It had been two days since they came there. Celeste looked out of the window while sitting on the bed. Brandon had been busy briefing his Alpha about what he knew. Celeste underwent several treatments to remove the spell Shadow used to tamper with the diamonds. She could feel the effect gradually lessened, and her mind became clearer. Nobody mentioned Leto or how he was doing. Celeste still refused to believe that Leto worked for Lucien, the source of their current suffering. What she knew was that Brandon had been overseeing Leto's interrogation from time to time, although Leto didn't say much of anything. Celeste knew it would take a miracle to hear Leto's confession. He was trained to withstand any interrogation or any kind of torture methods. He was good at it. But Celeste doubted Brandon's people subjected Leto to torture to make him talk. "Good morning," Brandon said, walking into the room with a tray of breakfast and setting it on the

The werewolves had to chain Leto before moving him away to put him under tight surveillance. Despite losing his memories, Leto showed an exceptional hostility towards Brandon. Everyone else did what they could at the moment. It had been a tiring day for all of them. Most of the hunters left the territory right after Lucien and Shadow left. They didn't even bother to retrieve the dead bodies of the comrades killed during the fight. Given the size of the hunters that came to hunt the werewolves, the Council managed to hold them off at bay and only sustained a small number of casualties. Celeste turned to Brandon and saw a glass shard underneath his left rib. "Brandon, you're hurt." "I'm alright, baby," he replied, pulling the glass shard out like it was nothing. The wound closed just like that. He didn't even wince when he pulled the shard out. From there, it was evident that he was used to getting hurt to protect the peop

As years passed by, Celeste's memories became hazy. She couldn't remember well her memories before or after she entered the orphanage. Maybe because those memories were most bad memories and her mind made her forget about them. She could remember her memories with Leto, the boy who always had a smile on his face, or the sadistic laughter when one of the kids fell into his trap or his pockets that he stuffed with candies he stole from others. With all the candies and sweet food he stuffed in his mouth, it was amazing that he still ended up with good teeth. Leto never stopped following Celeste everywhere. Whatever she did, he would try to do it better than her. He was always competitive to the point that he couldn't accept losing to her. After running away from the orphanage together, they did their best to survive on the street and stole whatever they could just to get a tiny portion of food that they would end up sharing with each other. Let

There was no response coming from Brandon. Celeste could hear the silence begin to build up in the room. The silence wasn't anywhere near suffocating, but it wasn't comfortable either. Celeste didn't know what Brandon was thinking about her request right at the moment. It almost felt like she did something wrong and tried to make it up to him by offering to take care of his rut. Maybe it wasn't a good idea. Celeste still had no idea what a male werewolf in a rut could do to his mate. "Brandon?" Celeste waved her hands, looking for him. When she touched his arms, his skin felt burning, and his scent became stronger than before. Celeste didn't know if someone's scent could grow that strong. But the more she inhaled his scent, the more she felt like her desire for him increased. Could it be his scent affected her just as much as her scent affected him? Brandon's breathing grew deeper, almost like he was growling underneath

The moment he thought about killing the Princess, Shadow was engulfed in red fire from the binding vow. The front door was pushed open, and Stefano rushed in. His hands glowed in blue before he grabbed Shadow's arm that had the binding vow's mark. Clavier quickly injected himself with a cure. He didn't intend to inject himself with a lethal virus from the beginning. The Princess was already cured. What Clavier did to himself was simply give himself a poisoning that led him to the severe symptoms. He didn't intend to die before getting to the bottom of the matter about Shadow. "It's just a first-degree burn," Stefano informed Clavier, who could barely walk properly. "My power managed to suppress the binding vow for now. The King wouldn't notice it yet. That should give us time to think." "And the others?" "They will arrive soon. Get yourself properly treated." "No," Clavier said, walking past him. "I