Chapter 48
LUNA AQUAMARINE’S POV
When I heard the door open, I didn’t turn around. I just sat still at the edge of the bed.
I’d left the note Esmeralda gave me folded on the dresser, tucked under a loose book–out of sight. But not out of mind.
The door clicked shut.
I heard him walk in.
My skin prickled as his scent rolled over me. Still fresh–mint and smoke–but tonight, it carried something else. Regret, maybe.
Exhaustion. I couldn’t bring myself to look until I felt him closer.
“Aquamarine,” he said quietly.
I turned.
He stood there, eyes on mine, like he was searching for something in my expression.
“I didn’t mean to scare you back there,” he said.
Lblinked. I could still remember the smell of blood and fire. The way his eyes glowed gold as they devoured me in the
dark.
He looked… inhuman.
“it’s fine,” I lied.
He raised a brow. “No. It’s not.”
I looked down at my fingers. They were shaking again.
He sighed and moved closer. “I wasn’t myself,” he continued. “That room isn’t meant for… light company. I didn’t expect you to find it. And I… I didn’t expect you to follow me.”
I said nothing
“You looked like you wanted to eat me alive,” I whispered.
His lips twitched–almost a smile. “Probably, you’re getting chubbier and really edible.”
I shot him a look, “I didn’t mean that type of eat.”
He chuckled, “I wouldn’t. You know that.”
Silence.
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“There’s something else,” he muttered, leaning forward slightly and reaching toward a small wrapped bundle beside the tub. He pulled it open and held it out to me.
A dagger.
Same shape as the first but still very different.
The blade was deep red with white lines running down its centre, as if the veins of the weapon glowed with quiet power. The hilt was gold. While the pommel was a swirl of red, gold, and white–like fire frozen in motion.
“I forged it two nights ago,” he said. “After your heat ended. I could feel the bond shift. I knew we needed something stronger. More attuned.”
I took it gently in my hands.
It felt alive. Like it hummed beneath my skin.
“This one… connects to us both. Our souls. You won’t just use it. You’ll feel it.”
I stared at the weapon, stunned. Something in it thrummed when I touched it–something alive. I breathed, overwhelmed.
“I don’t deserve this. Not yet. Not until I make something that doesn’t look like a stick tied to a rock.”
He didn’t smile. Didn’t blink.
རྩྭ་རྩ་རྩ་རྒྱ
“You deserve something that listens to you,” he murmured. “Something that belongs to you… and to me.”
My throat tightened. I wanted to speak but the words didn’t come. I wanted to say something. Thank him. Smile. Kiss him.
But all I did was nod. Because I couldn’t trust my voice not to crack under the weight of the note still pressed to my skin
beneath this dress. I was tending to the same man I might betray. And he didn’t even know it.
He turned and began to unbutton the black cloth wrapped across his torso.
“I had a tiny accident,” he said suddenly, casually, but I could hear the strain in his tone, “It’s nothing. I wrapped it myself.
Just needed to stop the bleeding.”
“Alex,” I said firmly. “Bathroom. Now.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Wait-” he said, but I ignored him. I grabbed his wrist and dragged him toward the bath chamber. The sight of that black cloth made my skin crawl.
I sat him on the stone stool while I searched for clean clothes and healing ointments. He said nothing as I worked, only watching me.
When I gently touched the edge of the wound with the warm cloth, he flinched.
I paused, but he shook his head. “Keep going.”
My hands trembled as I wiped the blood. Every time he flinched under my touch, it felt like a knife in my gut–because I
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Chapter 48
was hiding something. My lips parted to speak… but the truth caught in my throat. Not yet. Not now.
“You should’ve let Levi treat it first,” I murmured.
He didn’t look at me. “Because I was alone.”
My breath hitched. “But… Levi was with you, wasn’t he?”
“No,” he said simply, “No one knows of that place.”
The cloth slipped from my hand. I blinked at him, heart skipping.
I froze. “Not even Levi?”
He shook his head once.
That’s when it hit me.
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That strange place… Levi didn’t even know about it. That wasn’t just a hidden room. It was something else. Something ancient. Something secret. My pulse quickened.
He faced me fully now. “That room is mine, Aqua. Not even Levi knows about it.”
Something cold settled in my stomach.
I leaned closer, catching a better look of the wound. It was red, swollen and lined with a strange burn pattern that didn’t Took like any weapon I’d seen. I wanted to ask, but something in his eyes told me not to.
He wasn’t ready. And neither was I.
“I’ll get more herbs,” I muttered, stepping away.
“Top drawer, second shelf,” he said.
I went back into the room, rummaged for the jar he meant, and returned. I poured the liquid directly on his chest.
I watched his jaw clench and his whole body shake as he tried to suppress his groans,
I didn’t speak, didn’t let my fear show. Instead, I dipped the cloth in the warm water, wrung it out gently, and pressed it against his skin.
He tensed at first, but didn’t pull away.
I cleaned around the wound carefully and gently cleaned the deepest part. My fingers worked slowly, gently. He watched
me in silence.
I poured some of the mixture into the tub water, herbs and healing oils he had stored in the drawer.
“You need to soak,” I said and he stood up and removed his clothes. The next month only to find him already submerged in the tub, water rippling around his chest.
He leaned back against the edge, golden eyes half–closed but seemed calmer now.
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Chapter 48
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
Without hesitation, I stepped in too.
I poured the herbs into the water and watched it turn a faint gold.
“I didn’t want you to see it,” he said, his voice rough. “The wound.”
I moved closer anyway, setting the salve down beside the marble rim of the tub. “I’ve seen blood before.”
Not mine.”
A pause stretched between us, thick and long.
He looked… human. Still terrifying, still powerful, but also real. Flesh and blood. Tired. Bruised. Alone.
I didn’t know what I felt exactly. Guilt. Warmth. Curiosity. Fear. A twist of everything. But mostly, I felt like something in him had shifted… and something in me had broken open to make space for it.
“Thank you,” he said without opening his eyes.
I blinked. “For what?”
“You did well not running away when I pulled you into that room.”
“I thought about it,” admitted. “Everything about that place felt like a warning.”
“I’m still angry,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“I still don’t understand what that place was. Why did you change?” I asked
“You’ll know. Eventually,” he replied.
He looked at me now, like he really looked. And there was something softer in his eyes. Wearier. “But you trusted me enough not to leave either. And I do too. More than I should, maybe.”
I looked at him. “Even after Gaia?”
He exhaled slowly, water rippling around him. “I let her live. Because of you.”
My lips parted. “What?”
“You begged me to and I did.” His words/were sharp, like they cost him something. “Because I knew what it would do to you if I killed her… even after everything she did.”
I pressed a hand to my mouth, emotions crashing in fast.
“Don’t thank me,” he added quickly, gaze darkening. “I don’t know if it was the right decision. Maybe I’ll regret it. Maybe I won’t. And frankly, I’m still furious, I wanted to just… squeeze her with my bare hands. But I let her go, for you.”
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The weight of those words hung in the air between us.
He reached out, hand curling gently around mine under the water.
༥ ཊཱི 29% ༤
I swallowed dryly. A strange silence settled between us. The kind where truths wanted to crawl out but neither of us knew
how to start.
“But next time, I won’t be merciful.”
“Aquamarine?”
“Hm?”
“What exactly were you trying to achieve in my workshop?
I felt heat rise to my cheek. “You weren’t supposed to see them. They’re horrible,” I groaned, sinking deeper into the water.
“They’re not horrible,” he said after a beat.
I blinked.
“They’re insulting,” he corrected.
I splashed water at him, laughing, and for the first time since earlier, the air lightened.
A shadow of a smirk touched his lips. “That thing with the twisted blade and a handle that melted?”
My hand hit the water beside him. “It didn’t melt!”
“It folded in on itself, Aquamarine.”
I buried my face in my hands.
“I wanted it to be perfect,” I admitted. “But next to the dagger… I just… I felt like I was giving you scraps.”
“You gave me effort,” he said simply. “I can always sharpen effort. I can’t sharpen silence.”
My heart stuttered.
I glanced at him. “Even though I’m bad at it?”
He turned serious again. “You’re not bad. You’re just not used to being trusted with power.”
“I just didn’t want to disappoint you,” I whispered.
“You didn’t,” he said. “You never could, Not anymore.”
My chest tightened.
For a second, it felt like he meant more than the weapons. Like he was talking about something else entirely. Like he was talking about… me.
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“You should get out before you turn into a prune.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s what you’re worried about?”
“Yes,” I said. “Because I’m the one who’ll have to explain to the Elders why their Alpha looks like a wrinkled raisin.”
He chuckled–actually chuckled–as he stood, water dripping down his scarred body.
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wrapped the towel around his shoulders quickly, averting my eyes. I didn’t need to stare. Not now. I already felt too many
things.
He let me lead him out, back into the room. And just before he sat down on the edge of the bed, he spoke again.
“I know you’re hiding something,” he said, voice low.
My breath caught.
“What?”
“Your eyes have been screaming since we got back.”
I looked away. “It’s nothing.”
“Nothing always means something.”
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