Chapter 47 Cunning Elly;
The town's doctor, Lily, could see clearly that if things continued this way, blood would be spilled in the town once again. Even though centuries had passed, it wasn't only the wolf bloodline that lived on these lands, a hunter lineage that had grown up in their shadow still existed as well.
If people began to remember their old identities and the ancient memory carried in their blood, it was entirely possible that even neighbors who had once shared the same table and walked the same streets could suddenly turn on one another.
But Lily's real fear was a different possibility altogether.
The young people in town whose wolf spirits had newly awakened… they were not yet under the authority of an Alpha. They had no idea how to control the wild impulses surging within them. If these young people gave in to those dark urges, a single moment of rage or fear would be enough to make them draw blood. And then… the scent of blood could spread through the streets of the town once more.
A little while later, Lily tended to the children found in the forest one by one. Many of them were slowly regaining consciousness. Their pulses were strong and their wounds were superficial. There appeared to be no serious physical damage, but their minds were still clouded.
They remembered almost nothing of the night.
Every one of them could only recall the moment they had gotten into bed. The warmth of their rooms, the ordinary night they had closed the door on… Everything after that was a blank.
Some said they assumed they'd had too much to drink and blacked out, attributing their missing memories to that. But Lily knew perfectly well that this was no simple case of intoxication.
This was instinct. As if they had been drawn toward some supernatural beacon.
What had pulled them from their beds in the dead of night and dragged them barefoot into the forest was that ancient call newly awakened in their bodies.
But the question that truly gnawed at Lily's mind was something else. She had begun to wonder why they had come to the forest at all. What exactly had drawn these children here?
The answer wasn't far away at all.
Just below the forest sat a small town hotel, an old place that had been run by a local family for roughly fifty years. And two familiar names had spent the previous night there.
Elly and Joe.
A little while later, Lily walked toward her pickup truck. Once she was inside, a deep stress settled over her body. She pulled a cigarette from her pocket and lit it, drawing in the smoke. She had actually quit a long time ago. She felt ashamed of herself for giving in right now. But her stress wasn't without reason.
Doctor Lily's lineage had been tied to the Börü for centuries. She always remembered this day through the stories her father used to tell, through his dreams of one day it will come and we will be free again as we once were. But what struck her as truly strange was that the person who had wanted to live this day was her father, yet he was no longer alive to see it.
The fate of living through this had fallen to Lily instead. But Lily wanted neither the wolf bloodline nor the chaos that would come with it spilling into this town.
Then, in a fleeting moment of thought, the Guardian lineage crossed her mind. Her father had always said that the Guardians were the ones who maintained spiritual balance — the absolute equilibrium of both the witches, the Alpha, and the wolf bloodline.
Now, with the young people caught in the situation they were in, she thought the only ones who could help them were the Guardians.
She knew the witch bloodline had been exhausted, but she had also heard the whispers making their rounds in town. Eva Rose, the last remaining descendant of the Rose women who had settled in the town not long ago… She hadn't met her yet. But she figured a woman who had only just learned her own past couldn't have any direct connection to these events.
Still, something had to be done. And she moved quickly.
She stubbed out her cigarette and dropped it into the ashtray in the car. Then she turned the key.
Her destination was clear. The home of Great Elder Agness, the household of the old Guardian bloodline.
What she didn't know was that there would be no one there to greet her.
At the foot of the forest, the scent of old wood had drifted through every room of the mountain hotel. Sunlight poured in through the enormous windows. And inside the large bathtub of one of the hotel rooms, two lovers lay wrapped around each other, bare-skinned.
Joe had his back braced against the edge of the tub, his muscular arms drawing Elly's slender body against him. Her red hair spilled across his wet chest, and the sunlight's reflection made the copper freckles on her face glow. Joe was watching her with admiring eyes, tracing her face softly with his fingers.
Elly giggled and murmured,
"You've been playing with my face since last night. Haven't you gotten tired of it yet?"
Joe flashed a roguish smile, brought his lips close, and gave her earlobe a gentle bite.
Elly scrunched her face with a small, sharp intake of breath and stared at him with wide, baffled eyes.
"It's been nearly six years since we split," said Joe. "The last time, I left behind a sweet girl of nineteen. But I'm not the least bit sorry about the woman I've found now." He rumbled low in his throat. His lips were wandering across her face, his warm breath burning her skin. "It's just that a few bad scenarios keep running through my head."
Elly giggled and rubbed her nose against his shoulder.
"What scenarios?" she asked.
Joe muttered with a teasing expression,
"I keep wondering who this woman has been practicing on. If you can give me names, I won't have to kill every man in town. I'd appreciate a short list. I'd rather not spill too much blood, I am a Light Alpha now, after all." He puffed out his chest as he said it.
Elly was struggling not to burst out laughing at his dramatics.
"You really shouldn't slander your Alpha name like that," Joe said, grinning.
Elly, thoroughly enjoying herself, raised her hands and started counting on her fingers. Two… four… seven…
"Eleanor…" Joe growled, his brow snapping together immediately. "You cannot be serious."
Elly finally couldn't hold it and burst into laughter, pressing herself against his chest.
"Don't be ridiculous, you fool. I couldn't get close to anyone because of you," she said.
Joe was genuinely taken aback. His eyebrows lifted. Then the mischief crept back in.
"What do you mean? Did you finally realize no one could ever be as good as me?" He winked.
Elly kept laughing.
"No. I just assumed all men were as terrible as you." She curled her lip.
Joe's face crumpled with wounded indignation.
"Alright, I did terrible things to you. But I don't deserve an insult that big," he said.
Elly stared at him with a look of disbelief. "Did you lose your memories like Eva or something?" she muttered.
"You deserve it completely. You stole the most important scrolls from the Ancient Guardian Library. With my key. That night you slept with me, stole my key, and went and took those scrolls to that despicable man who was going to be your father " she was tallying it all up when she stopped herself short.
She held back.
"Fine. You took them to that traitor who was going to be your father. You couldn't have done anything worse than that, trust me," she said.
Joe knew what he had done. His face fell a little. This was the thing that never stopped turning in Elly's mind.
Elly slowly raised her hands and cradled Joe's face.
"Though if you think about it," she said in a calmer voice, "we still don't know what his father actually did with those scrolls."
Joe nodded. He had no knowledge of that either, back then, he had been little more than an obedient child, carrying out what he was told without question. Even if it had cost him Elly.
He finally shook himself loose from those thoughts. "Right. But whatever he used them for, I seriously doubt it was anything good," he said.
Just then the sound of commotion from the forest began to reach Joe's ears. His face froze instantly. His gaze slid to the window.
Elly noticed his expression shift at once.
"Hey," she said. "I don't have wolf eyes. What are you seeing? Tell me too. Something's clearly happened, your whole face just changed," she murmured.
Joe's brow furrowed.
"I think we need to get dressed," he said.
It seemed an Alpha had heard the call of the pack…