All Chapters of They Both Wanted Me: Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

The dreams did not stop after that first night. Each evening, as the sun set and the moon rose, Kael found himself drawn back to the sacred grove, pulled by a force he could not resist and no longer wanted to question. The moon spoke to him in images more than words—flashes of a life he had not yet lived, of a woman he had not yet met, of a love that would defy every tradition his kind had held sacred for centuries. He saw Lena in a library, surrounded by books that seemed to be her only companions. He saw her walking through a city street, her head down, her shoulders hunched against a cold that had nothing to do with the weather. He saw her sitting alone in a small apartment, staring at the wall, her golden eyes filled with a loneliness that made his chest ache. 

The night was cold and still, the kind of night that made wolves want to curl up by the fire and wait for dawn. Kael should have been sleeping, should have been conserving his strength for the challenges ahead, but sleep had become a stranger to him. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Lena's face. Every time he drifted off, he dreamed of golden eyes and a light that seemed to promise something he couldn't yet understand. He was standing at the edge of the settlement, staring at the forest, when Elena found him. "Can't sleep?" "Never can, these days."

The second day of the siege was worse than the first. Kael had hoped that the enemy's retreat at midnight would buy them time, perhaps even discourage further attacks. But Seraphine's forces regrouped quickly, driven by a hunger that transcended fear or fatigue. They returned at dawn, more numerous than before, their eyes burning with the same sickly light that marked them as corrupted. Kael stood on the wall, watching them emerge from the forest, his heart heavy with dread. He had lost wolves yesterday—good wolves, wolves he had grown up with, wolves who had trusted him to lead them. Today, he would lose more. 

Kael's blood ran cold when he saw the empty tent. Elena's bed was still rumpled, her blankets thrown back as if she had left in a hurry. Her few belongings were scattered on the floor—a comb, a mirror, a small wooden carving that might have been a wolf or a dog. The tent flap was open, swaying in the cold morning breeze, and the guards who had been posted outside were gone. Two of them, wolves Kael trusted, wolves who had sworn to protect Elena with their lives. Their bodies lay twenty feet from the tent, throats slit, eyes staring at the gray sky.

The lead hunter's body lay crumpled at the edge of the clearing, his red eyes still open, staring at a sky he would never see again. Kael stood over him, breathing hard, his sword dripping blood onto the forest floor. His shoulder throbbed where the hunter's blade had cut him, and his legs felt weak, unsteady, as if they might give out at any moment. Elena was on her knees, the baby still clutched to her chest, her silver eyes wide with shock. "Is he dead?" "He's dead." "Are there more?" "I don'