I couldn't stand listening to their conversation anymore and ran back to my room. However, my wolf howled in anger. Desperate to avenge herself, she exerted too much force to get me shifted which resulted in my human body acting up. I couldn't properly shift to my wolf, instead I began shivering in the cold.
"Ava?"
At some point, Lucas had appeared.
His expression darkened at the sight of me laying on the floor, shivering in cold.
Without hesitation, he scooped me into his arms and laid me on the bed, his fingers trembling as he wrapped me in a blanket and began rubbing my hands and sole of the foot.
"I'm sorry, Ava. I failed to take care of you." He said in a regretful voice. I could see his eyes moistened with guilt and concern, just as they always were whenever he saw me in pain.
"Don’t worry. I’ve arranged for the best moonstone this time. It will last longer than the previous one. In a few days, I’ll replace the moonstone in your body with this new one."
I used to believe that those tears in his eyes were genuine for me. I even forced myself to be strong, and patient. I would even laugh and crack jokes while being in pain just to lighten his mood. Looking back now, I was such a fool.
"Lucas, I've endured so much pain all these years while inserting a stone in my chest." My voice was weak, yet every word carried the weight of my torment. "Can I stop using these moonstones anymore?"
‘Didn’t you already prepare spare life sources for Ember? Then… Can I have my life source back?’
For a fleeting moment, uncertainty was visible in Lucas's eyes, only to be swiftly replaced by a warm, reassuring smile. His fingers gently brushed against my cheek, his touch disarmingly soothing as he said, "Ava, don't torment yourself with impossible hopes. Your condition is too fragile. You don't have your life source and are dependent on moonstones to live. Abandoning the moonstone is out of the question. Without the artificial heart, your life would be... unpredictable. Can you really ask me to take that risk?"
But I knew the truth – the life force giving energy to Ember was mine, stolen from me by the man I loved. A cold dread seeped into my bones, leaving me numb. Yet, I managed a faint smile, a very good attempt to conceal the turmoil brewing inside. "You're right, as always. I was being foolish.”
After dinner, I grabbed an opportunity to mix a sleeping potion in his wine. As expected, he fell asleep early. Even in his sleep, due to the presence of intoxic Wolf's Bane in the potion, he couldn't help muttering his heart out loudly, “Ember… I’ll protect you forever, even if it costs my life.”
I laughed at his words in irony. The person who was risking their lives for his beloved was not him, but me and my mother.
I quietly left our bedroom and walked into his study room, a place I was never allowed before.
As expected, the room’s door was locked with patterns. I drew the pattern that resembled the initial of Ember’s wolf name and it cracked open. As I scanned the room, I found it to be filled with Ember's memory. There were many paintings showing Ember with Lucas, their interaction looking intimate, and considering the relationship they shared with each other, one would call them shameless.
I found a diary lying on his study table that was supposed to be his journal. Five words were written on it: “First and last love: Ember”
I flipped the pages of his journal. Every page was filled with sketches of Ember that were drawn by him with affection. His journal was filled with his feelings and devotion towards Ember. He wrote
[Today, I saw Ember for the first time, and I think she is the one made for me]
[We live at the same home. I can touch her whenever I want but I can't claim her because of the rules of our pack. The distance between us is getting me crazy]
[Today, I married Ava. She is Ember’s step sister and looks similar to her. I couldn't hold myself in bed. Despite knowing her body is fragile, I went for three rounds. I miss Ember too much, so I keep calling her name in my heart as if that would turn the woman beneath me into her…]
And that wasn’t all. Pages after pages, he wrote how he slept with me thinking about Ember or made me close my eyes while he stared at her painting when releasing himself in me. He also mentioned all the expensive gifts he had been sending to Ember all these years.
Not a single one for me.
He had even bought a necklace made up of the precious gemstone that was one of its kind in the whole world.
And the only thing Lucas had ever given me… was a stone in my chest that brought nothing but agony.
While I was drowning in grief over my mother’s death, shivering in cold and losing my wolf, Ember had been flaunting the necklace to her friends that she received from my husband.
