Chapter 74 074

Chapter 74 074
Aveline’s POV
The room was silent as I snuggled deeper into Draven’s embrace, terrified that if I ever drifted away from him again, I might get dragged into an abyss I would never crawl out of. I hadn’t believed him before..hadn’t believed anything, but now I just wanted him to tell me what to do, what to hold on to, and what to believe in. I didn’t think I could trust my own judgment anymore after everything I saw.

“You are saved, Aveline. You don’t have to be scared anymore,” he whispered gently as he patted my head, and I only breathed a shaky sigh of relief when I realized he wasn’t pulling away from me or recoiling from my touch.

It was just… my own fear. My own mind betraying me again.

“I… apologize for how I acted,” I muttered, but he didn’t say anything. He just kept his gaze on me, unwavering, quiet. My thoughts drifted back to what happened at the cliff, but it felt as if part of my memories had been wiped clean. I couldn’t grasp anything. It was like reaching for smoke.

I only remembered being beaten up by Yana, but the rest was fuzzy, except the part where I realized I had almost hurt Draven. But how had that even happened? How did it begin?

“About what happened on the cliff…” I started to say, but Draven cut me off, holding my hands tightly as he lifted them to his lips and placed a kiss on my knuckles.

“You don’t have to worry about that. You just have to focus on getting better,” he said, and the words didn’t make sense to me at all.

“Getting better? Am I sick? Why do I need to get better?” I bombarded him with questions, my heart rate spiking again. “And what happened to Lady Yana and Thalia? Are they alright?”

My lips trembled with fear as I asked, because it felt like the fuzzy part of my memories was hiding something important..something dark. What if I had hurt someone? What if the nightmare was real?

“Thalia? Is that the name of the maid?” he asked, his brows furrowing, his expression shifting sharply. I couldn’t help wondering why he reacted like that.

“Are you not going to tell me anything now? Even when I’m about to lose my mind?” I screamed, and my voice cracked as the panic crawled through me.

I was already on the edge of losing my mind with everything that had been happening, but I knew I would truly break if I had that nightmare one more time. There was only so much cruelty this world could throw at me before I shattered, and that nightmare was not something I could endure again.

Waking up in the midst of stacked dead bodies was not something I wanted to be the highlight of my night, but that didn’t mean I would let him deceive me again.

“What do you want to know, Aveline? Ask anything. I will tell you,” he said, and his readiness made me raise an eyebrow in disbelief.

“What’s with this sudden readiness? Aren’t you supposed to dodge that question?” I asked, and he shook his head slowly.

“No. I would’ve dodged it before, but I feel like you need to know now. And I don’t have a problem telling you anymore,” he replied, and a quiet sigh slipped from my mouth.

“Did you not say you were protecting me… from me? What do you mean by that?” I asked.

He went silent for a long while, not saying a word, as if he was calculating every words, terrified of saying the wrong thing. But I waited. No matter how long he stayed quiet, I needed him to answer.

“It seems you must have met her already,” he finally said.

“Met who?”

“The silver-eyed wolf,” he breathed out. “Your wolf.”

Something in the way he said it made the air feel heavier.

Silver-eyed wolf? What was the meaning behind that?

“I don’t know if meeting her in my dream counts, but I have… and she said some absurd things that..”

“They are not absurd,” Draven cut me off, his tone firm, “they’re the truth. Or… should I say, the future.”

“What future? Draven, you didn’t hear what she said. She said I will be the one to wipe out the werewolf clan.” I whispered, low enough that no one else could possibly hear.

I expected him to recoil in disgust, expected him to look at me like a monster, but his face… stayed blank. Not shocked, not angry. Almost as if he had already known.

“Hm. She’s not lying,” he said calmly. “That’s why I said I needed to protect you.” His hands clasped around mine again, but my throat tightened.

Did he know this about me and still keep it a secret? If what she said was true, wasn’t I dangerous to him? Why was he choosing to stay close to me?

“And she said I’m going to hurt you. Is that why you rejected me as your mate?” I asked. My voice trembled, my chest quivered in fear as I realized the real problem wasn’t him… it was me.

I was the danger. I had been blaming him for things he did to protect us both.

“Yes. And that’s because I’m your enemy,” he whispered as he cupped my face, and then gently placed a stiff kiss on the bridge of my nose, a gesture so tender it stole my breath.

“What enemy? I don’t hate you, Your Majesty,” I argued, and he chuckled softly.

“That’s because you haven’t heard her side of the story. You might shed a tear or two if you do,” he said, and I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic, because why would I cry for someone who planned to wipe out the entire werewolf race?

“Why would I do that? Have you heard her side of the story?” I demanded, and he nodded.

“How did you know?”

“From the prophecy,” he said. “It has been said that the silver-eyed Luna would kill the devil Alpha, her mate. And it seems it wasn’t a lie.”

My chest tightened violently.

So I would commit a massacre…And then kill my mate as well.

What cruel joke was the goddess playing on me?

My breath seized as the weight of all the information crashed into me. I couldn’t process everything. I couldn’t even understand some of it. I just felt myself spiraling.

“This is not possible. I can’t become a monster! I won’t allow it!” I screamed as my mind slipped, the words tumbling out of me in broken pieces.

No sane person would stay calm after being told something so vile. I wished I had never heard it.

“Aveline!” he roared, and instantly my panic stilled. “You are not becoming a monster. I won’t allow it.”

I panted, trying to slow my breathing, but the fear that I might not be in control of my own mind terrified me. Still, Draven’s arms, his warmth, grounded me.

“If you think you are becoming a monster, don’t forget, I’m a bigger one,” he said as he pulled me into another embrace.

I melted into him, exhausted. And when we finally parted, my face was already wet, tears slipping down without permission. I didn’t even know why I was crying. Maybe for fear, shock, grief for a future I didn’t want.

“Do you want to hear my biggest secret, Aveline? I haven’t told anyone else this only you. So…do you want to listen?” he asked, and I nodded, even though my heart trembled.

I knew he was trying to pull me out of my spiraling thoughts, and honestly, I was one word away from bursting into sobs again.

“Do you remember that story I was telling you at the café? About my sixth birthday?”

His voice dropped, raw and fragile.

“I… I killed my parents,” he rasped. His hands were still clasped in mine, but I was so stunned that I jerked my hands away immediately.

What?
He was the one who killed his parents?