Chapter 109
Chapter 109
Francesco’s Point of View:
I didn’t remember saddling the horse.
Didn’t remember barking the order to my guards or shifting into my Lycan form long enough to tear through the cold mist of the Western border.
All I remember is running–a blur of pine, wind, and rage.
Because hope, real hope, is a brutal thing.
It seizes your lungs like fire and whispers lies even as it dares you to believe.
It’s her. It’s her. It’s her!
Alfonso wouldn’t have called untess he was certain. Monica and Audrey wouldn’t have risked reporting unless she’d looked Ellaine in the eyes and felt it.
Still–I had been let down before. Too many times. Too many false leads. Too many women with haunted eyes who weren’t her.
And yet this time…
My chest burned with something I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in months.
What if it is her?
I rode without stopping. The rogue camps we’d planned to raid tomorrow would have to wait. Let them fester another day. Nothing mattered now except this. Her..
The terrain blurred beneath my horse’s hooves as we thundered through the narrow pass out of the western territory. The guards I’d left behind would catch up later. Only Marlow and Joshua kept pace beside me–silent, grim, but never once asking questions.
They knew better.
My bond with Ellaine had once been an open current–golden, gentle, vibrant. But when she vanished, it collapsed into a void so black it left my wolf howling in confusion. I’d searched across Europe trying to feel her again, even if it was only a ghost of her pain. I’d accepted I might never hear her voice again, that I’d spend the rest of my immortal life walking the earth with half a soul.
Until now.
Until my Beta’s mind–link had shattered the numbness.
“She answered to Edith,” Audrey added. “She smiled, Alpha. She smiled like she used to–soft, like sunlight.” She’s her protector, her bodyguard who always with her, so she know her better.
I clutched the reins tighter, knuckles bloodless.
It couldn’t be coincidence. Not again.
I stopped once to switch horses at a relay station near the Southern Ridge. My first mount had run itself nearly to collapse. I whispered thanks to it–my. voice hoarse–and swung onto the next without waiting to breathe. My wolf paced just beneath my skin, restless and tense, as if even he was afraid to believe it.
By dusk, the moon had risen, faint and half–full. Her moon. Her light.
And still I rode.
We cut through the northern forest under the cover of nightfall. Trees blurred like memories. I passed familiar watchtowers, trade routes, river crossings.
1/4
19.01 M
Chapter 109
Normally I’d pause to greet the border scouts or update them on orders. Not tonight.
Tonight I was just a man possessed by hope.
The final stretch home was the hardest.
I slowed briefly at the cliff trail overlooking the valley below–our valley. The lights of the capital glimmered like stars reflected in still water. From here, the palace loomed tall against the night sky, distant and unreachable.
My heart thundered.
If Alfonso, Audrey and Monica was right… if it truly was Ellaine…
She’s down there.
Alive.
Breathing.
So close I could almost feel her.
I pressed my heels into the horse’s side, urging it forward.
We reached the gates just after sun down. The guards at the wall recognized my scent and opened them instantly. No one dared question why I returned with such speed, sweat–slicked and blood–eyed like a creature out of war.
Alfonso was there to coordinate our arrival; he knew I am coming. Marlow dismounted first and ran ahead to clear the main courtyard.
And me? I stood still for a long moment under the moonlight, gripping the reins so tightly I nearly tore the leather.
I was afraid to move.
Because this was the moment.
After months of searching, chasing shadows, bleeding across enemy lands, begging witches and seers for answers…
She might be just a few steps away.
I exhaled once.
Then I moved to where Audrey and Monica stood waiting at the edge of the inner courtyard.
Their expressions were tight with caution, but behind their calm, I sensed the ripple of barely restrained urgency.
“Tell me how you found her. Is it truly her?” I demanded, my voice a low growl as my boots echoed against the marble floor. I didn’t stop walking. My pace was that of a man chasing time. “Where is she now?”
Monica, ever respectful, fell into step beside me. “She wandered into the market, Alpha. At first I thought she was one of the trader since she comes with them. But then-” she swallowed hard. “I saw her face.”
My pulse quickened.
“I mind–linked Audrey right away. Her hair, it’s silver now,” Monica added, glancing at me nervously. “Almost white. Her scent is faint, masked by something–her wolf is silent, like she’s buried it deep.”
Audrey caught up on my other side, her tone firm but laced with concern. “They call her, Edith. She didn’t recognize the place. Didn’t recognize me either. But there’s something familiar in her mannerisms. The way she tilts her head when she listens, or how she steps back when nervous.”
“I have to meet her,” I said hoarsely.
19.02 Mon, 21 Jul M
Chapter 109
“Please hold, Alpha.” Audrey stepped in front of me, and I almost growled at the obstacle in my path.
She raised both hands. “Forgive me, Alpha, I’m not stopping you. But listen to me: she doesn’t remember anything. Not you. Not the pack. Not even her
own name.”
I froze. My wolf surged against my ribs, howling in grief. Is it because of the poison?
I stopped moving.
A tree stood to my right, part of the palace’s indoor garden, and before I could stop myself–SMACK!
My fist slammed into the thick trunk.
The bark split open, bark splinters cracking and falling like snow. The sound startled everyone around me.
Monica and Audrey tensed but didn’t move. Alfonso and the other warrior who’s around stayed completely still.
I heaved, my breath ragged, my chest tight. The scent of sap and fresh blood from my knuckles mingled in the air. I wasn’t angry at them–I was furious at fate. At the world. At myself.
“Sorry,” I muttered, my voice low and hoarse. “I just…”
“I understand, Alpha” Audrey said gently. “We all do. But if you charge in there now with that storm in your chest, you might scare her. She doesn’t know what a Lycan is anymore, let alone who you are to her.”
I clenched my jaw. My wolf was pacing inside me, desperate to see her, to catch her scent properly–to know. But Audrey was right. The man she once knew wasn’t the man standing here now, bleeding and shaking.
I didn’t want to frighten her.
Slowly, I lowered my hand. My fingers throbbed, blood dripping down my wrist.
Monica stepped forward and bowed slightly, speaking with soft determination. “We will get to know her, get closer.”
I closed my eyes briefly.
My Ellaine—goddess help me, even if she called herself Edith now–had crawled her way through pain and poison, all the way back to my territory. Back to me. She didn’t know it. Maybe didn’t even want it.
But she was here.
I opened my eyes, meeting each of their gazes. “Then I’ll wait. We should do what we can do for her.”
Audrey blinked. “Alpha-”
“I’ll wait,” I repeated more firmly. “I won’t barge in and scare her. But I need to see her. Just from a distance if necessary. Let me just… look at her. Please.”
They exchanged giances, for the first their Alpha king show differences, he even say please.
So, Monica nodded.
