241- The Scent of Betrayal
POV Elowen Grimwald:
The knot in my throat tightened, stealing my breath, twisting me with every accelerated beat of my heart.
Everything I had done, all my tears, every second of pain and danger I endured to find her, now seemed like a cruel joke.
Korlina’s voice echoed distantly in my ears, as if I were inside a tunnel. The entire world seemed to collapse around me.
I was physically trapped in the pain striking me from within, destroyed by yet another blood bond that, it seemed, no longer meant anything to Lunara.
How could I have been so foolish?
And then anger took its place, boiling inside me, mixing with my sorrow, turning my despair into a silent fury.
Lunara was safe, happy, while I—her sister—had risked my life and sanity for her. How many times had I nearly been captured and killed? How many damned times?
Despite the constant presence of guards and Nerin, it was as though I were alone, completely solitary.
No amount of company could fill the emptiness that the revelation about my sister had created.
The innocence of my search had died, leaving only a broken female in its place—betrayed not by enemies…
But by fate.
And by my only family.
(...)
POV Aldren Valmorin:
“Don’t lose Felibér’s trail. I need to find out who’s with him in this scheme. I need this fast, Orion,” I ordered, finishing the analysis of the material sample he had brought from his last trip.
“Yes, sir. Have you spoken to Konrad?”
“Only by phone. He admitted that he provoked Viktor.”
I would deal with that later. The safety of Valmorin was my priority.
“Yes, that’s true. You seem better… with the drive I used to see.”
“I’ll be completely fine once I rid my territory of traitors. I need that to move on with my life in peace.”
“Move on with your life?” he questioned, frowning in confusion.
I looked away. There was no chance I would reveal to him that I had very likely found my predestined.
Orion held part of my trust, but Kehin had managed to destroy my ability to fully trust anyone.
“That’s right, Orion. You know I can’t stand the idea of living among traitors.”
“You haven’t been going home,” he commented, eager for me to open up.
Curious bastard from hell.
“Yes, I’ve been busy.”
“And Elowen?”
I raised my eyes from the sample to look at him.
“How many times do I have to tell you to forget about my prisoner?”
He raised his hands in surrender.
“Forgive my curiosity, but seeing you in love is unprecedented—a canonical occurrence.”
“And what do you base that deduction on, Orion?” I asked in a threatening tone, and he shook his head in disdain.
“Aldren, please. It’s written all over your face. If you weren’t obsessed, you would’ve sent her to Eldoria, to live with her sister.”
I adored that bitch, but I hated that she was the reason for my weakness and loss of control. The fact was that, predestined or not, the possibility of handing her over to Eldoria was less than zero.
The blue-eyed female with moonlit brilliance was mine.
“Think whatever you want, traveler.”
“So jealous that you disabled the house cameras after the romantic dinner,” he continued, laughing at the corner of his mouth.
With my patience draining like a bucket of gunpowder in a windstorm, I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I recall ordering you to follow only Felibér’s trail.”
“It wasn’t intentional. It just caught my attention while I was doing a general inspection. In any case, there’s nothing left to check—they’re disabled.”
Like a blessing from the gods, a plan of action—the one I had searched for so long and failed to find—struck my mind like a sudden bolt of lightning.
Felibér wasn’t just unhappy with income distribution; he wanted to stain my name.
Loyal to Kehin, who would be the next alpha, he would have his ambitions satisfied, and perhaps some promise of power had been made to him in my absence.
If my former friend harbored feelings for Elowen, he might have confessed them to her. Passion could have been the cause that disrupted his plans, which would possibly justify the poisoning.
The question that remained was: who helped him?
In my mind, none of the people who had been in my house that day seemed capable of such an act. But I had also believed Kehin was loyal.
“Orion, I want it to casually reach Felibér’s ears that there are hidden cameras in the village—except in my house. Be discreet.”
“Why is that, Aldren?” he asked, frowning in confusion.
“Just do it, and don’t take your eyes off him. I want to know every person he goes to after that.”
“Understood. You know I’m always at your service.”
“This is the mission of your life, Orion. The gods are witnesses to what I’m capable of doing to reward you if you help me dismantle the siege.”