Chapter 53
RONAN’S POV
Marceline’s statements reverberated in my mind all through the evening, a relentless, aggravating hum that declined to fade away.
“Elara and Kael were once in a relationship. I wasn’t sure what exactly happened, but Kael rejected her…causing her to run away. The excuse of her running away from bad people was a lie. She ran away from Kael because she couldn’t stand the heartbreak any longer and came to our lands. She’s a liar and a deceiver, and now that Kael’s back, she’s torn between you two. Ronan, you think about it. Who would she pick? You or Kael?”
I shook my head attempting to eliminate her statements. Impossible. Elara and Kael? It was ridiculous.
Another one of her distorted schemes, crafted to breed conflict and disorder.
Elara wouldn’t …she couldn’t…
If there was anything she was concealing, she would have informed me. Elara can’t deceive me, she wouldn’t. However, despite how much I tried to trust in her, the persistent uncertainty lingered.
This wouldn’t suffice. I couldn’t merely reject Marceline’s doubts. I needed to uncover the facts, one way or another. I had to solve this enigma or else I’d forfeit my reason before long.
Flinging aside my covers, I seized a shirt from my dresser and proceeded out of my rooms. “Stay extra alert.” I directed the sentries positioned outside.
I strode directly to Elara’s chamber, turning the door handle, I discovered the door was unlatched. My breath caught as I dreaded the potential worst, but I calmed when I entered and approached her.
She was deeply asleep on her bed. Her eyes were swollen, red-edged, as if she’d been weeping. Dark rings shaded her typically vibrant eyes, creating a harsh difference to her usually perfect skin tone. She was huddled on her bed, her small fragile form gripped the blankets. I observed as her frame quivered faintly.
A gentle exhale left my mouth as I settled next to her, my digits softly caressing her locks. I hadn’t grasped how much pressure she’d been enduring until this instant. The burden of my duties, of safeguarding my pack, had obscured my view of her quiet hardships.
“I’m sorry.” I whispered beneath my breath.
Abruptly, the door squeaked ajar and her private servant, Clara, stepped inside. “Oh- I!” She exclaimed, inclining profoundly. “Forgive me, Alpha, I didn’t anticipate finding you here so late….I was just arriving to look in on Miss Elara and-”
“It’s fine.” I lifted a hand, quieting her.
“I’ll depart now.” She inclined once more and exited, softly shutting the door after her.
Elara shifted next to me, rolling restlessly, a scowl contorted on her mouth as if she were experiencing a bad dream.
Marceline was mistaken. This time, completely, indisputably mistaken. But regrettably, the kernel of skepticism she had sown had already sprouted, dividing my views into two.
Two Days Later.
The remaining rogue had already taken his own life. The particulars were sparse, a gruesome conclusion to an already disturbing circumstance. Who was he? Where did he originate? Why did they strike? And how were they able to evade my protections? Was it feasible that three Rogues slew all the sentries placed at the boundary of my domain?
More crucially Silas’s demise… His was an issue that seemed totally perplexing. His passing appeared peculiar, nearly as if he was slain to conceal a mystery, but what mystery? And by whom?
All my inquiries stayed unresolved. What mystery did the rogue hold that justified such an extreme measure of self-termination. The quietude provided no comfort, only a frigid ambiguity.
An adversary was nearing and swiftly. But who? And more crucially for what purpose?
I felt completely fatigued, psychologically and sentimentally depleted. Never before had I felt this adrift, this perplexed and this insecure. There were a thousand matters requiring my focus, g
Yet I felt immobilized, incapable of ranking them, incapable of concentrating.
I shook my head, attempting to divert myself from the awful ideas. The pact with Lycan Kael required endorsement, a official closure to his brief residence in my pack.
Elara meanwhile still stayed aloof, even now with my healing. Her aloofness was a perpetual, persistent discomfort, a substantial load in the depths of my belly. She appeared troubled, tense, as if carrying some invisible load.
A breath left my mouth as my gaze, pulled to her by an unstoppable pull, settled on her from the opposite side of the space. She rested calmly on a stool, singing quietly, digits turning through the sheets of a volume.
I parted my lips to talk but before I could voice a solitary term, Kael entered, his entry shattering the strained quiet.
“Sorry I’m late,” he stated, his gaze resting on Elara for a instant more than required. The action, though understated, hit me with a startling impact, summoning Marceline’s statements rushing back to me, and still, I shoved them away.
‘Elara and Kael have a history together.’ The statements resounded profoundly in my mind regardless of how I attempted to banish it.
Regardless of how I attempted not desiring her to be accurate, my heart throbbed.
“It’s fine.” I responded, striving to maintain my voice impartial, to hide the discomfort roiling inside me.
We endorsed the pact, the ceremony of the deed conflicting with the upheaval storming within me. We conversed briefly, reviewing operational specifics, but during our exchange, I couldn’t avoid observing his stare, persistently locked on Elara.
And Elara, conversely, evaded us both, her concentration on the volume in her grasp even though I question she was perusing it.
Had I truly never observed that Kael gazed at Elara? Or did this merely commence lately?
“Ronan,” Elara summoned in a gentle tone, drawing me and Kael from our dialogue.
“Yeah?”
“I’d like to excuse myself,” she stated, compelling a slight grin, “I hope you don’t mind?”
I shook my head, reciprocating her grin with a slight one, “No I don’t. You can go.”
She assented and placed the volume back onto the rack and departed, without even glancing at either of us.
His gaze stayed on her even after she had left, a vivid fervor that rendered me disturbed. Has this truly been occurring directly beneath my awareness?! Had I been too oblivious to perceive it?
An hour afterward, after Kael and I had ultimately wrapped up our talks, I chose to stroll through the palace to refresh my thoughts. A gathering was scheduled for tomorrow, to address the latest occurrences that had been transpiring in the palace. I had to be exceptionally watchful now no matter what, or else before I’d even grasped it, my pack would endure another assault and this time….perhaps taking blameless lives.
The burden of my obligations pressed on my shoulders.
As I strolled along the corridor, my gaze landed on Kael. I desired to avert my eyes but the instant he extended and seized somebody, I advanced, desiring to identify who it was.
Elara.
He was drawing her toward a isolated section of the Palace, the haste in his actions contradicted his typical serene attitude.
Distrust, keen and icy, stabbed through me, driving me into motion. I covertly trailed them, my strides hushed and cautious. They were proceeding toward the library.
As they went in and shut the door, I rested against the barrier, pushing my ear against the timber. I needed to listen, to learn precisely what their conversation concerned and how pressing it was for Kael to haul her to a location where nobody was.
“Elara we have to go,” Kael’s voice sounded from the library, it was subdued, but clear enough to be perceived. “Let’s leave…together.”
My breath caught as I inched nearer. I couldn’t accept it. Kael was outlining a covert scheme for them to depart together with Elara. As I lingered there, my mind fragmented into a million shards.
The disloyalty burned more than any bodily strike. I couldn’t comprehend the notion of departing, disloyal to me.
The awareness of how accurate Marceline’s statements seemed was like a blade rotating in my abdomen, frigid and keen. The agony was much more ruinous than any bodily injury.