“Stop calling me My Lady. It makes me feel old.”

“But you are the former Luna?”

“And you make me even more old.”

I smiled in surprise.

Maevra noticed it.

“There. It is much better.”

Maevra welcomed me with a weak but beautiful smile, extending her slender hands to greet me like I already belonged to the family despite being an exiled rogue.

“Take a seat beside me.”

I complied.

“I have heard enough about you to know that you have had hard times.”

The smile faded from my face.

“Who told you?”

“My son.”

I turned toward the door frame.

“Averic?”

“He hardly ever talks about his emotions.”

Maevra smiled knowingly.

“However, when he talks about someone, I listen.”

I did not know what to say.

She pressed my hand.

“You are safe here, my dear.”

The words echoed somewhere deep within me.

Safe.

I had forgotten what it felt like to be safe.

Maevra watched me intently.

“You look like you expect me to regret what I just said.”

“I am not used to people welcoming me without having any expectations.”

Her demeanor became softer.

“Then you must have surrounded yourself with the wrong company.”

During the following couple of weeks, I started taking care of Maevra’s complicated dosages of herbs, learning her medical routine along with stories of her son’s childhood.

“You will never believe how troublesome that boy was.”

I gave her a glance.

“Hey, Averic?”

“The very terrifying Alpha who makes even warriors look down?”

I chuckled.

“Yes, that guy.”

Maevra shook her head.

“He jumped on the roof because he wanted to prove that he could jump from it.”

“What?”

“He did.”

“And survive?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

I pressed my hand against my mouth, unable to hide the laugh.

Maevra smiled.

“He broke his arm but said that the roof was worth conquering.”

With time, we started talking more and more.

She taught me about which plants help with pain, sleeping, which combinations may kill you if you measure them wrong.

“You have a careful hand,” she remarked one afternoon.

“I have to be careful.”

“Not because you are scared to make a mistake.”

She studied me.

“Because you care about what will happen to other people.”

I froze.

Maevra whispered.

“And don’t let anyone say to you that caring is a sign of weakness.”

Averic started coming to us every evening for tea, silently watching me with burning gaze from the other side of the table.

At first, I was hardly able to talk while he was here.

That's when Maevra started purposely dragging him into our conversations.

"Elaris needs to hear the story about how you were followed by three hunting wolves when you were sixteen."

Averic narrowed his eyes.

"No."

Maevra smiled sweetly.

"They were following you."

"They were not."

"They were."

"They were hunting for something else."

I stared at him in astonishment.

"You were?"

"No."

"That makes no difference."

I laughed.

His eyes met mine again.

For a second, we both were silent.

Then his lips twitched in a faint smile.

"There it is."

"What?"

"The laugh."

My smile faded away.

"What is so special about that laugh?"

"I have never heard it before."

A blush crept up to my cheeks.

Maevra silently picked up her teacup, a smile hidden in it.

I understood with horror and surprise that it was the first time after losing my baby when I laughed at the joke of Maevra's and felt like the void in my heart was healing.

It scared me.

All this time I believed that the only thing left to me was pain.

And now somehow it became possible to forget to hurt.

There were mornings where I did not think of the child that I had lost as soon as I woke up.

There were afternoons where Maevra’s tales made me smile.

Then there were evenings when Averic’s company made the palace feel less like an escape and more like a home.

One such evening, just as I was about to walk out, Maevra grabbed my wrist.

“Come tomorrow.”

I smiled.

“Yes.”

Averic stared at me from where he was sitting on the other side of the room.

For the first time, I began to contemplate what it would be like to keep living this life.

Not the one where I was Caedmon’s rejected mate.

Not the one where I lost my child.

But just being Elaris.

And deep within my healing heart, a dangerous little emotion started to blossom.

Hope.

As I made my way back to my chambers through the long palace gallery in the dusk light, an abrupt, threatening voice rang out from behind the iron gates of the courtyard.

“Open these gates!”

I froze.

My blood ran cold.

That voice.

I recognized it.

Guards rushed to the courtyard with the voice resounding through the palace.

“I have told my Alpha that you have arrived for your wife.”

My fingers wrapped around the material of my dress.

No.

It was impossible.

I walked towards the nearest window, and looked out into the courtyard.

Caedmon stood outside the iron gates.

Looking as though he had fully recovered.

Looking even stronger than before.

He swept his eyes through the entire palace, as if he was entitled to walk inside.

Then, his eyes raised up.

Directly towards the window from where I could see.

And then, my heart stopped.

Caedmon’s expression became stern.

“Elaris!”

His voice rang out across the courtyard.

“Come out.”

I reeled back from the window.

I heard footsteps coming in the corridor behind me.

Averic?

But then, Caedmon spoke out again.

“You are mine, Elaris. And I will take my wife back with me.”