Chapter 118
Back to Elaine Point of view:
My head pulsed with a deep, splitting ache that refused to let go. It felt like a war raged inside my skull. I stirred beneath unfamiliar sheets, the weight of exhaustion still pulling at my limbs. A warm light filtered through thick curtains, and the scent of herbs lingered faintly in the air. I blinked slowly, trying to recall where I was or how I’d gotten here.
Then, a voice–low, gentle, and achingly familiar–broke through the silence.
“You’re awake.”
My eyes shifted. There, seated beside me, was him.
Frans.
No–Francesco.
I remembered now. The knight who had been following me. The man who looked at me as if I meant everything.
He was sitting with his hands clasped, as though in silent prayer or quiet restraint. The lines of concern etched into his face were too raw to ignore. He rose slightly when I sat up, then paused, cautious.
“How do you feel?” he asked, his voice careful.
I opened my mouth, but the words failed. A thousand questions clogged my throat. My heart pounded faster than my head now, beating to a rhythm I didn’t understand. Why did he look at me like that? Why did I feel this pull toward him, this heat in my chest that made no sense?
“Where… am I?” I asked hoarsely.
“You’re safe,” he said gently. “We’re in Riverhaven, in a guesthouse not far from the main market. You fainted in the woods yesterday. Darius brought us here.”
Darius.
That name stirred something in me. A flash of an old man, a council chamber, a woman crying… And then it was gone.
I clutched my forehead and groaned. The pain came in waves, followed by brief, burning images I couldn’t hold on to.
Francesco stood suddenly, stepping closer.
“Here,” he said, and held out a small glass of water. “Drink this, Slowly.”
Thesitated, staring at his hand. He didn’t force it. He simply waited. Something about the way he did that—his patience, the way he knew my fear before I voiced it–made my heart ache.
I took the glass.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
He nodded, and resumed his seat. The silence that settled between us was thick with something unsaid.
“Why are you here?” I finally asked.
He lifted his gaze to mine. The intensity in his eyes nearly took my breath away.
“To protect you. To find you. To bring you home.”
1/3
Chapter 118
My heart skipped.
Home.
A word that meant both everything and nothing.
I frowned. “I don’t understand. Why do you care so much?”
His jaw clenched, and for the first time, he looked away.
“Because you are my mate,” he said, so quietly it was almost a whisper.
The words hit like lightning.
“What?” I gasped.
He looked at me again. “You are my fated mate. My Ellaine. The woman I thought I’d lost forever.”
I recoiled as if struck. “No. I’m not her. My name is Edith.”
“It was,” he said gently. “But your real name is Ellaine Rollin. You were taken from me, poisoned so your memories wouldn’t return. You’ve been living under a false name, hidden by those who wanted to keep you from me.”
I shook my head, tears burning in my eyes. “That’s not true. You’re wrong.”
“Look me in the eyes,” he said, standing and walking toward me. “You feel it. Don’t you? The bond. The pull. The way your heart responds to mine.”
“No,” I lied.
He stopped just short of the bed, arms at his sides, tense with restraint.
“You don’t have to say it,” he said after a pause. “But I know you feel it. Because when I thought I’d lost you, it almost destroyed me. And now that I’ve found you again, I swear on the moon goddess, I will never let anyone take you from me.”
His voice cracked at the end. The rawness of it twisted something deep in me. My throat tightened.
“Why me?” I whispered. “Why do I matter so much to you?”
He took a breath. “Because you are the missing piece of me. Because even without your memories, you still smile the same way. You still cry beneath the moonlight when no one sees. You still love art, and freedom, and peace.”
I was trembling.
He knelt.
“Ellaine… Edith… whatever name you need to wear, I will wait. I will protect you from everyone–even from yourself if I must. But I won’t lie to you. I love you. I always have.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks before I could stop them.
This wasn’t fair.
He was too kind. Too good. Too sure.
But I… I was broken.
And terrified.
“Please…” I whispered, backing away from him. “Don’t say these things. I can’t feel this. I can’t trust this.”
2/3
Chapter 118
He froze.
“You don’t have to trust me now,” he said. “Just let me be near. Let me protect you.”
I turned my face away.
“I want to be alone.”
A pause.
Then the softest of sighs.
“As you wish.”
And just like that, he rose and walked out, closing the door behind him with the quietest click.
The moment he left, I crumbled.
I clutched my chest, as if something had been ripped away.
I didn’t understand it. I didn’t
t somethin
inside me was unraveling.
Then, faintly–a voice, soft and familiar, echoed in
my
mind.
“He never hurt us.”
My eyes widened.
“Mika…?”
My wolf.
Gone for so long. Silent since the day I woke up as Edith.
But now–a whisper.
I fell onto the pillow and sobbed, torn between the truth clawing its way back into my heart and the lies I’d wrapped myself in to survive.
Was I really Ellaine?
Did I want to be?
Outside the door, Francesco leaned against the wall, eyes closed, fists clenched, holding back the roar in his chest.
He had found her.
But she was further away than ever.
3/3
曲
AD
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