Chapter 31: Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter 31

Lia’s POV

The forest was quiet.

Too quiet. The kind of quiet that clung to the bones like a graveyard breeze.

I moved through the trees barefoot, my skin brushing over damp moss. The moon glowed overhead like a single watching eye. Everything shimmered silver, everything except the figure ahead of me.

Lady Brie.

She stood at the edge of a clearing, back turned. A silver chalice cradled in her hands.

I couldn’t stop. My body moved without will, like a puppet on strings pulled by the dream itself.

“I made this for you,” she said, her voice calm, distant.

I looked into the chalice.

Golden liquid swirled inside, thick and sweet like honey. But something beneath it burned. It wasn’t a drink.

It was death.

Brie turned. Her eyes weren’t human. They glowed with cold, merciless purpose.

“You took him from me,” she said. “And now I’ll take you.”

I screamed.

And woke up.

My hands shaking, as I pulled on my coat and slipped into the cold night. The dream clung to my skin like smoke, too clear and unbearable. The scent of that poisoned chalice still lingered in my nose, the shimmer of the forest in my eyes. My wolf twisted beneath my ribs, heart pounding like war drums.

I didn’t think. I just ran, straight to the Alpha’s estate.

The guards called after me, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I needed to see Edgar first.

Edgar was in the war room, shirtless and streaked with blood from a training session. His wolf had surfaced, I could see it in the way his eyes glowed, his raw strength. Wild. Beautiful. Dangerous.

But the moment he saw my face, something in him shifted.

“Lia?” He crossed the room in three long strides, gripping my shoulders. “What happened?”

“I had a dream,” I panted. “I think it's not just a dream. A warning, maybe.”

His brows drew together. His eyes narrowed.

“I saw your mother,” I whispered. “She tried to poison me. She said I took you from her… and now she’ll take me. She held a silver chalice”

He let go of me.

The air turned cold in an instant.

Edgar stepped back, shaking his head like he didn’t recognize me anymore.

“You came in here… in the middle of the night… to accuse my mother of trying to murder you… because of a dream?”

My heart cracked. “Edgar, I know what I saw. I’m not trying to paint your mom black, but this could be a warning. Or maybe something bad wants to happen to her.”

“You know nothing,” he snapped. “You don’t know her. She raised me. Protected me. Led this clan before I could walk. She’s lost everything. And now you want me to believe she’s trying to kill my mate? The one thing I’ve ever loved?”

Tears pricked at the back of my eyes. “I’m not trying to destroy anything. I’m trying to protect us.”

He laughed then. Bitter. Broken.

“Protect us? Or poison us with your paranoia?”

“I felt it, Edgar.” My voice cracked. “The dream wasn’t just a dream. My wolf warned me.”

“Of course it did,” he said with a sneer. “Because now you’re suddenly you've transformed from being a Moonbound to some moon-blessed prophetess, aren’t you? Trying to make a point everywhere and anywhere just because you have the powers.”

I stepped back like he’d struck me.

Then came the words, like knives.

“You’re a bloody liar,” Edgar said coldly. “And a witch, maybe. One who wants to put my family asunder, because you don’t have one.”

Silence fell.

It shattered me from the inside out.

My hands trembled. My lips parted, but I couldn’t find the words.

His chest rose and fell, sharp and furious, but he said nothing else.

“You think I want to ruin you?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“I think you’ve never had roots,” he said. “So now you dig up mine.”

Tears blurred my vision. But I didn’t let them fall. Not in front of him.

“I didn’t ask to be tied to you, Edgar. I didn’t ask for this bond. Or this war. Or this pain. But I chose to stay. To fight. For you. Just the other day, you looked at me like nothing could ever separate us. And now this?”

“You should’ve left when you had the chance.”

My heart cracked.

“I wish I did.”

The words hung there between us, heavy with sorrow, pride, and everything we never said.

I turned and walked away.

He didn’t follow.

Outside, the night bit at my skin. I didn’t remember how I got home. The streets blurred.

I crawled into bed like a broken leaf.

And for the first time in a long time, I wished I had never come to Duskwood.

For the first time in forever, I felt truly, utterly alone again.

Somewhere deep in the night, beneath the weight of rejection and betrayal, I whispered through trembling lips,

“I loved you.”