Chapter 20
807words
"Don't be afraid. I'm here. No one can take you away."
I lowered my eyes, feeling not fear, but an endless exhaustion.
My connection to Aiden had been severed at that cliff's edge, on the day I faked my death.
Betrayal was betrayal. No excuse could ever change that.
In the gallery, the fire in the hearth danced.
We sat quietly on the sofa, holding each other close, cherishing the rare peace.
Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away in the Black Moon pack's hospital, chaos had erupted.
Dragging his still-healing body, Aiden threw himself against the Beta guards at his door like a caged beast.
"Get out of my way! Let me out!"
"I have to find her! Elara isn't dead! She's really not dead!"
Ever since Elara had "died," his world had collapsed.
He refused to accept reality, turning to alcohol, finding a substitute, living in a fantasy of his own making. He was a madman, torturing himself and everyone around him.
Until that video.
The figure he had seen countless times in his dreams, the woman he thought had turned to ash, was alive and well in that video!
And she was smiling.
Smiling so gently, so brilliantly, at another Alpha.
An immense, insane joy and an all-consuming jealousy shattered his reason in an instant.
He didn't know how she had faked her death and escaped, or how she had ended up in that distant northern land.
He only knew one thing: Elara was alive!
As long as she was alive, as long as he could see her again, he had a chance. He had to find her, kneel before her, and confess. He had to tell her that he had never, ever forgotten her.
"Move! All of you, get out of my way!"
He roared, but his injuries left him weak, and he was repeatedly shoved back into the room by the strong guards.
Just then, the steady, powerful echo of footsteps sounded from the end of the hallway.
Damien arrived in a hurry, flanked by a group of elders.
The guards quickly stepped aside.
Before Aiden could speak, a heavy punch slammed into his face!
POW!
He staggered back from the blow, hitting the wall hard. A trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth.
"How long are you going to keep this up?"
Damien looked down at him, his eyes filled with a frustrated disgust.
"Your sister sent you that video so you would know she's doing well, so you could finally let go. Not so you could go and destroy the happiness she has now."
Aiden clutched his face, his eyes still wild. "She'll forgive me... I just need to explain..."
"Explain, my ass!"
Damien kicked him in the stomach, sending him toppling to the floor.
"If she was really willing to forgive you, why didn't she just come back? Why did she fake her death? Why did she change her name and hide in some remote corner of the world?"
"It's because she's disgusted by you! She never wants to see you again for the rest of her life!"
"Aiden, don't you get it? You're the one who drove her away!"
Every word was like a red-hot poker searing Aiden's heart.
The new Alpha didn't spare him another glance, coldly ordering the guards, "Watch him. He is not to take a single step out of this room until his leg has healed."
With that, he turned and left.
In the empty hospital room, only Aiden remained, curled up pathetically on the floor.
The pain in his body was nothing compared to the despair consuming his soul.
"Elara..."
He groaned in agony, tears mixing with the blood running down his face.
Regret washed over him, a tidal wave that drowned him.
He remembered the old days. Every time he was injured, Elara would stay by his bedside all night, wiping his sweat, giving him water.
Everyone said she was the perfect Luna, that he should have cherished her.
But he had been blinded by cheap passion for some wannabe model, and step by step, he had lost his most precious treasure.
He thought that if he could just hide it well enough, he could have both.
And the result?
Elara would rather die than look at him again. And his so-called "true love," Cassia, was nothing but a fraud who had used black magic to climb her way up.
Now, Elara wasn't dead.
But this was even more devastating than her death.
Because it meant that she truly no longer loved him, that she was determined to cut him completely from her life.
In this world, there would never again be anyone who looked at him the way Elara once did.
Aiden covered his face, his body wracked with silent, agonizing sobs.
