Chapter 22 But Tristan wouldn't bend to that
Tristan’s POV
The cool breeze blew against my hair, waving it backward. It was dark, but the moonlight still had its place to brighten the road.
But why the distinct scent of copper and that of iron?
It was only then I looked down to pay attention to these details. Blood. It dyed the floor red, and my feet stood on it.
I heard loud growling, but it was just me at the sight of them—yet even so, I felt eyes on me. I wasn't quick to notice my own state. I had bruises stretching across my arms.
“Tristan…” Someone called me.
But I found no one around. No one was close by. But what about the gammas? What about other pack members? I didn't catch the scent of any of them—the scent of blood isolated me from them.
I walked further away from the palace, and soon, the cold breeze began to fade into warm air. Then I saw fire. The houses… the roofs. Fire was on them. The bricks were going down, and painful growls rose up. From afar, I caught sight of werewolves running out of those houses.
A war had started, and this… all these were the result of it.
About an hour must have passed. I couldn't keep an actual note of time.
It was just me. No house burning anymore, but bones scattered on the ground. It was like I was transported to some other place I didn't know—a place in my pack? Another pack? I had no idea, and my mind couldn’t put things together. I couldn’t think.
“Tristan… please help me.” My shoulders were patted.
The voice… I should have known who it was, but I didn’t. Again, no one stood close to me—then who touched me?
The voice continued ringing in my ears, urging me to get closer to it. It got louder as I walked closer. Just then, I met her tied to a chair with two wolves standing beside her.
“Celine… what?”
I transformed into my wolf to charge toward the wolves beside her, but when I reached the spot where she was tied, they ran, and the rope binding her to the chair loosened.
She fell along with the chair.
“Celine… please no…”
I transformed back into a man to hold her in my arms.
“Tristan.” She gasped, blood spilling from her mouth and nostrils. “You let me die… as you did your parents.”
“No!”
The bloody scene faded into my red bedspread, and my eyes shot open to find myself in my room, breathing heavily with tears wetting my cheeks.
“No…”
It was all a dream—the same dream I’d had before but hadn’t told her about. But now, it was more intense.
“Tristan?” Zara sat up. “Are you okay?”
My eyes scanned the room with a hint of fear that I was still in the dream, that the reality was waiting to meet up with me. Cold shivers went up my spine as faint flashes still came to my eyes.
“You were talking through your sleep…” Zara’s eyes scrutinized me, her fingers brushing my cheek.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said, getting my legs off the bed.
She watched as I stepped inside the bathroom and ran water to clean off the sweat. I was inside for over three minutes. I wasn’t just washing the sweat off my body, but also trying to wash away the dread of the dream—to wash off the doubts and worries.
“But I’ve been here,” Zara said when I stepped outside, a towel wrapped around my waist. “And all this time, you never asked me to leave.”
I didn’t bother responding. The bath did nothing to clear my head. Instead, the cold water seemed to thicken the blood flowing through my skull, resulting in a headache.
“I’ve known you for long,” she continued, unwilling to give up.
She pulled the blanket covering her body off and stood without a piece of clothing. Her panties were still on the floor.
“Zara, get dressed.”
“I’ve been with you through all your crazy times.” She walked closer until her hands touched my chest, which I pulled away.
“Crazy times, you mean?”
“You know—crazy times.” Her voice dropped to a trembling murmur as if the words burned on her tongue, her eyes fixed on my chest. “Bloody times.”
“Bloody times.”
There she said it.
The words touched me like needles, pricking every memory of my desire for revenge. It started with the bloody scene of my parents and went on to touch the bloody scenes I caused.
Bloody times.
And she was present in all of them.
“Even at the start… of this curse…” Her fingers trailed down from my shoulders to the inner bend of my elbows, rubbing her thumb over that spot.
“Get dressed.”
“I was there.” Her voice grew softer until I saw a tiny line of tears from her left eye. “I was there, Tristan.”
I stepped back from her, massaging my forehead. I was dizzy, but at the same time alert. Perhaps the dream could rush to take a reality I should never allow.
“You have to go… just go.”
But she couldn’t have heard any of the words I said. She couldn’t even turn to look at her dress on the floor, that ragged piece of cloth. Her focus was fixed on me, and her body didn’t matter.
“I didn’t leave you… I just couldn’t.” Her fingers were turning into claws, starting to dig into my flesh.
The tears didn’t stop at her left eye—her right joined in, and her voice trembled with them.
“You do remember those times?” She took her hands off me, suppressing her wolf transformation. “Those lovely moments… You said you loved me.”
“Then. That was then, before now.”
“Was it all a lie?”
“I did—but things have changed. Now, pick up your dress.”
“Oh.” She laughed, tears still streaking her cheeks. “Is it about my nakedness? You’ve seen it a thousand times!”
“You will get your dress, and you will leave!”
That was when she shuddered. She’d forgotten her place for a moment, and came back to herself when she realized I was too serious to listen to her ranting.
She pulled up her gown, rushing to put it on as though she’d just woken from a dream.
“Tristan… I didn’t mean to.”
“I shouldn’t say the word again.”
When she opened the door, she stopped and faced me. “You could have me anytime you wish, but please…”
“Leave.”
She closed the door behind her, and that same second, I thought maybe I shouldn’t have been too harsh on her—but was I? Telling her things have changed, that she had no place with me… were those words too cruel?
But she should understand.
A knock came at the door, and when it opened, Aiden stepped in.
“The pack’s council wants to meet with you. It’s too important.”